The Media Man Plays: Pokémon Legends ZA (Day 5)

Read Day 4 here.

Day 4 wasn't the most productive day I had on the game, but Day 5 I promise you will have more to talk about. So let's get into it!

(Finally) Continuing the Story

So after the massive detour I took yesterday, I went back to Hotel Z and re-joined my friends to have a team meeting. During this meeting, we find out about three potential Rogue Mega Evolution sightings and we have to knuckle down to them before chaos ensues. While Urbain and Lida are taking the situation seriously, Naveen's more interested in watching a livestream by some girl named Canari. He's quite a fan of her's and he finds it more rewarding to watch her streams live than watch them archived. Naveen, that's nice and it's great you have something you're a fan of, but would it kill you to take the situation seriously here? Rogue Mega Evolving Pokémon can cause trouble! GET. YOUR. PRIORITIES. STRAIGHT!

After the meeting, I have to go and face three Rogue Mega Pokémon, those being Camerupt, Victreebel and Slowbro respectively. The team splits up too so I get one member of Team MZ helping me with each Mega. Before we leave though, AZ gives me a Fergaligite. It's this stage in the game when you finally get a Mega Stone for your starter. Naturally those who choose Tepig or Chikorita will get a Emboarite or Meganiumite respectively. What's really cool is that in the post game, you can buy the Mega Stones for the other two starters and also catch the other two starters in a Wild Zone, so you can still get all three Megas. But that's the post game, we still have the main game to cover...

Battling Rogue Camerupt, Victreebel and Slowbro

I do the three missions in order of Camerupt, Victreebel and Slowbro. Lida helps me out against Mega Camerupt and luckily for me, I have my Feraligator and Lida has a team of Water types. Camerupt is double weak to water, so we're pretty prepared the two of us. As is, Mega Camerupt is still a tough cookie to dent, even with Water-types. But eventually, the time comes...

...TO MEGA EVOLVE!

For the first time in the game, I get the pleasure of Mega Evolving my Feraligator. I've seen a lot of people bash this Mega with the big dragon hood being the biggest point of criticism but I've also seen others see the appeal of it and even appreciate the gimmick behind it. You see, the hood can cover Feraligator's head and his arms come together to form the lower jaws, making it looks as if he's turned into a giant dragon head ready to chomp down on opponents. Also in this form, it gives Feraligator the appearance of a giant Totodile, which is pretty cute. While I agree that the dragon hood is a bit of an eyesore, I like this new Mega myself. I specially love how Feraligator gains the dragon typing in this form. Water/Dragon is a strong typing after all.

With Mega Feraligator at my command, Camerupt is dealt with and I claim Camerupt's Mega Stone as reward.

Next is Mega Victreebel with Naveen helping me battle it. Unlike Mega Feraligator, I do NOT like Mega Victreebel's design. All they did was make Victreebel fatter and make it look as if it's strangling itself. Such a lazy, uninspired Mega that makes you wonder why they even bothered. As is, do NOT underestimate this boss battle! Mega Victreebel spews poison everywhere and it's very easy to take damage and black out. I actually did black out twice during the battle! Luckily, the game has the same feature Legends Arceus had in how you can restart the boss battle from where you left off and with all the damage still done, so you're not having to start all over again from scratch.

For Mega Victreebel, I used my all-time favourite Mega, Mega Charizard X, to take it down and claim a Victreebelite that I obviously had no intention of using. Mega Victreebel was the ONLY one of the three I had any real struggle against as I managed the other two without blacking out once.

On that subject, the final opponent was Mega Slowbro, which to me has the most messed up design of any Mega Evolved Pokémon. Seriously GameFreak, who the hell designed this? It's like poor Slowbro's being eaten alive! My current roster had no Megas that would be useful against Slowbro, so I swapped one mon out for the Absol I got during Day 3. I had it use Night Slash and Shadow Claw for super-effective damage and Swords Dance for a nifty Attack boost. Mega Absol held his own, even if I had to pause to give him potions every now and then, and Mega Slowbro was defeated.

I also got a Slowbronite as reward, but I have no intention of using that either.

And the whole time, Zygarde has been watching over me...

Zygarde Gives A Gift, Plus A Big Twist!

With the Rouge Mega Pokémon dealt with, the team went back to Hotel Z. But before I can go in, Zygarde suddenly appears and challenges me to a battle. Zygarde may be a Legendary Pokémon, but it's currently in its 10% form, so it's not too much of a challenge. My Dragonair was able to defeat it. After beating it, Zygarde rewards me with...a pebble. Yep, a single pebble. Given Zygarde is able to Mega Evolve in this game, it won't surprise me if that pebble's actually its Mega Stone. After that, I suddenly get a surprise visit from...

LYSANDRE?!?! HE'S ALIVE?!?! 0_0

This was quite a shocking twist in the story. Or at least it would've been if some asshole didn't spoil it via leaks earlier this year. I had no idea Lysandre was going to return in this game and I wish I wasn't spoiled beforehand so the twist could've felt more shocking.

OK, for those who don't play Pokémon, this requires some context. Lysandre was the main villain of the X and Y games. He was the leader of Team Flare and he was a maniacal madman who was obsessed with beauty to the point he wanted to raze the world and "make it beautiful" again. Last we saw of him, he tried to use the ultimate weapon on himself and the player so we'd both be immortal forever. He was never seen again after Team Flare's plot was foiled and fans alike speculated whether he was really dead or not. As we can see, he isn't. He's alive, albeit looking much older. Only five years have passed, but he looks like he's aged about two decades or something. It seems he might have turned over a new leaf too, but we'll see about that...

Oh and don't ask why he's calling himself "L" now, I have no idea. Seriously Lysandre, you couldn't think of a better name for yourself? Then again, maybe it's to tie in with how AZ just calls himself AZ, so maybe Lysandre's just jumping on the "letters for names" bandwagon.

Anyway, after meeting L I go back into the hotel and I find out my next promotion match is with Canari, an electric-type specialist and famous streamer who is currently at Rank F and I need to beat her to claim Rank E. Trouble is, Canari's so secretive that nobody knows where she could be...accept possibly Naveen as he's such a Mega fan. But once again, he decides to be a dick about it and not want to tell us because he wants to preserve the integrity of Canari's channel. Once again dude, sort your f***king priorities out, will you? I WANT to like you goddammit but you're making it real hard for me here! Lida then makes me and Naveen battle again and thanks to Hawlucha and Gardevoir, his Ariados, Sabeleye and Scraggy are mincemeat. Since he lost, Naveen tells us that Canari hosts some kind of quiz and I go over to the power station to take part in it. Before so, I used some Mega Shards to buy some EXP candies and evolve my Tynamo into Eelektrik and since I had a spare Thunder Stone on hand, I evolved it again into Eelektross. Canari won't be the only one with an Eelektross now. ;)

Battling Canari for Rank E

I arrive at the Power Plant and take part in Canari's quiz with Naveen helping me via an ear piece. The quiz starts with a true or false round which I managed to get two of them right very easily while one of the questions, I got right via lucky guess (She asks true or false if macarons are her favourite food, which you can't possibly know beforehand, so just wing it and hope you're right!) Then for Round 2, we have to get her Eelektross's favourite treat and then finally, I have to beat another Canari fan and get a question right to win the quiz. She asks who owned the laptop she played her first games on and Naveen tells us over the ear piece the answer is her grandpa. I...don't like that. The game basically giving you the answer just feels like a lazy cop out to me. Also in-story, it makes the win feel hollow because I essentially cheated in order to win.

Still, after that I go to the Racine Construction garage and challenge Tarragon, who is actually Canari's grandfather. In this battle, he gets to show off his frankly rather fearsome Mega Excadrill. Despite how fearsome it looks, my Mega Charizard X felled it with a single Fire Blast.

After beating Tarragon, it's now time to face Canari. If you want my thoughts on Canari...eh, I really don't care for her. She's basically Iono from Scarlet and Violet, only she's potty-mouthed. It was so lazy of GameFreak to recycle the "Electric-type streamer gal" character with her. Would it have killed them to at least make Canari specialize in a different typing so she doesn't feel like an Iono clone? Her outfit is also atrocious too. Seriously, even in this universe, what idiot would consciously choose to dress like that? At least the dark side of the internet approves of it... (rolls eyes)

For her battle, she uses Heliolisk, Stunfisk, Ampharos and a Mega Evolving Eelektross. I started the battle using my own Eelektross and because it knew Bulldoze, I was able to take down Heliolisk with ease. Stunfisk was a bit more challenging because of its Ground-typing, but my Eelektross knew Liquidation to exploit its water weakness. However, its health had gotten down too low to handle Ampharos and I sent in another Pokémon to defeat it. The final battle was Mega Feraligator vs. Mega Eelektross and like my Eelektross, Feraligator knew Bulldoze as well and because he gains the Dragon typing when Mega Evolving, it lost its Electric-type weakness, so Canari's Mega Eelektross was no match for me.

I won and got promoted to Rank E, hooray! Canari took it well.

And by that, I mean not really. XD This is the first time in the franchise's history that a character has outright cussed. It IS censored of course, but it's still the first time we've had a character swear in these games. Anyhow, with the match over, I go back to Hotel Z and give Naveen an autographed Canari plush, which he thanks me for. Eh...I still feel like we didn't deserve it. We still technically cheated there. ^^;

The next day, three new Wild Zones opened up and I went around catching more Pokémon. One particular catch that was important to me was a female Snorunt so I could evolve it into Froslass and have it join the team. I want to use Froslass's new Mega later in the game, so I have one in preparation for that. Also we get three new missions to handle in which we next have to deal with a Rogue Mega Beedrill, Hawlucha and Banette respectively. I want to use Hawlucha's new Mega, so naturally I'm happy to hear the Hawlucha boss fight's up next. :D But that's a story for another day, for I called it quits here. Before I finish off, here's some more Mega Pokémon photos I snapped in the game.

Mega Charizard X.

Mega Camerupt (I snapped the picture just before he transformed back, hence the purple glow).

Mega Sableye.

Mega Aerodactyl.

Mega Eelektross (See Canari, I have one too! Not so special, are you? =P).

Mega Feraligator. To think my journey started with Totodile and now here he is, fully evolved and able to Mega Evolve. :D

Mega Excadrill (not someone I want to shake hands with!!!)

Mega Pinsir.

And finally, Mega Abomasnow. This is no ordinary Abomasnow though, I caught an Alpha. Alpha Pokémon are much better than regular Pokémon, so now I have a giant Mega Abomasnow to fight with. Talk about "the abominable snowman"! XD

Current roster: Feraligator, Dragonair, Charizard, Froslass, Hawlucha and Eelektross

And that's it for Day 5. Come back on Friday for Day 6 and I'm taking a break on Thursday to let the Wandering Fox give you all his newest post which is all about Hollow Knight. See you again on Friday everybody!

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