#i know the character would have actually been introduced way before xy was being developed

[ace-fandom-dumbass]

(Pointing) KALOSIAN??????

[timegears-moved]

☕️ mmmm pokemon games specifically (not including spinoffs)

sorry this is late im terrible with actually answering asks. ill do this generation by generation. also this ended up very long because i have a lot of thoughts about pkmn.

gen one: okay so right off the bat im gonna say that i have a massive soft spot for gen one, considering blue was the first game i ever played. i do have a degree of nostalgia towards it which is why i can never be truly be harsh on these games. i know they're a mess of glitches and mechanics that make no fucking sense (seriously FUCK psychic types and everything they stand for) but it has a certain charm to it.

but even as a "kanto apologist" (which damien calls me) i can absolutely agree that the pandering is fucking abysmal. they're trying cater to a demographic who hasn't cared about pokemon in years and aren't going to pick up a new game just because charizard is in it. by doing this it feels like they're alienating the people who actually care, like "yeah ur support is nice but we want the genwunners to like us more than anything.

also on the topic of pandering is that their pandering is so half-assed too. all of this gen one content and not one shred of love for my boys victreebel or cloyster? bro i hate it here.

gen two: i dont really have that much to say here tbh. i have no fond memories of it at all considering i only played through gold once right before hgss came out. i can say that i appreciate all of the bullshit from gen one that it fixed but i have issues with johto as a region that ill elaborate on when i talk about the remakes.

gen three: honestly i never cared much for this gen. i played it quite a bit growing up but it's always been whatever for me. a lot of it just feels kind of.....bland for me. i really don't know what to say because it leaves me feeling conflicted. there's nothing bad about these games that sticks out like a sore thumb but they just don't do it for me, ya know?

i do appreciate frlg for shedding a much better light on kanto though.

gen four: okay so i'll fully admit that the sinnoh games are my childhood faves and are still my faves now but im not letting nostalgia completely cloud my judgement on this.

honestly? i think pokemon peaked with platinum. dp had their problems for sure and some of those still carried over to platinum but the scale in which platinum told its story feels so much grander than any pokemon game that came before or after it. i absolute adore the sinnoh mythos and i only want dp remakes just so it can get expanded upon, i could care less about any actually gameplay from it. ive said this before but you cannot make the god of pokemon and not do anything with it.

as for hgss, i have very mixed feelings about this one but not in the same way gen 3 made me feel because i do have genuine problems here. ive talked before about them but i just cannot stress how bad the level and pokemon distributions are. how the fuck can you make brand new pokemon for your johto region and not put them in fucking johto?

like these games are fine ig. i never cared about the walking pokemon mechanic but it literally feels like people only praise this game as the best because of that one thing that has no bearing on the actual game itself. you can like these games all you want, i still enjoy parts of them myself, but calling them the best is a huge reach.

gen five: right off the bat im gonna say that i do love the gen five games so nobody thinks im being overly critical or anything. i love the aesthetic of these games, i ADORE the pokemon here and they're some of the most fun pokemon games to play through. it's the story and characters (with the exception of n i will absolutely give credit where it is die there) that throw me for a loop.

i feel like whenever i praise the story or characters im just following the crowd here. i don't know if im just very stupid (i definitely am very stupid) or what but none of it felt as powerful as people claim it is for me personally. maybe i should just pay more attention but i honestly don't know. im definitely not saying theyre bad or anything i just in all hobestly dont get the (very sudden) hype.

uhhh i can't say much about bw2 because i haven't beaten it since it came out but i remember liking hugh and it made iris a champion so i remember them being good on those two things alone.

gen six: hohohohoho here we go. tbh i don't even know what i can say about xy that hasn't already been said. like gen one might be a huge mess looking back on it but at least it had character. xy introduced a few pokemon that i really liked and some amazing shiny hunting methods that should definitely return but that's the most i can say in terms of praise.

i dont think pokemon has ever gotten this boring before, and that's speaking as someone who clocked over 300 hours into my x save file. nothing has life (which in hindsight is ironic considering xerneas is the god of life) and i hate the way mega evolution was handled so much. i really don't know what else to say because everyone has already said what i want to but i think this has been pokemon's lowest point so far.

oras once again made hoenn complicated for me. they made hoenn somewhat interesting for me in a way that didnt capture me in the originals. i don't think they're stellar but ive seen people call these the worst ones and....why. i get that the originals are special to a lot of people and that they feel like oras did them injustice but honestly i would oras over the originals because they're just more fun for me.

gen seven: it made popplio. 10/10.

okay so i can understand why the very slow start and unskippable long cutscenes threw a lot of people off but i just don't understand so much of the hate it around other things. again i see people proclaiming it as the worst and you can see it as that from a gameplay element, but the story fucking slapped ass and i don't think amybody can or should deny that. maybe i just feel very passionately about them because they're very personal for me in helping me through a rough time in my life but i just also dont see why everybody is so mad at these games sometimes.

the fact that sm mean so much to me makes usum's entire existence hurt so much more. like wow i love abuse apologism: the game thank you sooooo much gamefreak! /s

aside from ultra wormhole jumping, my baby dusk lycanroc and the new ultra beasts i dont care for anything new usum brought. it feels like it back peddled so much by completely ruining lillie's character by attempting to make lusamine likable when the damage from the first games was already done. i hate usum they're the only pokemon games i can state that i hate. i don't know how you can take sm's well-done albeit flawed blueprints, take out everything that was good and only leave stuff that either doesn't matter or is actively harmful.

also let's go pikachu and eevee exist too idrc

gen eight: ive already spoken my piece on swsh but im gonna be more clear here. i dont think swsh is inherently bad and i can still have fun with them. i dont think the issue here lies with the cut pokedex. i could honestly care less about that and i always figured we would get to this point. the issue lies with nintendo and tpci pushing for yearly releases, forcing the devs to make yearly subpar games. i can think of so many ways they can remedy this situation: taking longer times between releases, hiring more staff at gamefreak or even splitting developments for different projects between multiple different studios. i hope that the reported low moral at gamefreak at swsh's releases is enough of a wake up call for change but that could just be me being optimistic.

i am SO sorry this ended up as long as it is but i have a lot of opinions and not enpugh willpower to keep my mouth shut

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Stranger Things

I am super late to the Stranger Things… thing, and it took the premier of the second season and an unexpected stretch of free time to finally sit down and watch it. Even then, it took me a couple extra weeks.

I’ve been a critic of Netflix’s binge-focused release format. Not because I don’t enjoy a good binge watch from time to time, but because I like the freedom to choose when I take a break. When bingeing a show formatted for segmented release, each episode tends to be written in such a way as to let the audience comfortably wait a week, either because the narrative is one and done, or by carefully pacing the series to allow it to hold up with a time gap between episodes.

Also, everyone was raving about Stranger Things, which induced some hype poisoning, and I was born after the 80s died, so I don’t really have any nostalgia for the era. Besides Back to the Future and Ghostbusters, I never really watched much 80s media.

Plus everyone was so excited by how the show featured D&D. There are very few D&D-centered episodes that I like, as such depictions always fall short of my expectations.[1]

Besides one groan worthy aspect in season 2[2], I was actually pleasantly surprised by how the show handled the subject: by making it a casual part of the kids’ lives. Season One opens with a game, and closes with a game, and it’s sometimes used to color dialogue, but it’s never in focus, which is good. Hobbies should color characters, not define them.

The actual plot of season 1 was well written, and uses the only plausible excuse for characters not telling each other vital information: by segmenting the plot between three groups that have no reason to interact until the plot threads run together.

Sure, Chief Hopper maybe should’ve been keeping Joyce appraised a little more often, but he was also busy, so I can give that a pass.

Oddly, beside Eleven, I didn’t actually care about the Kids’ plotline. They’re well cast, don’t get me wrong, but the argument over what to do once El enters their lives just runs in circles until the other two plotlines convene, and I just wasn’t particularly invested in them.

And the teens are likewise dull until Nancy and Jon start proactively hunting the eldritch horror. And even then, it’s plagued by gross High School Romance drama. I don’t care who Nancy starts dating, I want to know what’s up with the supernatural weirdness and the effects that has on people.

Which, of course, leaves Hopper and Joyce to be the ones to pull me through. Also Eleven’s flashbacks. You know, the parts showcasing and developing the things that are strange.

The first season is, mercifully, a rare example of a well-executed secrets plot. The mystery’s set off by Will’s disappearance, a strong inciting incident that gets three different casts going down three different plotlines until convening at the end.

Because of the nature of who the characters are and the methods they use to accomplish their goals, they’re kept separate not because of tedious secrets kept to ‘protect’ others, but because they just don’t have any reason to interact.

Hopper and Joyce’s efforts to find Will lead to the Government Conspiracy, and they are unaware of Eleven’s existence for most of it. Eleven is (rightfully) afraid of the Energy Research place, and doesn’t trust adults because of it, making it reasonable the kids wouldn’t know. The teens (once they get past the dumb romance drama) are trying to find Barb, who no one else cares is missing.

The moment the three groups learn they’ve been pursuing different sides of the same puzzle, they work together and share information without fuss. Then they split again when their goals lead in different directions. Hopper and Joyce don’t want to put the kids in danger when they go to confront the big bad; the kids continue to protect Eleven; the teens seek revenge on the demogorgon.

And all three contribute to the resolution.

Then the second season opens, and Hopper, who I loved for being a reasonable protagonist, betrays my trust. Eleven’s hurting being separated from her friends and her friends are hurting not knowing her fate.

A problem easily solved if Hopper just told Mike “Hey, Eleven’s with me, she’s safe, but I’m keeping her out of the public eye. I’ll try to arrange some visits, but they can’t be frequent. Here’s a morse code info card, and a frequency. Don’t keep each other up too late, and don’t tell anyone who hasn’t already met her.”

There, Eleven’s got some social stimulation, no one’s pining, and everyone knows where things stand.

They all worked together for season one’s finale. Hopper’s actions are inexcusable.

Hopper went from my favorite character to one of the most annoying.

As a whole, the first season felt much more tightly written than the second. The first balanced the eldritch horror and psychic powers sufficiently well.

The second advanced and built upon the Upside Down in exciting ways, including a giant central intelligence to the whole place. Confirmation that, instead of just a decaying world to mirror our own, the entire place is a single malevolent entity, represented by an enormous, alien being. I love what is being done with the Upside Down.

Then there’s ‘The Lost Sister’. Which is… the episode literally doesn’t fit. Eleven leaves, seeking her mother. Okay, good development. This leads to some new exposition of what Eleven’s young life was like. That’s good! Slowly exploring that works for the show! Introducing another test subject in the form of ‘8’. Logical, since Eleven is, well, number Eleven.

Elle/Jane goes looking for this mystery girl. That’s where the show goes off the rails. Not that Eleven searching for others like her isn’t a fair plotline, but it literally takes the show away from Hawkins and all the endearing characters we’ve met.

It’s a filler episode, and it turns Eleven from ‘Oddity with connection to the Eldritch’ to ‘Blossoming superhero’ which… Stranger Things wasn’t a superhero show. It’s a mystery and thriller. It’s an episode so divorced from the other eight episodes, you can literally skip it and lose nothing.

Kali’s gang has no redeeming features. They’re criminals and murderers, plain and simple. Elle finds them, establishes a connection with Kali, and then it’s just a ‘Good Character is lead down a dark path before leaving’ plot. It adds nothing.

And Kali has a different power set from Eleven, deepening the Superhero aspect where each mutant has a different power. If, instead, Kali had the same (but weaker) Psionic powers I might take her inclusion better.

But, worse still, none of it has anything to do with the rest of the plot, even when it would’ve been easy to integrate, though that probably would require more time.

Kali’s gang, as mentioned, are bad people. Send them rocking into Hawkins in search of a place to lie low while the heat dies off, maybe induct Billy Hargrove… maybe they could find a space.

Actually, no, nevermind. They’d still be a distraction. It’s a series that works on the strength of it’s dynamic characters. Suddenly hamfisting in Kali and company would strain that.

In fact, I’m not sure searching out numbers 1 through 10 (maybe 12) will ever work, because that would imply a road trip season, which would suck because we’d see less Hawkins in favor of Scooby-Doo’ing up the series.

So keep the fates of the previous ten test subjects a mystery. They were experiments that failed. And considering how much hullabaloo Eleven’s escape caused in the first season, Eight getting away without any remark until now is ridiculous.

It… just doesn’t work. It’s too Kyle XY.

So, let’s take some metaphorical scissors, snip after episode 206, and before 208, remove the middle episode, and drop it out a window. It’s gone, hopefully never to return to hurt us.

Keeping Eleven separated from the rest of the cast for most of the season is the greatest sin of the second season.

Having strong characterization can only go so far if you limit who characters interact with. Segmenting the cast by age groups in the first season was fine as we were meeting the characters, so we need to learn about them in their preferred environment and when normality is interrupted. They come together at the end and cooperate to save the day, an experience shared by all. Mike and Nancy even have a heart-to-heart about how they won’t keep secrets from another. Real touching stuff.

For the second season, besides needing to flesh out the now present Will, we know the cast. So the fun should come from now intermingling the cast. Have Nancy consult Mike about getting hashtag Justice for Barb; Jonathan and Steve becoming romantic mentors to Lucas and Dustin;[3] Hopper becoming an unwilling paternal figure to the party; and show Eleven adjusting to the Real World.

Instead, Eleven only interacts with Hopper all season, and, yes, Daddy Hopper is adorable, though he should maybe try and remember he’s caring for a socially stunted psychic before he starts yelling. Maybe have him start yelling, Eleven gets mad, one bookshelf falls over, both stop to look at this reaction, then Hopper runs both of them through the deep breathing exercise from the end of Season One before talking it through.

Eleven and Hopper’s arc should’ve been about learning to trust in a scary world, instead of… whatever they were going for. And giving her limited interaction with her friends would’ve allowed for this growth, as the party would first have to coax her out of the cottage, and then she’d have firmer ground to question Hopper keeping her cooped up.

And I so love fish out of water stories. Learning what money is and asking Hopper for an allowance? Stumbling about and learning not to assault people who offend her?[4] Being the first kid to form a bond with Bob? All would’ve been nice to watch happen.

Also, Bob was… okay. He didn’t leave much of an impression on me for a generically nice man. They should’ve worked the ‘Bob founded the AV Club’ thing in way sooner, so it wasn’t an awkward line shoved in after his death to retcon in stakes for The Party. It was awkward.

Also, no one else wearing costumes is the least realistic thing. After my 13 years of public school, I know that would never happen.

It’s not all bad, let’s be clear. Upping the threat of the Upside Down and giving it a central intelligence was good, as was expanding on the Demogorgon lifecycle to bring in a nice Alien touch. The tunnels made the threat feel more immediate, and explained the pockets of Upside Down that broke out in season 1. Max is… promising. Hopefully she’ll get more of a concrete arc going forward, but she’s got a good start.

So, in summation, I liked Season 1, and 2 was as enjoyable with a few missteps that hopefully won’t be forced back in. My one fear is that they’re going to put the Mind Flayer on the back burner and spend the next season on the less interesting ‘Other Test Subjects’ plotline. We’re heading towards the end of the Superhero Media boom, while I can’t think of many properties that focus on themes of eldritch and inhuman intelligences that the Mind Flayer and Upside Down presents.

Still, when Stranger Things 3 arrives, I’ll watch as eagerly as anyone else.

If you enjoyed this review, may I suggest to trawl through my archive to see if you enjoy my other works? (The CanvasReviews tag should give you a good start). Also, feel free to send me messages and question. I also have a Patreon, if that’s your sort of thing.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Yes, even Community’s much beloved take. There was no passion in it and it was weighed down by the ‘One Character for all games’ and ‘Dice results dictate everything’ concepts that makes zero sense. [2] How can you forget about Rogues, you idiots? It’s literally the best class! [3] I will go on record: if you sit me through a tired love triangle, but follow it up by having two corners advise on a new love triangle, I will be on board for that absurdity. [4] For context, my ideal ending of the the show is the town just transitions into casually accepting that, sometimes, eldritch horrors pop up, and just deal with them casually.

[kyberled]

☁ Have you ever forgiven a partner when you shouldn't have?

Salt Meme

As a matter of fact, I have, though thankfully it wasn’t in this fandom, but one I only recently trundled back to, and one from way back that I don’t think I’m ever going to be going back to for a number of reasons.

Oddly enough, this person from the very old fandom wasn’t even a part of the fandom I was in. It was a crossover type thing, and the first crossover I’d ever written. But there was a lot of vagueblogging on her part whenever I did anything they didn’t like. And by that, I mean the dash was flooded with posts saying that ‘this person’ didn’t ship things like they thought they did, TAGGED WITH OUR CHARACTERS, and going on to complain ON THE DASH to her mutuals that ‘some person’ (still tagged with our ship) was making their anxiety and depression worse. My crime? I didn’t have my muse kiss theirs within thirty in-reply minutes (tops; probably less) of them first meeting. I ended up fanmailing them saying it wasn’t that I didn’t ship them, it’s just that I wanted to take it slow, and after that they went back to acting like we were best friends while spamming my inbox with messages about their wedding.

I wish I was joking.

It’s also worth noting that I was a teenager, and the other person was, according to their rules page, in their twenties. This only happened one or two more times before I blocked them, but the more I thought about about it, the more I kind of wished I got out sooner, but at the same time, I’m just glad I got out at all.

The other person was in a bigger fandom, and they were writing with some other people I know and consider friends. They introduced themselves by messaging me right after they followed, saying, ‘Hi, I’m [person I’m still good friends with]’s friend! [They] recommended your blog to me, so I thought I’d say hi! My name’s [name]!” … Or something along that vein. Introduced themselves, added that they’d heard about me from a mutual friend, and that was the last normal conversation I had with them, outside of a few attempts at plotting. 

This person would come into my IMs at odd hours and just complain to me. I didn’t even really know this person’s name, and they would just dump their life problems in the IMs. Like how their best friend was stressed in college, so they were not gonna contact her by their own choice, but now they were sad and missed her and anxious and yeah, I get that that sucks, but I was a complete stranger? And they’d go on and on and I could hardly get a word in edgewise. Whenever I did manage to say anything and try to comfort them or offer advice, they’d shut me down, give lists of reasons why my suggestions wouldn’t work, and go back to complaining at me. This happened literally all of the time, it was all they’d talk to me about. They also really liked hounding me about being agender, too? I’ll give an example of this in a bit.

I feel like I should clarify, here, that I enjoy helping my friends with their problems. I like being a shoulder to cry on. But the emphasis is on ‘my friends’. People I am comfortable with. I would also appreciate some warning? Even just a ‘hey, can I vent to you for a sec?’ at least lets me get in the right mindset to be able to deal with this sort of thing. I got no warning from this person. It’s also nice to talk about something else from time to time? But, no, it was just a constant stream of negativity from them. I’m being completely serious when I say I couldn’t make a single post on either of my blogs without them messaging me. It was actually kind of terrifying, to say the least. Had to start developing a routine based on when they were usually offline to avoid being harassed. 

It didn’t take me too long to consider blocking them, because of the outpouring of negativity, but also because they kept dropping threads without telling me, then talking about how I was ignoring them, to me, and THEN requesting starters and completely ignoring ALL THREE OF THE STARTERS i’D JUST WRITTEN THEM, and THEN saying they were too lazy or kept forgetting to look the starters up? But I was the one who was ignoring them. The day I was first about to block them, they message me about how their friends are all blocking them. I briefly wonder if they’re a telepath. They say, after a very long rant, something along the lines of ‘but at least I have you, Jay. You’d never do that, you’re my best friend. I’m lucky to have you’. And on the one hand, I’m thinking, you know, what the hell, since when were we best friends? And I know that sounds mean, but I’d barely spoken to them, both because they never listened and because I was super uncomfortable talking to them; we barely interacted IC because they kept dropping threads and outright ignoring things I’d write for them; I never made an effort to contact them since the conversation was always focused solely on how bad their life was; We’d only been in contact for a month or two, tops, and it took about a year for Rodi and I (or my irl highschool best friend, Hannah, and I) to get to True BFF Level; Never once did they show any concern for me, or really anyone aside from themselves; Honestly, I’m kind of surprised they even knew my name. But I’m their best friend, apparently, and now of course I feel super guilty, because I was about to block them, and now I was the bad guy.

Oh, and to add on to all this, they forced headcanons on my muse. Once again, I feel like I need to clarify: I love people bouncing headcanons off me. If you think Braig would like XY thing, tell me; If you have an idea of a scenario for our muses together, send me it, I’d love to hear it. I’ll even reblog that ‘tell me your headcanons for my muse’ meme. I love it.

What this person did was different. This person, without asking, conferring with me, or even giving me any warning, they decided my muse was a child abuser. I don’t think I need to elaborate on why that was a bad thing. This went against my headcanons, contradicted canon at some points, and made no sense to me, but apparently my muse was now a child abuser. Eugh.

Oh, and before I give a brief run-down on what finally prompted me to block this person, I feel it’s worth mentioning that when we’d first started talking, I’d just turned eighteen, and they were twenty-one. 

Anyway, so the straw that finally sucker-punched the camel in the jaw was when they messaged me after A Day. I was tired, hungry, had been in class all morning and in line at the campus book store for half an hour, and my arms were loaded down with textbooks. I was sort of struggling through tumblr for something to do, but typing was pretty hard. This person swings into my IMs and starts a suspiciously normal conversation - Actually asks me about school, what my major is, etc etc. I’m giving one-word replies for the most part, both because I’m not in the most social mood (and I’m not comfortable with this person to begin with), and because I don’t have the hands free to type long sentences anyway. But I’m starting to think that maybe, just maybe, this person has turned over a new leaf. Maybe I was right for giving them so many chances. And then, in the middle of the conversation, zero warning, they say:

“Are you out to your family, yet?”

And I’m just stunned. I had no idea how to respond. After a minute or more of me just staring, not answering, they add, ‘can I ask that?’, and I had no idea what to say in return aside from something like ‘no, I’m not, and I don’t know if I ever will be’, hoping to end the conversation. This person then starts complaining at me for not being out, because they wanted help with getting their family to remember their pronouns. I offered some suggestions anyways, those were all ignored, and out came more rants about how terrible their life was. 

I blocked them not long after, after speaking to two close friends who agreed that I probably should’ve done so earlier.

So, yeah, those are the two instances that come to mind. I’m a bit more careful with who I chill with, now, and I’ve learned to be pretty blunt when shutting this stuff down, so it hasn’t happened since. \o/

[le-pokerus]

My thoughts on Sun and Moon

So after a couple of months collecting my thoughts, I finally have written a list of all the stuff I liked and didn’t like about Pokemon Sun and Moon. It’s a long one, so I’ve made it nicer for your dash. (Also heavy spoilers).

Okay imma split this into four sections to make it more organised: 

things I liked about the game

things I didn’t like about the game

things have mixed feelings or am impartial about the game

things that I personally would’ve liked.

Things I liked about the game:

The silliness. In an interview with GF somewhere they said they wanted the game to focus on the fun aspect of Pokemon, so from weird dances to silly expressions and team skull not being taken seriously, I think they nailed it.

The Island Challenge! Despite really liking gyms, I thought the Island challenge was a cool thing that suited alola well (until a certain point, I’ll talk about that later).

Alolan forms. Regional variation is something I found really cool and gave some pokemon (only some) a nice twist (despite some awful forms).

The evolution music. Specifically when a pokemon evolves to or from and alolan form, giving the music a nice Hawaiian-esque sound was a little thing I liked.

A story line that doesn’t involve trying to control a legendary pokemon and using it to try and take over the world (or something like that). Yes all the previous games did it a bit differently and for different means, but by X and Y it was a stale story line and I’m glad they changed it.

Z-moves. Despite them being a bit OP at times, I quite liked them and thought they introduced a nice new battle mechanic.

Apricorn balls. Although you can only get one of each, it was nice them bringing them back even a little bit.

The new graphics. Despite really liking the graphics style of 3rd, 4th, 6th gens, I actually liked the graphics of sun and moon and it made them feel like a modern game.

Island Scan. I am a sucker for new ways of encountering pokemon, pokeradar, rustling grass, dexnav, I love ‘em. Island scan is also great, albeit not perfect and could’ve been improved, it was still a cool thing, and allowed me to catch the johto starters which is always great.

SOS battles. Speaking of new encounter methods, SOS battles not only allowed you to chain for more powerful pokemon, and increase your chances of a shiny, it also allowed you to find pokemon you couldn’t usually catch in the wild, e.g. salamence, snorlax, mereanie, lucario (although lucario was a pain in the arse due to riolu knowing fucking final gambit).

The Alola League. Pokemon leagues were always something that were just there and had been for ages, I loved the fact that the league was formed whilst you progressed and you became the first ever champion. I also liked how you defended your title against a small roster of different people rather than one (although I would’ve liked maybe another new elite 4 member instead of loads of island kahunas).

Team Skull. Honestly one of my favourite villainous teams, they’re silly and stupid and no one takes them seriously, 10/10.

Lillie. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Oh my god Lillie is a great character, the way she develops as a character throughout the story line is really well done, and the way she stands up to her mother towards the end is great, and when she leaves is a really sad moment and actually something not done before in a pokemon game.

All the other characters. From Hau to Professor Kukui to Gladion to Lusamine and the Guzma, sun and moon had great characters whith very different personalities and personas. Most of pokemon games, the characters are just there, there’s very little back story or real personality, but sun and moon went so far into these things that honestly it makes the game worthwhile just for them.

The mini map. Having a mini map was cool and made traversing the map easier so you don’t get stuck looking for something in the wrong place.

The music was pretty cool as far as pokemon games go, more memorable than XY but still not as good as previous gens in my opinion.

Magearna QR Code. One of the main problems of pokemon is events that only run for certain times making events such as the aurora ticket, oak’s letter, and genesect impossible to get without cheating in older games. Making Magearna available by a QR code that will never expire makes it so even fans in the future picking up these old games can get this mythical pokemon without hacks and honestly have a better experience for it.

Gridless. Due to limitations of old consoles, pokemon games have stayed to a grid like overworld, and even up to xy and oras they seemed to stay like that. Now don’t get me wrong I really like the grid like map etc. but sun and moon changed that and I love it. It really does make alola seem like a real tropical island based region, and really does change the whole feel of the game.

Added to the pokedex! I like how after evolving pokemon or breeding pokemon, or getting pokemon as gift or through trade that the data for the pokemon is added to the dex on screen, something that i’ve always thought previous games would benefit from.

Things I didn’t like about the game:

The Island Challenge! Wait didn’t I already do this one? Yes I did, but they fit on both good and bad lists (but not mixed feelings). As I stated before, I like the island challenge it was a fun thing that really made sun and moon different. HOWEVER, it just stopped, like the 1st and 2nd islands were great, they had cool challenges and cool leaders, the 3rd island sorta died down, and by the 4th island it had stopped, like it felt as if GF had given up by then, it was just hey there’s one challenge and theirs no trial captain or kahuna, and it’s just 3 straight battles. At least with gyms you were always guaranteed them, there was always a gym nearby and always one to challenge after the main story, but up until the pokemon league I was like where’s the next challenge and then when i got to the league I was like oh, there isn’t one.

Zygarde. Zygarde and its cells did fuck all and was basically just a gimmick.

The Rotom Dex. Oh god where do I start? This thing just doesn’t shut the fuck up. It always has something to say even when you’ve got nothing left to really do. The markers on the map killed the exploration aspect, the unnecessary commentary when you register a pokemon to your dex. Making it difficult to touch the mini map, cuz for some fucking reason you tickle him instead.

The A button. Having the press the A button every god damn fucking time you want to go through a door. Who’s idea was this? There’s no point, it just makes the A button whittle down faster, it should have just been left at walking into it automatically makes you go through.

Fishing. Only being able to fish in certain spots. Stupid idea. 0/10.

Legendary evolution lines. Didn’t like that cosmog evolved into the mascot legendary (through another legendary). Like legendaries are supposed to be these really powerful pokemon that are just there, they’re supposed to have been created like that, not evolve from another pokemon.

Unbreedable evolutions. Speaking of legendaries evolving, I dislike that fact that cosmog and type: null evolve, are not able to breed, and are only available once, it makes a living form dex (my main pokemon quest) very difficult to complete since i have to own another game and go through that story as well to have all the evolution family.

All legendaries are shiny locked. Who’s idea was shiny locking? Not that I’m gonna hunt for them but the off chance of encountering a shiny legendary was always a cool one.

The PC boxes. XY/ORAS PC boxes were great, they were quick, easy to use, and simple. SM boxes were slow, clunky and had some unnecessary changes. They also had very little space compared to the previous gen, despite adding 81 new pokes, they only added two boxes (60 mons), meaning that a living form dex is almost impossible to have on one game.

The Battle Tree. For myself, a filthy casual, the battle tree is impossible. Unless you have made/bred a competitive team, you cannot progress at all. At least with the battle maison they had tiers, so gaining battle points wasn’t tedious. but with the battle tree, there’s just one tier and it’s the worst. You only get one BP for battle (if you win) and you need 1000 alone just to get the mega stones (which are only available there. All I can say is, thank god pokebank gives you BP.

Post game was shit. Again, the post game was lackluster and the looker missions were just doing the same thing a few times with little point to it.

The ultra-beasts. The Ultra beasts, despite being a “massive threat” didn’t do anything at all and were just catch fodder. They also just don’t fit into the pokemon universe (yeah I know they’re from a different universe, but from a franchise point of view, it’s like a halo character in a my little pony universe).

The battle scenes were slow. Too slow from encountering a wild pokemon to being able to battle it.

Surf encounters. Is it still surfing if you don’t use HM03 Surf? Regardless, the encounter rate for pokemon while surfing is ridiculously small, like you do multiple laps of a a pool of water and hardly encounter any at all.

No National Pokedex. Seriously every game has had a national dex in some form (gen 1’s dex was basically national, gen 2′s was national in a different order, ruby/sapphire got one after trading with firered/leafgreen/emerald) like why have they removed this feature? Yes bank has a national dex as of the update, but sun moon doesn’t get one making it more difficult to sort pc boxes, and it means pokes not in the regional dex don’t get a dex entry for sun moon (maybe this’ll get fixed in the future (much like ruby/sapphire was)

Legendary battles. I’m a fan of interacting with the overworld sprite to battle a legendary, however for almost every legendary in sun and moon there isn’t one: the tapus, you interact with the shrine; and the ultra beasts and necrozma are just in the grass, idk it just makes them feel weird.

More than one ultra beast. One weird thing sun and moon did was make more than one of some ultra beasts available, I get that there are more than one and it would make sense for more than one of some to come through, but when you have 4 kartana or 4 pheromosa in your box, it just makes then feel less special.

Event only Z-Crystals. This is tentative since it may be changed in the future but much like as stated before event only stuff is annoying for those who pick this game up in the future. So the snorlium-z and mewnium-z won’t be available to some players and since z crystals are an important thing, it’s kinda annoying.

A small loan of $1,000,000. So after beating the looker missions, you get rewarded with $1,000,000, although this is very nice and means you don’t have to grind for money, I feel it’s a bit too much and makes it so there’s less to do post game.

No auto save after elite 4. Just an annoyance really, all games have saved after the elite 4 and it made me lose some progress cuz it didn’t save. It also doesn’t repeat the credits and send you back home which i liked about the other games.

Experience gain. The way of how experience is calculated has been changed back to the shitty gen V method, where the lower the level you are from your opponent the more experience you gain. This sounds good in theory but the highest levels are 59 in the wild and 63 on the elite 4 which makes getting your team to level 100 or evolving some pokemon very tedious. The only reason it worked in gen v was cuz they had audino literally everywhere and they give a fairly high amount of exp, but there aren’t really any high experience giving pokemon in alola at all.

Things I am impartial or have mixed feelings about the game:

No HM’s. Although having no HM’s allowed me to finally have a six party team (which i definitely used to make sure I have type coverage, 3 fairy types is the way to go), I just missed them and only getting fly and surf post game was annoying since I always have them on my main mons.

Pokepelago. I liked a lot of aspects of pokepelaga, growing berries was made insanely easy (and better that way) gaining evolution stones and rare items was so much less tedious unlike super training, hot springs were cool, levelling up pokes was an option if you wanted. HOWEVER, the pokemon capture method is complete bs. so sometimes a wild pokemon will appear, and when interacted with mohn will say come back tomorrow to see if it likes being here or whatever, but it’s complete chance there is no way to affect if they stay, sometimes they will just disappear for no reason, honestly it’s stupid and reminds me of the awful safari zones in gens 1, 3 and 4 *shudders*.

The Batte Royal. It’s a really cool concept and adds something new to battling but it makes the game lag on all devices and it just feels too short, instead of ending when one person loses all their pokemon, it should’ve been when there’s only one player left and then add up how many pokes were knocked out by each person.

Things I personally would’ve liked:

More previous gen legendaries. Yes, I am aware you can already get 8 legendaries in the game, but there are currently 61 legendaries and mythicals, therefor I would’ve liked to have seen maybe a couple more from those gens, just so it doesn’t feel so secluded. This may also make another case of ORAS where they just added a shit ton of legendaries to make them available in that generation due to xy’s appalling legendary selection, so if they are to make them all available this gen then they might have too many in the next game.

The bicycle. Although there is poke-ride to replace the bike, it’s not the same. the bike has more maneuverability, and the fact that I have to constantly get on and off my poke-ride to get into small places due to their stupid collision boxes is something the bike would fix.

Nebby. Wait it’s not what you think! I love nebby, it’s a great character and has great memes. What i disliked was that after nebby turned into the version mascot, we kept it, yes I get that the player has to get it somehow, but I feel nebby should always have been with Lillie not with someone who met it a few days prior, I think the best way to have done it is if you’re given like a cosmog egg or something (but I guess you had to battle the mascott so idk).

Less spoilers. Not necessarily about the game itself, but GF revealed way too many pokemon prior to sun and moon. One of the biggest things I looked forward to when SM was announced was discovering new pokemon (i’’d never had a game at release so I knew them all prior) unfortunately GF decided that was not happening and showed almost all of them before the games came out, making me lose out on this experience.

A safari zone. No not the crap ones, the ones like gen 6. I would’ve liked a somewhat safari zone where you could catch more pokemon outside of the alola dex, and it would’ve been awesome if you could catch regular versions of the alola forms too.

A post game island. Sun and Moon didn’t add any new places, everything was available to explore before the elite four and i would’ve liked to have a couple of new islands to explore, I’m not talking about another huge island, but maybe just a couple small islands with maybe like a town with cool things on (like the above mentioned safari zone).

Sidequests. Yes this is a common thing for people to want from pokemon games. But sun and moon really lacked things to do rather than the main story. Really the only thing to do is the Battle Tree which is only post game and is awful, or the battle royal which is cool but laggy and over too quickly.

In Conclusion

Great, not perfect, but a hell of a lot of fun, would highly recommend. 8.5/10.

[synria]

pokemon moon review=personal opinion

Hi guys, its been a long time. I had pokemon moon as a christmas gift and i just finished the league and saw the ending and.....wow

disclaimer: english is not my mother language. And for the matter, in my mother language there is no personal pronoun “it” and “they” in the gender neutral sense that there is in english, so when typing in english and translating things from my mind from portuguese to english, sometimes a “he” will appear in the place.

I decided to make this post because playing pokemon moon really broke my expectations about the game. The plot, the characters, some of the new mechanics... everything combined(+ the fact i entered in it with a bit low expectations since xy) made me feel like it was one of my first times playing a (main) pokemon game, it felt like i was, for lack of better word, rediscovering pokemon and brought me feelings of when i was younger and played for the first time pokemon emerald and pokemon platinum

The feeling was indescribable, by the end of it i was in love with several characters the plot, my pokemon team, everything.

In the start, my expectations were a bit low. I was neutral/disliked some of the starters evolutions, the beginning was kinda slow and it felt a bit dragging(especially for someone who had played every pokemon main game since ruby)and since i at first face value disliked the trials aspects, i didnt bother searching about them.

 But wow, was i mistaken about them. They were incredible fun to play(the volcano one has a special place in my heart) and surprisingly hard to play(i mean the fights against the totem pokemon, the water trial one ended up wiping my team and the only reason i won was bc the water pokemon lost his school form) which made the experience incredible enjoyable and exciting.

My starter grew on me to the point where he reached one of the top favorite pokemon of mine. He might not have been the best, battle style speaking, but he was incredible, cute, and super fun to play with and pokemon refresh it.

The same happened to my pokemon team to the point where i was attached to every single one of them and the thought of not using them was unbearable. Heck, i, who on oras and xy was choosing pokemon basing at strenght (and cuteness) and was treading in the waters of competitive playing, barely gave a shit when i realized that my team was vulnerable to 2 different types and really needed a water pokemon in it, because i was too much attached to every single one of them and would do everything to make sure they stayed on the team

The characters of the story were the ones i was with high expectations to, and boy, did they had gone above and beyond with them, especially Lillie, Gladion, Lusamine, Guzma and Plumeria. 

I can’t even describe how much i loved Lillie development, discovering her and Gladion past, and her whole relationship with Nebby(to the point where i found unfair that we were the ones who got to keep Nebby, even tho i can accept her reasoning to it). I was tearing up at her discuss at the rain, at her going to kanto, and i cried when i saw her picture of her kissing Nebby forehead. I also cant describe how much i loved her speech to Lusamine at the ultra world. (still crying about it and her development) 

 Gladion, ugh, i loved his character and his relationship with Type:Null, and just... the last picture of him half-smiling affectionately while silvally licked( idk how to describe) his head killed me

 I also(from a writing standpoint) really loved Lusamine as the villain, i thought she was incredible as an antagonist, making me want to fight her and be creeped out by her, especially at the ultra world. It actually gave me goosebumps her speech, the music, and the scene combined.

Guzma....i think he was a very well-written character, especially with the way he coped badly to his abusive past and that ended up leading him to Lusamine hands. He is a very heartbreaking character especially considering post game it is said he returns to the house where his abuser is.

The plot and a bit of lore: 

boi boi boi this is another point i can’t even begin to explain how much i loved it. I was with very low expectations about this one considering xy bad timed plot and the “i am a scientist, so lets completely ignore water cycle”(i joke, but i liked oras to the point i bought both games) and the (in my opinion of having played a bunch of pokemon games and not being in the hype wave) way the plot started super slow. 

boi was i wrong

This plot was just wow. I can’t even. Wow. I absolutely loved it and the way it was introduced and the way it was handled. It was incredible. There were times were i was too much in it to the point i neglected to explore and to train my team and just ran towards the path of the plot because it was so good i couldnt simply wait to know what happens next. I could feel the urgency and i ran like the wind. In many ways it made the experience even more enjoyable because (ignoring pmd) it was one of the first pokemon games where i cared too much and had to help everyone. Heck, before the league, my team was 5 to 6 levels below the weakest elite four and i had to grind (and cry bc i only found out about the only lucky egg you can receive in the game being a time locked thing in the sense if you passed some part of the story) simply because i felt i hadn't time to waste, we had to go to ultra world now and i couldnt stall and do battles.

Summary: i really loved pokemon moon. Its characters were incredible and amazing. The new mechanics were fun and challenging. It made me fall in love with my team. And it gave me that special feeling you have when you are playing for the first time a game and are in wonder about everything. And quite frankly is now my second favorite pokemon main game

[pan-matsuri]

Pokémon Moon Update 3

I completed Ula��ula Island and the plot events directly following. It’s... um... hm. Thoughts below, spoilers.

My team as of completing this island is Primarina, Misdreavus, Ledian, Lurantis, Umbreon, and Shelgon. This will likely be my final team for the story, once Misdreavus and Shelgon evolve. I was briefly travelling with Marowak, and I was considering Ninetales for my team. However, I forgot about “version exclusives” and had to trade for one, and raising a new Vulpix from an egg is what I’ll want to do, but it’s not in the plans for now. I happened to stumble upon a Bagon on Melemele Island while exploring new areas by surfing, and even though its Sp Def is dreadful, its Attack stat and typing are welcome additions to the team. EDIT: Apparently Bagon is super rare on Melemele, like a 1% chance of encounter. But it was the first and only Pokémon I saw in that patch of grass so lucky me I guess! The island starts off with too much Kukui, which is to say any amount of Kukui at all. I knew there was a reason I didn’t like Kukui, or rather a multitude of reasons, but I never expected him to come up with the idea of starting a Pokémon League. I guess that explains why he has been so serious about my adventure so far, but I don’t like when people make professional development decisions on my behalf. I don’t like Kukui. I had really been warming up to the idea of no gyms and no Pokémon League. The Pokémon series had been stuck in a formula for 20 years, and it felt like they had finally broken the mold. While there have been other issues, the actual flow of the adventure felt fresh and exciting. But no, Kukui has to go and ruin it by insisting that our adventure has to follow the script and we have to compete to be the Champion. I don’t like Kukui. I really like the design of this island. I like the eastern influences in the buildings and the garden in Malie City. We’re told to go up a mountain, but not before being introduced to a couple more new characters. Acerola is pretty cute, and I really like the black/white dichotomy of her design paired with Lillie’s. I hope they continue to be Good Friends. We also meet Samson Oak, whose mere existence continues to prove that the developers have a fetish for the Gen 1 games. The first trial feels so forced. You don’t even get to hardly meet these people before they start involving you in schemes. It’s pretty cool that it’s at the top of a mountain, but despite Mount Hokulani being so tall you need to take a bus to the top, there’s hardly anywhere to explore. This also contributes to a long running issue that there are simply not enough trainers in between each plot point for you to be able to accurately tell if you are at the right level. To be fair, I’ve never really had to grind, but I’ve also barely squeaked by during a couple fights, so maybe I should have been. The Electric trial is led by Sophocles, a captain who is so uninteresting that that’s all I have to say about them. You’re forced into four fights in a row, so hopefully you didn’t put a Flying type in the lead position like I did. There’s no warning either that you won’t be able to switch your lead position. If I’m having so much trouble as a veteran player, I can’t imagine how difficult this game must be for casual players. If this was my first Pokémon game, I’d probably put it down and never play it again. I made the battle with Totem Vikavolt much harder on myself by refusing to use Marowak, who was still tagging along. Double resistance to Bug and immunity to Electric would have made the trial laughably easy. So maybe I shouldn’t complain about difficulty when I’m artificially creating it myself. Of my other five Pokémon, only Misdreavus was a safe-switch in. Ledian was able to tank some hits after Reflect, and Infestation helped to chip away at the Totem’s health while I could heal the rest of the team. Vikavolt didn’t seem interested in using Bug moves against Umbreon, so I was able to use Growl to -6 Attack, which ultimately helped. Fomantis hadn’t evolved yet and was too slow and frail to do anything but faint in one hit. Brionne was able to pick off the ally Charjabugs while barely surviving Spark. The battle went really long, and I think Vikavolt became PP starved near the end. After leaving the mountain, we’re forced to talk to Kukui again. I don’t like Kukui. We finally meet the head of Team Skull, the big bad bug boss Guzma. We end up fighting him like a thousand times on this island. He made a great first impression on me when he confronted Kukui for being an idiot. I don’t like Kukui. His first boss battle was kind of tough because I didn’t have a lot of options when fighting bugs, but I would ultimately teach Brionne to use Acrobatics and Lurantis to use Aerial Ace. Ledian would also learn Air Slash which, in addition to Bug Buzz, would ultimately make her my strongest Pokémon. I do think it’s great that his Golisopod has a move called First Impression. Up until now, Team Skull was really just up to mischief, which was all well and fine. The evil teams don’t always have great mission statements. The one line about Alola having a bunch of old and outdated traditions was interesting to me. I felt it was an interesting contradiction that Guzma would feel that way but then fight any attempt to change that. There is a man north of Malie City named Gester, who lets you change your Battle Style, which is basically just how you throw your first Poké Ball. After learning that you could learn new styles from challenging previous captains, I raced back to challenge Lana. My recently evolved Lurantis swept Lana’s team, with some defensive assistance from Ledian. At some point, some people form a Nugget Bridge clone in Malie Garden. I don’t like this, only because I am sick of all the Gen 1 references. To make matters worse, they only use Kanto Pokémon,probably the original teams from Nugget Bridge. The last guy even pretends to recruit us to Team Rocket. The only thing that was interesting was the suggestion that the last guy actually was a former member of Team Rocket. I think an anniversary game where it’s revealed that Giovanni has been pulling all the strings in every other game would be super cool. We’re given a new Ride Pokémon in the form of Mudsdale. The oldest 8 year old Hapu tries to wave off the lack of ceremony (”I was gonna give it to you before but I forgot”). Mudsdale can walk over rocky terrain and is slower than Tauros and Stoutland. From what I can see, there’s no wild Pokémon on the rocky terrain and it only appears on one route, which is already blocked off by a trial captain’s barrier. So I’m not exactly sure why this Ride Pokémon is in the game. The geothermal power plant seems like something important could happen there. I know there’s that Legendary Pokémon from XY that they didn’t release, Volcanion. They have this whole big power plant area in Kalos which I’m certain was meant for a side story with that Legendary, but it’s all blocked off. I’m getting the same feeling here, but I’m not going to complain because you can interact with almost everything at the power plant reception/museum area. It felt far more immersive than anything else in the game so far. Anyway, we mindlessly make our way from point A to point B and start Acerola’s trial at a haunted abandoned supermarket. It was pretty clever, but again, there are other Ghost Pokémon than the three from Gen 1. I thought the mechanic of taking pictures was neat, but I wish it was more complex. Totem Mimikyu was the strongest challenge so far. I expected it to be easy, as I had four Pokémon with moves strong against Ghosts. The biggest challenge was that Mimikyu was faster than Ledian, who was my fastest Pokémon. Also that Mimikyu got a critical hit that bypassed Reflect and knocked out Ledian. That didn’t help. Mimikyu had obnoxious type coverage. Umbreon was to be my other star, but Mimikyu had some Fairy type move that shut him out of the match. Misdreavus would have been strong but Ghost being weak to Ghost made it a struggle. I was able to use Thuder Wave which helped. Shelgon knew Crunch, but was too slow and too weak to hold up to ally Gengar’s Shadow Ball. Lurantis didn’t have any opportunities to tag in; these Totem battles aren’t really meant for Grass types it seems. Primarina was the star, taking out Mimikyu with Oceanic Operetta. Luckily, allies Haunter and Gengar didn’t know any Poison moves. As an aside, I really like Double Battles. There were a few in this chapter, but there haven’t been too many overall. With Pokémon like Ledian and Umbreon, I’m able to put together some actual strategies, even though it’s mostly just “put up Reflect/Light Screen and hope that Petal Blizzard/Sparkling Aria doesn’t critical on me”. At this point, Team Skull commits petty theft and steals a Pokémon. It’s not a strong one, so there’s no real point, but it plays into Team Skull’s previous gimmick of being incompetent. Sometime around here, Gladion shows up and tells us to protect Cosmog, and it was about this time that I noticed his eye color matched Lillie and it all started to fit together. We’re introduced to the weirdest cameo ever, Grimsley from the Unova Elite Four. Why is he here? I failed to mention last time that Colress, also from Unova, showed up on Akala Island. That was also weird, but Grimsley is arguably weirder. You never really interact with the Elite Four outside of the Pokémon League, so they are very easily forgettable. Grimsley gives us Ride Sharpedo, which is another surf option except combined with rock smash instead of fishing. I like Sharpedo, because it’s a better alternative to Lapras. Fishing is pointless in this game anyway, except for Pearls. I really like Po Town. It’s the sort of feel that would have been great from towns that Team Rocket had taken over, except those would have more of a mob feel. We’re introduced to yet another new character, but he doesn’t tell us his name yet. He looks like he hasn’t slept in months and couldn’t care less about anything short of the destruction of the world. Well, just you wait, sir. The second Guzma fight was the same as before, except with higher levels. I was able to successfully predict Golisopod’s First Impression and block with Shelgon’s Protect. Shelgon was carrying an Amulet Coin, which was important because Revives are stupid expensive and also clothes. Speaking of clothes, I bought a new top in Malie, but that’s about it. I’d love to get my hands on a Team Skull top. We rescue the stolen Yungoos and discover almost immediately that Lillie has been kidnapped by Team Skull. The game plays a flashback of the events; I did not like this. It’s a common story telling technique but didn’t fit in this game. Gladion shows up and tries to hide the fact that he’s her brother, even tho we’d all worked that out by now. So just a heads up, I think everything about this next part of the game is all sorts of messed up. Gladion suggests that Lillie was taken to Aether Fortress, which makes no sense to anyone but him. Hau even calls him out on this, but since everyone has been treating Hau like shit, he’s started to have low self esteem and starts treating himself that way too. Thanks a lot, game. You took the one really good character and treated him like garbage. You can piece together that Lusamine has the same eye color as Lillie and Gladion, but the problem I have is that Team Skull had nothing to do with Aether up until this point. In fact, they had literally just stolen a Pokémon from them not an hour earlier. I don’t like when the game autowalks you to a new location. My legs work on their own, thank you. In this case, Gladion takes us to Malie City to travel by boat to Aether Fortress. Before we leave, as we’re waiting for Hau, the depressed guy from earlier shows up. This is Nanu, and he might be Acerola’s uncle but I doubt it and hope not. In Hawai’i, my understanding is that it’s common to call your elders “auntie” and “uncle”, even if they’re not related to you. Anyway, he’s apparently the kahuna and reminds us of the island challenge thing that we were doing. He uses Dark type Pokémon. This battle would have been really easy with Ledian but every trainer in this game has ridiculous type coverage in their attacks. Two of his Pokémon have Rock type moves, so Ledian went down quick. Sableye was handled by Shelgon, since Dragon Claw is ridiculously strong. Krokorok was handled quickly by Primarina. Persian was taken down by Lurantis, who finally had a moment to shine. Grand Trial complete, moving on. So now Team Skull and Aether are in cahoots I guess? Cool. This would mean that Aether is evil, as evidenced by all the Aether employees wanting to fight you for some reason. They could have played this differently, I think. We did arrive at the fortress in a Team Skull boat. Maybe they think we’re Team Skull? Nope. We’re just a bunch of kids who are intruders. There’s a handful of Aether people who are actually helpful. This is never explained why some are okay with us and some aren’t. I thought one of them would be the girl who was nice to us and Rotom but apparently the writers forgot about that. Aether Employees are way stronger and more competent than Team Skull. But their teams are still easy enough to take down with type matching. We meet the green Aether guy, Faba, again. He’s made out to be this big bad guy but he only has a Hypno. But he’s a conniving little rat. We’re tricked into exploring some labs in search of Lillie and we learn a bunch of information about Ultra Wormholes that we already knew. Rotom suggests that we read as many documents as we can, but there’s only two of them. This was a chance to provide some more depth but it was missed. I do like Multi Battles, and the game pairs you up with Hau and Gladion a few times here. Hau is much better than Gladion, and also a lot better than anyone else gives him credit for, including himself. After some more Aether fights, another fight with Faba who was suddenly stronger, and a meeting with Wicke who acts in such a way that suggests she has no idea what’s actually happening, we walk into the next area to find... a crap ton of Team Skull members. Why are they here? Why are they working with Aether? The answer is... I don’t know. The game doesn’t tell you. You even fight Guzma again, in a harder battle. He steps aside, because he “respects” you or something, but never says why he’s there. We finally find Lillie, who is with Lusamine. Shocker, Lusamine is the mother of Lillie and Gladion. Who would have guessed. Lusamine has gone absolutely bonkers. She is a straight up cold hearted bitch. After she says “I have no son or daughter” to her son and daughter, she kidnaps Lillie’s Cosmog and plans to kill it to summon the Ultra Beast from last chapter. I really don’t like this. Lusamine is a horrible person. And even the suggestion of killing a Pokémon is way darker than anything ever suggested in the games before. I did not sign up for this, this betrays the way that main series Pokémon games have been billed up until now. It’s a children’s game, for goodness sake. Or maybe it isn’t anymore. The battle against Lusamine was surprisingly easy. Clefable was taken out by Misdreavus and Ledian. Clefable first used Metronome to use Coversion2, turning it into the Dark type. Losing STAB for Moonblast and gaining a weakness to Bug allowed Ledian to get an easy win. One interesting thing that happened was that Clefable used Metronome to use the move Moongeist Beam, which I understand is the signature move of the version-exclusive Legendary for Moon. Lilligant and Milotic were taken down quickly by Lurantis. Misdreavus confronted Bewear, but Lusamine withdrew on turn one, because apparently it didn’t know any moves to hurt Ghost types. Her Mismagius was defeated by Umbreon, and Bewear was ultimately defeated by Primarina’s Oceanic Operetta because she didn’t really get to do anything else in the match. Also I threw out Shelgon at some point for the Amulet Coin. Guzma shows up to help Lusamine, again not explaining why. It doesn’t make sense. I cannot think of a single reason why these two would be working together. They use Cosmog’s energy to open up a bunch of Ultra Wormholes. This leads to a really cool cutscene fight, Hala and Tapu Koko versus some bug thing. Tho I wish Tapu Koko would have responded to Hala’s words. Even just a nod or something. Lusamine and Guzma enter an Ultra Wormhole created by the jellyfish thing from the last chapter. They’re gone, but Lillie and Gladion still want to get their mother back. Personally, I say good riddance. She’s a monster. After a night’s rest, and an outfit change and a new lease on life for Lillie, we’re set to head out and clean up the mess caused by the Ultra Wormholes. Hau decides to stay back and train, as we have outpaced him in the island challenge by quite a ways. So the game sidelines the best character, tho it will be a nice change of pace to have a more actively involved Lillie. Gladion offers to help us on our quest by taking us to... Poni Island, for some reason. We’ve never been there before. We know that there are Ultra Beasts everywhere we’ve been, but it seems like the game just wants us to continue our island challenge like nothing else is happening. Gah. So far, regarding the game as a whole, I feel like... this is not my favorite Pokémon game. I don’t even know if I really like it. I mean, I like it enough to want to see it through to the end, but that might be because of the 45 hours I’ve put into it so far. At least we’re free of Kukui for a while. I don’t like Kukui.