Splitting this game from Pokémon Ranger.
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia is the second entry of the Pokémon Ranger series of Franchise Pokemon spinoffs. It was released in 2008 for the Nintendo DS.
In this installment, you play as Kate/Kellyn, a new student at a ranger academy. You easily excel in your classes and eventually graduate as an area ranger for Vientown. Things go awry when once docile wild Pokemon are becoming increasingly hostile for mysterious reasons. You then run into a villain group called Team Dim Sun, the evil organization responsible for making devices that aggravate wild Pokemon. Their goal is to control all of the Pokemon in Almia. It's now up to you and your allies to restore peace to Almia.
Tropes
- Accidental Misnaming: Rhythmi is annoyed by the fact that Professor Hastings seems to think that her name is "Misery".
- Actually Four Mooks: Generally averted; the number of Pokémon you see on the field is exactly how many will appear in battle, even the ones that the villains summon to fight you. It starts to show up near the end of Shadows of Almia, though, when Dim Sun summons one Pokémon and you wind up fighting two or three.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Sinis Trio and Wheeler's raid on the Ranger Union near the end of the second game.
- Amazon Brigade: Team Dim Sun's Crimson Unit in the second game.
- Arc Words: The word "Vatonage" is said throughout the story, culminating with the Player Character obtaining the "Vatonage Styler". The given meaning of "Vatonage" is "To rekindle a light that has been lost in darkness."
- Brawn Hilda: Big Bertha, who is huge and about as strong as eight full-grown men! And she beat Barlow in arm-wrestling!
- Climbing Climax: The final mission in Shadows of Almia is a raid on the "Incredible Machine" tower atop Altru Inc. that is going to be used to hypnotize all of Almia's Pokémon.
- Charged Attack: After a certain point, you can charge your Styler by holding it in position, making it more powerful and easier to "damage" the opponent. Many Poké Assists work like this as well, where the longer you hold the Styler in place before attacking, the stronger its effect will be.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: During scripted captures where you must capture multiple Pokémon, each Pokémon will only be able to use part of its moveset, and will gain more moves as more Pokémon are captured. Ironically, this may mean that you will have an easier time in those captures than if the Pokémon were able to use their entire movesets from the beginning.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Heatran from second game will summon the lava pool ignoring the Paused condition, meaning you can't be careless even with the Shieldon.
- Developer's Foresight: The dialog of the Dim Sun Grunt you're tasked with helping in one sidequest changes depending on whether or not you wait until after the main quest is completed to do it. If you complete it before, he's told the reason the ship never came back for him is because it ran aground. If you complete it after, he'll be told the reason is because Dim Sun disbanded.
- Dual Boss: After defeating Ice's Pokémon in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, he asks for Lavana and Heath to lend him their Mons, and you have to fight all three at once. (Fortunately, they're not quite so aggressive the second time around.)
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The Vatonage Styler in the second game, which allows the player to break the Incredible Machine's Mass Hypnosis of Pokémon in the final chapter.
- Even Evil Has Standards: One of the Side Quests has you run from one end of the then-available map to the other to capture a Nosepass and back again. Why? Because the quest-giver thinks they look funny. A Dim Sun minion immediately shows up out of nowhere and chews him out for his selfish request.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Before their team's name is revealed in the second game, four of Team Dim Sun's minions are known as "Very Shady Guy", "Terribly Shifty Guy", "Pretty Sneaky Guy", and "Seriously Sketchy Guy".
- Haunted Castle: Almia Castle is completely devoid of human life and crawling with Ghost and Psychic-type Pokémon. It's also covered in ice.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The Incredible Machine is camouflaged as Altru Tower until it's too late to stop the activation in time.
- Ice Palace: Almia Castle, which is frozen over, making all the floors slippery. It's where the King of Almia and his youngest son, both from the region's legend, were said to live.
- Namedar: The oil-soaked character responsible for causing the Vien Forest fire? He's given a Line-of-Sight Name by the Rangers, but even his own mother calls him by it. It is possible that, against all odds, the name he was given for smelling like oil just happened to be his actual name.
- Non-Standard Game Over: Failing to stop the sinking of the Cargo Ship results in the player character's death. This is the only time in the entire Pokémon franchise a player character can die.
- Rain Dance: The children of Haruba village try to summon the rain with a rain dance song after a bad sandstorm causes a drought in the village. This isn't working, so an old woman tells the player to bring a Blastoise to summon the rain instead. She tells the player not to tell the children about it.
- School Setting Simulation: The game begins with the player going to the Ranger School. For this segment of the game, they're learning the ropes of being a Ranger, exploring their school, and interacting with their classmates and teachers, many of whom go onto be important later in the story.
- Schrödinger's Player Character:This is the only game in the series where this trope is in effect; choosing Kellyn or Kate will reveal that the other is nowhere to be seen. In Guardian Signs however, Kellyn is implied to be the canonical protagonist.
- Self-Punishment Over Failure: During the final fight against Team Dim Sun on their cargo ship, the player has to fight off waves of grunts while their leader takes on the admin. Each time the player defeats the grunts, they all unanimously decide to jump into the ocean and swim home as punishment.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Castle Almia, for one. Not all floors are frozen over, though, but the ones that are include one room with Temporary Platforms.
- Springs, Springs Everywhere: Peril Cliffs has bouncy leaves called springy leaves. You need to jump on them to reach far away areas on the cliffs.
- Takes Ten to Hold: After Barlow was captured and tied down by four struggling Dim Sun grunts, one of the grunts mentions how difficult it was to tie him up "a smidgeon on the tight side." Another describes him as a "Pokemon Wrestler."
- Temporary Platform: Ice platforms in Almia Castle break shortly after standing upon them. And they're slippery slidey... There are also timed platforms in Hippowdon Temple that fade in and out in various patterns.
- Warm-Up Boss: The Tangrowth at the end of the tutorial for Shadows of Almia. It's the first enemy Pokémon with a fighting chance to defeat the player, but its pollen attack is rather slow, and it doesn't have much health.
- Wham Shot: Upon reaching the bridge of the Team Dim Sun cargo ship, the ship's captain walks out and is revealed: it's Mr. Kincaid, a former teacher at the Ranger School.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- After Murph quit being a Ranger to work for the Union, what became of his partner Pokémon Slowpoke?
- After the end of Shadows of Almia, where did the Sinis Trio go? The manga adapatation of the Darkrai mission has them appearing as antagonists but at the end, after they lament Kincaid being arrested, they vow to find a new, better leader.
- Wolverine Publicity: Pikachu on the cover of Shadows of Almia. While there are actual Pikachu in the game, they are merely a regular Pokémon, and get outclassed by both Raichu and Magneton in effectiveness.
