Alpha Sapphire Adventures Part 2: OP

It's Christmas and this is what I'm doing, yeah. Merry Gamer Christmas to all of you!
Last time I posted something about my renewed adventure in Hoenn I was still in Petalburg, now I'm at Mauville admiring the drastic change it underwent for twelve years since it first graced the Game Boy Advance giving us an uber long Hatching route for breeders. Now I'd like to ask which Mauville is canon to the series if ORAS versions are to be taken as remakes and not a continuation. But from the perspective of continuity starting from XY I guess the Mauville in ORAS is now canon (unless an official timeline is released).

Anyway, I know you guys don't really want an overly long story about my adventures in each patch of grass I walk into so I'll just keep this short...maybe.

Rustboro City

I trained a while over-training my two main Pokemon Alto and Hatto.

I used Alto to power through the whole gym using just Bubble. The gym design finally has a reason for looking so elaborate and maze-like! They turned the gym into half a museum (if that actually makes sense). Roxanne is also heavenly cuter here than her design in the original versions and in the anime, I almost didn't want to defeat her just so I can keep replaying her battle cutscenes..

And of course let's not forget the most supportive guy in the world, this guy:

With the Stone Badge, I now have the power to command Pokemon up to level 20 and use Cut outside of battle. Normally I'd teach an HM to the weakest Pokemon on the party but I took the internet's advice of catching an HM Monster instead. To those who don't know, and I doubt that there are still any, HM monsters are Pokemon who are not used in battles and are instead used outside to progress through the game - their entire moveset comprise mostly of HM moves. My current HM monster for Cut and Rock Smash is a Zigzagoon I assume I nicknamed Ziggy.

After capturing a Zigzagoon I saved Mr. Briney's Peeko and met up with the president of Devon Corporation, Mr. Stone.

By that time I was clueless as to what he was going to give me aside from the letter for league champion, Steven. I ended up receiving an update for the DexNav which is mostly used for online socializing.

Dewford City

Brawly's gym is currently the most frustrating I've gone into not because of the battles but because of the design. 

They literally made a Pokemon gym into a gym and I like that they finally used that pun but c'mon treadmills and lockers for environment barricades hidden in the darkness was really frustrating. The fact that that lights are only on when you step on a switch didn't really help much in my progression. Still, thanks to my then OP Pokemon I managed to breeze through using only Hatto and Allia, my Hatto evolving before the battle with Brawly.

With the Knuckle Badge Pokemon up to level 30 will submit to the trainer's will, and originally Flash could then be used outside of battle but not in this case since Flash was reverted to a TM.

One of the most notable key items in Dewford is the Old Rod, I say notable because other than the higher tier rods such as the good and super rod, I only ever use a rod for one thing - to catch a Magikarp and I think the Old Rod is best used for this.

I caught the worthless Pokemon (forgive my language) and added it onto the team for one hella of a training session. Whatever other people say, a Gyarados is always essential for my team.

After defeating the gym, the deeper entrance to the cave opens up and there we find Steven who's, being a champion that he is, given a cutscene of his own. Dang.

Slateport City

After the brief encounter with Steven, Mr. Briney tells you that Mr. Stone has another special request and you must head on over to Slateport City to deliver a parcel to Captain Stern, great another free ride!

I spent a few minutes battling the trainers in the beach, I also cleared the returning half dozen soda pop challenge in the beach house.

The Slateport City theme was very festive in this game compared to the original release as far as I could remember. It feels like I'm in a mall in the middle of holiday shopping where they have everything for sale 50% off.

Despite the large city there're only a few places of interest here most notably the Oceanic museum, the Contest Hall, the bazaar, and Captain Stern's Shipyard.

The Oceanic Museum was first off on my hitlist. There were some grunts in line before going to Captain Stern's Shipyard.

see, these guys have a good cause if they're nice enough to fall in line

The battle with the grunts when I met with Captain Stern was nothing remarkable. What I did enjoy was the encounter with Aqua Leader Archie. He looks more formidable here than in Gen. 3 where he's often depicted as a hardcore megalomaniac who acts before he thinks in complete contrast to Magma Leader Maxie. 

Thanks to this despite Archie's more pirate-y design he looks more silently frightening than terrifyingly wild. I do, however, find their team's purpose to be leaning on the Chaotic Good alignment.

Once all these in-game events were over I dillydallied around Slateport again.

Pokemon's version of an Idol

I'm not one who enjoys participating in Pokemon Contests so I paid no attention to contest hall however there was an event before I can get out of the city. A human who looks like a Moemon Altaria is introduced in the series as the region's no. 1 in Pokemon Contests.

just look at Sami, she's probably thinking 'I'm on TV, waddo I do?'

While she is waifu material I just can't help but get annoyed at her forced idol acts. Anyway she gives the player a Contest Pass and a PokeBlock Kit which are, in my case, extra cargo for the time being.

Birthday Greetings
Just as I was getting the heck out of Slateport I stopped by a Pokemon Center. It just so happen that at that exact visit, when Sami entered the lights were half lit, and I couldn't move my character. I thought I triggered a game-breaking glitch and it froze the game until poppers suddenly, well, popped. Turns out Pokemon greets trainers when it's their birthday (or at least it's the day indicated in their account).

The Pokemon Center had a slightly different theme and Nurse Joy gave me a birthday greeting. Now that's a nice touch. That was the first time I received a greeting from Pokemon since I most likely wasn't playing Pokemon X last year on during my birthday.

Mauville City, The Mini Lumiose...what?!

As of my current progress this was probably the biggest surprise that Pokemon ORAS hit me with. Mauville City underwent such a big change it's not even close to the same Mauville way back in the original versions. It turned into an indoor city that resembles Kalos' Lumiose City in terms of getting lost, only a lot smaller. Heck, now that Mauville looks the way it does now I now realize the biggest similarity it has to Lumiose - they both have a Pokemon gym specializing in Electric type Pokemon.

Before I went on to challenge the gym I battled Wally in a squash match with his Ralts against my Houndoom.

Wally looks a lot more fragile here than on the original versions

I thought I'd be having the most trouble in all of the gyms in Hoenn here in Mauville because I don't have any Pokemon with a type advantage against Electricity. But after a few trainer battles on the route to Verdanturf I againt over-trained my Hatto to level 25 and I basically showed no mercy to the whole gym powering through by spamming his Double Kick.

Wattson didn't even have the chance to use a super potion.

Well that's all for now. Dunno when I'll finally get a longer session with Alpha Sapphire since I'm preoccupied with Zelda. Anyway, Merry Gamer Christmas to all!