Pokemon Violet First Thoughts vol. 2

 so, uh, the pace did not pick up.

I spent just as much time exploring every inch of this rocky region to the East of the school as I did the Southern grounds, and then even more when I was able to double-back and get the rest of the Eastern grasslands that were inaccessible from the starting side. And everywhere I went, I found swathes of new Pokemon. I've been catching 'em all, my Pokedex has almost 100 entries. And I've only done the first gym!

I've also done the first Titan, and the first Team Boss, and I was over-leveled for all of them because I spent so much time combing their areas beforehand. Well, Team Star's Mela gave me some trouble, but I was able to win thanks to Charcadet's ability to absorb Fire moves.  (btw it was hilarious, the character who showed up to help with Mela's base) I still think Arven is a dweeb who wants to defeat these mutant Pokemon and harvest their magical herbs to make freakin' sandwiches, but I'm curious what's up with him and Miraidon and Prof. Turo. There's some drama there that nobody's telling.. and as for Brassius, it was very silly to run around town with a gang of Sunflora moving at 2 fps.

The graphical issues continue, although I thought the sunset looked striking over the rocky plateaus. Maybe I'm just getting used to the jank. Although I was thinking about Legends:Arceus, and that game had some gorgeous skyboxes. And maybe the cel shading just worked better for Pokemon, I'm still not sold on how... plastic everything looks. Wasn't a fan of that art direction for the latest Pokemon Snap, either.

meanwhile, I'm starting to find brand-new Pokemon - like Lowkix the ninja grasshopper, Tinkatink the living Troll doll, and a region Fighting-type Tauros who is simply all-black. My Fuecoco evolved, and he's got a little flaming sombrero, which rocks. But most importantly, as hinted at earlier, I found a Charcadet. Who seems to be the pre-evolution to Armarouge, which is a bit odd because I thought that was exclusive to Scarlet? Or did I misunderstand, and they did a color-swap thingie and Ceruledge is the Scarlet exclusive? Cuz that's the one I really want, but Armarouge is cool too. Maybe it's a split evolution? idk... this is the sort of thing I wouldn't have to worry about if I wasn't playing blind!