the very best, pt. xi
Welcome back once again to The Very Best, our ongoing documentation of exactly how cool and talented all of the Trainers in Pokemon X are. I think of this part of the game as more or less the halfway point--we've finished the first leg of our lap around the region, and most importantly we are getting close to the town with the best fashion.
The Dark Alleys of Lumiose City
I had never gone through and tracked down all of the back alley trainers in Lumiose before, and I'm still not entirely sure how they work; you can re-fight them all as often as you like, so long as they're there, but some of them aren't always there, but I think some of them are always there, provided you leave and come back after fighting them? It's all very poorly documented; the only thing I know is that some of the information I encountered is definitely wrong.
If exploring Lumiose City weren't so unpleasant (due mainly to awful camera controls) this would actually be a pretty cool way to reward doing so. You run into people in the back alleys while they go about their daily lives, and do a Pokemon battle. It's neat, it's very urban, and I think most people just never interface with it on purpose.
Something I noticed, which I was only able to notice because I found that one text dump of all the dialog in the game: all of these Trainers seem to be missing a line of dialog which provides slightly more context for what they're doing. The guy who works at Sushi High Roller, for instance, doesn't actually say that line in game. While I don't think I'm the only person to have ever noticed this, I can't find documentation of it anywhere. So, you're welcome: you now know some random bit of Pokemon X trivia. And they said this wasn't an educational series.
Anyway, because tracking these lot down was sort of a pain, and because the next Gym has way too many trainers due to its quiz format, they get their own entry in The Very Best.
Lumiose City: Garcon Jacopo
Jacopo's got a level 30 Gabite, which looks a lot like my level 30 Gabite. It's a pretty solid Pokemon--I think probably one of the best non-fully-evolved pseudo-Legendaries--but not quite yet amazing. Skill Rating: 4/5
Jacopo talks about how this weird back alley he's hanging out in is romantic, and a popular date spot. "A place like this makes you want to gaze deeply into someone's eyes, doesn't it?" he says, by way of challenge. He strikes me as deeply creepy. Coolness Rating: 1/5
Lumiose City: Owner Toro
Toro's rocking a Diggersby, which, unfortunately, suffers a fair bit from having very balanced stats. They're slightly balanced towards defense, but not enough to make it tanky enough to survive a strong hit from, for example, a Surf; and its attack stats are too weak to dish out a counterattack. Diggersby is destined to be an HM friend. Skill Rating: 2/5
Toro reads a bit like a mob boss, and concludes upon his defeat that we must be someone's hired muscle. I can't tell if he's trying to keep us out of his back alley because he's worried we might notice he's up to crimes, or if he's just trying to keep us out of dangerous areas. Either way, he fails, and I think he shouldn't be quite so overawed by us. Coolness Rating: 3/5
Lumiose City: Waitress Paget
With a level 30 Kirlia as her partner, Paget's team is probably the worst of these back alley trainers. I quite like Gardevoir--it is, among other things, one of the Pokemon that can reliably solo a Team Flare hideout--but she has opted not to evolve her Kirlia when it hit level 30. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say she is trying to get access to Psychic early--TMs are pretty expensive on a waitress's wages, but a Kirlia at level 30 is not going to be winning any fights. Skill Rating: 1/5
Paget says she got lost and ended up here, but she has a wanderer's spirit; I suspect she gets lost at least half on purpose. She likes seeing new places and running into strange places; the poetry of living hasn't left her yet, and I love that for her. Coolness Rating: 5/5
Lumiose City: Chef Kamaboko
Kamaboko has a level 30 Pidgeotto. Pretty uninspired as far as openers go--ten levels ago this would be a strong pick, but now it's pretty thoroughly outclassed. Skill Rating: 2/5
Kamaboko is lamenting that his skills both as a cook and a Trainer are only half decent. He seems to feel inadequate for his job at Restaurant Le Wow, and, y'know, and despite appearing to be quite down on himself and his lot in life, he does seem determined to dedicate himself to training to be worthy of the challenges ahead of him. I appreciate that. Coolness Rating: 3/5
Lumiose City: Punk Girl Lillian
A level 30 Krokorok is about as middle of the road as they come at these parts. Outclassed by many, but while its base stats aren't impressive, most of them are in attack and speed, which means it can hit hard enough to eke out the odd win. Skill Rating: 3/5
Lillian does not want us here. She is willing to fight us to make us go away, and she would like us to leave her alone in the future. Honestly, I respect that. Draw your boundaries, Lililan. Coolness Rating: 4/5
Lumiose City: Beauty Aimee
Aimee has a level 34 Fletchinder. The absolute tragedy of it all: one level away from Talonflame, one of Kalos's coolest Pokemon (and the meta-defining Pokemon in the gen 6 competitive scene); as it is, Fletchinder, much like Krokorok above, is pretty much the Platonic ideal of being three stars. Skill Rating: 3/5
Aimee is lamenting the tragedy of lost love, and asks us to "Help me forget my pain. Be so strong that it hurts." We do so, because defeating people is our main source of income even though we've found gainful employment at a hotel on account of how cool we are, and then . . . then she reveals she fell in love with the man from a movie poster. She gives us a Destiny Knot. I feel like Aimee needs a hobby. Coolness Rating: 2/5
Lumiose City: Beauty Anais
A level 34 Seadra has the potential to really cause some problems for a lot of Pokemon you might encounter at this point in the game. It would, of course, be better if she had evolved it (hit me up in a few weeks, Anais, I'll be able to get you a dragon scale), but it's still a solid pick. Skill Rating: 4/5
Anais is another person with the wanderer's spirit, though she seems a bit more worldly and grounded than Paget above. She offers advice, and gives us an Elixir, and generally seems pretty chill. I'd probably give her a 5 even without the bribe, but let it be known that I absolutely can be bought with stamina recovery items. Coolness Rating: 5/5
Lumiose City: Black Belt Killian
Killian has a level 30 Machoke. I'm conflicted about Machoke; it's very strong, but very slow, and my brain sees a Pokemon with a low Speed stat and just says "pass." But while it has a lot of situations where it loses, it also has a fair number where it wins, y'know? Skill Rating: 4/5
Killian wants (wanted?) to be a samurai, and that's pretty much his whole deal. He works at Sushi High Roller . . . doing security, I assume? Gotta keep the riff-raff out somehow. I'm glad he's found a job where doing the samurai bit works out for him, I guess. Coolness Rating: 3/5
Lumiose City: Punk Guy Faust
Faust has a Haunter at level 30. Haunter is one of my favorite Pokemon (I know, I know, who would have guessed I like ghosts), but while it has a respectable statline at level 30, it hasn't yet learned anything that can use that Special Attack. Look, I'm sad about it too, but you gotta take your moveset into consideration when building your team, Faust. Skill Rating: 2/5
Faust is trying to make it sound like he's the big scary guy that will get us if we go wandering in the back alleys. Bonus points for some very solid threats in the face of our clear refusal to back down, but points deducted for clearly trying to act tough without a plan. Coolness Rating: 3/5
Lumiose City: Beauty Cassandra
Cassandra has a level 34 Roselia. A very solid and versatile pick, and I hope she finds a Shiny Stone soon to make that evolution stick--there's not much useful left for a Roselia to learn at this point, though one could be forgiven for holding out for Toxic at level 40. Skill Rating: 4/5
Cass seems to have just moved to the city from the country, and is still fixated on the idea of living a glamorous and stylish city life. It ends up feeling a bit forced, but well do I understand the rush of being in a new city, leaving the rural life behind us, and the infinite possibilities that await. She gives us a Nugget, which is a thoroughly acceptable gift for how cool we are, though it's no Elixir. Coolness Rating: 3/5
And that's it for our back alley trainers! There's ten of them, all told--I thought there were, like, four, going into this. The most interesting thing about this is that this is, apart from on Route 6 (and in the Battle Maison post-game facility), the only place any Beauties appear, and the one on Route 6 is obscured by very tall grass and seems to have been magically transformed from a Lass. But because I haven't really engaged with the back alley trainers before, I never really noticed it, so I found myself wondering why the Beauties in this game are carrying groceries. It's because they're all in the city!
All of these are re-fightable, which is interesting; most notably, you can refight the Beauties for the swag1, which isn't that remarkable for the Nugget or the Destiny Knot, but it is the only reliable repeatable method to get Elixir in the game, and one of only a small handful in the entire series. I find myself wishing these fights weren't so extremely easy to miss, but perhaps that's part of the charm.
In any case, that's all I have for you this week. Next week is the Gym! Normally this Gym is pretty quick but because of this project I will be fighting all of the Trainers there, which . . . is a lot of fighting. We may also be doing the next Route, if time permits, because the next town has another Team Flare den and a gym, and also my favorite boutique in the game. But for now, we have the Prism Tower to ascend and a Gym Leader to defeat; we will take this journey, as all of them, one step at a time.
I really liked how in Gen 5, there were certain Trainer classes that would give you something if you beat them. Rangers gave you berries; Doctors and Nurses would heal your team; I think there's probably some others I'm not thinking of. It's a neat way to differentiate them.↩