Pokemon Moon Text LP: Part 15 (Patreon)

After clearing out basically everything else I could do, it's time to move on to the next area, Route 13. Kinda weird how this section of the game seems to just have one route connecting to another without anything in between like that... well I guess it's not really that weird, if you compare it to areas like the stretch between Lavender and Fuchsia in Kanto, which is considered four separate routes. But this is also in a newer game where a road can go in multiple directions without being considered a separate map, so I'm not sure what my point was actually.

After arriving in the new area, Hau shows up, saying he also completed Sophocles's trial, and he gives me a Max Potion for no real reason. Hau, dude, you've gotta stop giving me stuff. You're my rival, not my ... I'm not sure what to call you. Admirer maybe? I'm not convinced that there's no crush going on here. But anyways, our good buddy insert-word-here-that-sounds-like-Gladion-but-isn't shows up, and lets us know that Team Skull is looking for a Pokemon called Cosmog, and wants to know if we know anything about it. Hau kinda spills the beans, but luckily, Glamburger isn't actually interested in finding it himself. He explains that Cosmog itself isn't strong, but it has the potential to summon other, terribly strong Pokemon, and we need to keep it safe from Team Skull.

I'm kinda interested in where this is going. Not even just the story in general, but Gazorpazorpfield's role in all this. It seems like he's being genuine here, but it could also be an act. Guess I'll be finding out later. As for the rest of this area, there's really not much to see. There's not even any wild Pokemon other than ones you can fish up (nothing that I haven't already encountered, for that matter). Instead, there's just a motel and some mobile homes. The motel has a Stufful in it, which has apparently been there for a long time, waiting for its trainer to come back. That's ... genuinely pretty sad. Don't make me bust out the Jurassic Bark gifs for this one, people get upset over that kind of thing.

There's also a random Oranguru stalking some dude (trust me, I've told you all you need to know), and some punk guy in one of the trailers seems to want to pick a fight with me when I come in, but he backs off when I accept and instead gives me the Taunt TM. I'll add that one to the stack of Dark-type status moves that I'll never use. Or just Dark-type moves in general that I'll never use, for that matter. A different trailer has some random exposition: "Team Skull was born outta this old group that once formed around one of the old kahunas. But that whole thing fell apart after they got smacked down by the wrath of the tapu!" Kinda interesting, I suppose. Lastly, we have the entrance to Haina Desert. A person standing near the entrance mentions that the area is a maze, and the trick to getting through it is to follow the stone stacks, and remember the order 2, 1, 4, 3. However, he doesn't know what this means. I think you pretty much already told me everything, dude. Regardless, I can't go there until I beat the next trial (the Ghost one).

The next area is actually not a route, it's Tapu Village. Well, it's pretty much a route, there's not much village-y about it. It also happens to be raining here, which I think is the first time I've encountered random weather conditions in the game. I hope they're not as rare as they've seemed so far, since I know certain Pokemon only show up during certain weather. I know you can force it with your own abilities/moves, but it seems more annoying that way than having it occur naturally.

Hau shows up again (it's been what, five minutes?), and points out that the "Aether House" we're supposed to be visiting is near. I don't actually remember anyone saying we needed to go there, but I'm sure the game would direct me there on its own anyway, so that's fine. For the moment I'm just interested in what this Tapu Village place is actually supposed to be. The best explanation I got (from a random NPC) was that the original Thrifty Megamart was built here, and since it's apparently holy ground, Tapu Bulu (this island's guardian) got pissed and destroyed the entire place. Now it's all full of ghosts and nobody wants to go there. That explanation is fine, though I do have to question that last part.

Ghost Pokemon tend to inhabit certain areas connected to death, which makes sense even though not all of them are specifically spirits or whatever, some of them just have ghostly properties. Ghost Pokemon also tend to have very disturbing Pokedex entries from time to time, mentioning stuff like putting curses on people, stealing their souls, and the like. So why do people still risk coming to graveyards where they hang out if they're that dangerous? Respect for the dead is great, but if you're risking yourself by going there, I'm not sure if it's really worth it.

So in this area, which looks about as tropical as anywhere else in the region, and where it is currently raining, I find and capture a Snorunt and the new Ice-type form of Sandshrew. Uh... am I missing something? Snorunt's dex entry even specifically says that it can only survive in cold areas. Maybe it's just me, but this area does not scream "cold weather" to me. The new Sandshrew is ridiculously adorable, by the way. I never cared much for the original, but this one is very close to winning its way onto my team, if only I didn't already have a final Pokemon already planned (and if I wasn't trying to avoid using non-Gen 7 stuff). After catching both of those, I look for a long time for an Absol, only to have it completely sweep my team much like the Charjabug from yesterday. And of course, after I reset I find one in my very first encounter and then catch it on the second ball. Not that I'm complaining, it's just weird how that always works out.

I also spent a bit of time here looking for the weather-specific SOS Pokemon, Castform and Vanillite. I'd assume that Vanillite only shows up in hail and not rain, but I've yet to see any sources actually claim that, so I'm not sure. I didn't find one anyway, but I did find a Castform after a bit of searching. Castform's a cool thing, it's a shame its stats are so low. It's also apparently quite rare in this game, so I'm glad I found one with as little effort as I put into it.

From Tapu Village, I have a few different directions I can go. To the north is Mount Lanakila, but they won't let me through because the Pokemon League is still being built. And from what I understand, there's also a fair amount of stuff beyond that point that I'd like to have access to for my team, but alas. Besides that, there's Route 14 to the south and Route 15 to the north. I check out 14 first because it's the one that doesn't lead to progress. It actually doesn't lead to much at all at the moment - the area is basically just a beach of black sand with some kind of structure in the water and the currently-blocked-off ruins of the Megamart. The water ruins area (which sounds much more interesting in the written word, it's more like a concrete square a few feet off the coast) has the Shadow Ball TM though, which is much appreciated. I teach it to Aleene and move on.

At this point I also do a bit of backtracking, since I missed some stuff earlier on. I really have no reason to mention any of it, but there was one of those "fight every trainer on the route and then you can fight me" guys on Route 12 who used the Bug Z-move and gave me Psych Up for beating him. There was also a person back in the clothing shop that gave me 10,000 quatloos for showing him a Togedemaru. Also, going out of order slightly, I never realized that Cleffa showed up back on Mount Wannahockaloogie (specifically at night), so I went back and caught that once I had the ability to. It summoned a Clefairy too, so I got one of those as well.

Ignoring the useless preceding paragraph and moving on, let's check out Route 15. Oh boy, it's another beach that has basically nothing on it. We haven't had enough of those yet! To be fair though, this one actually does seem to stretch onwards quite a bit, but I can't access that part of the area yet until I get the ability to smash rocks in the water. Just put Tauros on jet skis, he'll be fine. Or maybe, and this is a stretch here - the random blockades like this shouldn't exist in the first place, since people have clearly already gone around them on their own and they have no reason to respawn. Just throwing that out there.

So yeah, this area has the Aether House in it, and it sure is a place that exists. Upon going in, the first thing I notice is another random Oranguru hanging out behind a counter. All I can think of is Judy, Dr. McNinja's gorilla receptionist. Come to think of it, that's the second Dr. McNinja reference I've made in this LP, so this game must be doing something right. Maybe at some point in the future I'll run into a raptor-riding bandito, a motorcycle that is actually a unicorn, or I'll visit Dracula's moon base. I'd take any of those.

But instead, I just get attacked by a couple of random kids trying to protect their turf while Acerola (Super Kawaii-Chan♫) is away. The fight goes about the way you'd expect, and afterwards, a Yungoos apparently continues to gnaw on Hau's leg. Of course, being me, the only thing I can think of is the quote from Futurama: "It's horrible, there's no cocoa marshmallows! And every night, the rats eat a little more of my foot!"

After leaving the building, I find that Lillie has immediately found herself in a predicament with Team Skull. I mean, the game mentioned that this might happen about ten whole minutes ago, so obviously they're going to do something with that. So I fight the jabroni off and she explains that she basically just tried to travel on her own and act like a real trainer for a few minutes. This is just further proof that she needs to be put on a collar, and Nebby needs to be put on a different collar attached to her. This is approaching Princess Peach territory, here.

Now that Super Kawaii-Chan♫ is back, I guess it's time to go do the trial over at the abandoned Mega Mart. No point in putting it off any further, I suppose. So I do what I always do when preparing for a team: grab whatever 6 Pokemon need the most experience to reach the next level (of the ones needing to level up, obviously) and pay no attention to their types or usefulness. The trial is explained to me - my goal is to basically just go around and take pictures of the ghosts and that's about it. Sounds good.

I go in, and the first interesting thing that happens is a checkout line conveyor belt moving on its own. I decide to ignore this and explore the area anyway. Luna seems to find a random shopping cart and doll display worthy of interacting with, but points out that nothing can be done with them "yet", so obviously she read the script ahead of time. But yeah, I go check out the conveyor belt, followed by the other two areas. Upon doing so, I get to take pictures of Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, and then battle them. All three are dispatched easily by Lubba's Psychic, with even the Gengar not posing much of a threat. After each battle, a Pikachu is seen wandering away, and this eventually leads me to a locked room in the back of the store.

This room is frequently cited as being pretty creepy, but personally I don't find it that bad. After going in, the Poke Finder opens on its own and I look around the room. It's got various Pikachu photos and drawings on the walls... oh right, and there's also a Mimikyu standing like two inches behind me. Hi there. Now in case you somehow haven't heard what Mimikyu's deal is yet, it's basically some kind of horrific creature that hides inside a Pikachu costume for somewhat unclear and inconsistent reasons. When it was first revealed, I remember them saying that it basically dressed up like Pikachu because it wanted to be loved, and everyone got all weepy over this and deemed it the best thing ever. Now that the game is actually out, it seems to be portrayed more as a stalker, and the Pokedex says that it wears the costume to get close to people, since it would scare them off otherwise, and apparently at least one person has actually died of fright seeing its true body. Overall, it's one of those weird things that sounds like a decent backstory for a singular entity, but doesn't really work for an entire species. Either way, I still like it, and like it or not, I'm getting into a totem battle with it.

The battle starts off with it getting a +1 in all stats. I lead with Laylee, who I know isn't going to be particularly useful in this fight, and use Swords Dance because I'm an idiot. It uses Shadow Claw and this would have been a one hit KO if not for the Refresh benefit kicking in. Either way, Laylee's out on the next turn without doing anything, and Mimikyu's got a Haunter on its side now. So next I switch to Skeeter to try and burn it with Scald. It's at this point that I remember Mimikyu's main gimmick - the first hit it takes, no matter what it is, will cause no damage and only function to break its disguise. This hit actually does burn it, but it happens to be holding a Lum Berry and therefore I've made no progress other than take down its defenses a bit. From this point on, I just tried my best to damage it in any way possible as my team got destroyed one by one. It ended with the Mimikyu at about 80% of its health and my entire team being wiped out, so time for a reset.

I'd like to take a moment and analyze what happened there before attempting that again. I'm a fairly good Pokemon player in most cases, I think. I know all the type matchups, know how to take advantage of each Pokemon's strengths, I know how all the mechanics work, and so on. In this particular case I forgot about Mimikyu's ability, but that was the only thing I really messed up on. So why the full team sweep? Was it because I'm underleveled? This thing is only Level 33, compared to my team of 32's. I feel like I shouldn't have to be equal or higher than the opponent in order to win, especially in a six-on-two match like this. A major factor in this is probably the fact that I didn't intentionally choose Pokemon that would be good against it, but if the six Pokemon I was using at the time were the only ones that I had been raising (instead of switching off like I've been doing), then that doesn't really make a difference either. So yeah, I'm not sure what to make of this. Either this trial is genuinely difficult, or I just suck really bad.

That said, I did beat it on my second try, but only through a fair amount of luck. Laylee and Aleene both fainted in a single hit (Laylee being my lead to hopefully break its disguise on my first hit... no luck there), and the rest of the team basically served the purpose of get in, damage it as much as possible before fainting, and then get replaced. It got down to Lena as my final Pokemon with both of the opponents still standing, and Mimikyu was in the red HP, but about as close to yellow as it could be without being yellow. I went for the Aqua Jet, hoping it would be enough, and after a critical hit, Mimikyu fell. I'm not sure if the critical was necessary or not, but I have a feeling it was. With it down, the Haunter posed very little challenge and it went down as well after two Water Pledges. Lena was definitely the MVP of this match, and I feel good saying that because honestly, she's been the least interesting of my three Water types up to this point.

Before wrapping up, I'd like to point out that all three of my starters reached Level 33 now, which places them only one level away from evolution. Also, weirdly enough, they all attempted to learn a multi-hit Normal move at this level: Fellana tried to get Fury Attack, el Grapadura tried to get Fury Swipes, and Lena tried to get Double Slap. Not really sure what's up with that.

With the trial complete, I get the obligatory Ghostium Z and Super Kawaii-Chan♫ makes a pretty great face while showing the pose for it. She also points out that there's no way the Poke Finder could have started up on its own (uhh.. couldn't have Rotom done that? Whatever) and that there was no back room in that building. OMG 2spoopy!!1! Oh, and there was a barely noticeable Pikachu tail moving in the background after she said that. Insert conspiracy theory here... or maybe it was just Mimikyu again and she's full of crap. Except I did go back in the building and the back room actually was missing, so ... huh.

Exploring the Megamart again, I round up the new Pokemon in the area - Haunter (which can summon Gengar but it didn't when I was fighting it and I didn't try particularly hard), Golbat, Klefki, and of course Mimikyu. The first one I caught was a female, which meant it was going straight into the collection. I did have to keep looking again for a male, because guess what - final team member time! This is Napstablook. He's Adamant (a good nature for it), "has a sturdy body" (which is appropriate), and is generally awesome. In case you haven't played or seen anything of it, Napstablook is a character from Undertale that is basically a bedsheet ghost with a bit of a self-confidence problem. I figured it was a fitting name.

Aside from giving Napstablook a rainbow bean, petting a bit to get up to Affection level 4, and teaching him the TMs for Shadow Claw, Leech Life, and Thunder Wave, that's all I've got for today. Next time... I'm not really sure what, actually. Probably heading to the desert.

Current status: 

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