[Pokémon Scarlet/Violet] Prologue, Stony Cliff Titan, Cortondo Gym (#205)

[00:00:00] Hello! Sorry, let me start again. Hola and welcome to experience share.

[00:00:27] My name is Tanner Tula. I'm joined as always by my co-host Fjelldi Ursa.

[00:00:53] I'm a new Mon. You can pick a new Mon. I went with Muffinmommys like Star Crystal Pokemon.

[00:01:01] Yes, the first Gym Leader which is where we are going to be ending the episode in the

[00:01:07] mini paths that we can take in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Gen 9.

[00:01:13] They really let us loose on Paldia, the Paldia region here. It's like Breath of the Wild.

[00:01:20] They give us some open missions. You can go do the main quest, you can go to the side quest,

[00:01:24] you can go figure out whatever you want. But we in order to entertain all of you into

[00:01:29] stake assistant are going to follow a slightly programmed path.

[00:01:33] But we'll say the same thing to all of you is that you can take whatever path you want.

[00:01:38] If you don't want to do the Titans, you don't want to do the Team Star.

[00:01:41] I would say it's a mistake to not do the Titans.

[00:01:44] Yeah.

[00:01:44] But we'll get into it.

[00:01:45] Yeah, we'll get into that.

[00:01:47] But weekly, we will be doing gyms.

[00:01:49] Welcome to season, what is this? 9?

[00:01:54] This is season 9. In Gen 9, we're here. We're in the discourse, the zeitgeist.

[00:02:00] Everyone is in Gen 9.

[00:02:01] We've caught up to you.

[00:02:02] All the bug catchers were all here.

[00:02:04] We're in your gen. We're playing the game that you're still playing, actively playing right now.

[00:02:09] Yeah, and loving from the sense that I've gotten online.

[00:02:14] People are really into this one.

[00:02:16] Greg, last week.

[00:02:17] Absolutely in love with the game.

[00:02:22] Yeah, check out our Pokemon Unite episode if you're into that.

[00:02:25] We had Greg on.

[00:02:26] Greg Leatherman.

[00:02:27] Really looking forward to it.

[00:02:28] Shining endorsement from Greg Leatherman who told us to quote skip it.

[00:02:32] Just skip it.

[00:02:34] So let's talk about where we started our journey in Paldia, Joshua.

[00:02:38] It starts with a cutscene.

[00:02:39] It doesn't even start with us.

[00:02:40] It's not about us.

[00:02:41] No.

[00:02:42] No, we're part of a much larger narrative here in Paldia.

[00:02:45] It's about a Pokemon named Corridon.

[00:02:48] Or Morita, in my case.

[00:02:50] Oh, I'm playing Violet.

[00:02:52] Tanner is playing Scarlet.

[00:02:54] I forced that because I love purple.

[00:02:56] Mine is red.

[00:02:57] Yours is purple.

[00:02:58] Yeah.

[00:02:59] Yep.

[00:03:00] And I assume that they both grow out of the little motorcycle lizard that one of my friends at school had.

[00:03:06] Yes.

[00:03:07] Maybe I'm wrong.

[00:03:08] We see the motorcycle lizard fly off into the sun in what I hope is a

[00:03:16] admittedly much clunkier version compared to the anime.

[00:03:20] Oh, look like absolutely.

[00:03:20] Opening seed or last seen in the anime of Ho-Oh flying away into the sun.

[00:03:26] I'm going to say this now just to manage expectations for everyone who is desperate to

[00:03:31] know our opinions on the game.

[00:03:33] I think this is a good game.

[00:03:34] I'm having fun with it.

[00:03:35] You want to say that in the first five minutes of the new season?

[00:03:38] So far.

[00:03:39] Hey, so far I think this is a good game and I'm having fun with it and I like the gameplay

[00:03:43] loops.

[00:03:43] Here's what I'll say about the graphics.

[00:03:45] Absolutely suck.

[00:03:46] Yeah.

[00:03:47] Terrible.

[00:03:48] The worst yet.

[00:03:49] I agree.

[00:03:50] Like in general, which will comment on, I think there's a lot of improvements to

[00:03:55] the UI and like other than the map orientation is annoying to deal with.

[00:04:01] Oh, the map or additions.

[00:04:02] Frustrating.

[00:04:03] I also had to Google again.

[00:04:05] I was like, what did they say about how do I even open the map and then any time to

[00:04:08] actually get it to this is a hot tip because I had to look this up too.

[00:04:12] If you want to recenter it so it's facing north, you hit down on the right joystick.

[00:04:18] Okay.

[00:04:19] Handy.

[00:04:19] But in general, I think there's a lot to like from what I've seen so far other

[00:04:24] than these graphics are like, I couldn't even think of it feels like it's falling

[00:04:28] back to like not even the Wii U version of Twilight Princess, but like the Gamecube

[00:04:36] version of Twilight Princess.

[00:04:37] And I think even that looked better or smoother at least.

[00:04:41] It's not that the graphics are bad and the graphics are bad.

[00:04:44] Like there's a scene where you're first in school and there's like too many kids in

[00:04:48] the classroom.

[00:04:49] I was going to talk about that.

[00:04:51] The switch like can't program all the kids.

[00:04:54] They all move.

[00:04:55] They're all just like blocky, low res.

[00:04:59] And it's like I get that if we're in like a stadium and there's hundreds of people in

[00:05:05] the crowd, but we're in a tight close up shot in a classroom and I can clearly like

[00:05:10] having a dialogue with these characters and they're all like.

[00:05:14] And also by the way, how about you just don't animate all of them?

[00:05:19] If you need to prevent the clipping, how about you just have a couple of kids

[00:05:22] sitting there quietly?

[00:05:24] So it looks like shit.

[00:05:25] And then when you get out into the real world, everything looks bad.

[00:05:30] That's pretty standard now though.

[00:05:31] Like I'm not expecting the waterfalls to look photo realistic and the trees to look

[00:05:36] like trees.

[00:05:36] But little cities are just so big and so empty that everything, it feels like

[00:05:43] the post apocalypse.

[00:05:45] Like there's nothing going on.

[00:05:46] There's not a lot of trainers around.

[00:05:48] The cities are just like devoid of much life or energy.

[00:05:53] The buildings are all like too big for the people.

[00:05:55] Like it's just sort of weird.

[00:05:57] We'll see what happens with the other cities, but they made Mesa Goza,

[00:06:02] which will be our first like main place to go to.

[00:06:06] They comment on how it's the largest city in Paldea.

[00:06:09] And as a result, I guess of the limitations of the switch hardware that none of the

[00:06:18] or maybe one or two, like there's a sandwich shop, I think you can go into.

[00:06:22] But in all the other games, for the most part, like most of the businesses have an

[00:06:27] interior and in this one you just click on a door and then it opens up a menu.

[00:06:31] Like they could not even fit the interior of the businesses into this game.

[00:06:36] To add insult to injury on that one when you leave the shop,

[00:06:39] they couldn't figure out how to have you leave the shop in any sort of way that made sense.

[00:06:44] So you just sort of like pop out about six feet above the ground and like fall to the ground.

[00:06:49] Yeah.

[00:06:50] That's like, how I leave every shop.

[00:06:53] Got my delicious like arepas time to like leap six feet out of the door of this shop and onto

[00:07:00] the cobblestones below.

[00:07:01] Yeah.

[00:07:01] It's a little wild.

[00:07:02] And also like all the sandwich shops serve the same thing.

[00:07:06] This is nice for me because I hate talking to these freaks, but most of the people don't

[00:07:09] have any meaningful dialogue and can't be spoken to.

[00:07:12] Most of the buildings can't be entered.

[00:07:14] Hope your mind company finally took that note for view of like,

[00:07:16] oh, you don't want to have to talk to all these freaks?

[00:07:19] Well, you can't talk to most of them.

[00:07:21] And a lot of them are like.

[00:07:22] You can't go into their houses anymore.

[00:07:24] Mesa Goza is predominantly populated by it seems like lads who are on vacation in Paldea.

[00:07:34] They've got the.

[00:07:34] You know, it's so fun.

[00:07:35] They took almost the same screenshots, but my guy in purple is a woman in purple.

[00:07:40] Oh, that's interesting.

[00:07:41] In almost the same outfit.

[00:07:42] In my game, at least in Violet, they're mostly dudes with rolled up.

[00:07:47] They got long sleeve shirts rolled up to the elbow.

[00:07:50] Yeah, they got the sunglasses like, you know, hanging off the shirt.

[00:07:53] There's roads that go nowhere.

[00:07:54] And there's so many of them.

[00:07:55] Like little alleyways.

[00:07:57] Like I've never I've never been to Barcelona or whatever.

[00:08:00] I don't Paladea is supposed to be Spain, apparently.

[00:08:02] Spain.

[00:08:03] Yeah, I have also not been there.

[00:08:04] I doubt it's laid out like a confusing video game.

[00:08:08] Yeah.

[00:08:08] And I think even if the dudes maybe or ladies dress similarly, they don't all look the same

[00:08:14] and there are like 12 of the same people.

[00:08:16] Yeah.

[00:08:16] Corner to corner.

[00:08:17] You could just see the exact same type of guy.

[00:08:20] Yeah, the exact same sandwich shop.

[00:08:22] It was funny the first time I saw this guy like lounging against the side of a wall.

[00:08:26] But then when I saw him around the other corner, I was like, oh, okay, it's not as funny.

[00:08:31] You stalking me.

[00:08:32] He's here to like get ripped with his buds and forget about the girl that he probably

[00:08:36] scared away with his toxic masculinity.

[00:08:39] You know, that's far too far ahead.

[00:08:40] Yeah.

[00:08:41] We have to talk about the well we are talking about the prologue.

[00:08:46] Yes.

[00:08:46] Carreadon comes careening in.

[00:08:48] It looks terrible.

[00:08:49] The graphics are so bad.

[00:08:51] Yeah, well, well, try not to harp on it too much.

[00:08:53] But I know that that's we've misstepped before.

[00:08:57] But I don't think we are on this one.

[00:08:58] Zoom in on its face as it's careening down.

[00:09:02] They made the choice to get tight in on its eyes and face,

[00:09:05] but they didn't like up res the like model, you know, it's still just like the fully zoomed

[00:09:10] out model and it just looks like a low poly like mess.

[00:09:14] I don't know, whatever.

[00:09:16] Carreadon comes careening down into the beach.

[00:09:19] Luckily my guy had a sandwich and I was able to sort of wake the car ride on back up.

[00:09:27] Yeah, my mommy gave me a sandwich too.

[00:09:29] And and now I also understand that sandwich mini game in a Pokemon unite the other week.

[00:09:34] Carreadon loves sandwiches.

[00:09:35] Yes.

[00:09:37] Established.

[00:09:37] Does your guy have a mom?

[00:09:39] Like, shouldn't we say how we even got here?

[00:09:41] I mean, this isn't like.

[00:09:42] Yeah, let's talk about our guys.

[00:09:43] This is not like a suey.

[00:09:45] Like we have a reason we know why we're here.

[00:09:47] We didn't just wake up on the beach this time.

[00:09:49] Oh, I live here.

[00:09:50] I live here.

[00:09:51] Who are you?

[00:09:57] Don Joey.

[00:10:01] Don Joey.

[00:10:03] Don Joey.

[00:10:05] Sounds like something you can be very sensitive around.

[00:10:08] Let's hear about him.

[00:10:09] You need to be sensitive around Don Joey?

[00:10:11] Well, I don't know.

[00:10:12] He does have kind of a sensitive heart.

[00:10:14] Is there going to be like, is there going to be sort of like a

[00:10:18] Italian accent or anything like that involved like on the Papakultura days?

[00:10:22] No, not this time.

[00:10:23] I guess he would have he would have a Unovan accent.

[00:10:26] So he'd be I'm Don Joey like New York, Long Island.

[00:10:32] Right.

[00:10:32] Okay, great.

[00:10:34] I can do that one.

[00:10:35] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:10:35] Italians and people from Long Island, that's fine.

[00:10:39] All of that is clear.

[00:10:40] Okay, wow.

[00:10:45] I thought we all understood that.

[00:10:47] You heard it here first everyone.

[00:10:48] So let's hear about Don Joey.

[00:10:50] Open season for Italians and people from Long Island.

[00:10:53] So John Don Joey is from UNOVA.

[00:10:57] His mom is coming off a pretty rough divorce.

[00:11:01] Oh, no.

[00:11:02] Yeah.

[00:11:03] So sorry.

[00:11:03] Thank you because it's impacted Joey quite a bit as well.

[00:11:08] Oh, I'm sure I divorced myself.

[00:11:10] Or nay, Joey, however you say that.

[00:11:15] He's changed his name back to Joey.

[00:11:18] He used to just be Joey but now he's Don Joey.

[00:11:21] Okay.

[00:11:21] Yeah.

[00:11:22] So this divorce resulted in a pretty healthy settlement at least.

[00:11:27] So his mom, Joey's like the light of her life and she needs a fresh start, sure.

[00:11:34] But she also wants to set him up for success.

[00:11:37] And this OOVA Academy over in Paldes is like top tier.

[00:11:42] It's like that school in Switzerland, Rose Academy or whatever.

[00:11:47] Shit tier school.

[00:11:48] More like FTI.

[00:11:50] Oh, oh, oh, because you're from Noranja,

[00:11:55] I guess it probably is.

[00:11:58] Noranja.

[00:11:59] Norana's shit.

[00:12:00] OOVA is where it's at.

[00:12:02] This is the best school in the world as far as Don Joey's mom has read about it.

[00:12:07] So she wants to get him a great education.

[00:12:10] She wants a fresh start.

[00:12:11] So they moved over from UNOVA at the end of the summer.

[00:12:16] Okay.

[00:12:16] And now they're here for the school year.

[00:12:19] And it's inevitably hard on the parents to go through a divorce, but it can be especially hard

[00:12:25] on the child.

[00:12:26] Yeah, no one ever thinks of the parents.

[00:12:28] Oh, sorry.

[00:12:31] Joey took it pretty hard and he really loved both of his parents like he's not taken aside.

[00:12:37] You know, they reassured him.

[00:12:38] You know, it's sometimes adults fall out of love.

[00:12:41] They have like a split custody.

[00:12:44] It wasn't pretty, but his father was at least willing to say like, look, I want to be able

[00:12:49] to see my kid.

[00:12:50] Like he's not, he can see Joey, but he understands the importance of this move for both

[00:12:59] his ex-wife and his son.

[00:13:02] So he was like, look, yeah.

[00:13:04] Not a deadbeat.

[00:13:05] Give him a couple of years at this boarding school.

[00:13:07] I'll see him when I can.

[00:13:08] I'll come over.

[00:13:09] He can come to UNOVA.

[00:13:10] I mean, obviously they have money.

[00:13:12] Many, many monies.

[00:13:14] But over the summer, Joey was really searching for like, you know, will I ever find someone?

[00:13:19] He binged a bunch of romance novels.

[00:13:21] He got into a lot of the classic shit he did.

[00:13:24] Oh, he's got a romantic heart.

[00:13:24] He also had the king like Canterbury Tales, Circle Wayne and the Green Knight,

[00:13:29] Night and Shining Armor, all that shit.

[00:13:31] Yeah.

[00:13:32] You got really into it.

[00:13:33] And so in his new life, he also wants to be this kind of like knight-errant.

[00:13:40] You know what he might like?

[00:13:42] What?

[00:13:42] Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

[00:13:45] Well, that sounds kind of delightful.

[00:13:47] It's about sort of a Connecticut gentleman like myself

[00:13:51] getting transported back to King Arthur time.

[00:13:53] Oh, I'll put that on his reading list, I guess.

[00:13:56] I mean, he's not going to stop.

[00:13:57] This is his favorite genre now and he wants to go and find his great love and commit

[00:14:07] noble deeds.

[00:14:09] So he's here.

[00:14:10] He sort of started calling himself Don Joey.

[00:14:13] Not like a mafia Don though, right?

[00:14:16] No.

[00:14:16] Like Don Quixote.

[00:14:19] That's right.

[00:14:20] More of a Don Quixote type of inspiration, I would say.

[00:14:24] Got it.

[00:14:25] And he now wants to get together a band of courageous adventurers to Sally Forth

[00:14:30] and set right the wrongs of the world here in Pelldae.

[00:14:33] Wow.

[00:14:34] Sounds adventurous.

[00:14:35] Sounds pretty good.

[00:14:37] Romantic.

[00:14:38] And he's going to try to have sex with Pokemon?

[00:14:40] No, no.

[00:14:41] These are his band of adventurers.

[00:14:42] I mean, he could find love on the road, but he's not...

[00:14:47] I see the connection now.

[00:14:48] I see.

[00:14:50] They are all here to help others and do noble deeds.

[00:14:55] His mom's not quite as sold.

[00:14:57] I'd say his mom's a little concerned about this thing where he's making

[00:15:02] his mom call him Don Joey.

[00:15:05] And like...

[00:15:05] Real mama's boy.

[00:15:06] He's got this kind of ragtag crew.

[00:15:08] He's running around with.

[00:15:09] So we'll see how it all works out, but that's who we got.

[00:15:14] Don Joey, we're following his journey to become a glorious knight.

[00:15:19] Can't wait to see how many Pokemon he manages to woo along the way.

[00:15:24] Not out of the question for my guy Esteban Humano.

[00:15:27] Esteban Humano.

[00:15:29] Okay.

[00:15:30] Yep.

[00:15:30] Tell me more.

[00:15:31] He is...

[00:15:33] Sorry, I'm taking Pelldae in lessons.

[00:15:36] I am from Pelldae, but I don't speak Pelldaean.

[00:15:40] Oh, it's like he doesn't speak Catalan.

[00:15:42] He only knows...

[00:15:44] Like...

[00:15:45] Hola, Mayamo, Esteban Humano.

[00:15:48] I am from here.

[00:15:51] I'm a Pelldaean native.

[00:15:53] I grew up with my mom.

[00:15:54] My dad is dead.

[00:15:56] Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss.

[00:15:58] Thank you.

[00:15:59] That's even worse than getting divorced.

[00:16:00] He was eaten by a Titan cloth.

[00:16:03] Oh my God.

[00:16:04] Eatin'?

[00:16:05] Happens a lot.

[00:16:07] Jesus.

[00:16:08] Really devastating stuff.

[00:16:09] Was he a courageous adventurer too?

[00:16:12] No.

[00:16:13] No, no, no.

[00:16:14] Like a scavenger.

[00:16:15] Like a...

[00:16:15] Oh God.

[00:16:16] He would kind of go into like the canyon lands and scavenge the dead body and Pokemon that had fallen into the canyon.

[00:16:26] So he's like a bandit.

[00:16:28] Well, was.

[00:16:30] Rest in Pelldaeans.

[00:16:30] Well, I don't know.

[00:16:31] Yeah, I didn't really...

[00:16:32] Yeah, you're...

[00:16:33] Didn't really know him.

[00:16:33] To Esteban's father.

[00:16:35] I live with my mom.

[00:16:36] I'm Esteban Humano, Pelldaean native.

[00:16:38] I get in-state tuition at Naranja.

[00:16:41] That's nice.

[00:16:41] My chosen Academy.

[00:16:43] Yeah.

[00:16:45] Makes it really affordable.

[00:16:46] Well...

[00:16:47] I did not do...

[00:16:48] I cheer that but I'm booing Naranja.

[00:16:51] That's my rival.

[00:16:51] Yeah.

[00:16:52] I have a cousin in the Sinnoh region you may have heard of named Steve Humean.

[00:16:58] Her tales of Steve Humean.

[00:17:00] We hung out together as kids a lot.

[00:17:02] Like spent the summers together as kids.

[00:17:05] Going looking for trouble.

[00:17:06] You know, I think at some point our ancestral lines kind of split.

[00:17:10] We moved down here to Pelldaeans where it took on the trappings of Pelldaean life.

[00:17:14] But we follow a lot of the same attitudes.

[00:17:16] I'm not really a Pokemon guy much like Steve Humean.

[00:17:20] Right.

[00:17:20] That runs in the family.

[00:17:21] My interest is more in just like growing down.

[00:17:25] You know, like chilling with the coolest people I can meet from here to Victory Road.

[00:17:31] Cool.

[00:17:32] Crack some beers.

[00:17:33] You know, chase some tail.

[00:17:35] Yep.

[00:17:35] We've got a more laid back like Pelldaean attitude towards pretty much everything.

[00:17:39] So if you want to bring your dog or you want to bring your like lizard motorcycle that's totally fine.

[00:17:45] Okay, so yeah.

[00:17:48] Little flexibility.

[00:17:49] What I know about Steve Humean is he was already pretty ways a fair.

[00:17:53] So this is...

[00:17:54] Oh, I don't remember that being the case.

[00:17:56] I remember Steve Humean pretty carefully tracking which Pokemon had the human type body on Bulbapedia.

[00:18:05] And making a big careful list of the Pokemon he was able to catch.

[00:18:09] And they had to be very carefully stretch that human type Pokemon.

[00:18:13] Estabon's thing is more just like, you know, if it's got two legs and two arms and a face.

[00:18:21] That's probably a human right?

[00:18:23] Yeah.

[00:18:24] And anything else is just a pet or a piece of property from one of the crew.

[00:18:29] Piece of property, huh?

[00:18:30] The Ombrace.

[00:18:32] Yeah.

[00:18:32] Okay.

[00:18:32] No one's carrying any property right now.

[00:18:35] Makes it sound like drugs or something.

[00:18:37] Yeah.

[00:18:37] It's not like...

[00:18:38] This will see where that goes.

[00:18:40] Anyway, that's Estabon Umano.

[00:18:42] Pleased to meet you.

[00:18:44] Pleased to meet you.

[00:18:45] Or however to say that in Spanish.

[00:18:49] Peldan?

[00:18:49] How do you say that in Peldan?

[00:18:52] Como te llamas?

[00:18:54] Enquantado de Conocerte.

[00:18:58] Wait.

[00:18:59] Enquantado de Conocerte because Estabon...

[00:19:03] What are Estabon Umano's pronouns?

[00:19:08] He, him, I think.

[00:19:10] Don Joey's he, him also.

[00:19:11] So that would be Enquantado, the masculine form.

[00:19:15] I don't know if Estabon's really thought about it all that hard, you know?

[00:19:18] Really explored that.

[00:19:20] That might be part of the journey too.

[00:19:21] Taking on what society assigned him.

[00:19:23] Yeah, I don't know.

[00:19:24] Yep.

[00:19:26] So yeah, I'm a young man.

[00:19:27] I'm going to the Naranja Naranja Academy.

[00:19:33] Sorry, I'm just learning Peldan so I might not always get the right...

[00:19:37] Estabon's a few years behind in school, it seems like.

[00:19:41] Yeah.

[00:19:43] Well, I was personally selected actually by Henry Clavel.

[00:19:47] Oh yeah.

[00:19:48] The hunky, mustachioed man who played Superman in all the movies.

[00:19:55] Oh he did.

[00:19:56] Clevel did that first?

[00:19:58] Clevel?

[00:19:58] And now runs Naranja Academy.

[00:20:00] He's got quite the CV and he's got quite the look.

[00:20:05] I love his glasses game.

[00:20:08] A bad guy, right?

[00:20:10] Has bad guy energy.

[00:20:12] Can they really...

[00:20:12] I don't want to look at the Bulbapedia.

[00:20:14] I'm trying not to even look up evolutions or anything on this game because I've been pretty unspoiled.

[00:20:20] Maybe that's just my sort of like preconceived notions, but he's got like a,

[00:20:24] he's got a sturdiness that I don't trust that I'm sort of like balking against, you know?

[00:20:29] Can they really do that again though?

[00:20:31] We just Sword and Shield was the same where like the main guy just becomes the bad one.

[00:20:37] I'm trusting him.

[00:20:38] Look, Don Joey is gonna, thinks Clavel's a chivalrous gentleman.

[00:20:42] I think he's okay.

[00:20:43] He's gonna trust him.

[00:20:43] I just think he's like, maybe, maybe Estabon has a little anti-authority streak in him.

[00:20:50] That sounds right.

[00:20:51] Yeah.

[00:20:51] Anyway, he came to collect me.

[00:20:52] It's time to go to school.

[00:20:54] And he wants to give us Amon.

[00:20:57] Oh yes, I finally get to choose my friend.

[00:20:59] I mean a human, I guess in your case.

[00:21:02] Maybe.

[00:21:02] I mean a human of course.

[00:21:03] Yeah.

[00:21:04] Let's talk about it.

[00:21:05] Do you want to tell me who you chose because maybe it was a little easier choice for you?

[00:21:09] Well, yeah.

[00:21:09] I mean as a knight or ant, Don Joey needed to select his loyal steed.

[00:21:17] So when he was looking at these options, this clearest option to him seemed like the fire

[00:21:24] crocodile.

[00:21:25] Oh, Fuquac, Fuquac.

[00:21:26] Fuquaco.

[00:21:28] Fuquaco seemed like the best option.

[00:21:31] He also has kind of a disposition for little cuties, you know, because he is a romantic at heart.

[00:21:38] So how's it?

[00:21:39] I thought you meant the clementines.

[00:21:40] I mean maybe, maybe.

[00:21:42] There's a lot of food in this game.

[00:21:44] We'll get into that and maybe that's also his thing.

[00:21:46] But we're all gonna be finding that out on this journey together.

[00:21:51] But he wanted to be able to have a Pokémon that looked like it will maybe have to grow

[00:21:57] into itself.

[00:21:58] Like he knows that he's growing into his knighthood.

[00:22:02] Yeah.

[00:22:02] So he's selecting Pokémon that maybe they look a little weak.

[00:22:07] Maybe they look a little too sweet to really get into a battle.

[00:22:12] But he wants to cultivate them into bad boys.

[00:22:16] You're some bad boys club.

[00:22:17] Honorable warriors.

[00:22:20] So he went Fuquaco.

[00:22:21] That's cool.

[00:22:22] A war band.

[00:22:23] How about Esteban?

[00:22:25] He's been in Paldea his whole life.

[00:22:27] He's got like a little bit of knowledge about these animals.

[00:22:32] Sorry, these people.

[00:22:33] People.

[00:22:35] Denizens of Paldea.

[00:22:37] Very diverse.

[00:22:37] So when he saw the lineup in front of him, he sort of had to think a little bit about

[00:22:42] like the people they would grow into.

[00:22:44] Right.

[00:22:45] So that immediately removed Fuquaco because it does not grow into a person.

[00:22:49] It grows into a crocodile.

[00:22:50] Out.

[00:22:52] So the choice was down to the cat or the duck.

[00:22:54] I liked all three of these starters are cute, but...

[00:22:57] Yeah, they start off very cute.

[00:22:59] It's the finishers that really sealed the deal for me.

[00:23:01] So Esteban went with Floregata.

[00:23:05] Donna Baker.

[00:23:05] Cat.

[00:23:06] Sprigatito.

[00:23:08] Oh, Sprigatito.

[00:23:10] Yeah, she's now Floregata.

[00:23:12] Donna Baker, she becomes a person, a woman.

[00:23:15] Four legs right now.

[00:23:16] Right.

[00:23:17] Oh, maybe not anymore.

[00:23:18] No, not anymore.

[00:23:19] Oh.

[00:23:20] Donna Baker.

[00:23:24] Still get into the naming conventions when we get to level check.

[00:23:28] I won't ask any questions for now.

[00:23:30] I don't know who gave her the name or parents, I guess.

[00:23:36] Right, yeah.

[00:23:37] Yeah, there's a lot of baking that goes on in this game.

[00:23:40] Yeah.

[00:23:41] So from here, we meet unclear friend or foe, Namona.

[00:23:52] She's not either.

[00:23:54] I think she's like takes us under her wing.

[00:23:56] She's the champion of Naurangia Academy.

[00:23:59] Yeah, she's been a champion already.

[00:24:02] She's a teacher's pet.

[00:24:04] Teacher's pet.

[00:24:05] Teacher's pet.

[00:24:06] Yeah, and she's like an RA and she's like,

[00:24:08] hey, I'm going to show you the ropes.

[00:24:11] So she walks us around Naurangia slash Uvo.

[00:24:16] What is it?

[00:24:16] Uva.

[00:24:18] Uva.

[00:24:18] Uva, Uva, Uva.

[00:24:20] Shows us around a little bit and then battles us.

[00:24:22] And she's like, oh, hey, guess what?

[00:24:25] I have a pretty fucked up ability called terrestrializing.

[00:24:32] It does help, but it's not going to help me win this fight

[00:24:35] because I did beat her.

[00:24:36] This is like 4D chess because she's already a champion.

[00:24:39] She chooses the Pokemon slash human that is weak to your Pokemon slash human.

[00:24:46] Right, yes.

[00:24:47] And thank you for clarifying.

[00:24:48] Yeah.

[00:24:49] Just trying to be respectful.

[00:24:50] I'm a noble gentleman.

[00:24:53] And then we're sort of let loose, right?

[00:24:55] We've got the intro road here, but they kind of give you the sense of freedom and open movement

[00:25:01] in this whole open area.

[00:25:02] This like intro plateau area.

[00:25:04] She kind of sets you out.

[00:25:05] I was like, hey, go to that lighthouse.

[00:25:07] We can get a good view of the school from there.

[00:25:10] See that lighthouse up there?

[00:25:11] Yeah.

[00:25:11] We meet a guy at the lighthouse.

[00:25:13] Oh yeah, Billy.

[00:25:14] Billy?

[00:25:15] I don't know his real name.

[00:25:16] He looks like Billy from Stranger Things.

[00:25:20] Yeah, that's about right.

[00:25:21] Arvin.

[00:25:23] Who is a Nepo baby?

[00:25:26] He's sort of a nemesis.

[00:25:28] He's got a bad energy around him.

[00:25:30] He goes to school with us.

[00:25:32] And he's the son of Professor Turo.

[00:25:36] And he seems to have a chip on his shoulder that nobody expects him to ever be as good as his dad.

[00:25:42] Who?

[00:25:42] You mean his mom?

[00:25:43] We have different professors.

[00:25:45] Professor Sadas who you have.

[00:25:47] Yeah.

[00:25:47] Why'd they do that?

[00:25:48] I don't know, but they made them both so hot.

[00:25:51] Yeah, they're both just sexual energy is just exploding from these people.

[00:25:57] I don't know why they decided to make them both unbelievably hot.

[00:26:01] Turo and Sada.

[00:26:03] Yamahama.

[00:26:04] Yeah, she's got a wildness to her.

[00:26:06] Yeah.

[00:26:07] I'm guessing he's futuristic like Willenium?

[00:26:10] Yeah, Willenium.

[00:26:12] Yeah, he's got Willenium vibes, definitely.

[00:26:14] Yeah, he does have Willenium vibes.

[00:26:16] I'm guessing they're going to introduce us to the Area Zero shit.

[00:26:20] Yeah, Area Zero gets alluded to.

[00:26:23] And yeah, Arvin's mean.

[00:26:26] Well, he's a little weird because he's the one who gives you the Corridon at the beginning.

[00:26:31] He's like, oh, actually that like you can keep that Corridon.

[00:26:34] He's been a handful.

[00:26:35] Yeah, like I can't deal with this fucking thing anymore.

[00:26:37] And then he goes to your school and like you kind of what is he you'd like sort of tap?

[00:26:42] We got to talk about Rotom at some point.

[00:26:44] Should we get into Rotom?

[00:26:45] But anyway, you kind of like tap phones and like exchange info with him.

[00:26:49] Before we talk about the enslavement and subjugation of Rotom in this game,

[00:26:54] which has become unbelievable in the Peltain region.

[00:26:58] Truly.

[00:26:59] Before we get to Los Plateaus, which is where we go after the the lighthouse,

[00:27:04] we can kind of wander around the open world a little bit.

[00:27:07] Catch some on.

[00:27:08] They give you plenty of balls quickly and people and people.

[00:27:11] There's people out here.

[00:27:12] Yeah, there's a couple of trainers too.

[00:27:14] No, no, no.

[00:27:14] And people you can kind of get on your own.

[00:27:16] I mean, people you can capture a friend.

[00:27:20] Invite them.

[00:27:21] Yeah.

[00:27:21] Yeah.

[00:27:21] To join the posse.

[00:27:22] Yeah.

[00:27:23] One kind of cute thing about this game is the little Pokemon are all very little.

[00:27:28] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:29] Especially when you're up on like your Karadon.

[00:27:32] The scaling of the Pokemon and when it is rendering well,

[00:27:36] the Pokemon in the environment are done pretty well.

[00:27:40] The scatterbugs are so tiny that you just like miss them sometimes.

[00:27:43] Yeah.

[00:27:43] So there's still a lot of like, you know, Pokemon are all in the overworld.

[00:27:47] But depending on how small they are, they can still be fully immersed in the tall grass.

[00:27:53] There is one little tiny Pokemon that I saw often that you put in the notes,

[00:27:59] but I want to bring up in a hit segment that we have called a mouse hunter.

[00:28:03] Mouse hunter.

[00:28:06] Mouse hunter.

[00:28:08] Every game there is a Pikachu.

[00:28:10] Yes.

[00:28:10] And it's on us to find it and they made it pretty easy in this one.

[00:28:14] He's the first.

[00:28:14] Pretty quick.

[00:28:15] He's the first Pokemon you find.

[00:28:16] Yeah.

[00:28:17] Pommy.

[00:28:18] Pommy.

[00:28:19] Pommy.

[00:28:20] Pommy.

[00:28:20] Cutie.

[00:28:21] It's an electric cutie rat.

[00:28:22] I think it's the worst.

[00:28:24] I don't think it's a bad design and I don't think it's a bad Pokemon.

[00:28:27] Yeah, I like the design actually.

[00:28:28] I think it's the worst mouse hunter Pokemon that we've come across so far.

[00:28:32] You mean in terms of stretching?

[00:28:34] I think it is the least Pikachu like.

[00:28:37] I was surprised that its Pokedex entry categorized it as a mouse Pokemon.

[00:28:43] Yeah, it looks more like Teddiers or something.

[00:28:46] Like a Badger maybe.

[00:28:48] Yeah, it doesn't look like a mouse.

[00:28:50] But whatever.

[00:28:51] Oh, kind of like a Bearcat.

[00:28:53] I learned about those recently.

[00:28:54] Binterons.

[00:28:55] Yeah, it looks like a Bearcat.

[00:28:56] You love those?

[00:28:57] Southeast Asia?

[00:28:59] No.

[00:28:59] Look them up Bearcat.

[00:29:04] Now we're fully in control of the game.

[00:29:06] We've met up with Billy at the lighthouse.

[00:29:08] He hands over control of Corridon.

[00:29:09] We can hop onto it although at this point it doesn't do much.

[00:29:13] We can ride it but it doesn't go very fast.

[00:29:15] Yeah, after we resurrect him with a sandwich.

[00:29:18] And go through a bizarre inlet grotto where it is being harassed by a bunch of hound doors

[00:29:24] and then a hound doom ultimately.

[00:29:26] Oh yeah.

[00:29:26] But obviously Moriden just crushes all of them.

[00:29:30] Oh yeah.

[00:29:31] And all the rocks to let us out.

[00:29:33] We're off to Los Plateaus where there's a new type of like way station Pokemon center.

[00:29:44] Oh yeah.

[00:29:45] They're just like amenities for these like porn nurses and poker center workers.

[00:29:52] I know.

[00:29:52] They're just becoming worse and worse.

[00:29:54] They don't even have a break room anymore.

[00:29:56] It's like a counter in the middle of the elements.

[00:29:59] Yeah, it's exposed to any weather.

[00:30:03] Just no walls.

[00:30:04] Maybe they can pull them down but that's not going to be insulated.

[00:30:08] They need to unionize.

[00:30:09] It's like the newsstands on New York street corners.

[00:30:13] Exactly.

[00:30:14] Like not a nice work environment.

[00:30:16] Where's the bathroom?

[00:30:17] Yeah, I don't think there is one.

[00:30:18] I think they're just like trained not to go.

[00:30:20] Oh man, they have to hold it for eight hours.

[00:30:22] That's how you get kidney stones.

[00:30:24] You would know.

[00:30:24] I would know.

[00:30:25] Take it from us unionize Pokemon center workers.

[00:30:29] Get a bathroom.

[00:30:30] And then Los Plateaus is like the first place where it's like okay there's some

[00:30:33] buildings here but there's absolutely nothing to do and no people or like events

[00:30:39] and none of these buildings open.

[00:30:40] It's a village.

[00:30:40] So I guess I'm just moving on.

[00:30:42] The only thing that Don Joey took note of was a youngster who he encountered.

[00:30:48] After this break!

[00:30:49] Oh god, that was such a good one because you just like you walked right into it and then

[00:30:54] I let you get so far down the path.

[00:30:55] That was a classic one.

[00:30:57] You haven't gotten a really good one in for a while so respect day.

[00:31:00] Or what's the um how day in way of saying respect day?

[00:31:05] Hopefully similar.

[00:31:08] Respecto.

[00:31:09] No.

[00:31:10] It'll be rispetto this season bug catchers.

[00:31:13] No more rispetto because as we all know famously that's the proper way of saying it in Italian.

[00:31:24] Welcome back!

[00:31:25] Bug catchers welcome back Joshua to the Paldaea region.

[00:31:29] We're in Los Plateaus and we're headed to Mesagosa.

[00:31:35] Mesagosa.

[00:31:36] Fun to say lots of fun names to say.

[00:31:40] What I was trying to say was that Don Joey ran into Youngster Luca somewhere on the

[00:31:48] outskirts of town and that's a trainer danger for Youngster Luca.

[00:31:59] Oh he was a problem.

[00:32:00] I would say this is almost a stranger danger because speaking of rendering the sizes of the

[00:32:08] Pokemon and the things in the environment in a realistic way.

[00:32:12] The youngsters are like a foot tall in this game because I saw him standing next to like

[00:32:17] a cricketot at some point one of the youngsters and cricketot I think is a foot.

[00:32:23] And the youngster was like maybe six inches taller than that and that just feels like

[00:32:29] the youngsters should no longer be allowed out in the wilds on their own.

[00:32:33] I don't know man that's like you're kind of backwards.

[00:32:37] Here in the Paldaea region it's like live and let live you know.

[00:32:40] You get mauled by a cricketot.

[00:32:42] Yeah kids can be out that's safe.

[00:32:44] Can you imagine your kid gets killed by a cricketot?

[00:32:47] Your family would never.

[00:32:48] Yeah we do lose a lot of children to cricketots every year.

[00:32:50] With that down.

[00:32:52] Especially in like molting season you know or whenever they see something emerge from the ground.

[00:32:57] Yeah.

[00:33:00] You should read a kid.

[00:33:01] It's like the scene from remember in the beginning of Jurassic Park 3 where that little girl finds

[00:33:06] the like little dinosaurs.

[00:33:08] Oh yeah.

[00:33:08] She follows them into the woods and then they like swarm her because it's like actually

[00:33:12] that's not safe just because they're little they're still dinosaurs.

[00:33:17] It's funny you mentioned that because I read the book Jurassic Park recently

[00:33:21] and that's actually like an opening scene in the original book and then they used it

[00:33:26] in Jurassic Park 3.

[00:33:28] Wow.

[00:33:28] Yeah that's a fun fact.

[00:33:29] That's something new every day.

[00:33:30] Yeah so young Sir Luca the comment there is for his parents please bring him back inside

[00:33:39] and then also from Don Joey's perspective this guy he has a perception problem too

[00:33:46] because he yells at you and he goes hey check out this cool looking Pokémon I got.

[00:33:50] Don't yell at me.

[00:33:51] And then you battle him and it's a level five chuddle.

[00:33:55] The chuddles are also really tiny.

[00:33:57] The chuddle was much smaller than him so that's manageable but chuddle cool looking.

[00:34:02] Oh no that thing sucks.

[00:34:03] It's one of the dumbest looking Pokémon there is.

[00:34:06] What does that one grow up into Dreadnaw?

[00:34:08] Yeah.

[00:34:09] But that's kind of cool I'm not mad at a Dreadnaw.

[00:34:12] Dreadnaw is cool and I've run that and I like Dreadnaw but chuddle is an abomination.

[00:34:17] Yeah.

[00:34:18] What is this two speaking of chuddle what is this tooting sound I'm hearing in your space.

[00:34:22] Yeah I was hoping that wasn't going to get picked up and that's going to make editing this bad.

[00:34:28] Unit below me is renovating.

[00:34:30] Okay.

[00:34:31] When there was an earthquake when we had that famous New York earthquake the other week.

[00:34:35] New York earthquake oh yeah we had it in Connecticut too.

[00:34:37] Oh you got some got some waves up there.

[00:34:41] No I was sitting on the couch and I knew this renovation was happening

[00:34:47] and I started I was like what's happening.

[00:34:49] I was next to the bar cart and the glasses were shaking a little bit.

[00:34:53] Yeah.

[00:34:53] And I just thought oh what kind of a renovation are they doing down there.

[00:34:58] Let this aftermath is pretty dramatic.

[00:35:01] I'm going to fire a bowl through your floor.

[00:35:03] I know like are they drilling into my apartment.

[00:35:06] And then I got all the texts and everyone was like oh was that an earthquake but you know

[00:35:12] from the Pacific Rim so I went through a 6.8 grow it up.

[00:35:16] So you know your shit.

[00:35:18] Felt like the school was floating.

[00:35:20] We also went through that really scary one in like 2017.

[00:35:22] You know like 3.7 or whatever I didn't even remember that earthquakes could hit in New York

[00:35:29] City because I have not registered any of them until this one.

[00:35:32] There's something my I mean hearing this from my father-in-law last weekend so

[00:35:36] I'm not sure if it's true because he probably just heard it on Facebook.

[00:35:39] But there's something like there's something different about the plates up here than there

[00:35:44] than they are in like the Pacific Northwest or in weak plates.

[00:35:47] California.

[00:35:48] Yeah.

[00:35:48] Different kind of earthquake.

[00:35:50] I'm sitting on the big one so I had to get out of there.

[00:35:53] Where are we?

[00:35:54] Anyway RIP Youngster Luca probably killed by a cricketer.

[00:35:58] Sorry.

[00:35:59] We headed up to Mesagosa which is a school town.

[00:36:05] There is pretty much just the school here before you can really do much of anything

[00:36:09] you climb the stairs and are assaulted by shoddiest villains that we have encountered.

[00:36:18] I think that's true.

[00:36:19] Team Star phoned it in on this one.

[00:36:22] Team Star stinks.

[00:36:24] Boo.

[00:36:24] They're just they're like I guess they're fellow students because they're all wearing

[00:36:28] they're like skater boys.

[00:36:29] You know what they look like?

[00:36:30] They look like why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?

[00:36:34] Yeah.

[00:36:34] They're wearing their school uniform but they've got it in sort of like

[00:36:38] pretty like safe anti-authority punk remix to the outfit.

[00:36:46] And it's also got a little bit of like a 60s like Vespa Boy vibe.

[00:36:51] They do have like Vespa helmets that have like star goggles on them and then they like loose

[00:36:58] their ties and they're sort of like showing off their chests a little bit.

[00:37:02] And I don't really know what their goal is.

[00:37:05] They're like forcibly they're just like bullies.

[00:37:07] They were forcibly trying to recruit some like little alt kid I would say.

[00:37:14] Yeah.

[00:37:14] I don't know what the terms are anymore.

[00:37:17] Sort of like someone who seems like they're probably into like the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom,

[00:37:21] you know?

[00:37:22] Definitely.

[00:37:23] And we have to intercede because this person does not want to join Team Star.

[00:37:27] And we don't really know what Team Star's goal is.

[00:37:30] I rejected them.

[00:37:32] Don Joey said, no, I'm here to liberate people like this alt teen from people like you.

[00:37:39] I had a similar conversation with them but were we interrupted at this point by Nimona?

[00:37:44] Nimona gives us a Tara orb.

[00:37:48] Yeah.

[00:37:49] Yes.

[00:37:50] So that's the point this happens at.

[00:37:52] Before we can really square off with these two Team Star members,

[00:37:56] Nimona shows up and she's like, here's the orb I promised you.

[00:37:59] I had to go to the Jedi Council and got their like emergency authorization to give you this orb.

[00:38:05] So now you can like, what is it called?

[00:38:09] I'm just never going to.

[00:38:09] Terrestrialize.

[00:38:15] It's a bad name and it's not my favorite.

[00:38:17] Terrestrialize.

[00:38:18] Gimmick.

[00:38:20] Here's how it works.

[00:38:22] You now have a new option in your fight menu where you can

[00:38:27] crystallize your Pokemon.

[00:38:30] I should just figure it out.

[00:38:31] Terrestrialize.

[00:38:32] Terrestrialize.

[00:38:34] Terrestrialize.

[00:38:35] Terrestrialize your Pokemon, which means that they grow a big horn.

[00:38:41] It's like an emoji over their head.

[00:38:43] Yeah.

[00:38:43] Emoji is close.

[00:38:45] And they are covered in little crystals.

[00:38:47] And the emoji that grows over their head is relative to, I think some Pokemon have

[00:38:53] their own sort of special emoji, I think.

[00:38:56] But then some are given a generic Terraform emoji.

[00:39:00] Yeah.

[00:39:01] It can go a couple of ways.

[00:39:02] The default is if Pommy is electric only, for example.

[00:39:07] So its Terraform is just electric but a meryl that's water fairy,

[00:39:14] its Terraform might specifically be fairy rather than water and then it empowers the moves.

[00:39:21] Also, you can encounter Terra Pokemon in the overworld or humans.

[00:39:26] I guess that's confusing.

[00:39:28] So humans can be terrestrialized for Esteban?

[00:39:33] That fucks me up to think about.

[00:39:35] Yeah.

[00:39:35] We might have to think on that one.

[00:39:37] I haven't seen any crystallized humans yet.

[00:39:39] Don Joey encountered some in his travels in the overworld and they can be,

[00:39:45] they're in like Terra raids is another thing.

[00:39:48] Oh, I've seen the Terra raids.

[00:39:48] Those can be totally random.

[00:39:51] So I thought like a starly that's normal flying normally, but its Terraform was like ice.

[00:39:59] So they can have completely different types.

[00:40:02] But then you'd have to know an ice move for it to be empowered and what ice moves.

[00:40:06] So that just seems like, certainly at this point, we're not going to have access to a move

[00:40:12] to teach it that's ice.

[00:40:14] Although I would also say on that note, like I think the TM,

[00:40:18] what they've done with the TMS in this game is pretty smart where there's plenty of them.

[00:40:23] You can just find out in the wild and they got rid of the T.

[00:40:27] I think we'll find out, but they got rid of the TRTM differentiation.

[00:40:31] And now it's that if you find a TM and you use it, you can then rebuild it in

[00:40:39] the Pokémon Center and you collect little like ingredients or like a

[00:40:45] Igly buff fluff is one of them.

[00:40:49] When you capture or fight Pokémon, you get pieces of them and you can use those to build more TMS,

[00:40:58] which is pretty good.

[00:40:59] Yeah. Every time you defeat a Pokémon, you carve off a chunk of it as like a little trophy.

[00:41:04] Yeah, it's trophies.

[00:41:05] And then you can craft that into stuff.

[00:41:06] Don Joey is very into that.

[00:41:08] Great. Let's head out.

[00:41:13] We get this tour of the school and a couple of comments I wanted to make about this.

[00:41:22] I thought to get us into the school spirit.

[00:41:25] I don't know if Naranja has a school song, but Uva Academy has a school song that I found

[00:41:31] in the library.

[00:41:32] So I thought we could sing the school song.

[00:41:35] OK. Yeah, please.

[00:41:36] Do you know the...

[00:41:37] It's right here.

[00:41:38] Do you have the...

[00:41:39] In the notes?

[00:41:40] Sheet music?

[00:41:40] Yep.

[00:41:41] I see the lyrics to the sheet music.

[00:41:42] We'll perform it on my piano here.

[00:41:44] You need to have songs to entertain yourself when you're selling forth.

[00:41:49] So Don Joey just already knows it by heart.

[00:41:52] So you could follow my lead or you could just listen.

[00:41:54] Yeah, please.

[00:41:55] Respectfully.

[00:41:56] I'll follow.

[00:41:56] I'm also from, as you know, I'm from the Pal Day region.

[00:42:00] I grew up with these like we watch the college academy basketball and football games,

[00:42:06] March Madness and all that stuff.

[00:42:07] Pickleball? Is that big over there?

[00:42:08] I know all this stuff.

[00:42:10] Yeah.

[00:42:10] OK, so the Uva Academy school song.

[00:42:21] Over a grand mesa goes a stands our dear Uva

[00:42:27] Where we enter as seeds and leave in fruition

[00:42:32] Our minds wide as the crater for wise educators

[00:42:38] To fill with individual spirit and future ambition

[00:42:43] Teach us well, O grapes of Paldea

[00:42:50] And then that's it.

[00:42:52] It feels like there should be more.

[00:42:54] Do I do it again?

[00:42:55] While you were singing, beautiful song.

[00:42:57] It's be a beautiful, glorious song.

[00:42:59] I'm pretty sure I found a book in Naranja Academy and I can't remember.

[00:43:03] I didn't take a screenshot of it, but I think the lyrics were pretty similar.

[00:43:07] Oh, if I'm being honest, they didn't have to tweak the rhyme scheme to fit Naranja.

[00:43:13] Naranjana while you were doing that, I did Google and did find the sheet music for it.

[00:43:18] So great.

[00:43:18] If anyone knows how to play, honestly, I don't even know what instruments this requires.

[00:43:24] There's a lot of notes.

[00:43:26] Solo piano.

[00:43:27] If anyone plays solo piano, let me know and we can get that sorted for Josh.

[00:43:32] Because I think you did a lovely song, but I would hate for that to be unaccompanied.

[00:43:35] Thank you.

[00:43:36] Oh, wow.

[00:43:36] I can't believe someone has actually done this.

[00:43:41] So we're sort of introduced to all the faculty.

[00:43:44] They bring us into the staff room to meet a bunch of people.

[00:43:48] And they're totally rizzed up as they say.

[00:43:53] Oh yeah.

[00:43:54] Yeah, they're all dressed like they're going out clubbing.

[00:43:56] Yeah, like after this.

[00:43:58] They have these very bespoke, colorful suits.

[00:44:01] There's a woman who looks like a country singer.

[00:44:04] There's a woman who's got just the giantest crazy hair.

[00:44:08] God bless them.

[00:44:09] They can't program the hair well enough.

[00:44:11] So it's just sort of all over the place.

[00:44:13] This staff room is like, it is a club, I think.

[00:44:18] The lockers, I'm sure, just open up into a bar.

[00:44:21] Yeah, I'm sure.

[00:44:22] And then we're sort of introduced to kind of the main gameplay loops of the game.

[00:44:28] Yeah, there's three paths.

[00:44:29] Go do all the Victory Road.

[00:44:31] Go beat all the gyms.

[00:44:32] Go get all the giant Pokemon.

[00:44:34] Path of Legends.

[00:44:35] And then Starfall Street is that a Team Star has bases around Paldea.

[00:44:41] I don't know why they were allowed to get away with that.

[00:44:44] The school is pretty fast and loose with its enforcement.

[00:44:49] Loose attitude in the Paldea region about a lot of things.

[00:44:52] Yeah, I mean, why am I even allowed in the staff room?

[00:44:55] Yeah.

[00:44:57] So it's called a staff room.

[00:44:58] You also get called into Clavel's office.

[00:45:03] And you, man, and you get a call from somebody hacks your phone too.

[00:45:09] Okay, yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about Rotom while we're here.

[00:45:12] Because that's about time.

[00:45:14] Thank you for bringing this up.

[00:45:15] Rotom Subjugation has gotten out of control.

[00:45:19] Who would have thought the Spanish, I mean, Paldians would do something like that.

[00:45:22] You come into the game with a Rotom phone.

[00:45:24] That's just understood now in Pokemon games.

[00:45:26] Like everyone has a Rotom phone.

[00:45:29] In one of the cities, Cartondo, you can go into a Rotom customization shop

[00:45:35] and put a skin on your Rotom.

[00:45:37] That seems a little fucked up for an autonomous creature with sentience

[00:45:42] and the ability to kind of make decisions for itself.

[00:45:45] Shouldn't it at least be a conversation

[00:45:47] that we have with the Rotom?

[00:45:48] Like, hey, do you like this color?

[00:45:50] By the way, I got the Floregato skin for mine.

[00:45:55] In honor of Donna Baker.

[00:45:56] I got like a copper one.

[00:45:58] I mean, Don Joey's gonna have a whole look and he's building out

[00:46:01] Two.

[00:46:02] You know what his band will be.

[00:46:03] Someone named Casipia.

[00:46:06] Yeah.

[00:46:06] Hacks your Rotom.

[00:46:08] This is a living creature with a brain and a mind.

[00:46:11] It's really fucked up.

[00:46:12] And she hacks it to like talk to you.

[00:46:14] And it's like also that's a huge invasion of privacy.

[00:46:16] Where are the laws here?

[00:46:18] Don't they have that data restriction law over here?

[00:46:20] Three.

[00:46:21] I have to introduce a subsegment and it's called is there fall damage?

[00:46:28] Oh, yeah.

[00:46:28] No, no, there is not.

[00:46:30] If you try to run at a cliff, your character will back off.

[00:46:33] Like I'm not going to jump off that cliff.

[00:46:35] Are you dumb?

[00:46:36] But if you do manage to trick it into falling off of a cliff,

[00:46:39] right as you're about to like splat on the ground,

[00:46:42] like those old people in Midsommar,

[00:46:44] your Rotom comes out of your pocket and saves you.

[00:46:48] And saves you.

[00:46:49] And then the game very helpfully gives you the option to hit Y

[00:46:52] to just go back up if you had fallen accidentally.

[00:46:55] Yeah, I found that out when I was like, oh, shit.

[00:46:57] I think I was playing when Bobby was out there and he's like,

[00:46:59] Oh no, what happened?

[00:47:00] Because I thought I was going to go splat when I fell off a tower

[00:47:03] that's like outside of Cortondo, I think.

[00:47:06] I climbed it and there was a gimme ghoul up there also,

[00:47:10] which was a nice catch.

[00:47:13] But then I fell down all the ladders and I thought I was going to die.

[00:47:16] I wanted to see where these gimme ghoul coins lead me.

[00:47:18] I've gotten several coins and I now have a gimme ghoul as well.

[00:47:22] Oh, I want to find one.

[00:47:24] I thought I had to collect coins to get them.

[00:47:26] I think that's how it evolves.

[00:47:28] There's a tower outside of Cortondo, I think, where one lives.

[00:47:31] Speaking of outside of Cortondo, there's the desert region

[00:47:35] where I had to hunt down Stonecliff Titan cloth, Josh.

[00:47:42] It sounds like you skipped this one.

[00:47:43] Seems like you didn't want your Corridon to be a fucking beast-ass motorcycle bike.

[00:47:49] Well, I intend to do all the Titans.

[00:47:51] Like the game tries to railroad you into picking one of the paths,

[00:47:54] but you can obviously do all of them.

[00:47:56] And as we said at the top of the episode,

[00:47:59] we will drive the season based on the Victory Road path,

[00:48:03] but I think we will probably do all of them.

[00:48:06] But I did not do the Stonecliff Titan cloth yet.

[00:48:11] So tell me about it.

[00:48:13] Well, he's out here in the desert.

[00:48:15] There's lots of beautiful Pokemon out here,

[00:48:16] little go-goats running around, little cloths.

[00:48:18] Oh, go-goats too?

[00:48:19] Which are little like, I guess, polluted crabs?

[00:48:24] A little bit of half-coughing, half-grabby.

[00:48:26] I'm looking at it and I like the look.

[00:48:28] I kind of like them too.

[00:48:29] And there's a really big one that you have to fight.

[00:48:31] And it's just like those Arena Pokemon from the last game,

[00:48:35] but not all the pomp and circumstance, just a big hard Pokemon.

[00:48:39] It's just a battle you don't have to do.

[00:48:42] You don't have to calm it down with Balms or something?

[00:48:44] No, that's nice.

[00:48:45] And then once you beat it, it drops like a,

[00:48:50] I don't even remember what it was, like a branch.

[00:48:53] And then you can use that to do a speed boost on your Karaitan.

[00:48:58] Ooh.

[00:48:59] Mirrored on.

[00:49:00] So it's worth doing.

[00:49:02] And I think that's probably what,

[00:49:03] I like this system of the Titan Pokemon being the thing

[00:49:06] that unlock the traversal.

[00:49:09] Upgrades like surf and fly and all that.

[00:49:11] Yeah, I think that's smart.

[00:49:13] And then we're sort of unleashed on province too.

[00:49:16] I obviously got around a lot faster than you did,

[00:49:18] but I was on a little manhunt before I went to go face Muffin Mommy.

[00:49:24] I picked up a few more, rounded out the initial band at least.

[00:49:29] Although I caught a mon that is not in the band of Merry Adventures yet at least,

[00:49:38] but it is Joshi Sweetie.

[00:49:40] Whom is it?

[00:49:40] Fido.

[00:49:41] Yes.

[00:49:47] I mean, Fido is really good.

[00:49:49] Basically goes without saying,

[00:49:51] I mean there are several honeypots on this trip like Pommy too.

[00:49:56] I kind of like, I like the new Pokemon in this game.

[00:49:59] I don't think they're bad.

[00:50:00] No, I'm liking the design so far.

[00:50:02] It wasn't enough that I could call it a sweetie,

[00:50:04] but even that kind of gross little cricket that Muffin Mommy has was kind of cute too.

[00:50:10] Yeah, I didn't mind that thing.

[00:50:11] I'm curious to see what it grows up into.

[00:50:13] Largely, I do not know what most of them evolve into.

[00:50:17] Yeah, me neither.

[00:50:18] Well, speaking of Muffin Mommy, let's get up there.

[00:50:23] This is Cortondo City.

[00:50:26] Cortondo City, it's the bug type trainer, Jim.

[00:50:31] Her name is Katie.

[00:50:34] But we call her Muffin Mommy.

[00:50:36] Her theme is a little piecemeal.

[00:50:39] Yeah, I think that's about right.

[00:50:40] Sort of patch together.

[00:50:41] She's the bug type trainer, but she's also a bakery and she's also like Queen of the Spiders.

[00:50:47] And she's also like Mommy.

[00:50:49] She's Mommy.

[00:50:50] She's mother.

[00:50:52] They've got quite an elaborate setup where you go to like a check-in.

[00:50:56] Like I first went over to what I guess was her gym because I was like, what is this?

[00:51:02] It's kind of like a four tree style building that's got like a winding staircase and like

[00:51:10] ladders and shit.

[00:51:11] And then it's all like kind of grown over and there's a bunch of bugs hanging out.

[00:51:15] And then I realized, oh, this is like a battle zone and I can't do anything with it.

[00:51:20] And her bakery is at the foot of it.

[00:51:22] But you have to check in at a different building and then you have to do a gym challenge.

[00:51:28] The thing about Cortondo is it's where they grow all the olives.

[00:51:32] Right.

[00:51:32] So that's another sort of theme thing that we have to kind of deal with is before we can go fight this

[00:51:37] bakery.

[00:51:37] And are the olives small-lives?

[00:51:38] Muffin mommy.

[00:51:39] Are they eating?

[00:51:40] Oh, yeah.

[00:51:41] It's also heavily implied that these are small-lives that they're turning into like

[00:51:44] olive oil and eating.

[00:51:45] They're crushing them up.

[00:51:46] And also there's a million like sqoven, sqoven around.

[00:51:50] Oh, sqoven.

[00:51:51] Eating all of the small-lives.

[00:51:53] Yeah.

[00:51:54] Heavily implied.

[00:51:55] Yeah.

[00:51:56] I will be interested to see if Esteban might pick up a sqovet considering his omniscient narrator

[00:52:06] has a predisposition toward ingredient.

[00:52:09] Is that a guy though?

[00:52:10] I don't think so.

[00:52:10] Pet.

[00:52:11] Be a pet.

[00:52:12] Yeah, someone has a pet squirrel.

[00:52:13] Pet squirrel.

[00:52:14] That makes a lot of sense.

[00:52:16] Anybody with a pet squirrel, you know that person is on the level.

[00:52:20] So yes, we had to go out to do this like it was a little silly.

[00:52:24] I suspect I broke the like olive pushing world record, but there's like a little like maze

[00:52:29] set up where you have to push an olive ball.

[00:52:32] Big olive.

[00:52:33] With your body into an end zone and there's a total of two trainers along the way.

[00:52:39] Who can stop you up?

[00:52:40] Oh, I didn't know I could fight them.

[00:52:41] I thought they were just all of small-lives workers or fisters.

[00:52:46] And then you push the big olive into the end zone.

[00:52:48] Oh, maybe I didn't fight them because I swear to God, I just like I punted this

[00:52:52] thing over the fences.

[00:52:54] If they have more challenges that are like this, we should start timing ourselves

[00:52:58] because I also think I did it in like 15 or 20 seconds.

[00:53:02] Yeah.

[00:53:03] Like I got to the first ramp and I hit it so hard that it like kind of broke the clipping

[00:53:08] of the game.

[00:53:09] Of course.

[00:53:09] And like shot over like three walls.

[00:53:12] Yeah.

[00:53:12] So I just then had to catch up with it and push it in the end zone.

[00:53:14] Not much of a challenge.

[00:53:16] Then we are free to take on Muff and Mommy Katie.

[00:53:19] I want to hear about the team that you brought into the battle in our hit segment.

[00:53:24] Level check.

[00:53:25] Oh, level check.

[00:53:30] Who's Don Joey got?

[00:53:32] Don Joey's band of merry adventurers sallying forth to rid Pal day of the evils that plague it.

[00:53:40] So far we have Rouncy who is a crookalore now level 17.

[00:53:47] Any of these things are Google Bowl if you want to look it up.

[00:53:50] I'm looking them up because I don't know what the evolution of the Fueco.

[00:53:53] You can piece together where the storyline might be going.

[00:53:58] Rouncy is his loyal steed for now at least.

[00:54:02] But like I said, he's trying to cultivate what might be like precious little sweeties now into

[00:54:10] bold daring knights and people in his court.

[00:54:15] So got crookalore now and then we have Porcus.

[00:54:19] Funny name.

[00:54:19] Le Chonk level 14.

[00:54:22] I like those Le Chonks and I saw the evolution of Le Chonk running around.

[00:54:27] Oh, I haven't seen that yet.

[00:54:29] Is it still going to fit in his in his band of merry adventurers?

[00:54:32] Maybe maybe even better.

[00:54:33] He's pretty like it's kind of cute little toughy tough little pig as we progress throughout this

[00:54:39] and Don Joey's adventurers, you know, accomplished valiant feats.

[00:54:44] They may get titles honorific titles.

[00:54:47] They might change in different ways and they might be kicked out.

[00:54:51] They might have to be left on the side of the road or they might die in glorious battle.

[00:54:56] But for now, the only two who are starting with honorific titles are the Duke,

[00:55:03] Pommy level 15.

[00:55:05] Okay.

[00:55:05] Like it.

[00:55:06] And the Duchess, Merrill level 14.

[00:55:09] So they're great.

[00:55:10] They're a couple, a power couple.

[00:55:12] They're in love.

[00:55:13] Yeah.

[00:55:13] Oh, I see.

[00:55:14] Okay.

[00:55:14] That's great.

[00:55:15] Yeah.

[00:55:15] I love that for them there and their mischievous.

[00:55:18] They're kind of the pranksters of the group.

[00:55:20] Okay.

[00:55:21] You got to have a wild card there, but they're the leaders.

[00:55:25] Well, they grew up and grew up in the lap of luxury.

[00:55:28] So they like they don't really have a regard for conventions and laws.

[00:55:33] Which I think probably Esteban would relate to.

[00:55:36] Yeah.

[00:55:36] Then we have Sapper, the Tarantula, which is level 14.

[00:55:40] Cool.

[00:55:41] Cool name.

[00:55:41] And then Cookie, small live level 15.

[00:55:44] My D&D character.

[00:55:45] Cook got to be able to feed the troops.

[00:55:47] Great.

[00:55:48] Who's Esteban got?

[00:55:49] Let's talk about Esteban Humano's band of Mary Brose and Broettes.

[00:55:56] Donna Baker, my friend Donna Baker, Flora Gatto, level 17.

[00:56:02] This is my friend Thad Ronson.

[00:56:05] He's a Ralts, level 13.

[00:56:08] This is his dog, Rum Tom Tugger.

[00:56:11] It's a mass shift.

[00:56:12] That's good.

[00:56:13] It is not nice.

[00:56:15] I do not like it when he brings it.

[00:56:17] I asked him not to bring it.

[00:56:18] Those look mean.

[00:56:18] I asked him to keep it at home.

[00:56:20] Yeah.

[00:56:20] Don't try to pet it.

[00:56:21] Don't look it in the eyes.

[00:56:22] It's not a kind dog.

[00:56:23] No, they look mean.

[00:56:24] That's why Don Joey didn't want to recruit one of those for his band.

[00:56:29] Sonny Ohaney is level 15 and she's such an interesting character and how to explain her.

[00:56:32] She's not a human yet, but she will be soon.

[00:56:35] Right now, she's more of a corn kernel.

[00:56:38] She's a sun kern.

[00:56:40] But eventually she'll grow arms and legs in a face and I think be a full-fledged human.

[00:56:43] So we'll see.

[00:56:44] So Esteban Humano is like a Pokedex worm.

[00:56:48] Like really goes through there and like, I mean, human dex?

[00:56:53] Humano dex?

[00:56:55] He's just looking for buds.

[00:56:56] Okay.

[00:56:58] And then so I was kind of trying to jump around on some cliffs

[00:57:02] to get to some like far off glowing pokeballs in the distance and tumble down one at one point

[00:57:09] and something chased me down the cliff and it was a baby.

[00:57:13] Baby Kyle.

[00:57:15] And I fought it and it was really strong.

[00:57:17] It was a strong baby level 22.

[00:57:20] Toxel.

[00:57:20] Oh, wow.

[00:57:22] He got a toxel.

[00:57:23] So he joined the team and because I was like, who's baby is this?

[00:57:26] I have to like take care of this baby now.

[00:57:28] So they've just got this baby on my team.

[00:57:31] He doesn't listen to a word I say.

[00:57:33] Maybe baby Kyle will be a youngster someday.

[00:57:36] Every now and then I'll come in and be like, hey, do you want to like do this battle,

[00:57:38] baby Kyle?

[00:57:39] And he's like, I pretend not to hear me.

[00:57:42] Maybe that will have changed now that I've beaten them.

[00:57:45] My mommy, but.

[00:57:47] And then as I was walking around the olive groves and encountered a pretty interesting

[00:57:54] woman out there, sharp dresser.

[00:57:57] Her name is Corinne Moss.

[00:58:00] She's a Vespa queen.

[00:58:01] She's level 27.

[00:58:02] Okay.

[00:58:04] I saw that Vespa Quinn and I was like, I'm not doing that.

[00:58:08] Like that's going to kill all these adventurers.

[00:58:11] My philosophy on the level 27 Vespa Quinn is you miss 100% of the level 20 Vespa

[00:58:17] Quinn's that you don't throw the netball you found at.

[00:58:21] Because I found a netball and just like took the shot.

[00:58:24] It was paralyzed from toxel.

[00:58:28] Oh, baby Kyle.

[00:58:28] Yeah.

[00:58:29] Baby Kyle had paralyzed it.

[00:58:31] The one time he listens to me, he does a nuzzle and paralyzes Vespa Queen,

[00:58:37] which is all it took for the netball to catch it.

[00:58:39] So she also does not listen to a word.

[00:58:42] No, she is not interested.

[00:58:43] I think even after muffin mommy, she's still not going to.

[00:58:47] No, I hope it's like that they're like free Paldane spirits and not like

[00:58:51] sovereign citizens because I'm not sure I have space for that on my team.

[00:58:55] That could be a big.

[00:58:56] I'm already thinking about cutting fat and his dog loose.

[00:59:03] Not nice.

[00:59:04] Yeah, yeah, you've got an unruly crew already.

[00:59:08] Lots of interesting people I've met so far and they're animals.

[00:59:13] And I have an animal too.

[00:59:14] I have a lizard I ride right and I defeated muffin mommy.

[00:59:18] I wouldn't say pretty handily, but I beat her muffin mommy has got a nimble,

[00:59:23] which is the cricket one that I was talking about, a tarantula and a teddy or so.

[00:59:29] And a teddy or so that she terra forms.

[00:59:32] Yeah.

[00:59:32] So that's the example of its terra type is bug even though it's normally just a normal type.

[00:59:38] It has fury cutter, which it uses to great effect once it's terrestrialized,

[00:59:42] especially on my fucking plant type floric auto and plant type.

[00:59:46] Why?

[00:59:47] I get what I did bring in sun current just because I ran out of Pokemon at one point.

[00:59:50] But it died in one hit muffin mommy actually did cause you some

[00:59:53] trouble.

[00:59:53] Just those two.

[00:59:55] At some point I brought in Vespic Queen just so I could revive everyone so no one

[00:59:59] missed out on the XP boost from winning the battle.

[01:00:03] And then I beat her.

[01:00:04] Did you beat her?

[01:00:05] Oh yeah, I had crocalore, so I just incinerated all of them.

[01:00:09] Where we go next?

[01:00:11] Next we do the artisan gym.

[01:00:15] Artisan gym.

[01:00:17] Grass.

[01:00:17] Artisan.

[01:00:18] They got a, I mean it's one thing bug like just should not be a gym leader type anymore

[01:00:25] but then to put bug and then grass back to back is a little lazy.

[01:00:31] Yeah, Toxel's gonna get a little bit of a workout.

[01:00:33] Although it's coming from the guy with fire type.

[01:00:36] And then I guess so I will do the stony cliff Titan and then maybe we'll throw in this,

[01:00:40] it looks like open sky Titan.

[01:00:42] Ooh.

[01:00:43] Could do that if you want.

[01:00:44] Yeah please let's do that.

[01:00:45] We could also try out one of these team star bases if we got the time.

[01:00:50] Yeah let's do that too.

[01:00:51] See what's going on with the Starfall Street storyline.

[01:00:54] That's the mission for next week.

[01:00:56] It's like Sword and Shield where it's like open world and we kind of are in charge of our own

[01:01:00] destinies even more so they literally just put the like six or the eight gyms on the map

[01:01:05] and they're like go nuts.

[01:01:06] It does not have dynamic levels.

[01:01:08] The regions are numbered right which makes it a little easier because it's like this

[01:01:12] is the second wild region.

[01:01:14] It's like great I'll head there second.

[01:01:16] Yeah southern province area two.

[01:01:18] Okay yeah got it.

[01:01:19] So yeah it's making it a little more easy to kind of track our progress so we'll try

[01:01:23] to keep you guys up to speed.

[01:01:24] We'll probably publish a episode guide this week when this goes up.

[01:01:29] Yes.

[01:01:29] Keep an eye out for that and play along and let us know about your characters.

[01:01:33] Tweeted us or thread us or post on the subreddit reddit.com slash r slash bug

[01:01:39] catcher is best place to uh.

[01:01:40] It's making my bitch.

[01:01:41] Track levels level check or you could post on X or Instagram at the X P share pod.

[01:01:52] Yes we want to hear what you're doing.

[01:01:54] It's a new season please do play please do join go recommend it to a friend.

[01:01:59] Yes and tell them to play along and listen to the show and tell them to

[01:02:02] recommend it to a friend too.

[01:02:03] It's like a pyramid scheme this is an MLM now.

[01:02:06] Yeah this is the moment that we need to stress that it's an MLM more than ever

[01:02:10] because we're here everybody's got this game if you're a Pokemon fan.

[01:02:14] Get your friends to listen to the show play along.

[01:02:18] Sally forth and Nepal day with us.

[01:02:20] I've got so much to say about ice creams next week.

[01:02:22] I didn't even have time this week but the ice cream situation is a whole trip.

[01:02:26] So I bought a couple and I don't know how it impacts the ice cream and like they

[01:02:33] gave me a cutscene that made it look like Estabarumana was having an orgasm

[01:02:38] with all of his Pokemon like present and then for some reason afterwards they're like good

[01:02:43] luck hey good news that mint ice cream you ate brought your humongous power for steel way up

[01:02:50] and I was like okay thank you and then they're like and also your egg power way up.

[01:02:56] They didn't explain any of this no wonder Joe Biden loves ice cream.

[01:03:02] Here you go you got these boosts.

[01:03:04] Yeah do not know how they come into play yet but Don Joey had a pretty orgasmic experience

[01:03:09] with a cup of coffee I'll tell you that. He needed his Java.

[01:03:15] Yeah don't don't don't speak to me before I've had my Java yeah because I'm too horny

[01:03:21] but do speak to us on our on our socials as we said and uh you can also buy some merch

[01:03:27] maybe we'll come up with some new merch as we get into the uh oh yeah how they in region

[01:03:31] but you can buy that at ESP share. Oh yeah you can like we'll make a shirt that says like part of

[01:03:38] Estabarumano's crew you know and you can be on the crew you can be one of my people yeah or

[01:03:44] Don Joey's merry band of adventurers yeah that's fun make it look like a night's outfit yeah that'd

[01:03:50] be cool all right Joshua butt catchers that's it for us this week join us again next week

[01:03:55] where we go to the other gym that we already talked about I will say to all of you the I've

[01:04:01] just learned this one actually on Duolingo we have that here in Paldea oh that's good this is how we

[01:04:07] say goodbye in Paldain oh enlighten me let me see if I can remember senora no that's not right

[01:04:14] that's wrong I mean uh let me remember I just did this on Duolingo Don Joey's only learning

[01:04:21] Paldain now but uh I don't think senora's right adios and goodbye and aloha adios and uh aloha and

[01:04:33] uh smell you later wait smell you later smell you later in Paldain is alert de loego alert de loego

[01:04:47] alert de loego there we go