The Media Man Plays: Pokémon Legends ZA (Day 7)

Read Day 6 here.

We're back everybody and I've got a lot to talk about for this part!

Brawling With Ivor For Rank D

Remember Ivor from all the way back in Day 1? As predicted, he's in the Z-A Royale too and is at Rank D, so he's clearly a tough one to beat.

Before I face Ivor though, he's in a bit of a state because he's wondering where his sister Gwynn is. He has no idea where she is and like any loving brother is naturally worried about her. Apparently he's such a brute that he breaks any smartphone he gets his hands on, so he needs Gwynn to do the tech stuff for him, otherwise we can't start the Z-A Royale battle. Luckily for me and Ivor, we know just the person to turn to. We bring the case to Detective Emma and she joins us in tracking down Gwynn. It's a bit of a wild goose chase at first, but then we get a clue that suggest maybe Canari knows where Gwynn is.

Canari is none too happy about me telling strangers where her lair is and she makes me battle her just to make her tell us where Gwynn is. The battle was pretty easy and of course, I couldn't resist having a Mega Eelektross vs. Mega Eelektross show down. Her's won, but I still had other Pokémon left to finish the job so it didn't matter. Canari was defeated, she swore her mouth off again and then finally gave us some hints on where to look for Gwynn. After brainstorming, we deduce she's by a Clawitzer fountain. Gwynn isn't there, but we figure out she may be in the sewers. Ivor humorously suggests breaking the fountain, but Emma is adamant against destroying public property. Instead, she suggests we use a Pokémon with Ice Beam to freeze the fountain and that'll stop the water long enough for us to get in the sewers. Lucky me I had a Froslass with Ice Beam on standby, so that was easy enough. XD

Now we're able to get into the sewers, me, Emma and Ivor search for Gwynn. While looking around, I also managed to catch some Pokémon along the way, including Litwick. I wanted a Chandelure for my team, so of course I had to catch it and I had enough EXP candies to spare to evolve Litwick all the way up to Lampent and I had plenty of Dusk Stones on me so I was able to evolve Lampent into Chandelure. The sewers contain a pointless moment where we come across a locked gate and I catch a Klefki to open the gate...but none of its keys work. Ivor simply punches the door down despite Emma protesting against that idea beforehand. So yeah, thanks for making me catch a Klefki for nothing game. =P OK it wasn't for nothing since it helped fill the Pokédex up at least. There's a moment in the game where it seems we're at a dead end, but one of the walls is an illusion and we're able to go through it.

Eventually, we find Gwynn. Funny enough, we DID see her earlier during the Canari Quiz Whiz show, so the fact this seemingly random person is actually Ivor's sister we're looking for is pretty funny and also effective foreshadowing. It turns out that she was hiding down there because Ivor is such an over-enthusiastic, brutish meathead that she can't stand having to deal with complaints about her brother's behaviour and thus she decided to hide down in the sewers to get away from it all. As a guy who prefers his own company, I can relate. XD Gwynn challenges me to a battle. She starts off using Banette and Gourgeist, neither of which are a match for me as I have a Froslass and a Chandelure and I also have an Eelektross that knows Crunch. She brings out her ace, which is also Chandelure. Her hat's a big giveaway on that since it resembles a Chandelure. But her's is special, for you see...

...it can Mega Evolve. This is honestly the only logical design for a Mega Chandelure. I mean what else was it going to look like? Making it look like an even fancier chandelier makes total sense. Unfortunately for Gwynn, I have a Mega Feraligator at my disposal and I defeated her Mega Chandelure with ease. With that dealt with, Gwynn returns with us to the Fighting Dojo so I can have my battle with Ivor.

Ivor specializes in Fighting-types, and my team's built pretty well to handle them. First up is my own Chandelure against Heracross. I bet that made Ivor feel weird as if his own sister is challenging him. XD I couple of hits from Flamethrower and Psychic take the fighting beetle down. Next he brings out Medicham and I swap out for Froslass and take it down with some Shadow Balls. Next he brings out Machamp and I swap out for Hawlucha. His Machamp tries Bulking Up but my Hawlucha is able to fell it with Flying Press and Aerial Ace. Then finally, Ivor brings out his ace...

...a Mega Evolving Falinks. This is by far the FUNNIEST design for a Mega Evolution I've seen to date. It's just so hilarious how the six individual Falinks just stack up on one another as if they're a freaking Megazord from Power Rangers or something! XD The way it walks is especially hilarious. XD Unfortunately for Ivor, I had the perfect counter with my Mega Hawlucha. True, his Mega Falinks can cover Flying-types with Rock Slide, but Mega Hawlucha is able to take hits better than regular Hawlucha, so I was fine. A couple of Mega hits later and Falinks is felled.

Rank D is achieved! Hooray! Only three battles to go until I achieve Rank A!

Getting In Trouble With The Rust Syndicate

Unfortunately, things get tricky for Team MZ in the next part of the story. In a shocking twist, it turns out that Urbain is in debt to the Rust Syndicate, a shady organization in Lumiose City that seem to hold a lot of influence. Hell, you even see an NPC around the city remarking how they're clearing up all the litter they can UNDER THIER ORDERS! I even get a phone call from the syndicate basically asking for me and the others to meet them. They're not happy that Urbain hasn't paid them back yet. You see, they offered him $100,000 to make a video and because he missed the fine print about interests and all, he owes them $1 million. Thanks Urbain, now we're in trouble with the Kalos equivalent to the bloody Mafia! X( With no choice, we go to the Rust Syndicate's headquarters and I'm challenged to a battle by Phillipe. He sends out a Steelix and a Scizor to battle me, but they're no match for Feraligator and Chandelure respectively. He brings out his ace...

...a Mega Evolving Skarmory. I. LOVE. THIS. MEGA! It looks so freaking awesome with the gold and black colour scheme! I can't wait until I get my own! :D Probably could've done with smaller talons though, they do look a little goofy. Still, I have a Mega Chandelure and Mega Chandelure has a Special Attack stat comparable to Legendary Pokémon, so a single Flamethrower cooks the metal bird mon alive. Philippe is impressed and he takes me inside to meet with Corbeau, the boss of the Rust Syndicate.

After talking with Corbeau, he gives us a proposition. In order for us to pay off the debt, we have to do some little jobs for the Rust Syndicate. Since we're not in any position to refuse, we have to say yes. But we can't pay him back just yet for more trouble arises...

More Rogue Mega Pokémon

Three more Rogue Mega Pokémon are running amok and we have to deal with them ASAP. First up is Mega Mawile, a Steel/Fairy-type with a beefy attack stat. This makes it the perfect test for my new Mega Chandelure since I was able to buy its Mega Stone beforehand. It didn't give me too much of a challenge and I was able to beat it without blacking out.

As reward, I claim a Mawilite.

Next up is Mega Barbaracle, a Rock/Water type that changes into a Rock/Fighting type upon Mega Evolving. When it comes to new Megas, Barbaracle got one of the best ones in my opinion. I love how it looks more robust and powerful and also gets a lot of extra arms. The fact it changes types also helps too since now it no longer has a double Grass weakness. I brought Mega Feraligator for this one since it's weak to Water attacks. As is, this thing was quite challenging, especially when it launches some kind of powerful attack that's hard to dodge and I blacked out at least three times when fighting it. This is the most amount of times I've blacked out when fighting these Rouge Mega. In the end, I was still able to triumph.

I claim the Barbaracite as my reward. But interestingly...

...Lysandre and Zygarde were watching me. Lysandre comments how he wants to help Zygarde protect Lumiose City and that he's always dreamed of achieving a beautiful world, a sinister call back to his genocidal plans in X and Y. Hopefully he means it in a more innocent context this time around...

Finally, it's Mega Ampharos to deal with. Being an Electric/Dragon type, I had the perfect counter for it. My Eelektross knows Bulldoze, a Ground-type attack, and it can learn Dragon Claw, which is super-effective against Mega Ampharos. I blacked out at least once when fighting this one, but compared to the challenge that was Mega Barbaracle, this was pretty easy.

I took it down and won an Ampharosite as a result. Now those are dealt with, I have that pesky syndicate business to attend to...

Closing Business With Corbeau

Corbeau gets me to do some jobs for him. Thankfully, those don't involve killing anybody. XD It's more or less community service such as dealing with intrusive and invasive Gengar and cleaning out the sewers of Mega Shards and then the last task is dealing with two snobs who are pestering children. Gotta say, for the leader of a crime syndicate, Corbeau's really not that evil. It's so weird because the design screams "villain" and he's given a rather menacing first impression but then it turns out he's not really a bad guy. Who knows why he has to act so shady and devious then... Anyhow, after helping him deal with protestors who are pestering Jett, Corbeau invites me to battle him in his headquarters. You see, he's in the Z-A Royale at Rank D just like I am. For this match, we're fighting for Rank C. Corbeau starts the battle with Arbok and I use Feraligator. He knows Earthquake, which is super-effective against Arbok. However, his Arbok is able to poison me and makes me flinch a couple of times with Fire Fang. Feraligator came close to fainting, but he held on long enough to take Arbok down. Next up is Roserade and I send out Dragonite (I evolved Dragonair before I did this battle) to sweep her away with a single Hurricane. Next, he sends out Gyarados, which is rather surprising since you'd think he only uses Poison types. At the same time, it makes sense. Gyarados is Lysandre's signature Pokémon and Lysandre helped Corbeau get out of a tough spot and become who he is today, so him having a Gyarados could be seen as symbolic of his past with Lysandre. Anyhow, I switch Dragonite for Eelektross and take down Gyarados with a single Wild Charge. Corbeau then brings out his ace...

...a Mega Evolving Scolipede. This thing looks BADASS! I love how it's got a somewhat knight-like appearance, which befits how Scolipede does vaguely resemble a horse. It's like how you sometimes get knights who go into battle with their horses also wearing armour. The two blades on its head easily evoke swords. Scolipede already looked awesome, but this Mega makes it even more so. But it's still no match for my Mega Chandelure.

Corbeau is defeated and I achieve Rank C. Only two more to go and I'm at Rank A! :D

Being the honourable guy he is, Corbeau takes the loss well and much to everyone's surprise, he decides to stay overnight at Hotel Z and gives Urbain a generous enough tip to pay off his debt to the Rust Syndicate! Talk about "Nicest gangster ever!" XD I do kinda wish they'd made Corbeau a proper evil villain here rather than making him a somewhat shifty good guy though. It just feels a bit of a cop out to me. As is, Corbeau's still pretty cool and I rather enjoyed this little chapter with him. He's easily my favourite new character in this game. :D

But before we finish, more Mega Photos!

Mega Gardevoir (I forgot to take her picture sooner).

Mega Aggron.

Mega Chandelure.

Mega Garchomp.

Mega Barbaracle.

Mega Ampharos.

And thanks to that Shiny Mareep side quest, here's Shiny Mega Ampharos as well.

And finally, Mega Mawile.

And one final, final picture to end off this post, here's a group shot of my finished, fully-evolved team.

(Left to right: Hawlucha, Eelektross, Feraligator, Chandelure, Dragonite and Froslass)

They all look so cool together! I've really built such a strong team, haven't I? ;) I only need to collect Froslass and Dragonite's stones later in the game and this team will all be able to Mega Evolve. :D

And that's the end of this day. As you can see, I managed to do a lot for this one! Come back tomorrow and we'll see if I can be as productive as I was for this day...

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