Gentleman Jaggi

Shelly's still a Gym Leader and more than capable enough to take on a bunch of Meteor goons. In-universe she was just too damn submissive to speak up to Saphira, the out-of-universe reason was likely so players would be on their own for the battle against Sirius/Sigmund. Victoria getting to Apophyll or Fern getting to Route 1 ahead of the player are other points I remember right now. It's been some time, I might find more. Additionally there's stuff like Cain using Muk to cross Azurine Lake; even if the player has their own Muk, we can't do that because it's a story action that's exclusive to an NPC in a certain scene and gameplay will not allow us to imitate that. Yeah, the player doesn't exactly get a good start with Titania, although she seems to be softening up somewhat during Ep17. She's still definitely acting against Team Meteor and is therefore an ally though. Some might call it twist, others might call it ass pull. The best twists are those that have hints that are only recognisable once you know the truth. Otherwise they run the risk of being either too obvious or too out of left field for the player to feel okay with. Aya just came out of a pretty grueling 12vs10 Double Match with likely most of her team being out; plus she literally saved the protagonist's life there so what the hell dude? And even ignoring that your point is still irrelevant, because in-universe what matters more than the choice of type is the abilities of the trainer. (Arguably that still holds true for gameplay - i.e. everyone doing challenge runs of any sort - but characters in-story have a lot more freedom with this sort of thing than we players, who are bound to gameplay.

To be fair, a lot of people don't do a whole lot whenever the protagonist is around. Amaria and Florinia accomplish nothing during the Obsidia Tangrowth incident, Shelly hides during the attack on Belrose Manse, Adrienn is just as useless against El as Cain is - those are just the ones that come to mind right now. Since this is a game it naturally often ends with us doing the work. He also didn't have any dispostiion towards El, nor tried to influence our opinion, he was just absolutely confused. Rightfully so, since the whole situation makes not a lick of sense if you don't already know what's going on and Radomus was being about as suspicious as he could be. He doesn't win. He just buys some time, loses, and is then then taking hostage. El has Bennett bring him in to threaten the protagonist once you arrive at the sanctum's altar. The timespan of events is pretty ambigious; we just have no idea how long any of this could have taken. The Agate situation seems to be pretty recent, as iirc there's never any mention of it until we reach Route 1, so it's not out of the question that he may have been able to get through and back before it got closed off. NPCs using pathways that don't exist for the player isn't really something out of the ordinary. It's kind of a bother when you start thinking about it, but it's one of those things in games that just sort of happen. Anna also thinks those black eyes of his are cool, if they were hinting at something sinister about him I'd wager she'd be unsettled by it. Remember she likes Shade, despite just about everyone else being rather creeped out by him. Besides, we don't even know what those "visions" of her really are. There's some hints that they could show the person's "true nature" or the like, such as the protagonist glowing or Lin being not actually there, but with visions like Cain or Saphira it could also be more literal or hint at things thar are going to happen. That'd mean Cain's gonna get Chandelure'd nuuu... Team Meteor is essentially an extremely localised terror organization, so them being vastly outnumbered is to be expected. Our number of allies mostly stems from the league's scope and the fact that these people are actually taking action like you'd expect them to unlike those in most other regions. An interesting theory anyway, though I don't think there's really anything hinting at it. It would get quite a reaction out of a lot of people though.

Heyo, thanks! Vs. Amaria could've gone better, but on the whole I'm happy with how this episode's battles went.

Oh whoops, dunno why that didn't show up. I just checked the ReadMe and it actually states that RKS System turns the Pokémon into ??? Type. Nothing about whether or not this applies to Arceus or Multiattack/Judgement as well tho.

So, are you just gonna leave us guessing here? Come on, spill it.

Synthetic Seed will actually turn the holder into ??? Type on the Glitch Field. No idea how that effect interacts with Multitype and RKS System, but maybe somebody with a Shiny Silvally could try it out?

@Jess I didn't use Sludge Wave because Light Screen was still up. Poison Jab - is the TM for that even available by now? If it is, I forgot, if not, Nidoking only gets Poison Jab by training Nidorino to Lv. 43 and back then I didn't feel like doing that.

That's... something I could have done. Right. Damnit. *ahem*, yeah, uh, giving her a fighting chance, that's exactly what I was doing. |D I thought about using the Murkwater Field, but it'd still have disabled Earhquake and Water resists Steel, so Excadrill got mentally sorted as "not useful in this battle". Totally forgot that he would be immune to her Water attacks on that Field. That would've made things a lot easier. Not sure if I had wanted to do that though, since it would've been abusing the AI's inability to consider secondary Types added by the Field. Could've been useful as a last resort. I didn't feel like training any more Pokémon than I already have and I've already got one Water/Ground in Swampert, so no Gastrodon. Choice Band is only (legally) available from the Aqua/Magme Jobs sidequest, right? Don't know which version of the quest that would be though. With Wood Hammer's recoil I didn't really want to brute force down every single one of her 'Mons with that and rather keep it alive for Lapras on the off chance it doesn't know Ice Shard. The beginning was the most troublesome part of this battle anyway, everything past taking out Ludicolo went pretty smoothly. @Jess Them Seeds be broken, yo! Don't know how many of them you can have on a fresh Ep17 run, but coming from Ep16 you'd only have a handful that you picked up somewhere in the desert. Kind of an imbalance there, but that's natural when something gets retroactively included. Stunfisk is kind of, well, Stunfisk. Yeah, the Field boosts Electric moves, but its base Atk is a measly 66; its SpAtk is a bit better, but most of Amaria's Pokémon are Special bulky anyway. Between Rotom, Kingdra, Swampert and Ludicolo her Singles team also really isn't particularly weak to Electric, so Torterra was just more worthwile. Plus, stunfisk is weak to Water and has shitty Speed, so Trick Room would've been neccessary again anyway.

Thanks! I'm really glad to have all of my weaknesses behind me now. Until I inevitably have to battle Laura for whichever reason. Yeah, I fiddled around with it a bit, since Amaria's team can abuse both the ater Surface and Icy Fields, but only Ludicolo can know a Grass attack. Didn't work out tho; it was a lot more important to set up Trick Room and to keep Rotom from setting up a Reflect. Torterra had to oneshot everything that he attacked, otherwise he'd quickly go down. Setting up an Electric Terrain probably would've worked very well in this battle, but the only Pokémon that might have worked for that would be Stunfisk... xD The AI also can't really handle moves that gain secondary Types from fields, so that would've been somewhat cheap.

We follow Titania to Celestinine Cascade to check up on Amaria, but upon arrival it turns out that the two had a fight so now we have to go play hide and seek with Amaria in her "underwater playground". Did I ever mention that I hate water? Because I do. This is hell. Finding Amaria a bunch of times leads to her telling us about how she wouldn't mind to die right now and that therefore there'd be no point in us challenging her right now. Also, she knows that Titania is just faking her part of their relationship, and that Amaria is going along with it because Titania is apparently the only one who stayed with her. I don't like Amaria anymore. After finding her for the third time she finally agrees to a Gym battle, so we head back to the battle area for another scene with her and Titania. Then it's time for our battle. VS Flotsam Amaria This battle took me way too many tries. I had to find just the right sequence for freezing the field over and setting Trick Room while somehow getting Rotom to not set up Reflect. I also tried various combinations with Grassy Field, as well as trying to get rid of Reflect with Brick Break, all the while trying to avoid having Torterra get murdered with Ice attacks. On the bright side: it ended with an Ace vs Ace match, and I always like ending fights that way. Also glad I didn't have to resort to using healing items to win that battle, although I would have used them if I had to. I wouldn't have wanted to try again. This victory earns us the Torrent badge which does nothing to our Level Cap, but does allow us to use Rock Climb outside of battles... once Ep18 releases, that is. We also get the TM for Scald, not sure if I got any use for that though. Well, that's it for current content. Let's have a round of applause for the Pokémon that gave their best this episode:

Singles does tend to be easier overall since you can easily 1vs1 for weaknesses. I see a Rotom in that team tho, and we've got bad history.

Yeah, that sounds a lot more balanced than her team(s) for Doubles. Only two Pokémon that are weak to both Electric and Grass and two that aren't weak to either one. Still kinda would've expected a Drizzle Pelipper in there somewhere to Hurricane Grass Types and to boost her offense more. Reverse Psychology, ho!

This, pretty much. In Doubles at the very least she heavily relies on those field-boosted double-Surfs. Eliminate any of those components, either by changing the field or always knocking out one of her Pokémon before it can act, and her ability to KO your Pokémon just plummets. Throw in Giga Drain or Horn Leech and your Pokémon becomes basically invincible.

Amaria got herself into a funny situation with her field; it strengthens Electric attacks and the only way to properly protect her team from that is to use Ground Types, which would make her team really weak to Grass. xp Kingdra wouldn't be weak to either, but weirdly enough she doesn't use it, at least not in Doubles. Titania's team is still the same (at least on Zekrom route) and her tactic doesn't seem to have changed either.

Oh, that's how it is. I forgot Jess always does these ahead of time. |D Mh, guess I really should do the Reshiram path next time. Hopefully the tactic I thought of for my Fire Monotype will still work out even against a different team.

Interesting tactic here, your Leavanny sure seems to be going strong even this late into the game. I wonder, did you know that Amaria has multiple teams? Because I sure didn't until just know. In my fight she had Blastoise and Primarina instead of Gastrodon and Quagsire, so the team you got was overall weaker to Grass. Deciding factor seems to be that I told her that I think less of her, because we both went Zekrom route and Doubles. Does anyone know if Singles gets different teams too? Or if Reshiram route has the same teams? Also does she ever use Mega Evolution? @Azeria: Yeah, that's pretty damn funny, but also not all that interesting to watch/read about. "And then Shedinja stalled everything to death."

I haven't played the other route yet so I'll withhold on any judgement about which situation is the better or the right one. Crossing the desert by your lonesome definitely does get rather monotonous though. With three places of interest (four if you count Mirage Tower) and no real direction of where you're expected to head it can take quite some time. Hope you didn't forget about Titania, because her being the Steel Type leader is your only hint on where to go.

Heyho, hello, it's been quite some time, huh? Episode 17 is out, meaning I'm now able to continue this run. That also means there are unmarked spoilers ahead, so do not continue reading if you haven't played through it yet and want to experience the content for yourself. Before we dive right into the plot I've got a new friend to introduce: With that out of the way let's get back into the plot. Last episode Adrienn arranged for us to get a free train ride into the Tourmaline Desert so wen can track down Titania and her Gym. Both because we need her Badge and because she has the Saphire Bracelet with her, meaning that Team Meteor is after her. Chapter XIII: Steel and Rust Once we step out of our train into the desert we are immediately greeted by Taka. Since we didn't battle him back in the WTC he now lost face within Team Meteor, meaning he has to attack us before the other Meteors decide they don't need him anymore. He also notes that "she" is likely already watching from somewhere. (Honestly I don't think Lin is who he has to worry about - at least not more than everyone else - she doesn't exactly seem to mind us meddling with her plans. Solaris and Sirius on the other hand...) VS Meteor Admin Taka Pretty easy battle, although I think that's likely intentional. After the battle he's rather dejected. He feels he can't betray Team Meteor, but he also can't win. He does some thinking about his situation and notes that we've always been fighting Team Meteor, always pulling through. Now it's too dangerous for him to even go back after yet another failure, but he also seems to realize that he's never truly tried not going back. So he asks us if he can come with us. I decline, mostly because I don't want to have to deal with the constant "buffeted by the sandstorm" his team is going to cause. ;p Sorry Taka fans, I promise I'll let him tag along next time. And now we've got an entire desert to cross... Eventually we reach some sort of train graveyard. In the middle of the desert. Okay. Some of the trains here are still functional, allowing us to clear a path through by crashing them into each other until they break down. Past the graveyard we find "train town", which is basically just a bunch of people that now live here because they had to leave Reborn City for some reason or another. Here we run into the nefarious thief Corin Rogue. Since we don't need Magikarp and there's so far no other reward for beating him he just gets ignored. So far we've just been exploring basically at random, but past train town actually lies... "Once Upon A Somewhere" ...It's probably best not to question these things. Here, in this pink sky of floating islands and rainbow bridges, we quickly find a castle and inside one of those telecom things the Gyms use. Adrienn helpfully informs us that we've reached Titania's Gym. It's technically in the desert, I guess? After making our way through the first part of the "Castle at Wit's End" we are welcomed by none other than Lin. She notes that we'll be seeing her a lot more often from now on, becasue apparentally we both want to get the same thing from Titania. Never would've thought that Lin collects Gym Badges. We continue making our way through the castle, fighting "Knight" class trainers all the while. After we step away from the last of them, Knight Rhylin who used an Alolan Ninetales, said Knight suddenly teleports behind us. We wake up again in Tower Corybantia. After running up and endless number of floors we're quickly able to step into the tower's outside area, titled "Once Upon a Waste of Time". We climb up some vines growing on the tower's walls and reach another one of those rainbow bridges. Halfway across we run into Titania standing on a floating island. She's apparentally already run into Lin as well, and has a plan, but asks if we trust. Now, I think Titania is a wholy unpleasant person, but when it's about fighting Team Meteor she's still an ally. She seems rather surprised that we'd still trust her and, astonishingly enough, actually thanks us. She hands us the Saphire Bracelets and then leaves, not saying anything more about that plan of hers. We're left to continue on our rainbow bridge, at the end of which lies "The Belly of the Beast". There, a very special enemy waits to challenge us. VS The Legendary Dragon It probably would've been more of a threat if it just spammed Outrage instead of going for the Ground weakness. We continue on through the Dragon's Den and once more run into Lin in her knightly armor. She threatens us to hand over the Saphire Bracelets, then gets stabbed in the back by Titania. With her Aegislash no less. Lin falls over and Titania slashes at her head a bunch of times, just to make sure she's dead. "That's all it took, huh? Somebody should've done that a long time ago." Yup, Lin's totally dead, plot is over, we can all go home now. Hail the great hero Titania andIthinkI'mgonnapuke- To celebrate Titania want to have a Gym battle with us, so we follow her into the next and final area. Titled "Never After" this is where her battlefield is set up. Cue Battle VS Guardian Princess Titania Quite a back and forth battle, Excadrill did great work. Magical Seeds are annoying. Overall I would've liked to defeat her a lot cleaner, but that probably would've required more Items than I feel like. I could've avoided sacrificing Pokémon by using my own Magical Seeds to counter hers, but I don't exactly have a lot of those... It'll do, a second try victory because I got overconfident at the tail end of the first try. Titania tells us to not feel special for beating her before handing us the Alloy Badge, which raises our level capto 90, as well as the TM Flash Cannon. I don't think I've got any use for that... Then Lin shows up and declares that our battle bored her. Yeah, she's not dead. Who would've thought. Evidently swords can't kill her and she feels it's necessary to point that out. She says that she wants us to leave with the Saphire Bracelets, insinuates that we're working with her and then threatens to kill Amaria if we don't keep the Bracelets. She then leaves. All in all her appearance here felt somewhat... pointless? All she really did was get Titania riled up and drop some cryptic hints. Well, and that whole "you can't kill me" thing. Titania leaves to go look after Amaria and tells us to come as well. She also warns us that, if we ever betray them, she will kill us. Not like I'd expect anything else from her. That's it for today, The remainder of Episode 17's content will follow next time. Until then, see ya!