Last time, a pokeball factory and the ramifications of a monopoly on friendcages.

Hey, the clothing store here has tights! Finally, proper coverage. Granted, only purple at the moment, so it’s limited in use.

Okay so…what was I doing? Well, there’s a route out. Let’s head there.

Hiker: I met some eccentric ladies’ man in a cafe the other day. Turned out he was a professor! He told me a story about how, long ago, there was a Pokemon that was much beloved by its king and how that Pokemon ended up saving the king’s life. According to the professor, the stories that remain from that time indicate it was a Fairy type.

That king sure was nice caring about some hideous monster like that.

Oh hey, now the leaves have fallen! And they make crunching sounds as you walk on them! …and allow people to flatten themselves underneath them despite the leaves looking really thin. Well, more trainers is always good so sure!

Running into the leaf piles is nice too.

Watchdog.

Using luminescent matter, it makes its eyes and body glow and stuns attacking opponents.

It’s a normal type for some reason!

Foongus.

It lures people in with its Poke Ball pattern, then releases poison spores. Why it resembles a Poke Ball is unknown.

Probably because everyone realized it was too obvious to warrent formal study, especially when science had such a backlog and was still working on “wtf is tangela?”

spooky ghost girl is here again

Poke Balls are round! The world is also round!

okay ghost girl

And now my sylveon’s just learned moonblast – 100 accuracy and 95 power, and can lower special attack. They’re just giving balance the finger now. It doesn’t seem to have any purpose but to be an even more powerful version of dazzling gleam, with more PP for some reason.

Skorupi!

It grips prey with its tail claws and injects poison. It tenaciously hangs on until the poison takes.

Hey, it’s stupid keymon that I saw in the gym! I don’t know what this thing’s purpose is but to try to muscle in on my sweet mawile’s type combo. Also, it’s called “klefki” which is just terrible.

These key collectors threaten any attackers by fiercely jingling their keys at them.

And checking the pokedex, there’s open slots to the front of it, so it might even evolve.

Then some ranger: It was a man called Lysandre who helped me out long ago and kept me on this path. You’d better be going with “secretly evil for a long time” and not “decent guy who lost it recently”, game. Beating up bad people is fun, beating up the mentally ill is just depressing.

Lombre.

It lives at the water’s edge where it is sunny. It sleeps in a bed of water-grass by day and becomes active at night.

Then why did one just ambush me in the middle of a river?

Incidentally, the slightly elevanted grass that I can’t walk on is getting really annoying. Now there’s an item I can’t reach because of it.

Some weird looking flowers! But they just hold the same pokemon as usual. The ruins they grow in look interesting, but don’t seem to have anything more to them.

Just fed my sylveon some puffs. I see she’s got the same cute little fangs I liked about swirlix.

There’s also a pair of creepy little fairy girl and creepy ghost girl. The text informs me they’re sisters.

Why are you still staring at me? I can feel you judging me! Stop it!

ok scary ghost girl we’re gone we’re totally gone don’t be mad

Holoclip! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT’S CREEPY HOLOCAUST HAIR GUY AGAIN

Lysandre: According to Professor Sycamore’s research, Mega Evolution releases all of a Pokemon’s hidden energy at once.

Uh, that seems like it might be bad. If they have an extra store of energy, it’s probably for a reason, you know?

The Pokemon then exhibits a level of power it could not attain through ordinary Evolution. What meaning can we draw from this?

That it’s overclocking pokemon? I think maybe Serena should stop digivolving them to beat random people. It doesn’t seem ethical anymore.

Do all people and Pokemon have such a potential,

Wait crazy guy, no one said any humans had this ability at all. We sure don’t have set transformations upon level up.

or is it hidden within a chosen few?

You’re gonna holocaust us with a beam that’ll spare those, huh.

He vanishes.

Hey, murkrow! Won’t get in the pokeball, though.

Want to see the scary side of the Fairy-type? asks the little pink girl. No, they’re plenty messed up already.

And then she opens with the cute little dedenne. Followed by an aromatisse, which just has that weird thing going on with its leg.

Hey, more ruin aaaaaaaaaaaaaah spooky ghost girl didn’t see you there.

Uh huh huh huh huh…

oh god don’t kill me

Did you hear the voice, too? That’s why you’re here, right? Uh huh…

yes sure

I don’t think I’m cut out for being a Hex Maniac! I have no idea how I’m supposed to act…

So you’re just cosplaying as spooky ghost girl to torment people.

That’s really mean, spooky not-ghost girl.

Let’s try exploring! Belong, it looks like these ruins are relatively modern, still possessing carpet.

Electrode! It self-destructed on the first turn.

Magneton!

A linked cluster formed of several Magnemite. It discharges powerful magnetic waves at high voltage.

So yeah, gotta go heal. And dump off some of my higher level pokemon.

You know, it’s been slowly bugging me how hard it is to level my new pokemon in battle rather than just switching them out and letting them shoot up in levels without work. And I think it’s a symptom of trainers having almost no pokemon. In earlier games, trainers could have one strong pokemon or several weak ones. One of those might be about a match for your weaker pokemon, so you could have it fight a couple battles as long as you were careful about things.

Mightyena! Who roars me away. Dammit, my pokemon was four levels lower, don’t be such a coward!

I like how the leaf piles respawn.

Okay, my goomy is getting her but kicked. I’m going to go catch pokemon for the dex.

Corphish

No matter how dirty the water in the river, it will adapt and thrive. It has a strong will to survive.

The water here looks fine, though…it’d have been interesting to see corphish showing up in muddier water like the gravestone swamp, or polluted city runoff (though so far, it doesn’t look like there’s any of that in this game – which is disappointing, I mean yeah everything’s very pretty but I liked the original games with their yeah cities pollute have some grimer attitude over the sanctimonious ~harmony with pokemon~ we get later).

Goldeen

It swims at a steady 5 knots. If it senses danger, it will strike back with its sharp horn.

Magikarp. Wow, that flopping animation is ridiculous when it’s on water. I guess it’s assuming you pull it onto land first, but It’s not part fairy, how strange.

It is virtually worthless in terms of both power and speed. It is the most weak and pathetic Pokemon in the world.

Marill.

The fur on its body naturally repels water. It can stay dry, even when it plays in the water. It’s kept its fairy typing.

Masquerain. Critical capture!

Its antennae have eye patterns on them. Its four wings enable it to hover and fly in any direction.

And looks like surskit don’t exist for some reason and I’ll have to breed it to get those. Which is a horrible shame because if ever there was a pokemon it made sense to run into while surfing…

Ooh, my mareep just evolved! Flaaffy. I still don’t know what’s with the doubled vowel.

Its fluffy fleece easily stores electricity. Its rubbery hide keeps it from being electrocuted.

Finally a serviper! I was originally planning to use my skiddo’s razor leaf, but chingling and dazzling gleam works well enough. It puts up quite a fight, chewing through a bunch of premier balls and two ultraballs.

In battle, it uses its bladed tail to counter any Zangoose. It secretes a deadly venom in its tail.

Clauncher.

They knock down prey by firing
compressed water from their massive
claws like shooting a pistol.

You know, I remember in the early days, I would tell people to think before making up new pokemon and try not to make ones that were just copies of existing ones. But the designers don’t seem to share my view.

From the text this would appear to not be intended as corphish v2 (…which already is pretty close to krabby v2) but based off a pistol shrimp. And yes, it does look like a pistol shrimp.

But on the other hand, so does a corphish. They all look like shrimp.

Which is why they should’ve gone with the prettier mantis shrimp…

…and its giant claws of death.

…well, there’s always next year.

Whailmer.

It bounces playfully like a ball. The more seawater it swallows, the higher it bounces.