#but seriously though this update looks really cool as somebody who enjoys the town building part of this game

[unclerippuascension]

sex will be real in one week

[pan-matsuri]

Pokémon Moon Update 2

Last night, I finished Akala Island and the brief plot events directly following. Continued thoughts on my adventure below. Ye have been warned, there be spoilers. Akala Island: A Bunch Of Things You Have To Do

My current team is Brionne, Misdreavus, Ledian, Fomantis, and Umbreon. All girls except for Umbreon. Marowak is traveling with me and was used briefly on Akala, but she is currently on the bench. A Rock or Electric type would be a good replacement for coverage, or maybe a Dragon, or maybe Vulpix because I do what I want. I just noticed that my whole team, save for Ledian, is single typed. That’s not too uncommon for me, but usually in these instances I have a Raichu. Not this time because Alolan Raichu is not cute. I really like the cinematic sequences between you and Hau. He is my favorite character other than myself, but he continues to not be taken seriously by the rest of the cast. Before you even really set foot on the island, you’re introduced to two new characters, neither of whom properly introduce themselves. You’re told after the conversation that they’re a kahuna and a captain, but maybe they could have said as much. Or maybe they could have even said their names? I think captain Mallow did but the kahuna Olivia definitely didn’t. And another thing. The cast of characters I’m supposed to care about is huge. After the first meeting, you’re quickly introduced to Sina and Dexio, who we’d apparently met before in Kalos during XY. Plus there’s the oldest 8 year old ever, Hapu. And also the Team Skull people, Gladion and pink hair. And also also the Aether Foundation. There’s the clearly evil green dude, the clearly evil boss lady, the really nice administrator, and the unnamed employee that Rotom has the hots for. There’s too many names! Speaking of Rotom, I’m actually warming up to it. It’s not that intrusive and tends to think what I’m thinking most of the time anyway. This island, like Melemele, is very linear, unfortunately. The stupid boy and his Stoutland constantly block your path and force you to explore only in the designated areas. This isn’t really new for Pokémon, I guess. I don’t like how many surprise battles there are. I know by now I should just expect that a story marker on the map will have a battle, but more often than not I forget and my whole team will start in the yellow. I’ve used more healing items in this game than any other, but that may also be because my team is far less balanced than ever before. Ledian and Umbreon are walls and are bound to take chip damage. Fomantis is a glass cannon and slow to boot, so she’s hard to switch in without Ledian or Umbreon’s support. I didn’t like the ranch town. You couldn’t go into hardly any houses, which hurt the immersion. I don’t like how unceremonious it is when you are given access to Stoutland as a Ride Pokémon. For Tauros, you had to chase him all across Melemele and make friends with him. It felt like you earned the chance to ride it. But for Stoutland, it’s basically Mallow saying “oh hey here’s the itemfinder okay bye” I didn’t like how the first trial captain was Lana. On Melemele, we met Ilima several times before the first trial. I feel like it’s been standard for a while now to meet a gym leader at least once outside of their gym before the challenge. But once again, you walk into Brooklet Hill and meet someone you’ve never met before and it feels unceremonious. Also, you are given a new ride Pokémon, again with no ceremony. This time it’s the surfing Pokémon and I knew it was gonna be Lapras but I just really hoped it would have been anyone else. By this point, I had not yet caught Eevee or Cubone. But that’s fine, as Fomantis was able to single handedly take on the Totem Wishiwashi and it’s allies, thanks to Razor Leaf being an AOE attack. The fishing pole can seemingly only catch Magikarp which continues to be stupid. In GSC, the Old Rod can actually catch other things, like Poliwag. Apparently we forgot that tho. I don’t remember at what point we’re introduced to Gladion and his Pokémon. It has the worst name ever, Type: Null. It’s a cool concept tho. This is also about the time that we’re introduced to Hapu as well. I don’t like her. She’s failed to show me any reason to be interested in her. She has a horse. Cool. I really like Battle Royals. I do not like the way that you’re forced into your first one without any time to prepare, per the usual in this game. I had been level training my Eevee, which had just hatched, so I was way lower level than everyone else. Luckily, they all ignored me for whatever reason. So I just used Growl repeatedly, so that no one could do any damage to me if they tried. Once somebody was in the red, I used Quick Attack to steal the KO. I really liked how you didn’t hear from Kukui hardly at all on this island. I don’t like Kukui. I did like the build up to Kiawe’s trial. This was again another person we’d never met. But the dance thing was pretty funny. I did not like Totem Salazzle. This match was very difficult, but only because the rules suddenly changed for this fight. Totem Pokémon can call for help from predefined allies. In the first two trials, when you defeat the allies, they’re gone for good. But in this match, the ally Salandit keep coming forever. So if you don’t focus on Salazzle from the start, you’ll have a rough time. Annoyingly, I’d never seen either of these Pokémon before. They might have been in the wild in this area, but I didn’t bother looking because 1) catching Pokémon sucks in this game, and 2) wild EXP gain is not worth the time. So I stopped spending a lot of time looking in the grass, notably around the ranch, because I was sick of seeing Lillipup and nothing else. There’s 800+ Pokémon now, can we have some variety please? Anyway, they are Poison/Fire types. I had my whole team at this time, and they all were put through the paces, except for Fomantis who had no chance here. Misdreavus missed on the first turn with Thunder Wave and then died, which set the stage for an awful battle. Ledian could survive their stupid combo, but wasn’t fast enough to get a Light Screen up. Umbreon could survive but couldn’t do much on its own other than tank for a turn and let the others heal. Cubone could do serious damage but couldn’t survive for longer than a turn. Brionne was the MVP, but only after I switched focus to Salazzle and used Hydro Vortex. Poison was the killer here, even though this was supposed to be a Fire trial. Anyway. I do not like the ride Pokémon for flying, Charizard. It seems that even Nintendo thinks Gen 1 is the only good one, which is just not true. There are so many Flying types, you didn’t have to pick literally the first one on the list. I really like the music. Especially the ambient music in calm places, like where you first meet Tapu Koko. Mallow’s trial was neat. I did like how it incorporated Lana and Kiawe. I think Mallow’s trial should have been first. Totem Lurantis was not as hard as people on the internet said it was. Ledian was the MVP. I first took out ally Trumbeak with Brionne and Umbreon. For some reason, Lurantis kept using Solar Blade instead of X-Scissor on Umbreon, so I kept using Growl. After 3 Growls and a Reflect, Lurantis could only do 5~10 damage to Ledian using X-Scissor. Castform was taken out quickly using Brionne and Ledian. Brionne admirably tanked a sunny Solar Blade thanks to prior support. Ledian’s Infestation was able to outpace Lurantis’s Synthesis after an X Sp Atk. Professor Burnet is way cooler than her husband. I don’t like Kukui. I don’t know what to think of this Ultra Wormhole thing yet. Diglett’s Tunnel is stupid because Steel type is stupid and Zubat is annoying. I’ve even raised one before. I loved my Crobat in Crystal. But that was well over a decade ago. I really like how there are two clothing stores on Akala Island. I also really like the hair accessories. They are way better than hats. I was not a fan of all the surprise battles with Team Skull on the way to the grand trial. I like that Team Skull is dumb, and I’m glad to start meeting their leaders, and I like that even their leaders know that Team Skull is dumb. The grand trials are similar enough to gym battles that it’s refreshing. I like Olivia as a character. I don’t like Aether. They’re clearly all evil, except for Wicke and the girl who was nice to Rotom and me after we saved Slowpoke. I wish we could have actually explored their island a little. I liked the encounter with the Ultra Beast. I wish I could have beaten it before it fled. All in all, I generally felt the same as I did on Melemele. Kukui seems to want me to take this adventure way more seriously than anyone else. I wish I could have an adventure with Hau, where we could take it slow and enjoy our travels through the islands, perhaps without Kukui breathing down our necks. I don’t like Kukui. Some other thoughts: • I like how the trainers actually stand with their Pokémon during battle. It’s an idea that I had in my head a long time ago, and I’m glad it made its way through the aether into reality. • It seems like a lot of the moveset changes were made with competitive battles in mind. Which is annoying, because I don’t play competitive. I want to actually use cool Pokémon like Ledian and cute ones like Glaceon that are not very good in competitive, but it makes the single-player game more difficult. • I don’t like the version-exclusive clothing. I’d love to wear more red and yellow without having to figure out the Festival Plaza. But then again, like in real life, I only wear black and white so maybe it doesn’t matter. • I’m not sure why I feel so discouraged to wander into the tall grass in this game. My favorite thing about Pokémon is catching them all. It’s probably a combination of SOS battles being garbage, catch rates being lower, wild exp being lower, and my team being slower and more defensive.