SPOILERS! Sun and Moon In game experience thread

[lucariomaster2]

Last night, I became the champion of the League and thus completed the main story of Moon. Overall, even though this generation is incredibly different from previous ones, I really enjoyed it. Instead of doing a warstory of my entire playthrough, though, I'll focus more on the parts of the game that really stood out to me.

First of all, I love the overall atmosphere. Alola definitely conveys that it's based on Hawaii, but it still feels unique enough to be in the Pokemon world. The departure from the norm of defeating 8 gyms can be explained in-universe by the fact that Alola is 4 islands in the middle of the ocean, so it would make sense that they're not influenced as much by outside culture. Another point is that even though past games have explored the technology/nature balance (with it being one of the central focuses of Black and White), Sun and Moon hit the blend between routes and cities really well.

The Totem Pokemon are refreshingly difficult. Lurantis was the hardest for me; even though I had two Flying-types, I wiped against it twice because Castform + Sun + Solar Blade + Synthesis is a surprisingly strong combination. Seriously, did the AI take smart pills between generations? Alolan Raticate wasn't too bad; Wishiwashi was more tedious than anything because of Alomomola; Salazzle was dead easy because I had a Wishiwashi of my own; Vikavolt and Mimikyu I think I only beat on the first try because I got a lucky crit; and Kommo-o was fun (though stressful) because its ally Hakamo-o spammed Agility and Work Up but never attacked.

Now, everyone who didn't immediately think the Aether Foundation would secretly be evil when they were revealed, raise your hands! *1 or 2 hands go up* Yeah, it was sort of obvious from the start that Team Skull is just a distraction and Aether are the real bad guys, but the story might actually be my favourite out of all of the games. It's the only one so far where I actually started to care about the characters, and Lusamine's line about Lillie becoming beautiful actually made me cry. That's the first time since PMD2 that a Pokemon game has done that. I also really love Gladion's character; of course I think he's a bit too edgy, but I definitely understand his motives. I actually find it nice that Team Skull isn't inherently evil; they're just a bunch of assholes. In fact, someone on r/pokemon pointed out a cool detail, which is that in one of the rooms in Po Town, there's a whole bunch of TVs and Wii Us, implying that Team Skull is just a bunch of teenagers who ran away from home because they don't want to play by the rules, and that the money they make from stealing Pokemon is so that they can survive. GF did a really good job fleshing out the worldbuilding imo.

And finally, I actually got stuck on the Elite Four. That hasn't happened in about ten years. Granted, I was playing through the game in sort of a weird way (which I'll get to later), but it took quite a few tries before I was finally able to take down Kukui and ascend to the throne.

...and then after another 20-minute cutscene I'm thrown straight into a battle against Tapu Koko with no chance to save or get a Synchronizer at the front of my team. I KO'd it so I can rebattle it at my leisure after beating the E4 again.

And one more thing: After many SRs, I was able to catch a Modest Lunala in a... no, in the Moon Ball. (Seriously, GF? You bring back Apricorn Balls but only give us one of each per playthrough?)

The team

...Well, I can't really talk about my team in the traditional sense, because I was constantly swapping Pokemon in and out. I won't go into detail for all of them, but I will talk about some of the ones I really enjoyed using.

Decidueye @ Decidium Z
Mild Nature
Ability: Overgrow
Level 57
-Spirit Shackle
-Leaf Blade
-Brave Bird
-Sucker Punch

My starter, of course. I was originally Team Litten, but when the final evolutions were revealed, I knew I had to go for Rowlet. He put in work whenever he was on the active team with his good Attack and moveset.

Mudsdale @ Groundium Z
Hasty Nature
Ability: Stamina
Level 53
-Double Kick
-Earthquake
-Heavy Slam
-Bulldoze

Stamina might be one of the single best abilities for in-game. Since healing items are a thing, after a few hits, Mudsdale can wall literally any Physical attacker out there. It also hits like a truck with Earthquake and Heavy slam since it's actually the third heaviest Pokemon in the game, only behind Primal Groudon and Cosmoem. Actually, getting back to that, I understand why Cosmoem is so heavy; IRL, stars (especially neutron stars, but other stars as well) are incredibly dense. But... how, then, was Lillie able to carry this thing around in her bag? You can't even use the excuse of psychic power, because Cosmoem doesn't have Levitate.

Ribombee @ Pixie Plate
Impish Nature
Ability: Shield Dust
Level 58
-Pollen Puff
-Dazzling Gleam
-Double Team
-Quiver Dance

RIBOMBEE FOR MVP. Seriously, this thing is a BEAST. Even before getting Quiver Dance, it's so fast that it was able to beat pretty much everything it went up against as long as it didn't have a type disadvantage. And then it was able to set up to +6/+6/+6/+6 against Kukui's Ninetales and sweep him. And it's so freaking cute! Yeah, Cutiefly isn't that good, but Ribombee is definitely worth the wait.

Mr President (Gumshoos) @ Muscle Band
Timid Nature
Ability: Strong Jaw
Level 56
-U-Turn
-Hyper Fang
-Crunch
-Super Fang

No, I have no regrets about the nickname. But he was definitely able to put in work with Strong Jaw Hyper Fang. Just... he doesn't get the move until level 43 and until then he sort of sucked.

Vikavolt @ Quick Claw
Rash Nature
Ability: Levitate
Level 57
-Bug Buzz
-Volt Switch
-Thunderbolt
-Air Slash

OK. Will someone PLEASE explain to me why this thing has base 43 Speed? It looks like it should be blisteringly fast, and yet it's outrun by speed demons such as Conkeldurr, Golem, Azumarill, and Aggron! At least it hits as hard as the railgun on its face suggests it would.

Lurantis @ Miracle Seed
Jolly Nature
Ability: Leaf Guard
Level 43
-Leaf Blade
-Petal Blizzard
-False Swipe
-Leech Life

I don't know what GF was thinking making Gen VII mons so slow. Lurantis, like Vikavolt, looks like it should be able to outspeed stuff, and yet its base Speed is a paltry 45. It has a cool design, though, so I guess it's not all bad.

Oranguru @ Smoke Ball
Sassy Nature
Ability: Inner Focus
Level 42
-Psychic
-Calm Mind
-Stored Power
-Psych Up

Oranguru was able to set up on Lusamine's Clefable and then sweep with Stored Power. That was definitely fun. Other than that though, it hit decently hard with Psychic and was bulky enough to take hits when it needed to.

Now, some more astute readers may notice that this is, in fact, my 1,000th post on Smogon. And you know what that means...

Shoutouts!

Stellar You were the head of OI when I first joined the forums. It was during the early stages of XY discussion, and you did a really awesome job both as a leader and as a fellow Pokemon fan. Your "Countdown to XY" thread is still one of my most fond memories during my time on the site.
DHR-107 The amount of work you've put into OI is absolutely amazing; I really have no idea where any of us OI residents would be without you. I at least would probably have had a much harder time going spoiler-free before I was able to play through Moon.
Codraroll I still know you internally as "Cobraroll", which may stem from me loving roller coasters maybe even more than Pokemon. But every single post you make on Smogon is elaborate, detailed, and well-constructed. You really are OI's resident sage.
Pikachu315111 I love how even though "Pikachu315111" might be considered a stupid name by some, especially on a Pokemon forum, you fully embraced it. And I really appreciate how you take the time to write well-thought-out replies to everyone's opinions; it really takes a lot of effort to do something like that. Kudos!
Hulavuta Dude, you are one of the coolest guys on Smogon. I know you don't hang around OI much anymore, but I have so many memories of multi battles, OI movie nights, etc. Come back and visit some time!
cant say You and Hula have done a really amazing job with the Battle Spot forum. I'm definitely going to make an effort to be more active on it for gen VII.
Esmeya Every time I hop on the IRC with some ridiculous question, you're always there to give an answer. Even if you prove me wrong in the process, I still appreciate that you help me see things from a different angle.
FMD Even though we disagree on a few things, you're a really cool person to talk to on IRC.
Usernamesarestupid You have helped me more than anyone else on the Wifi forum. I feel bad asking you to clone my stuff all the time, but I appreciate that you're always willing to. You know if you ever want something from my thread it's on the house!

There's probably a boatload of people I forgot to tag, but I want to say a communal thank you to everyone on Smogon for making such an awesome site. Here's to another 1000 posts!

 

[Codraroll]

They removed sitting. That is unfortunate, but... well, we can lie down in beds instead? What gives?

They made one cardinal sin, though: At some point, the English localization team must have thought "Surely everybody who play this game in English must prefer Imperial units?" In a trailer, Pokédex stats were displayed in Metric. This option has apparently been removed or reverted.

...I mean, seriously. Nintendo, unit conversion is extremely basic stuff. There is no excuse not to have it in. And if you're insisting on having only one system, use Metric. Imperial is a completely retarded system of measurement, used by only two countries in the entire world, both of which passed metrification acts in the fricking seventies. You sell your games in English all over the world where there is no localization, yet for some reason you give exclusivity to the vastly inferior Imperial system. The Pokémon stats are even designed in Metric (as evident by the rounding off of stats - most Pokémon have a pretty "round" height and weight in Metric), then for some stupid reason converted into nonsensical units before shipping worldwide.

This is one of the reasons why I'm developing a sort of love-hate relationship with the Pokémon games. They are full of brilliant ideas, and stupid executions. Too bad Game Freak has no incentive to get their act together, since the Pokémon brand is so strong that no game design details can have a meaningful impact on sales anyway.

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

So far, I have the Fighting, Normal, and Water Z-Crystals. Hala was hard as fuck. I actually kind of wish Crabrawler was as slow as its evolution, because it outsped literally everything I had, and had Power-Up Punch with a pretty damn good attack stat to boot. Gumshoos I had a bit of trouble with but I was able to overcome in the end. Wishiwashi was easy as all hell though. I just put it to sleep with Petilil (on a side note, anyone willing to give me a Sun Stone via trade?) and swept it clean.

I currently possess a Growlithe, event Snorlax, Brionee, and Petilil. I'll likely fuck around in Poke Pelego until I get a Murkrow (you can get one through the berry island, right?), but my last team member will be Jangmo-o, which is VERY late game.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Meh, work caused me to miss a day of playing. I'll label this as Day 3, doesn't really matter as I'm now in the post game.

Pikachu315111s Moon Playthrough: Day 3

1. Last time I had just busted through Po City and rescued Yungoos for Acerola's sister/friend only to discover that Lillie and Cosmog was taken by Team Skull... to the Aether Foundation?!

Hide

2. Nanu is the Kahuna? Alright, I guess more reason why he stayed to watch the Pokemon in Po City despite his solemn attitude, course Gladion's expression when hhe did the Z-Move pose was priceless. Wait a second, how come you know the Z-Move pose when you just obtain the Z-Crystal, like with the Dragon and Ice ones?

3. So we learn about the skeletons in the Aether Foundation's closet. First we deal with Faba who I'm still not sure what his full deal is. He was the one who created the project that created three Type: Nulls in order to kill Ultra Beasts (and they don't sugar coat it, they use the word kill and the projects name is UBK: Ultra Beast Killer). They were suppose to be called Type: Full since they were based on Arceus's ability to change types but the power was too much for them so it was a failure. Gladion ran away with one once the decision was made to dispose of them (though why do I have a feeling the other two are still around?).
Next it's revealed Team Skull has sorta been secretly sponsored by the Aether Foundation, being explained that Lusamine saw potential in Guzma's strength when no one else wanted to. She also told him about the Ultra Beasts.
Though of course the biggest WTF award goes to Lusamine. She's absolutely insane. At first she talked about how the UBs need her and how she pretty much hates her children for disobeying her... but then you get to her personal lab where you see she had cryogenically frozen several Pokemon (including Pikachu)! Then the word "die" and "dead" is dropped a few times as Lillie says Cosmog will die if Lusamine forces it to open the Ultra Wormholes. So Lusamine does and that's where we get the scene of Hala being attacked by a UB as wormholes appear all over the islands. After you stop it Lusamine and Guzma then jump through a wormhole and Cosmog evolved to a Cosmeom but isn't moving anymore.

4. So after that that's really when Lillie gets huge character development, including a new trainer-like look. I gotta say I'm impressed with what they did with Lillie's character, I'd say she becomes one of the most developed characters in the Pokemon series alongside the likes of Silver and N.

5. So Poni Island is next and it has no Kahuna and the only Captain on the island has been missing for a while... how were we expected to complete the Island Challenge when the two thing we need to do so are gone? Well actually one, and the Kahuna role gets filled so I guess we just happened to luck out.
Actually, joking aside, I do find that kind of amusing. We were just introduced to the Island Challenge and before it ends they mix things up on us. First we technically complete the Island Challenge as we battle the new Kahuna without needing to face the Captain. We then later meet the Captain, a Fairy-type expert who's a hippie artist that got herself "lost" in the mountains, but she just gives us her Z-Crystal and moves along. But then we do go through one last Trial, a Dragon-type one set up by the ancient Alolans. It took the normal games until Gen V to mix the Pokemon League up and that was only with the Elite Four challenge when you were about to face the Champion, never did anything to interfere with the Gym Leader system.

6. Okay, why is there a trade for a Steenee when we already had a trade for a Bounsweet? You couldn't think of another Pokemon that was strong against Ground-types?

7. So I'm playing the boy character and it kind of feels like they're pushing a semi-romantic tone with Lillie. Anyone who's playing as the girl do you get that same feeling?

8. So Nebby became Lunala and we enter Ultra Space. Thanks to the demo leaks we saw some of it before, but its definitely still a strange place. And here we sorta get an idea what's going on thanks to "You'll are stupid" Guzma. Apparently UB-01 are sort of mind controlling Lusamine, or at the very least manipulating her to make her obsessive about them. Guzma also sort of got mind warped though it just made him scared and weirded out, so I guess it affects people in different ways?
Well, time to face Lusamine. Oh, she said the UB01's species name, thought they'd keep that a secret till post game. Yeah, you go tell her off Lillie, even though we now know she's being mind controlled so that isn't really going to do much. Ah, a Beast Ball so she caught a Nihilego, and she has a spare room on her team so time for a 6-vs-6... okay, it's floating down on her, is she going to wear it or something...
WTF?!
She fused with it! Um, well then, I guess this is one upping Lysandre coming out dressed like Doc Ock (spoilers: this won't be the last Spider-Man reference). And she's now able to power-up all her Pokemon. Good think my Pokemon are nearly 10 levels over hers (thank you, Exp. Share).

9. And upon freeing Lusamine from her mind control and escaping Ultra Space that's pretty much the end of the game's main plot. I gotta say, while its a good story and I would say rivals Gen V's, there are some disappointing aspects of it. Mainly with the Ultra Beasts. Did you think you were going to battle several of them throughout the story? Ha! You only battle a Nihilego and see Beauty coming out from the sky and attacking Hala. Also they don't use their designations in the main story, it's an post game mini quest where they're used (and it's not by the Aether Foundation, though there is someone from the Aether Foundation working along with them).

10. Legendary battle time! I don't think I've said this but the music in this game is awesome! Most notably Guzma's theme, Lusamine's final theme, and the Legendary theme. Anyway Lunala was a bit of a challenge but not too much. Oh, and though I don't nickname my Pokemon, who here nicknamed their Lunala/Solgaleo "Nebby"?

11. So finally time to face the Elite Four, I chose to go with Nanu (Kukui sent him to pick us up ) since I thought they were going to do a Kahuna boss rush. As it turns out not the case. Hala and Olivia are there, but Nanu flat out rejected it (he can't ignore being a Kahuna since chosen by a Legendary (and they don't care what you want), but he can say no to being an Elite Four member), so instead his niece Acerola took over (which we got a glimpse of in the demo's trailer). And I guess Hapu is too young/new to be considered so instead we got a "new character": Kahili. Yup, that golfing pro we heard about from the demo and the hotel she owns is the final member of the Alola Elite Four. So we have Fighting, Rock, Ghost, and Flying. Rock and Flying are new so that's nice, also this is the third time a League had a Fighting and Ghost-type specialist and oddly enough they're in the same league (Indigo has/had Bruno and Agatha, Unova had Marshal and Shauntal, and now Alola has Hala and Acerola). The Elite Four music is good but I kind of like the Kahuna's theme better since it feels different from previous Elite Four music but at the same time still felt epic but also triumphant.
But now it's time for the Champion bought! I walked right up to that chair, gave it a look, and sat right on it! Whew! That was a tough fight. Yeah, since we're the first Alolan League challenger and we beat the Elite Four we're the Champion. And not in name only like in previous gens, we are the Champion and have to defend our title (though I'm not so sure if that is a thing since I haven't done a lot of post game). Anyway out first challenger: Professor Kukui, though it's more to test if we have what it takes to be Champion. I'm curious if this is maybe a reference to the unused Oak team as he has the final evo of the Starter that wasn't picked (kind of hoping that was going to be given to Lillie). Also your Champion theme is a remixed of the main Pokemon theme.

12. Ending was nice, they throw a local festival in your honor (still doesn't beat the parade Burgh gave you at the end of BW2), you a Lillie sneak to the temple to thank Tapu Koko... who you then battled and, for me, I caught. Of course its part of a long cutscene so you can't check its nature until the game is over but f*** it, if I ever wanted to use one competitively I'll wait till they introduce a way to change Natures.
And we end it with Lillie going to Kanto to not only help her mother (we later learn that fusing with an unknown life form kind of had lasting effects, mainly she has Nihilego's neurotoxin in her. They're going to see Bill since apparently he wrote about the time he fused himself with a Pokemon, you'd think he tried keeping that a secret especially since he needed the player's help to fix it) but also to go on her own journey.
End credits were sweet, basically photographs sent to Lillie how everyone has been doing, ending with the photograph RotomDex took when it first got its camera and they gave her an Island Challenge charm of her own.

13. Post game time and I start if off with a mysterious man giving me a card to tell me to go to a motel room. Okay... Actually it was the motel room Gladion was living but he moved out. So who asked us to come? LOOKER! But he's not alone, oh, its his boss. She looks like of familiar... ANABEL? As in Salon Maiden Anabel? Yup, Anabel is now the chief of the International Police and Looker's boss. And as proof when you battle her she uses her Alakazam and Snorlax (though obviously she doesn't use any Legendaries). We also learn Wicke is either a member or just a contact.
Anyway Looker quests involve tracking down the UBs. Your given 10 Beast Balls for each one (apparently each one takes million of dollars to make) and first one was a Nihilego which I got with a Timid nature, woot. Then the next is Pheromosa... four of them. Like, wow, really? Four? Like nice you're giving us extra to trade for a Buzzhole but I just needed one extra for that. Well whatever, I'm aiming to have one with a Modest nature and another with Timid, though it has a high Attack it doesn't have the movepool to support it and it learns Quiver Dance. That's where I stopped as that's going to be a lot of resetting. Luckily they so far haven't been hard to capture, I just paralyze them with Mimikyu and then switch to Snorlax to Hold Back until they have 1 HP. Haven't needed to waste a Beast Ball yet.

14. Going back to meeting with Wicke (you do in order to get the info and first batch of Beast Balls), in one of the Labs there's an Aether employee who gives you DNA Splicers, Prison Bottle, and Soul Dew, saying Lusamine was planning on adding those Pokemon to her collection. Worst, the employee then says that they're keeping the Pokemon Lusamine froze safe until they have a way to revive them (yikes...).

15. BTW, Soul Dew got nerfed, hard. It now just increases Lati twins Dragon and Psychic moves by 20% (so pretty much like the spacetime orbs for Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina).

16. It's the International Police who use the UB's codenames and we learn UB-01's codename: Symbiont. Going back to the Spider-Man parallels, Lysandre became Doc Ock and Lusamine became Venom (its Japanese code name is "PARASITE")! Also looking up the meaning of its name, Nihilego comes from "nihil" (latin for "infinite nothing") and "ego". Its Japanese name, Utsuroido, comes from "utsuro" (void) and "id". While the first part refers to its state of being the second part refers to a person's psyche, mainly the two which are about self importance. The Id is a human's basic instincts, wants, and impulses. The Ego serves the Id, it's grounded in reality and will do what it both possible and reasonable in order to best satisfy the Id. So basically the Nihilego were feeding Lusamine's id and ego, overriding the superego (the part of you which understands the difference between right and wrong). I guess you could also say their name represent what they do to a person's psyche, making them care for nothing but what they deeply desire.

17. During this second mission we learn Nanu was once a member of the International Police, he was Anabel's superior I guess before retiring (so when exactly did he become a Kahuna?).

They removed sitting. That is unfortunate, but... well, we can lie down in beds instead? What gives?

They made one cardinal sin, though: At some point, the English localization team must have thought "Surely everybody who play this game in English must prefer Imperial units?" In a trailer, Pokédex stats were displayed in Metric. This option has apparently been removed or reverted.

...I mean, seriously. Nintendo, unit conversion is extremely basic stuff. There is no excuse not to have it in. And if you're insisting on having only one system, use Metric. Imperial is a completely retarded system of measurement, used by only two countries in the entire world, both of which passed metrification acts in the fricking seventies. You sell your games in English all over the world where there is no localization, yet for some reason you give exclusivity to the vastly inferior Imperial system. The Pokémon stats are even designed in Metric (as evident by the rounding off of stats - most Pokémon have a pretty "round" height and weight in Metric), then for some stupid reason converted into nonsensical units before shipping worldwide.

This is one of the reasons why I'm developing a sort of love-hate relationship with the Pokémon games. They are full of brilliant ideas, and stupid executions. Too bad Game Freak has no incentive to get their act together, since the Pokémon brand is so strong that no game design details can have a meaningful impact on sales anyway.

Actually there are some instances of sitting and you can't sleep in all beds, you notable chairs and beds.

I agree that for Pokedex the metric system should be used. I personally think the Imperial System should only be used in a general way. "We have about 1 more mile to go". "This bag feels like it weighs 10 pounds". It's not exact, but in my way of thinking its not suppose it; it's just giving you a basic idea of how long/heavy something is. But when it comes to exact numbers like the exact height and weight of a creature that requires metric.
Also I don't think it'll be hard to have an option to switch between the two measurements if you want both in there.

 

[Codraroll]

Also I don't think it'll be hard to have an option to switch between the two measurements if you want both in there.

That's the crux of it all. Unit conversion is a trivial matter in computer science, especially when the ratio between the two systems is always 1:1. It would have been slightly more complicated to convert square feet to square metres, or volumes or densities or whatnot, but we're talking changing feet to metres, and pounds to kilograms, and always sticking to the first power. This is literally a first-degree multiplication problem. You take number A, multiply it with a fixed ratio, and get number B. Add one line of code to round off excess decimals.
One could probably find games way older than Pokémon RBY which have this option. Adding it to the Options menu in Sun and Moon would presumably have taken less time than creating a model and animations for one single new Pokémon. Heck, I'd be greatly surprised if metric-to-Imperial conversion is even done by hand at all when the games are localized.

It's stupidly easy to implement a unit conversion system, all things considered. I can see no justification at all for leaving it out. "What if kids press the option by accident and the numbers don't make sense to them any more?" Newsflash: To a significant portion of the player base, the numbers never made sense to begin with. As a kid, I had no idea what an "lb" was, and presumed the apostrophes were the result of coding errors.

 

[R_N]

of all the many legitimate grievances in this game (& the series, in general) complaining about the english translation(s) using imperial just feels so....like there are much better hills to die on here

the state of post-game grinding, for example.

 

[Darvin]

The Totem Pokemon are refreshingly difficult. Lurantis was the hardest for me

I found the Lurantis battle one of the easiest thanks to Butterfree. Sleep Powder shuts down Castform, it's a x4 grass resist so it doesn't care about Solar Blade at all, and it hits hard enough with Gust to quickly whittle through Synthesis PP. Castform eventually nailed Butterfree, but by then Lurantis was almost PP stalled out of Synthesis and my Growlithe was able to clean it up.

The hardest totem battle for me was Salazzle, since my team matched up poorly against it. I put on a few extra levels and changed tactics so I could paralyze it. With its speed cut in half, wearing it down from that point was pretty straightforward. I also had a bit of trouble with Mimikyu, but once I changed tactics to spam attack drops on it the thing became much less threatening. Kommo-o was the easiest thanks to Clefairy; I set up a Calm Mind on turn 1, then OHKO'd it turn 2 with Moonblast, then the ally pokemon followed on turn 3.

They removed sitting. That is unfortunate, but... well, we can lie down in beds instead? What gives?

This is the one that really confuses me. There are actually a few chairs in the game that you can sit down in. The Kahuna's chair in the first village is one of the chairs you can sit in. I have no idea why this is.

I actually find it nice that Team Skull isn't inherently evil; they're just a bunch of assholes. In fact, someone on r/pokemon pointed out a cool detail, which is that in one of the rooms in Po Town, there's a whole bunch of TVs and Wii Us, implying that Team Skull is just a bunch of teenagers who ran away from home because they don't want to play by the rules, and that the money they make from stealing Pokemon is so that they can survive. GF did a really good job fleshing out the worldbuilding imo

I noticed this as well, but it really started me thinking: why does the pokemon world have so many disaffected youth? It's not just Team Skull, after all; every region seems to have a virtual army of eager recruits that can be exploited by any charismatic leader with the resources to keep them together. Why should this be? The pokemon universe is depicted as otherwise peaceful and filled with friendly and helpful people.

The thing that really got me was the encounter with the garbageman and his son. His son had abandoned the island challenge, and was now working with his father at the island waste disposal facility. After a cutscene you battle the father then the son. The son is promoted to a manager position by his father on the spot. The moral of the story is supposed to be "don't give up in the face of adversity, and you'll be rewarded", but for me all I saw was blatant nepotism. Fresh off of this encounter we meet Sophocles, a kid who was just given his captain title by his mentor (or father? I don't think their relation is ever specifically stated) and gets educational opportunities and technological resources that few others could even dream of. That then leads into the Guzma/Kukui encounter, where Guzma implies their failure as pokemon trainers made them rejects, while Kukui insists he just had other dreams.

The sheer number of "rejects" following him lends Guzma's view a great deal of credibility in my view. We don't know what Kukui's youth was like and what opportunities he may have had that helped him in pursuit of becoming a pokemon professor, but the sheer number of disaffected youth Guzma has rounded up indicates that most don't have mentor figures. We've seen other NPC's start on the road to becoming pokemon professors - it begins after they end their pokemon journey and start working as an assistant at a lab (and in many cases they get these jobs through family connections. I think Bianca is literally the only exception). If you're not good at pokemon, and don't have the social connections to get started on your dream career, what exactly are you supposed to do?

The pokemon series always plays fast and loose with its darker aspects (it is an E-rated game, after all), but those aspects are there. I'm always mindful of going too far into speculation, but I do think there's a legitimate critique about the society of the pokemon world here, and the consistent appearance of these villainous teams speaks volumes about the failures of this society.

 

[R_N]

I noticed this as well, but it really started me thinking: why does the pokemon world have so many disaffected youth? It's not just Team Skull, after all; every region seems to have a virtual army of eager recruits that can be exploited by any charismatic leader with the resources to keep them together. Why should this be? The pokemon universe is depicted as otherwise peaceful and filled with friendly and helpful people.

The thing that really got me was the encounter with the garbageman and his son. His son had abandoned the island challenge, and was now working with his father at the island waste disposal facility. After a cutscene you battle the father then the son. The son is promoted to a manager position by his father on the spot. The moral of the story is supposed to be "don't give up in the face of adversity, and you'll be rewarded", but for me all I saw was blatant nepotism. Fresh off of this encounter we meet Sophocles, a kid who was just given his captain title by his mentor (or father? I don't think their relation is ever specifically stated) and gets educational opportunities and technological resources that few others could even dream of. That then leads into the Guzma/Kukui encounter, where Guzma implies their failure as pokemon trainers made them rejects, while Kukui insists he just had other dreams.

The sheer number of "rejects" following him lends Guzma's view a great deal of credibility in my view. We don't know what Kukui's youth was like and what opportunities he may have had that helped him in pursuit of becoming a pokemon professor, but the sheer number of disaffected youth Guzma has rounded up indicates that most don't have mentor figures. We've seen other NPC's start on the road to becoming pokemon professors - it begins after they end their pokemon journey and start working as an assistant at a lab (and in many cases they get these jobs through family connections. I think Bianca is literally the only exception).

The pokemon series always plays fast and loose with its darker aspects (it is an E-rated game, after all), but those aspects are there. I'm always mindful of going too far into speculation, but I do think there's a legitimate critique about the society of the pokemon world here, and the consistent appearance of these villainous teams speaks volumes about the failures of this society.

As interesting as the implications are (Skull is the most forward about this, but Plasma definitely has a lot as well. Several post-game grunts in BW2 are just frustrating and don't know what to do), I feel like a lot of this is more just....ahh...coincidence? Or wasn't thought through that well.
There are, presumably, a lot more people in alola than we actually see. But we see a ton of disaffected youth in team skull because we have to fight a bunch of them.

also its not like guzma didn't have some sort of support network in place. I doubt Kukui rejected him, for one. There's definitely some other stuff in play that we'll probably never know, both for him and the people under him.
I kind of want to know more about the first meeting of Lusamine & Guzma, actually.



By the way, Sophocles & steel dude are cousins. They say as much and I don't think it's the usual hawaiian usage of it like Hau & Kukui use, since the 2 don't use any other of those types of phrasing.

 

[hypno28]

of all the many legitimate grievances in this game (& the series, in general) complaining about the english translation(s) using imperial just feels so....like there are much better hills to die on here

the state of post-game grinding, for example.

Agreed (and the choice of a measurement system is ultimately completely arbitrary, even if one is more efficient than the other). Lincoln Chafee over here....

 

[R_N]

Thinking about nepotism, actually, it's probably worth nothing that Kiawe, Lana, & Mina seemed to have gotten their positions as trial captains separate from their connections. Especially Mina! No mentor (or worse, her mentor is nanu), doesn't seem to be super well known in the small Poni community, seems entirely self taught, just kind of wanders around

e: It's so nice that I can think of these characters for more than a hot second, by the way.

 

[Giratina93]

The post-game grinding, MY GOD... My team was so hideously underleveled, that 2 days later and all of Poni Island cleaned out, my crew was only lv. 50 across the board, all 20+ of them. It took far too long grinding on wild mons to get everyone up to there, and even MORE obscene grinding from the daily restaurant battles to be strong enough to not be smeared all over the ground by Red and Blue. Yes, being underleveled is my own fault for going with so many pokemon, but the lack of consistent grinding beyond wild mons and those very few daily battles just makes it even worse, and I know I'm going to be in for a long, boring grind when trying to get everyone to lv. 100 for those bottle caps.

And also, screw the Battle Royal. The AI just loves to gang up on my poor Pokemon and kill them each turn, even when it would be better to target something else (Yes Lanturn, use Thunder on my Mence and paralyses it instead of THE FREAKING LAPRAS ACROSS FROM YOU). Makes grinding for those EV boosting items like the Power Weight all the more hellish when I only get 1 BP per fight because this game hates my guts.

 

[Absolclaw]

I switched out my Bewear for a Kommo-o near the end of the game, but I might switch back, its been kind of underwhelming. I also switched out Lycanroc-Midnight for Silvally, but it has also been really slow and kind of a master-of-nothing, so I may switch it back in or find something else entirely.

Been trying to raise/breed some new stuff for Battle Royale. My goodness that AI is so annoying, my in game team is useless because of how bloody slow everything is and everyone teams up on me and steals my kills ;_; I was expecting this difficulty out of the highest ranks, but the two lowest ones? Or is it scaled up due to me being champion and all

I hope the route outside Battle Tree is the best place to grind, or if it isn't I'll have been wasting my time.

 

[Codraroll]

of all the many legitimate grievances in this game (& the series, in general) complaining about the english translation(s) using imperial just feels so....like there are much better hills to die on here

the state of post-game grinding, for example.

I'd say they are related, actually. Both are cases of Game Freak not implementing something that would have taken a trivial amount of time and resources to do, and which fans have craved since day one. Post-game grinding is perhaps more egregious, since that's a thing they've gotten right and done well several times in the past.

It seems like the design feature list for the games have delved into "Which features can we hold back from this game, to make the next game look better by comparison?" The games need sales arguments to stand out from the previous one, but Game Freak's solution to this problem leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Instead of making each game better than the previous, they use the attractiveness of new Pokémon and new regions to gut the games of features, so they can later be re-introduced. New Pokémon and new regions are so popular that fans don't care that the game has no postgame and misses several acclaimed features the previous one had. Hence such features as rematches, move tutors and post-game facilities are taken out, since leaving them in has no effect on sales. Then the follow-up games can put those back, and become much better games than the previous ones. "Buy it! It has both new Pokémon and Elite Four rematches!" And the next generation will take them away again...

 

[Biggron]

Beat the game twice thus far (and currently on my 3rd run). Really loving the game. First go around, I used Decidueye/Magnezone/Salazzle/Golisopod/Poliwrath/Drampa. First four mons were great, but 'Wrath and Drampa were pretty terrible. The former's strongest move was Brick Break (I didn't find the Scald, Surf, or Waterfall TMs, so I was stuck with Bubblebeam as my secondary STAB) and had generally meh stats, while Drampa just came too late to be of any use.

For the 2nd team, I used all early game mons: Primarina/Magnezone(again)/Hariyama/Gengar/Mudsdale/Salamence. Hariyama had a Lonely nature, so it was never as bulky as I would've liked. Had to go back for 'Mence, since I didn't want to spend several hours trying to find one on Route 3 (you can find one in the grass in Kala'e Bay, which is only reachable once you have both Lapras and Charizard on the pager. Takes a bit of time to reach, but you have a 10% encounter rate instead of Route 3's 1%).

Currently playing again, using Incineroar/Pelipper/Mismagius/Shiinotic/Golem/Palossand. Haven't finished yet, but it's looking like Decidueye is the go-to starter for efficient runs.

 

[AlexArthur]

Just did the the Water Trial. Dartrix made short work of it. The hardest battle so far was a wild Level 8 Magnimite when I had nothing to hit it and Slowpoke, Rowlet on my team. I caught it and it's now a load bearing member of my team. Lots of items everywhere. I went through I think it was Seabound Cave which felt like I was supposed to go back later than I did with the rocks and surf area after it but at least I got a Diglet for some super awesome hair later. SOS battles are annoying when you're just trying to catch something for the sake of catching it. The Battles with the rival, Halu? have largely been pointless because of him choosing the type weak to my starter and there's been a fair bit of them so far. Loving the general atmosphere though, really good blend of environments so far.

Also far too many cutscenes, too close to each other. Also too many roadblocks. Sorry kid you can keep your Stoutland still while I walk past.

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

So I wonder traded a Zubat and the first thing I got? A Jangmo-o. Sweet. Right now I'm fucking around in Poke Pelego and waiting for a Sun Stone and/or Murkrow to show up. Likely won't play until both tasks are completed, which will likely take quite a while (several days because the timers function on in-game time and you have to wait days for shit to get done UGH), so no real gameplay for a few days.

 

[R_N]

So I wonder traded a Zubat and the first thing I got? A Jangmo-o. Sweet. Right now I'm fucking around in Poke Pelego and waiting for a Sun Stone and/or Murkrow to show up. Likely won't play until both tasks are completed, which will likely take quite a while (several days because the timers function on in-game time and you have to wait days for shit to get done UGH), so no real gameplay for a few days.

It definitely does not function on in-game time, it functions on...time...time.

Also I wouldn't hold my breath on Murkrow. I have no idea what the timer on that is like but i've had like 7 pokemon be interested and on ylever grabbed one and I swear carbink took like 2 days before it just disappeared. Pokelego Pokemon are just super finnicky

 

[PKMN Hunter 18]

So currently in Melemele Meadow just off Route 3. Really enjoying the game so far when I get to play it. First totem boss was quite an eye-opener and I struggled a bit but got through. Love the Team Skull theme :)

Team currently is:
Lv 17 Growlithe
Lv 17 Drowzee
Lv 17 Magnemite
Lv 17 Munchlax
Lv 19 Dartrix

Looking for a water type to be my final member of my in-game party.

 

[Kanburi]

I got to a chain of 60 for Ditto and caught a 6IV Serious one. Gotta try for other natures now.

 

[Ajwf]

So alright, just finished at 50 hours.

Mismagius Lvl 64 (timid), Flygon lvl 55(timid), Decidueye LvL 62 (jolly),
Ninetales Lvl 54 (Naive), Magnezone Lvl 57 (Modest), Pangoro Lvl 60 (Naive)

Team is slightly overleveled? Well the game hit that damn power curve coming into Aether the second time, but it was so needed. God I destroyed that entire Skull stronghold without one item/pokecenter usage, including the boss. And this was with my second team. A Hariyama (ended level 50), Pangoro, Magneton, Haunter, Tuocannon, and Marowak just ran train through that part. Mostly Toucannon. Luckily I was FINALLY forced to get it together and drop deadweight. Ninetails was a last minute pickup because I had legitimately no way to stop ice from destroying me prior other than Zone, who was a bit underleveled until my searching ended.

Anyways, got wiped exactly once this game, which is more than I can say for any game since Hoenn when I was really young. Hapu? The fighting elite 4 full restored his last mon, that beware thing, when decidueye/flygon/sneasil (replaced by Ninetales next run) were all that remained. Essentially I had no way to hit it. Also wasted my Decidueye Zmove on it, thinking it was fairy/fight.

On the mons on my party:

Hide

Overall, Mismagius is the greatest mon in the game for campaign, hands down. You can find one at night in the graveyard on the first island. From there, she can be trained to solo the first totem basically (Sun, not moon) due to Psybeam. So many resists makes for easy training. First time through Hapu she just wins. Almost nothing he could do back. You just snowball out of control and she overleved my starter by the end of the second island. She fainted twice this entire game. Once on the sweep to a surprise outrage primeape where I no longer had a good dragon switch (lol Magnezone got fucked up) and once on a sacrifice vs Lilly's mother's Mismagius. Roughest part was Dusk Stone for evolution but Misdreavus is one of the best pre-evolutions in the game because she used to be a stand-alone. That fucking Eviolite though.

Flygon comes in super late to the game as a level 36-38 trapinch from the desert. Evolves to Virbrava very quickly and then to flygon about ten levels later. It's a really easy train, but... this one was Timid. I gave it fire blast and it learned EQ. Wasn't the worst trade, and even had U-Turn for good scouting. The worst issue I had was basically how flygon defensively is so garbage without any of the EV training. the -10% attack and no EVs in low stats made it rough until it got Dclaw to complement the other moves. After training a few attack EVs in and adding some swift wings, I had a good glass cannon set going. She facerolled the rock E4. Overall, I wouldn't recommend over a Mudsdale if you don't have a passion for flygon. Too inaccessible. The one plus is Tapu Koko (which you fight with no time to change team after winning champion) has no move to touch a ground type. That and Flygon has access to Stone Edge/Fire Blast/Roost, meaning refreshing her moveset between battles and adjusting to the upcoming match was pretty easy.

Decidueye solo'd so many teams it really kinda became boring. Water Totem, down. Rock trainer, gone. Ground trainer, gone. Totem Ghost? What ghost? It's a starter, so it has to be good. Leaf Blade/Roost/Spirit Shackle/False Swipe. Nearly a competitive set. It's scary easy to get by TM too. Not much to say other than this thing is a royal tank once you get the TM for roost (or even Synthesis by level up). I'm not sure what else another starter does, but I'm guessing this run would've been slightly more difficult with incineroar or even primiera. Seriously, get this guy if you have any worries about the game and difficulty early OR late.

Ninetales is really, really garbage. I just didn't have a good 6th mon to fill in here outside of ANOTHER dark type or ANOTHER flying weak. (Greninja, Hariyama). You have good TMs for her and an ice stone by then so catching a good vulpix and then giving Psyshock/Ice Beam/Frost Breath (+dazzling gleam on evolution) isn't hard. Still did about negative damage vs the fight E4, but carried weight vs the ghost/flying (passcoland/Dhelmise ghosts). Have a 6th mon ready from like the last island or something. If I had dedicated more time, I would've gone back and trained up one of the Beldums from the observatory area instead for the same affect.

Zone is god. Get early, trains easy (water immediate next island, steel moves for rock one-off trades). The Electric totem does nothing do you and the steel battle before was pretty easy too. Evolves on the Fourth Island's mountain area (the one where Lilly crosses that bridge as her own challenge). Fucking SHREDS the E-4 flying, as well as rock (flash cannon ftw, and Tbolt for that lead off rock thing). Even sturdy is really nice in bad situations. This thing just never wasn't relevant. Seriously, get one. If you combine accessibility, ease of training and practicality, it probably is right there or above Mismagius just because it evolves earlier and is easier to find.

Pangoro... Meh I got it early and then just rolled with it because overall Pangoro is slightly better than Hariyama for that 3rd island (dark, ghost are the next two groups after you fight it). Definitely strong, but... Eh, I guess I probably wouldn't say it was necessary. Overall this slot was much more useful than the Ninetales but close to as replaceable. Noticeably it DID carry the team that beat Skull's fortress past the dark guy. Definitely viable, just I think I could've done more with a flying resist tank.

Heavy spoilers ahead.


So yeah power spike besides, the game story got a bit less convincing later on. Aight Lilly we get it, you're obsessed with the MC. Now instead of talking like that, pick up a damn mon and FIGHT. But by her eventual exit, I'm guessing we're seeing another trace of her in a Kanto remake.

I was liking Skull, knowing that Aether was evil. They played the part kinda awfully, with no real explained reason for why Lilly's mother preferred UBs to normal mons. What's so cool about this new world? IDK, we don't really get a motive. Also Mr. Bitchass himself with Type:Null can't figure out how to A.) win a fight or B.) Be a convincing substitute supporting character to Hau. He just looked like an overrated dunce as the MC was meant to plow down first the Skull Leader, then HIS MOM, then Sogaleo and then his mother again! Dude loses every fight you see him in the entire game but one vs Hau. At least Hau wins island challenges.

And so the entirety of Aether, about half of them know they're evil. Okay, that's kinda neat. At least it explains the overall incompetence. Aether itself is just a giant plothole the size of the ultra beast wormholes. Lilly never noticed the fucking Teleporter sitting in her bedroom? Nor her mother's obsession with pokepopsicles? Like other than showing off we're dealing with some mentally unstable monster, what are those things even for? More importantly, someone as seriously mentally unstable as her only needs a nihlego to fuck with her and her to take another asswhipping for her to get out of being a psycho? Okay, that's probably more a kid story plot device than anything else but that's kinda annoying. Next thing you know we'll have people coming out of the mental wards when they get their teeth punched in.

More importantly, what happens to Aether after? I'm assuming half the employees that aren't evil are going to notice this resident is gone some way or another. One kid's in Kanto and I'm assuming the other one's gone too? Postgame just started, haven't checked up on that. Well the president is gone with Lilly TO Kanto so does purple hair take over? That seems like a multi-billion dollar enterprise that Lilly's grandfather owned. Someone has to inherent it.

This also brought up another huge plot hole. How didn't Aether track Lilly down? This hugeass organization lets her get away for that long and has no way to track her? I guess Skull's job is to find her or whatever, but she's BEEN NEAR SKULL multiple times. Like send in Aether afterwards, it wouldn't be hard... Force ole brother boy to come over early to help, swat his ass, win game for whatever you wanted those wormholes for in the first place. If it was like Skull trying their idiotic stuff and being like "Alright look, we're gonna smash that pokemon until it causes chaos all over the place", it works better. Aether was unnecessary. Lilly could've grown regardless, still had a brother. The organization COULD'VE been pure good. Maybe skull wins same way they did earlier but now all that makes sense. Now, Aether vs Skull once UBs arrive. Idk, it just seems way more concise.

There's... an interesting plot hole with summoning Sogaleo/Lunale in the form of how do these two magically know this ritual? Two flutes, on apparent purposeful stone areas, Lilly randomly calls they should wait until sun/moon rise... then this massive contraption just starts going because all these conditions were right but Lilly, who might have an excuse for knowing, certainly hasn't told the MC anything.

It's sad, really. The trial style is really cool and added a lot of complexity/difficulty to the game. However the evil organization this gen was a complete detriment to the game altogether. Just awful, awful... up there for the worst in the series with Flare and Aqua specifically. Skull was okay and would've been kinda neat as a standalone if they were slightly more competent. The trial storyline is fantastic, enjoyable and a classic style. Skull is a decent villain team. Not quite rocket-level believable nor Plasma level cool (not even close really) but still good. Aether and their role just soiled the story for me. The game's still the best mon game in the series hands down it's just not got the perfect side-by-side story that BW(2)? is lauded for.

 

[MrTharne]

Hapu? The fighting elite 4

Hala, Hapu is the ground girl with a Mudsdale.

 

[Himanattsu]

I'm at the Elite Four right now, and I don't even have a full party yet. Every single member of my team gave me hell when trying to catch them. Catching an Alolan Diglett in Verdant Cavern with Tangling Hair took over an hour, which really stalled my progress in the game. I ditched my starter, so I needed Diglett to progress. Oricorio wasn't much better. Even though it didn't take long to find, I used up most of my balls trying to catch it. Bounsweet was absolute hell to even find. I was looking in the wrong places for hours, and even when I was in the right place, I still couldn't find it for the life of me. I found more Comfeys than I did Bounsweets. Mimikyu was a wreck, as I obtusely used an Adrenaline Orb when trying to catch one, and I almost depleted all of my Pokemon's PP before I caught it. I want Drampa on my team, but I've been searching for several hours without even seeing one.

Mareanie was supposed to be on my team, but I just gave up. I refuse to add a bulky Water from a previous gen, think Pelipper and Mantine, so you can imagine how hard it was having a gaping hole like that on my team for so long, since everything was so frail. I really wanted Regenerator Toxapex on my team, with Haze to shut down all of the Totem Pokemon (I even trained up a Surskit and everything), but chaining Corsolas for over 10 in-game hours didn't even bring me close to a chain that was high enough. I might just challenge the Elite Four with only four team members, and the way that I've been gliding through this game, I wouldn't be surprised if I pulled it off.

All of my party members were hard to get, but they were amazing in all of the boss fights. Hilariously, Tsareena completely shuts down Golisopod. I lead with her every time when I faced Guzma, spammed Trop Kick, and waited for Emergency Exit to activate. Guzma, strangely enough, gave me the most trouble out of all the boss fights. Aether Paradise was a joke, as was Po Town. I went into the first fight with Lusamine almost fully depleted from my last encounter with Guzma, expecting someone to heal my Pokemon afterward. When she challenged me, I was fully prepared to fail. However, I lead with Mimikyu, I let him set up SD's, and he proceeded to sweep her entire team. It's almost the same for the second encounter. I kept on setting up Calm Minds with Fire-Flying Oricorio, and her Clefable couldn't do anything about it. The same thing happened with Hapu, point-blank. Dugtrio couldn't do anything to me, so I just set up Calm Minds and swept her team. Mimikyu got a critical on Totem Kommo-o and took it down in 2 turns. Oricorio was clearly the MVP of my team. Her resistances and coverage are just too good. Lunala showed up, and I caught it in a Quick Ball on the first try. It's a shame that I didn't get a chance to listen to the music at all, though.

Overall, I wish that the Pokemon I wanted were more accessible. I've been nervously skating along, afraid that at some point the ice will break. This game was hard, for sure, and it involved a lot more thought because of the coverage moves that the bosses got, but having two setup sweepers with immunities to abuse made manipulating the AI to be trivial. I can't say that I have a super fun time playing this game, as fun as I did ORAS or BW2, just because of the stupid Mareanie. However, ignoring my wasted hours of fishing, this game definitely is on-par to the previous games.

Team:
Alolan Dugtrio (Diglit)
Oricorio (Lamarck)
Tsareena (Rangda)
Mimikyu (Ripley)
*Drampa
*Toxapex

 

[Pikachu315111]

So alright, just finished at 50 hours.

Mismagius Lvl 64 (timid), Flygon lvl 55(timid), Decidueye LvL 62 (jolly),
Ninetales Lvl 54 (Naive), Magnezone Lvl 57 (Modest), Pangoro Lvl 60 (Naive)

Team is slightly overleveled? Well the game hit that damn power curve coming into Aether the second time, but it was so needed. God I destroyed that entire Skull stronghold without one item/pokecenter usage, including the boss. And this was with my second team. A Hariyama (ended level 50), Pangoro, Magneton, Haunter, Tuocannon, and Marowak just ran train through that part. Mostly Toucannon. Luckily I was FINALLY forced to get it together and drop deadweight. Ninetails was a last minute pickup because I had legitimately no way to stop ice from destroying me prior other than Zone, who was a bit underleveled until my searching ended.

Anyways, got wiped exactly once this game, which is more than I can say for any game since Hoenn when I was really young. Hapu? The fighting elite 4 full restored his last mon, that beware thing, when decidueye/flygon/sneasil (replaced by Ninetales next run) were all that remained. Essentially I had no way to hit it. Also wasted my Decidueye Zmove on it, thinking it was fairy/fight.

On the mons on my party:

Hide

Overall, Mismagius is the greatest mon in the game for campaign, hands down. You can find one at night in the graveyard on the first island. From there, she can be trained to solo the first totem basically (Sun, not moon) due to Psybeam. So many resists makes for easy training. First time through Hapu she just wins. Almost nothing he could do back. You just snowball out of control and she overleved my starter by the end of the second island. She fainted twice this entire game. Once on the sweep to a surprise outrage primeape where I no longer had a good dragon switch (lol Magnezone got fucked up) and once on a sacrifice vs Lilly's mother's Mismagius. Roughest part was Dusk Stone for evolution but Misdreavus is one of the best pre-evolutions in the game because she used to be a stand-alone. That fucking Eviolite though.

Flygon comes in super late to the game as a level 36-38 trapinch from the desert. Evolves to Virbrava very quickly and then to flygon about ten levels later. It's a really easy train, but... this one was Timid. I gave it fire blast and it learned EQ. Wasn't the worst trade, and even had U-Turn for good scouting. The worst issue I had was basically how flygon defensively is so garbage without any of the EV training. the -10% attack and no EVs in low stats made it rough until it got Dclaw to complement the other moves. After training a few attack EVs in and adding some swift wings, I had a good glass cannon set going. She facerolled the rock E4. Overall, I wouldn't recommend over a Mudsdale if you don't have a passion for flygon. Too inaccessible. The one plus is Tapu Koko (which you fight with no time to change team after winning champion) has no move to touch a ground type. That and Flygon has access to Stone Edge/Fire Blast/Roost, meaning refreshing her moveset between battles and adjusting to the upcoming match was pretty easy.

Decidueye solo'd so many teams it really kinda became boring. Water Totem, down. Rock trainer, gone. Ground trainer, gone. Totem Ghost? What ghost? It's a starter, so it has to be good. Leaf Blade/Roost/Spirit Shackle/False Swipe. Nearly a competitive set. It's scary easy to get by TM too. Not much to say other than this thing is a royal tank once you get the TM for roost (or even Synthesis by level up). I'm not sure what else another starter does, but I'm guessing this run would've been slightly more difficult with incineroar or even primiera. Seriously, get this guy if you have any worries about the game and difficulty early OR late.

Ninetales is really, really garbage. I just didn't have a good 6th mon to fill in here outside of ANOTHER dark type or ANOTHER flying weak. (Greninja, Hariyama). You have good TMs for her and an ice stone by then so catching a good vulpix and then giving Psyshock/Ice Beam/Frost Breath (+dazzling gleam on evolution) isn't hard. Still did about negative damage vs the fight E4, but carried weight vs the ghost/flying (passcoland/Dhelmise ghosts). Have a 6th mon ready from like the last island or something. If I had dedicated more time, I would've gone back and trained up one of the Beldums from the observatory area instead for the same affect.

Zone is god. Get early, trains easy (water immediate next island, steel moves for rock one-off trades). The Electric totem does nothing do you and the steel battle before was pretty easy too. Evolves on the Fourth Island's mountain area (the one where Lilly crosses that bridge as her own challenge). Fucking SHREDS the E-4 flying, as well as rock (flash cannon ftw, and Tbolt for that lead off rock thing). Even sturdy is really nice in bad situations. This thing just never wasn't relevant. Seriously, get one. If you combine accessibility, ease of training and practicality, it probably is right there or above Mismagius just because it evolves earlier and is easier to find.

Pangoro... Meh I got it early and then just rolled with it because overall Pangoro is slightly better than Hariyama for that 3rd island (dark, ghost are the next two groups after you fight it). Definitely strong, but... Eh, I guess I probably wouldn't say it was necessary. Overall this slot was much more useful than the Ninetales but close to as replaceable. Noticeably it DID carry the team that beat Skull's fortress past the dark guy. Definitely viable, just I think I could've done more with a flying resist tank.

Heavy spoilers ahead.


So yeah power spike besides, the game story got a bit less convincing later on. Aight Lilly we get it, you're obsessed with the MC. Now instead of talking like that, pick up a damn mon and FIGHT. But by her eventual exit, I'm guessing we're seeing another trace of her in a Kanto remake.

I was liking Skull, knowing that Aether was evil. They played the part kinda awfully, with no real explained reason for why Lilly's mother preferred UBs to normal mons. What's so cool about this new world? IDK, we don't really get a motive. Also Mr. Bitchass himself with Type:Null can't figure out how to A.) win a fight or B.) Be a convincing substitute supporting character to Hau. He just looked like an overrated dunce as the MC was meant to plow down first the Skull Leader, then HIS MOM, then Sogaleo and then his mother again! Dude loses every fight you see him in the entire game but one vs Hau. At least Hau wins island challenges.

And so the entirety of Aether, about half of them know they're evil. Okay, that's kinda neat. At least it explains the overall incompetence. Aether itself is just a giant plothole the size of the ultra beast wormholes. Lilly never noticed the fucking Teleporter sitting in her bedroom? Nor her mother's obsession with pokepopsicles? Like other than showing off we're dealing with some mentally unstable monster, what are those things even for? More importantly, someone as seriously mentally unstable as her only needs a nihlego to fuck with her and her to take another asswhipping for her to get out of being a psycho? Okay, that's probably more a kid story plot device than anything else but that's kinda annoying. Next thing you know we'll have people coming out of the mental wards when they get their teeth punched in.

More importantly, what happens to Aether after? I'm assuming half the employees that aren't evil are going to notice this resident is gone some way or another. One kid's in Kanto and I'm assuming the other one's gone too? Postgame just started, haven't checked up on that. Well the president is gone with Lilly TO Kanto so does purple hair take over? That seems like a multi-billion dollar enterprise that Lilly's grandfather owned. Someone has to inherent it.

This also brought up another huge plot hole. How didn't Aether track Lilly down? This hugeass organization lets her get away for that long and has no way to track her? I guess Skull's job is to find her or whatever, but she's BEEN NEAR SKULL multiple times. Like send in Aether afterwards, it wouldn't be hard... Force ole brother boy to come over early to help, swat his ass, win game for whatever you wanted those wormholes for in the first place. If it was like Skull trying their idiotic stuff and being like "Alright look, we're gonna smash that pokemon until it causes chaos all over the place", it works better. Aether was unnecessary. Lilly could've grown regardless, still had a brother. The organization COULD'VE been pure good. Maybe skull wins same way they did earlier but now all that makes sense. Now, Aether vs Skull once UBs arrive. Idk, it just seems way more concise.

There's... an interesting plot hole with summoning Sogaleo/Lunale in the form of how do these two magically know this ritual? Two flutes, on apparent purposeful stone areas, Lilly randomly calls they should wait until sun/moon rise... then this massive contraption just starts going because all these conditions were right but Lilly, who might have an excuse for knowing, certainly hasn't told the MC anything.

It's sad, really. The trial style is really cool and added a lot of complexity/difficulty to the game. However the evil organization this gen was a complete detriment to the game altogether. Just awful, awful... up there for the worst in the series with Flare and Aqua specifically. Skull was okay and would've been kinda neat as a standalone if they were slightly more competent. The trial storyline is fantastic, enjoyable and a classic style. Skull is a decent villain team. Not quite rocket-level believable nor Plasma level cool (not even close really) but still good. Aether and their role just soiled the story for me. The game's still the best mon game in the series hands down it's just not got the perfect side-by-side story that BW(2)? is lauded for.

Spoiler Alert: Theory and Explanation Addition

Lillie Not Fighting: I'm guessing Lillie didn't get a Pokemon because at that point in the story a strong trainer was needed and no way Lillie would be able to catch up. The main character had to be the muscle because there was no one else. However I'm glad that at the end of the story they had Lillie deciding to become a Pokemon trainer, thought they would give her Popplio though I guess being the daughter of the President of the Aether Foundation she doesn't exactly need a Professor to give her a Starter (unless she wants to start out as the player did in which case she can just go see Professor (Samuel) Oak).

Lusamine's Insanity: Nihilego is mainly to blame, specifically its neurotoxin. Nihilego's neurotoxin affects the mind, it can change a person's personality and also erase memories. Lusamine's insanity and obsession stems from a major spoiler, a rather dark one. I'll put it in spoiler tags below incase you don't want to get spoiled. But the main point is that she already had a legitimate reason to be obsessed and exposure to Nihilego's neurotoxin drove her beyond sanity.

Why Lusamine is Obsessed

The one who did most of the Ultra Wormhole research was actually Lusamine's husband. He eventually went through an Ultra Wormhole... but never returned. Lusamine then become obsessed with Ultra Space to find her husband, before she got infected by Nihilego's neurotoxin.

Who Is The Man?

So who is Lusamine's husband and the father to Lillie and Gladion? Well he's probably one of the characters you see a lot in your journey: Mohn. Yep, the Poke Pelago guy. Well, at least who Mohn used to be. While we don't know what happened, assumably he went through the Ultra Wormhole, got attacked by a Nihilego, got his memory wiped, and washed up on Poke Pelago.

Gladion Losing: Maybe his constant losing to the player was on purpose, to show that he's inexperience in battle but only got so far because Type: Null is strong?

Aether Home: I'll assume Lusamine kept the teleporter off so no one but her had access to her personal lab. Also it wasn't until recent years that Lusamine became insane, she was normal and cared for her kids. If you say your mom, someone who loved you and took care of you, slowly have their personality change to something more cruel and not like the person you remember what would you do? Lillie and Gladion probably for a long time wanted to ignore there mother's personality change.

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Especially after losing their father, at first they probably thought their mother's personality change was from grieving.

As for why Lusamine was cryogentically freezing Pokemon, I think it has to do with the way Nihilego's neurotoxin work. Nihilego's name in many languages references either the id (the basic instinct and impulses of your mind) or ego (the part of the mind which serves to fulfill the id's wants via reasoning what can be done). I think what the neurotoxin does is amplify those two parts of your mind/suppressing the super ego (the part of your mind which understands what's right and wrong). In a Pokemon it just makes them really angry as they rely on instincts, but for a human the effects can vary though in the end what the person does will be a selfish behavior that benefits mainly them (as their super ego isn't telling them what they're doing is wrong or right). Lusamine wants to protect Pokemon, and what better way to protect them than by freezing them, right?

Aether After: The members you battled in Aether was mostly Faba's followers (or possibly Skull members in disguise) or just so loyal to Aether that they'll follow their bosses orders thinking in the end it'll be for the greater good of protecting Pokemon. Only Lusamine, Faba, Wicke, and Guzma really knew what was going on; and only Lusamine knew what the true end goal was.
As for who would run Aether? Faba is second-in-command & branch chief and Wicke is the assistant branch chief so they're running things (also there's another thing about Wicke which shows she has more importance than being a mere assistant). Also only Aether Foundation, Team Skull, the player, Hau, the Professors, and the Pokemon League/Kahuna's (and a few Captains) know what happened, everyone else in Alola probably aren't aware the Aether Foundation had a few skeletons in their closet that was just cleaned out.

Looking For Lillie: I think at first Lusamine decided not to not bother as they had leftover gas from Cosmog to use. However after failing to bringing the Nihilego the player defeat completely over she realized she needed Cosmog. That's probably when she told Guzma to start looking for Lillie, Plumeria coming up with a plan to send the player to Po City so that he wasn't there when they came for Lillie.
Not sure what you're saying about Gladion. While working with Team Skull and getting stronger he was also keeping an eye on Lillie and would protect her if Team Skull started targeting her. Like with the player, Plumeria or Guzma sent Gladion somewhere far off so he couldn't come in to help Lillie.

Winging It: Well remember Lillie did read up on the Legendaries of Alola so her knowledge of how summoning the Legendary worked could have been cobbled together from that. But I do think she was probably winging thing, just doing what seemed like the logical thing to do.

 

[Elite_Battle_Master]

This is the most fun I've had playing the story on a main pokemon game I think since my initial play thru on Red version back in the mid 90's. The whole story with Lillie and her mom is certainly not kid-friendly IMO.

I also just started chaining trying to get a 4+ perfect IV ditto and managed to run into a shiny imposter ditto. Wound up having 4 perfect IV's, but unfortunately my synchronize Abra (adamant) didn't end up working. Ditto ended up being a lax nature. Pretty cool capture though!

 

[Prof. Almeida]

This is my favorite Pokémon ever, the story is amazing and the atmosphere is awesome.

Also, started my shiny-chaining things by shiny-chaining a Smeargle to use it to shiny-chain everything. I accidentally KOed the first chain at 102, the second chain gave me a Moody Shiny Female Smeargle at 86. It took me 12 more turns to actually catch her, since she escaped twice from my Luxury balls and kept asking for help. Got her on the third.