So, time for my first bout of post game stuff, mainly Stakataka and Episode RR.
Stakatakatakataka...:
Just entered post game and already throwing special mons at me. Thanks to some prior warning via this thread, I knew Wicke was going to give me Type: Null here so I saved and SRed until I got a decent Nature one. Then came the Stakataka (what's the point of giving them a code name if we're not going to use it?) and took a while but I got a decent nature one and traded the second for a Blacephalon soon after. However after this I did decide to take a quick minute to transfer over my set of Synchronize Ralts. While they wouldn't have helped me here since there's natures are Modest, Adamant, Jolly, and Timid, I still figure they'll be useful for most of the other Legendaries (though maybe I should take some time after doing all the post game stuff to breeding 25 Ralts with all the Natures).
Episode RR:
So, we start with an invasion in Festival Plaza. It brings up a lot more questions about how exactly Festival Plaza works (so it's a cyberspace thing? How the people inside the Castle real people or programs, because the latter seems to be implied). I liked that we had to use the Battle Agency in order to battle Team Rocket, though kind of wished the game let me figure out the answer instead of having a Rocket Grunt tell me blankly that's what they use (since they're still incompetent and accidentally prevented themselves from using their Pokemon). But we defeat them, day is saved, and now I have a Team Rainbow Rocket castle as my castle because I hadn't unlocked the feature to change my castle yet in my Festival Plaza (or at least I couldn't find the option).
Mom's laziness continues as she taught Meowth how to turn on the TV. Oh, sure, she says Meowth learned it on its own by watching her but we all know the truth...
But good thing it did as we then get to see an Aether Foundation press conference go south as Rainbow Rocket invades. Lillie comes running in and we set off to Aether Foundation. First thing I learned their: you can now buy Beast Balls for 1k. Well, guess I don't got to debate with myself if I should reset if one breaks now. And geez, Wicke, how much Malasada do you have? I think she gave me, like, 3 in one scene. Do I look like Hau? Speaking of which, where is Hau? And the other Captains and Kahuna? Not one of them was watching the broadcast, or heard Wicke's emergency announcement?
And its official, Lillie is a Pokemon Trainer!... She only has a Clefairy they didn't really do much and she went back to being a healer afterwards. Baby steps, I suppose (we'll also ignore I didn't get Nebby yet so she should still have it...).
Now, throughout the game I was severely overleveled so I kind of breezed through the main game. But boy, did they sure make up for the level gap! Out of all characters, Faba was the first one I had trouble with! Well, not at first, it was his last Pokemon, Bruxish, that starting sweeping my team! It knocked out my Salamence(!) and Lurantis until Metagross knocked it out. Did he have a Choice Band on it or something? However that battle did teach me on thing: there's major money to be made. I had activated a Roto Prize Money as I was figured there was plenty of grunts to battle (that plus Lucky Coin means each grunt gives 10k each) and it lasted into the Faba Battle. I had Lycanroc use Happy Hour in the battle and the resulting cash prize was 210k and change! And that's not just Faba, all the villain leaders, with a combination of Roto Prize Money + Lucky Coin + Happy Hour, nets you over 200k in prize money (I think you get over 1.5 mil by doing this for all of them, not counting the grunts)! I was happy, though probably not Lycanroc, he kind of ate a lot of hits and got KO a few times (don't look at me like that, I gave it plenty of Poke Beans afterwards... well, three since that's its limit, but I gave it pets... as well as my other Pokemon... I'M A GOOD AND KIND TRAINER, SHUT UP!).
And spoke too soon about not exploring the Aether mansion, though since it got twisted by Rainbow Rocket I guess we still didn't technically explore it. However I was satisfied with the answer to why the other team villains were listening to Giovanni: Not only were they JUST about to complete their goals, they also aren't listening to him and perfectly plan on making our dimension into an ideal version of there's.
Archie and Maxie were okay, though I see why they went with their old designs: since they were giving them their Legendaries, this version of Archie and Maxie wouldn't have the Primals that their ORAS counterparts would. I liked the banter between the two about how they remembered the other grovelling at their feet until they warped back to their dimension.
So, did Lysandre have an Ultimate Weapon with him or did he set up that switch thing for no other reason but to mess with the intruder? Also did pressing the red switch first change anything? I pressed the blue because originally that was the button which Xerosic said did stop the Ultimate Weapon if they didn't have an override.
Cyrus was slightly more interesting as he had some conversation with the Rotom Dex. Also his "switch" was using the Galactic Key on it, which broke as soon as we did. Talk about adding in superfluous items...
Ghetsis was the most amusing. Pretty much doing what he did except setting up Giovanni as the king (good luck with that Ghetsis). And he did think to actually take one of my allies hostage to force me to surrender (you know, Rainbow Rocket, if you sent in at one or two more goons than you could have probably overwhelmed Guzma...). But hey, we get character development for Colress (we also learn that he apparently had been working for Team Plasma before B2W2) in a rather cool scene and reveals he's been the one warping everyone back to their home dimension.
And that leave Giovanni and, oh boy. Now I mostly was able to take care of the other leader handily with a few problems here and there, but man, when Giovanni sent Mega Mewtwo Y out the real battle began! Tried one shoting it with Salamence using the Dark Z-Move but got taken out before it could. Thought my Starter could tank a hit but nope. But as always, Metagross saves the day. After a Roto Boost it tanked and was able to Meteor Mash its way to victory.
And so that's the end. It was a fun post game adventure though only for the nostalgia. Could have been more, it doesn't match the Looker Missions in XY or the Delta Episode in story, but certainly gave you tough battles which I'm glad to have had (though this will probably be a killer for Nuzlockes). I was kind of hoping that, since Giovanni kidnapped Lusamine, we'd maybe also get to see Mother Beast Lusamine but they probably decided 1.5 mil was enough money. Also, they never really explained how Giovanni discovered/control the wormholes. Also, this Giovanni never faced Red... yet at the same time Team Rocket still collapsed as he said Rainbow Rocket would be stronger than Team Rocket? Well, eitherway, now we have a Timelord Giovanni who can warp through the multiverse spreading evil (because that's TOTALLY what Giovanni's character was about...).
Hmm, anything else. Well I enjoyed the grunts dialogue. Especially the ones who were forming the wall who ranged from being proud they were part of a human wall, begging us to leave so they could stop being a human wall, or saying their pay would be docked if they didn't join in being part of a human wall. Hope someone records all their dialogue, some of the quotes could go on the Funny Quotes thread.