for the gen7 portion of his ribbon master journey, reides the kingdra left the familiar lands and seas of hoenn for a region that was entirely new to him: alola!

alola is a region that is extremely close to my heart. since i'm from the caribbean, i'm very fond of island settings - they always have such a cozy, home-like vibe to me. the hype leading up to sun and moon's release was also probably one of my favorite periods of time in the pokemon fandom ever... and the games totally lived up to all of my expectations. tbh, they surpassed them! so... as reides arrived in my copy of pokemon sun - with his same ol' goal of gathering all of the ribbons that the gen had to offer - i hoped that his time in alola would add to my lovely memories of the region.

i still haven't set up a definitive index for my ribbon master posts, but that WILL exist in the (hopefully near) future. until then, like always... you can see them all over on my blog page. the setup for the challenge is here, gen 3's segment is here, gen 4's segment is here, and gen6's segment is here.

if you're all caught up to speed on my lovely kingdra's journey, welcome to the next installment of it!!! give it up for gen7!!!

much like my copy of y version, i had a post-game set up in my copy of pokemon sun. this - paired with the literal handful of ribbons that alola has to offer - would serve to make reides' time in alola pretty short... unless something Awful happened. in gen6, the battle maison's difficulty totally blindsided me, so i was a bit wary as we went into the gen7 portion of this journey. despite having a post-game file, i never once even stepped foot near the battle tree... that portion of poni island was virtually untouched. LMFAO. i wasn't in a hurry to get to that, so i decided i'd leave it for last. the first ribbon i'd handle would be the battle royal (yes, 'royal'... not 'royale'... if i typo it as such, i apologize. number one victory royale yeah fortnite we bout to get down, etc) master ribbon.

much like my predicament with the battle tree, i'd never taken this game mode on (beyond the battle that they essentially force you into during the plot), so i wasn't sure what to expect. i also wanted to take advantage of a new feature that was added in for the gen7 games before involving reides in any battles. i checked my bag to be sure that i could do it, and, lo and behold...

...i had a gold bottlecap! this was a really welcome sight because reides' ivs were all PRETTY shabby (i'm talking, like, single-digits shabby. ftr, a pokemon's ivs per stat can cap at 31, so... yeah). it makes his stellar performance in all the battle towers thus far all the more impressive, but i still wanted to treat him to something truly special.

there isn't a ribbon linked to hyper training a pokemon (in this gen or in any future gens up to the current one), but this was still really lovely to see. with reides now achieving a maxed-out stat of 31 in each of his ivs, we headed on over to the battle royal dome on akala island.

the battle royal game mode is pretty interesting. your pokemon basically enters a wacky battle against 3 other pokemon. they're not specifically ganging up on you, though. according to serebii.net: you go in with 3 pokémon, and as soon as one player has lost each of their pokémon, then the battle is over. to determine the winner, the results are tallied up based on how many pokémon each player managed to take out, as well as how many pokémon they have remaining.

now, i'm not gonna lie. i went into this game mode COMPLETELY clueless as to what was going on. i did virtually no prep for it, instead just using albatross the latios, persana the suicune, and, of course, reides for each of the battles. to give you an idea of how 'out of it' i was... whenever i take on these challenges, i like to give each of my pokemon an item to help them out. even if it's just a sitrus berry, i think the extra support is really good for a pokemon to have. this challenge was no different; i decided that i'd give albatross a latiosite and that i'd mega-evolve him during the battle royals. and, uh... it turns out that i somehow gave him a protector (yes, the item that serves no purpose aside from evolving rhydon) because it just-so-happened to be in my bag right next to my latiosite. i didn't even notice for all 4 of the battles i took part in within the dome. (i just assumed i couldn't mega-evolve him because i didn't meet some weird standard in the game. i simply did not question it. and i definitely didn't even try to amend it...)

...anyway, my weird blunders aside, the battles themselves were pretty fun! i wasn't a fan of how laggy they could get, but i really enjoyed the sheer chaos that they presented, haha! furthermore, taking part in them reminded me of incineroar, who's one of my all-time fav pokemon, so that was awesome. i climbed the ranks easily, only losing the hyper-rank and master-rank battles once each. fsr, i didn't take a single picture of these battles - but i DID take one of a victory screen.

the grind to the ribbon was a short one, and, soon, reides had his very first ribbon from the alola region.

right after getting this ribbon, reides and i headed over to the summit of mount lanakila so that i could defend my status as the champion of the alola league! this meant being tested by each of the members of the elite four - including the iconic acerola, who had a bit of a ghostly moment thanks to my top-tier 3ds photography skills.

after fighting our way through everyone, i approached my throne.

i took a seat upon it... and was soon approached in turn!

it was awesome to face hau again after all these years!! he's such an incredible rival; taking on his team had me feeling so nostalgic. of course, reides, who was at level 100, managed to sweep his way through everyone (sorry, guys) - but it was still a whole lot of fun!

for helping me defend my title as the alolan champion, reides was granted membership into the alolan hall of fame... and, for that, he got the alola champion ribbon!

the only two ribbons left for reides in alola were the ones linked to the battle tree. it was time for me to brave the rest of poni island and finally unlock it!

but, before that... i actually decided to send reides to my copy of ultra sun! much like my copy of sun, i hadn't unlocked the battle tree over there, either... but there was a crucial difference in this file. you see, i had WAY more pokemon left in my pc boxes in ultra sun compared to my boxes in sun. this is because i moved most of my pokemon over to ultra sun when the ultra sun & ultra moon games released. (i also NEEDED to take photos in the pokemon studios that were added to the region in those ultra games - but i'll write more about that later!) i figured that if the battle tree ended up giving me a lot of trouble, i'd need access to a wider pool of pokemon so that i could teambuild. it was basically a precaution above all else!

once reides was finally in this expanded-on version of alola, we headed on over to poni island and got to exploring.

upon approaching the battle tree, we ran into two familiar faces!

red and gr- um, i mean, blue - were here! (kind of hilarious that they localized his name as 'blue' when his pants and shoes are very clearly green as a nod to the original japanese green version, but i get it... it's a nod to the north american red & blue versions... so it's Understandable!!!) the return of the original kanto region champions is one of the most hype things ever. i knew about this from before, as it blew everyone's minds back when the info came out. it had me PRAYING for a similar cameo for the johto trainers in a future generation. sadly, that cameo hasn't happened yet, but i'm still hoping for an updated, future-silver design someday!

anyway - immediately, blue asked if i'd like to challenge him or red as a little 'welcome to the battle tree' present. i opted to fight blue, since i had just fought red during the soulsilver part of reides' journey and i decided that alternating between the two would be cool.

he was absolutely serving in said battle, let me tell you. he was pretty challenging even with the level difference between us, but reides still managed to emerge victorious.

after our battle, blue revealed his and red's shared purpose for arriving in the alola region. it was really nice to see them together again after the state of their relationship in soulsilver, where red was basically hiding himself away on mt. silver.

since we passed the little test that blue and red presented to us, reides and i finally entered the battle tree properly.

much like the battle maison ribbons, there are two ribbons available for achieving specific streaks in the battle tree. the first one - the battle tree great ribbon - required a steak of 20 wins in the normal battle mode (which includes beating a 'battle legend' on battle #20). i figured that this ribbon was similar to the skillful battler ribbon over in kalos; that the battles wouldn't be particularly challenging when compared to the following 50-steak ribbon awaiting me. i was kind of right in that it was pretty easy to get through these battles, but i do think that the normal mode got a bit of a difficulty boost when compared to the battle maison's normal mode.

i used this team for this part of the battle tree:

chips the kangaskhan (kangaskanite)
ability: scrappy --> parental bond
nature: jolly
evs: 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 def
- fake out
- return
- crunch
- power-up punch

donatella the durant (choice scarf)
ability: truant
nature: jolly
evs: 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 sp. defense
- entrainment
- toxic
- x-scissor
- iron head

applause the cloyster (focus sash)
ability: skill link
nature: adamant
evs: 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 sp. defense
- shell smash
- icicle spear
- ice shard (for landorus)
- protect

since the ol' truant durant strat (that i detailed in my last post) works for the battle tree, i decided to take donatella and applause along for the ride, but chips did a great job and pretty much got through the normal mode of the battle tree all on her own. i was delighted, because mega-kangaskhan's whole gimmick where the baby kangaskhan gets powered-up is just so cute!

for the 20th battle, i swapped out donatella the durant for reides... and ended up running into none other than the legendary red, himself!

i absolutely love how gen7 stuck to keeping red completely silent; it's an absolutely crucial part of his character, imo.

after beating red and securing the great ribbon, it was time for the true challenge... the battle tree master ribbon! this one was the classic 50-streaker. again, like its respective battle maison ribbon, i'd have to maintain this streak in the super battle mode - which meant stronger opponents and tougher battles.

i was absolutely not messing around for these battles, let me tell you. i opted for a slight variation of my battle maison team; rather than following donatella up with venus, i swapped them around and followed her up with applause the cloyster.

donatella the durant (choice scarf)
ability: truant
nature: jolly
evs: 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 sp. defense
- entrainment
- toxic
- x-scissor
- iron head

applause the cloyster (focus sash)
ability: skill link
nature: adamant
evs: 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 sp. defense
- shell smash
- icicle spear
- spike canon (ideally, i'd have liked rock blast, but that's an egg move)
- protect

venus the dragonite (lum berry)
ability: multiscale
nature: adamant
evs: 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 sp. defense
- earthquake
- fire punch
- dragon dance
- protect

by following up my durant with cloyster, it reduced the amount of time needed to max out its buffed stats, as shell smash only requires 3 uses as opposed to dragon dance's 6. since i had a plan of action and simply had to execute it, my climb was a whole lot faster than the trials which the battle maison presented to me!!

since my climb was faster, i don't have too many horror stories to share regarding the stuff that i faced within it.

this guy didn't take losing very well. i think he also somehow possessed my camera, because i have NO IDEA why the glare is so bad in this picture.

this guy also summed up the exact reason why i'm doing this ribbon master challenge in the first place. He Gets It. that's what pokemon is all about, babey!

the battle tree also has a neat little mechanic wherein you face special trainers every 10 battles. during my climb, the special trainers that i faced were plumeria, cynthia, kukui and grimsley! (cynthia also almost broke my streak, because of fucking course she would scare me like that. her garchomp really is a force to be reckoned with; i love the two of them so much.)

grimsley is one of my favorite pokemon characters of all-time, so it's really wild that he's just... inexplicably in alola. i remember stumbling upon him during my first playthrough - COMPLETELY unspoilt about him even being in the game - and literally doing a double-take! either way, i'm so happy that he showed up during my ribbon master challenge, as i didn't get to take him on in unova due to the lack of ribbons over there.

once i beat battle 49, it was time to swap out venus the dragonite for reides the kingdra. i braced myself for battle 50; another battle versus red and his team!

he was pretty shocked to see me again and was a bit confused after losing, but i really enjoyed the match, myself! between the battle versus him in soulsilver and these two battles within the tree, i truly love how present red has been for this ribbon master challenge, haha.

defeating red and achieving a 50-battle streak in the battle tree's super mode meant reides got the final ribbon that he'd need in alola: the battle tree master ribbon. i was so relieved that the battle tree went a lot better than the battle maison, and that i didn't face the threat of getting hardstuck within a battle tower-esque zone...!! i had a lot of fun with it and, since i used cloyster with my durant instead of dragonite, the process was a whole lot faster, too.

reides and i weren't ready to leave alola just yet, though. we had one more task to handle. one more task... within the alola photo club.

this may not be relevant to the ribbon master challenge, but it was absolutely IMPERATIVE that we stopped by for a photoshoot together at the photo club! i rushed over to the receptionist, super excited about being able to take photos with reides, and got a really, REALLY surprising bit of dialogue from her.

i had NO IDEA that you could unlock special backdrops if you transferred pokemon from different games into alola... and, furthermore, i had no idea that hoenn's respective backdrop would be none other than the SEAFLOOR CAVERN!!! at first, i wondered if it changed based on your pokemon's original met location - because i HATCHED reides in the seafloor cavern, all the way back in emerald version!! but, no; it was simply a totally serendipitous surprise! naturally, we HAD to go there for our photoshoot.

i made sure to decorate the photos that we took in a fitting manner.

with those beautiful pictures taken and saved, reides was ready to move on to the next part of his ribbon master quest. moving on to gen8 required taking a huge step: one from the 3ds to none other than the NINTENDO SWITCH!!! how absolutely CRAZY is that?!?! it feels like just yesterday that i was booting up my beloved grey brick of a ds so that i could play emerald on it. admittedly, it was also quite the relief to transfer reides out of pokemon bank and into pokemon home, as the future of pokemon bank is rather precarious at the moment (even if it was confirmed that it'd outlast the general online feature shutdown in april 2024). i ended up taking all of the pals who have accompanied reides so far on his journey with him, too.

and so, with alola's ribbons safely pinned onto him, reides set his sights on the wonderful galar region! hopefully, i'll have my gen8 update ready for everyone soon. until then - i gotta extend yet another huge 'thank you' to you all for cheering reides on through his long, long journey!! until next time!

mood: relaxed
music: storm in summer - skullcrusher