What's the Deal with Island Trials?

By Pilo.
« Previous Article Next Article »

Introduction

Ah, yes... the island trial—the Gym battle's hip younger brother. With simpler puzzles and much easier battles, it's not hard to see why these rites are sometimes overshadowed by their seemingly more complex counterparts. But perhaps if you delve a bit deeper into these trials, you may find out that there's more to them than meets the eye.

Art by Tikitik

Art by Tikitik.

Trial One: Verdant Cavern

Ilima's trial is as straightforward, enjoyable, and easy to understand as a trial can be, sending you on a literal cat and mouse chase as you try to find and fight rodent Pokémon in order to progress past the trial site. What makes this trial unique is its variation depending on which title you've chosen. In Pokémon Sun you'll be facing off against Yungoos, whereas in Pokémon Moon you'll have to take on an army of angry Alolan Rattata. What's more, Team Skull even makes a cameo appearance to try and sabotage your trial.

The Totem battle, however, is quite the opposite of enjoyable. Depending on which version of the game you choose, you're pit against one of two respective Totem Pokémon, Gumshoos in Sun and Alolan Raticate in Moon. This is all well and good until Bite comes into play; prepare to be flinched into submission without an end in sight. If you somehow manage to make it out of this battle all in one piece, expect Normalium Z as your reward.

Trial Two: Brooklet Hill

As a water level, this trial is, rather unsurprisingly, creatively bankrupt. Visually, the level is as bland as oatmeal and leaves a bad taste in your mouth to boot, and it isn't much better from a gameplay standpoint. You meet Brooklet Hill's Trial Captain Lana, who gives you the ride pager for Lapras straight from the get-go and sends you off to navigate the uninteresting Brooklet Hill chasing Wishiwashi until you come face to face with the fearsome Totem Pokémon. Wishiwashi is cool and all, but the level is mostly linear albeit with the added dimension of water. That's not to say the Totem battle isn't interesting, though.

Being only the second trial, the Totem battle isn't the most difficult of fights, but you'll be in for a tough time if you come unprepared. The battle is prefaced by an amazing cinematic which is every ounce of awesome the game has to offer freshly squeezed into one cutscene, but the battle itself isn't nearly as great, especially if you managed to pick up Rowlet (the best starter) or one of the Alola region's many Electric-types. Waterium Z and the Fishing Rod make two fine rewards, but not even Lana's clever musings can save this trial's blander-than-bland level design.

Trial Three: Wela Volcano Park

Standing in stark contrast to its watery sibling, Wela Volcano Park's trial practically sets the gold standard for originality with both its puzzle and its extravagant level design. If it wasn't obvious enough by the name of the location, this trial takes place atop a flaming volcano. Well, maybe not flaming, but it's cool all the same. After scaling the mighty mountain and meeting the site's Trial Captain Kiawe, you're thrust head first into a unique and interesting trial that puts your observational skills to the test. If you manage to complete the game you'll fight Totem Salazzle.

Despite its scary appearance, I found Salazzle neither easy nor difficult to defeat. Its Flame Burst + Petaya Berry combination plus its massive Speed stat did cause some problems for me my first time fighting it, and it had some frighteningly good synergy with the Salandit it summoned (although some of the blame for my initial failure falls on me and my ill-equipped team), but after I snagged a Cubone from the surrounding area and trained it up, Salazzle was toast and Firium Z was mine. This definitely ended up being one of the more thrilling fights in the game, notwithstanding how intensely nerve wracking it was.

Art by Tikitik

Art by Tikitik.

Trial Four: Lush Jungle

At last, the long-awaited sequel to Cooking Mama everyone's been clambering for. That's right, this trial is about all things food, and I love it. The trial presents a simple dilemma: in order to attract the Totem Pokémon you'll need to cook up Mallow's special recipe, but this is no simple task, for the lazy Trial Captain hasn't gathered the ingredients. My favorite thing about this trial is how it employs the abilities of Stoutland, which you'll need in order to find any of the ingredients; that said, the trial certainly doesn't lack its fair share of botherations. This trial is plagued with minor inconveniences and cheap tricks.

The Totem battle, unfortunately, is even more aggravating than the trial itself. Being the designated regional mono-Grass-type, not even I expected Lurantis to put up much of a fight—boy was I wrong. Lurantis, which isn't a big deal itself, is made an utter pain in the ass by the Pokémon it summons. Castform's Sunny Day ensures you'll never take out Lurantis as long as it has Synthesis PP, while Solar Blade hits like a truck, and don't even get me started on Trumbeak, which with its ability to spam Supersonic may as well be the second coming of Satan. Even Grassium Z couldn't mitigate the psychological trauma caused to me by this trial.

Trial Five: Hokulani Observatory

After a trial like Mallow's, the Hokulani Observatory is surprisingly easy. The site's resident Trial Captain Sophocles, who looks more akin to some truffle-shuffling youngster than anyone of actual authority, has created a machine in hopes of attracting the Totem Pokémon or somesuch nonsense. Unfortunately not all goes as planned, and the entire building ends up losing power, and in order to bring the power back on, you'll need to complete an audio quiz. This quiz is by no means difficult, though; in fact, I played it with the sound off. Once you answer all of the questions correctly, the Totem Pokémon, Vikavolt, will have arrived at the observatory ready for a fight.

This battle proves to be nothing short of the ultimate anticlimax, though, because Vikavolt is a huge pushover; its strongest move is Spark, and it will crumble near-instantly to almost any remotely powerful attack.

Trial Six: Thrifty Megamart

I like this trial. An immense tonal shift can be felt as soon as you set foot inside the trial site, which is only reinforced by the toppled shelves to the piles of boxes and eerie lighting; from this alone it should be easy to tell you're in for a wild ride. This is yet another trial that makes use of in-game mechanics, this time incorporating the Poké Finder, which you'll use to uncover Ghost Pokémon by snapping pictures of them for the Trial Captain Acerola with increasing difficulty.

That isn't the hard part, though—far from it. Mimikyu will make absolutely certain of that. Perhaps a bit of pretense is required; you see, six-month-younger me made the critical error of building an incredibly physically frail in-game team, which came back to bite me in the ass hard as I got my head curb stomped in my by Totem Mimikyu. In fact I only managed to win by some brilliant stroke of luck when the opposing Mimikyu developed some innate fascination with the spamming of the move Mimic. In my case Ghostium Z was more of a consolation prize than anything else.

Trial Seven: Vast Poni Canyon

Remember when I said Brooklet Hill was linear and uncreative? Well I take it back, because this trial takes the cake for uncreativity. You walk up to a pedestal and fight Kommo-o before collecting Dragonium Z, and that's all there is to it. No Trial Captain, no puzzle, nothing.

Conclusion

All in all Island Trials are lively and creative if not a bit irritating at times. With a healthy balance of unique puzzles and often tougher-than-expected Totem battles, they make for the perfect medley of fun and frustration.

HTML by Jho | Script by Quite Quiet
« Previous Article Next Article »