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That's Sada the professor. I wasn't kidding when I said she was dead. She died a long time ago when something happened at her lab. The Sada you've known the whole game is an AI. You need to deactivate the lab so Paradox mons don't invade Paldea. But if you try to deactivate the lab AI Sada is programmed to do all she can to stop that from happening. You have to fight AI Sada to deactivate the lab.
According to Sada, the lab is a time machine that’s running on autopilot and extracting Pokémon from the distant past and bringing them forward into the present. But given what Khu has implied about Paradox mons being fantasies made real, I suspect there’s more to it. There’s been some dialogue about how allowing Pokémon from the past to cohabitate with the present was Sada’s dream, and about how she the Scarlet Book was her favorite boom when she was young.
It's weird seeing so few key items in the bag after the credits, not even the Book stays around. I guess that's what you get with an open world where nothing is really blocked off and your main quest rewards are badges and herbs.
I am positive that the "time machine" the professor built isn't actually a time machine. It'd probably be more accurate to describe it as a "wish granting" machine.
-Why would Cyclizar be Koraidon in the past, become weak in the present, then evolve into the powerful Miraidon again?
-Sada is obsessed with bringing supposed "ancient" mons into the present. Other users have elaborated on it already, but she kind of went into this whole time machine business with very high hopes and expectations of what she'd find. Also, the final battle takes place against the Guardian of Paradise during the Paradise Protection Protocol. This repetition of the word Paradise suggests to me that she idealized the ancient past to a point that the idea she has of it bears very little resemblance to the ancient past as it actually was.
-I noticed a curious detail during the final battle. When she commands the Guardian of Paradise, she "terastalizes" and becomes Professor Sada proper when in the previous battle she was AI Sada. Perhaps the crystals in Area Zero can carry thoughts, memories, and dreams in a physical form? This also lines up with the highly advanced AI Sada requiring materials from Area Zero to be built.
-This one's a bit meta, but that ending is simply too open ended. AI Sada goes to the "past" to live the life she has always wanted to live. Khu mentioned a third book and the time machine required a book to function, which vanishes after Sada departs. I'm calling the DLC being this third book that you put in the "time" machine to enter the fantasy world and encounter the third legendary/Paradox Suicune/Virizion.
I am positive that the "time machine" the professor built isn't actually a time machine. It'd probably be more accurate to describe it as a "wish granting" machine.
-Why would Cyclizar be Koraidon in the past, become weak in the present, then evolve into the powerful Miraidon again?
-Sada is obsessed with bringing supposed "ancient" mons into the present. Other users have elaborated on it already, but she kind of went into this whole time machine business with very high hopes and expectations of what she'd find. Also, the final battle takes place against the Guardian of Paradise during the Paradise Protection Protocol. This repetition of the word Paradise suggests to me that she idealized the ancient past to a point that the idea she has of it bears very little resemblance to the ancient past as it actually was.
-I noticed a curious detail during the final battle. When she commands the Guardian of Paradise, she "terastalizes" and becomes Professor Sada proper when in the previous battle she was AI Sada. Perhaps the crystals in Area Zero can carry thoughts, memories, and dreams in a physical form? This also lines up with the highly advanced AI Sada requiring materials from Area Zero to be built.
-This one's a bit meta, but that ending is simply too open ended. AI Sada goes to the "past" to live the life she has always wanted to live. Khu mentioned a third book and the time machine required a book to function, which vanishes after Sada departs. I'm calling the DLC being this third book that you put in the "time" machine to enter the fantasy world and encounter the third legendary/Paradox Suicune/Virizion.
Man this sounds like a start for some Lovecraftian horror where Sada instead of building a time machine, managed to make a portal that connected the world to some Lovecraftian monster that grants her wishes creating monsters that were never meant to be and lure her deeper and deeper into the hole
The discussion in the other thread about possible affection bonuses brought up the possibility of a scripted instance during the final battle. If possible, I'd like details on this and any other moment that seems like it might be scripted.
The discussion in the other thread about possible affection bonuses brought up the possibility of a scripted instance during the final battle. If possible, I'd like details on this and any other moment that seems like it might be scripted.
Once you defeat AI Sada, the paradise protection protocol triggers and locks all pokeballs except those registered to Sada's ID. AI Sada fights you again, her name glitching into the Paradise Protection Protocol itself, and sends out Koraidon. You cannot send out any pokemon, you cannot fight, and you cannot run. In the pokemon menu you are pointed to the option to use your own Koraidon in the 7th slot and it manages to transform into its battle mode again. Koraidon has Flamethrower/Collision Course/Endure/Tera Blast with no tera option initially, and the enemy Koraidon has Bulk Up and some other similar moves. You don't deal a lot of damage to the enemy Koraidon but you get dialogue from your friends that give your Koraidon buffs. Eventually the enemy Koraidon almost takes you out but Koraidon toughs it out at 1HP with the power of friendship, and all your friends cheer Koraidon on to give it an omniboost and unlock the power of Dragon terastallization to allow you to Tera Blast it and finish it off.
I believe this is all scripted but it was a cool moment.
Once you defeat AI Sada, the paradise protection protocol triggers and locks all pokeballs except those registered to Sada's ID. AI Sada fights you again, her name glitching into the Paradise Protection Protocol itself, and sends out Koraidon. You cannot send out any pokemon, you cannot fight, and you cannot run. In the pokemon menu you are pointed to the option to use your own Koraidon in the 7th slot and it manages to transform into its battle mode again. Koraidon has Flamethrower/Collision Course/Endure/Tera Blast with no tera option initially, and the enemy Koraidon has Bulk Up and some other similar moves. You don't deal a lot of damage to the enemy Koraidon but you get dialogue from your friends that give your Koraidon buffs. Eventually the enemy Koraidon almost takes you out but Koraidon toughs it out at 1HP with the power of friendship, and all your friends cheer Koraidon on to give it an omniboost and unlock the power of Dragon terastallization to allow you to Tera Blast it and finish it off.
I believe this is all scripted but it was a cool moment.
So it's in a separate battle instance from the actual boss? At least that's less reason to be suspicious about the actual fight. Still a shame we can't finish it off on our own terms, though.
Story Boss Levels (Note: This is as far as Scarlet is concerned.)
The gym leader levels do NOT scale. Or rather, none of the boss fights do, so even though you can challenge the Gyms/Titans/Star in whatever order you wish, you could get absolutely clowned on if you happened to go to the strongest first. This was witnessed in Reee****-kun's stream where he fought Brassius and Iono first and ended up sweeping Katy later on.
Geeta is the top of all Champion trainers. Apparently, you also need to beat her to get to Champion Rank in the first place? Probably means she has a "weak" Champion team to assess you and then you can fight the full power team in the rematches. For all the Paths, you fight the rival of that Path at the very end of the questline. For this one, it's Nemona. Side note: Poppy is 5 years old according to many reports.
“Cassiopeia”
LV 60 Oranguru
LV 60 Gyarados
LV 60 Houndoom
LV 60 Abomasnow
LV 60 Polteageist
LV 61 Partner Pokémon stronger than yours (Their Type Tera)
Penny (real Cassiopeia, at end of Starfall Street):
LV 62 Umbreon
LV 62 Vaporeon
LV 62 Jolteon
LV 62 Flareon
LV 62 Leafeon
LV 63 Sylveon (Fairy)
After the 3 Paths are done, you unlock the final Path which takes you to the bottom of the crater in the center of the map. End Credits come after this. Final Boss is a team of all Paradox pokemon including the box legend. Presumably, Violet will have the Future Paradox Pokemon as compared to Scarlet's Past Paradox.
Story Boss Levels (Note: This is as far as Scarlet is concerned.)
The gym leader levels do NOT scale. Or rather, none of the boss fights do, so even though you can challenge the Gyms/Titans/Star in whatever order you wish, you could get absolutely clowned on if you happened to go to the strongest first. This was witnessed in Reee****-kun's stream where he fought Brassius and Iono first and ended up sweeping Katy later on.
Geeta is the top of all Champion trainers. Apparently, you also need to beat her to get to Champion Rank in the first place? Probably means she has a "weak" Champion team to assess you and then you can fight the full power team in the rematches. For all the Paths, you fight the rival of that Path at the very end of the questline. For this one, it's Nemona. Side note: Poppy is 5 years old according to many reports.
Penny (real Cassiopeia, at end of Starfall Street):
LV 62 Umbreon
LV 62 Vaporeon
LV 62 Jolteon
LV 62 Flareon
LV 62 Leafeon
LV 63 Sylveon (Fairy)
After the 3 Paths are done, you unlock the final Path which takes you to the bottom of the crater in the center of the map. End Credits come after this. Final Boss is a team of all Paradox pokemon including the box legend. Presumably, Violet will have the Future Paradox Pokemon as compared to Scarlet's Past Paradox.
The story takes place after you beat the 3 paths. Before that is just character exposition
Yes, roughly 15~ hours of character introduction followed by 3~ hours of actual plot. That said, I really do think they nailed the 3 hours of plot. A bit fast, yes, but it made me very invested in the world and eager for upcoming DLC.
I haven't been invested in the 3 other stories, I feel like the only one that amounts to anything new is the Team Star one which I think is "bullying is bad!!" but the 4th story, which is the endgame, is quite nice and has a lot of heart.
I figured the post-game was the fourth route thing after you clear the other 3 stories so capturing them there is pretty much post-game in my eyes. I want a chance to use them and train them properly within the story, getting them when there's not much left to do outside of rematches or whatever is too late in my opinion.
The third legendary's more like a Kirby regular final boss. The secret (game mode) final bosses have their names end with "Knight" too often lately (including obvious resemblance to Meta Knight).
I figured the post-game was the fourth route thing after you clear the other 3 stories so capturing them there is pretty much post-game in my eyes. I want a chance to use them and train them properly within the story, getting them when there's not much left to do outside of rematches or whatever is too late in my opinion.
The third legendary's more like a Kirby regular final boss. The secret (game mode) final bosses have their names end with "Knight" too often lately (including obvious resemblance to Meta Knight).
I figured the post-game was the fourth route thing after you clear the other 3 stories so capturing them there is pretty much post-game in my eyes. I want a chance to use them and train them properly within the story, getting them when there's not much left to do outside of rematches or whatever is too late in my opinion.
Who resembles the regular final boss of that Kirby game (OK fine except for the latest main series game, which gets an eyeless, mouthless, faceless big ball surrounded by little balls for its final final boss form), so we can pretty much ignore it for boss IDing purposes.
The third legendary actually reminded me more of Digimon (e.g. the monstrous, many-parted UltimateKhaosmon) or Yu-Gi-Oh! tarot references (especially The World).
Who resembles the regular final boss of that Kirby game (OK fine except for the latest main series game, which gets an eyeless big ball surrounded by little balls for its final final boss form), so we can pretty much ignore it for boss IDing purposes.
The third legendary actually reminded me more of Digimon (e.g. the monstrous, many-parted UltimateKhaosmon) or Yu-Gi-Oh! tarot references (especially The World).