25 07 2022
Black: Went to the elite four. The outside was a little interesting, but the trainer rooms moreso. Shauntal’s is a haunted library and it just looks perfect. Grimsley has a fancy conveyor belt red carpet. Also hmm… seems I wasn’t the first one here today. Catlin has a cool starry background and giant comfy bed. Marshal’s is a little weird but cool. MMA octagon room with a spiral track and a little utility cart train that takes you to a square ring up a tower. Definitely a unique fighting type room and fitting the region well.
Down we go to the champion… so I think what the layout is the statue brings people down to the base and then you walk up another tall mountain on steps to the champ. At first it felt weird, but it does feel like they’re playing it fast and loose a little with the geography here. At the top, N has defeated Alder and is.. Gloating about it. Still kinda fucked that he keeps on bringing up the champ’s pokemon that died. Also… it kinda worked when I was more into it when it was new, but the whole ‘plan’ to just command people to release their Pokemon… Will that work? I don’t think so. Stupid leadership stuff happens in our world, but Pokemon is very loose about government structure and leadership. Wait, is it Pokemon World because the Pokemon League is government????
Anyway, N then summons a castle, that looks more like a tall mansion, that surrounds the mountains around the league. Huge! Inside, the Gym leaders run interference so that I can just get goin. Honestly, A part of me kinda wanted to fight one of them just to setup how powerful they are in relation to N. A helpful shadow triad ninja points out where the heal and PC spot is. It’s run by Anthea and Concordia who were in the intro video. I think I vaguely remember this part having revelations about N’s upbringing. Between the two of them, they seem sympathetic because they know N was only surrounded by hurt pokemon by Ghetsis’s orders. Thus, he only knew their suffering and only trusted Pokemon. There are rooms around here with Plasma grunts basically calling their Win already and going a bit more mask off to what they actually want. (Power) I still think this is the most interesting stuff I’ve seen in the series, but I do think the four Sun/Moon games have a better paced and presented story. Oh, A grunt also admits the castle was built with overworked Pokemon. Great. Wonderful. Wonderin if this lines up with that weird resurgence PETA does of their anti-pokemon stuff every once in a while. There was something I completely forgot about. Since this section is Plasma playing their hand, there’s a room with computers and stuff. They can basically force boxed pokemon to be released. Wait. If they can do that why do they… Just for image reasons? I guess they do understand people will be less likely to revolt if they get them to do it themselves. I still think people won’t still be amicable if they find out later they’ve been tricked, though. (Some NPCs in a little bit mention this as being part of their plan.) This whole thing for image reasons or needing to appease N so N believes in something so they have a dragon? Also there are some grunts who have become attached and are starting to realize they did a bad.
I didn’t forget the playroom. I think this was more interesting the first time I played the games but now it seems like an interesting footnote at this point in the game. Up the stairs, go past a rambling Ghetsis and oh hey they really did build him a throne. After catching Reshiram, I make quick work of his team. It’s a pretty good team, but less annoying than Elite Four stuff. N immediately is like, “huh I lost. But what if we’re both right. The dragons chose two heroes right? Both sides.” Ah right the game is a little like that. Ghetsis comes in all disappointed at N and calls him defective. Damn. Now we fight Ghetsis. By the way, there hasn’t been a break to save yet. After beating him, in the middle of his villain tantrum he calls N a ‘freak without a human heart.’ What the fuck dude. He’s right there! I forgot how rude of a cartoon villain he is. Well. Cheren and Alder showed up before the battle with Ghetsis and now they basically arrest him and Alder tries to help N figure things out. N goes to the hole in the wall and flies off. The music and some of the stuff around here are actually really cool. Credits roll and thanks to two screens it goes by quickly.
Gonna take a break because I remember there being a lot of stuff to do. Never actually became a champion yet. After loading the save, Looker is there impersonating Mom and then asks you to find the seven sages.
