Video Game / Pokémon Unbound

Welcome to the Borrius region!

Pokémon Unbound is a ROM Hack of Pokémon FireRed developed by Skeli, along with the help of other developers. It began development in 2016 and was completed on December 2nd, 2020 (sans some upcoming postgame content). It is one of the few fully original Pokémon fangames to reach completion.

Set in an Alternate Continuity of the main series, this game features the Borrius region, which waged war against Kalos 3000 years ago. The King of Borrius summoned Hoopa to try and turn the tides, but ended up prolonging the war in a bid for power, which caused many more Pokémon to die, including the king of Kalos's beloved Floette. The king built a machine that restored Floette's life; however, overcome by vengeance, he turned it into the Ultimate Weapon, using it to end the war. Back in the Borrius region, the people were furious at the king for continuing the war without compensation, and convinced Hoopa to attack the region in an attempted insurrection. However, using the power of the three Legendary Birds, the king created the Prison Bottle and sealed away Hoopa's dark power. The now-confined Hoopa would be watched over by the king's progeny for years to come, until it is sealed in a Poké Ball by Aros, a legendary figure in the Borrius region, and thrown into a river.

In the present day, a mysterious group known as the Shadows has managed to acquire Hoopa and seeks to capture the Legendary Birds in order to unleash its true power. After being transported by Hoopa to the Shadow Base, you and your rival Ace (or whatever you feel like naming him) are taken into captivity by the Shadows, managing to break out with the help of one of three captured Pokémon; Larvitar, Gible, or Beldum. Now, you must stop the Shadows before they use Hoopa's dark power for ill, uncovering a sinister plot behind the scenes that plans to bring Borrius to ruin, all while going on the usual quest To Be a Master.

Pokémon Unbound is notable for using a powerful custom engine known as the Custom FireRed Upgrade (CFRU) Engine, also created by Skeli. This engine adds features, Pokémon, and moves from later generations, specifically up to the Generation VIII games. These include the the physical-special split, the Fairy-type and updated type chart, Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, Dynamax, and sitting on benches. It also features four difficulty options, starting at Vanilla (which is closer to a traditional Pokémon game) and going all the way up to Insane, which cranks the game's difficulty up to unfair levels. A full-fledged Mission system is also in the game.

On December 19th 2021, the game's biggest update was released. Version 2.0 refines the story, writing (which was toned down to be less edgy), and even character designs, and involves a new mysterious organization known as the Science Society working with the Shadows. There's also more Anti-Frustration Features, more Post-Game missions and activities, and a lot more besides. On August 28th 2022, Version 2.1 was released, featuring game mechanics, attacks, and Pokémon from Legends: Arceus, as well as allowing the player to capture Pokémon from Galar and Hisui.

Skeli has also developed a second version known as the Battle Frontier Demo. Designed to showcase the CFRU's battle engine, this demo gives the player unrestricted access to the Battle Frontier facilities. It has a Play Every Day model, giving the player daily gifts, as well as monthly events that give the player special, battle-ready Pokémon.

You can download the patches for both versions here. For legal reasons, you'll have to find the base FireRed ROM yourself.

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Tropes that Pokémon Unbound provides:

#-D

• 100% Completion: To achieve this, the player has to beat the Elite Four, get a gold print from all the battle facilities, get a streak of 100 in the Antisis Battle Ring, complete all missions, and complete the National Pokedex. 100% completion is indicated by having five stars on your Trainer Card.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Antisis City sewers, which are spacious enough to walk around in comfortably, and even contain Trainers as well as wild Pokémon.
• Achilles' Heel: On the Insane difficulty, Shadow Warriors are Dark/Ghost type and carry the ability Wonder Guard. This makes them immune to every type of direct attack... except for Fairy. Ripping their cloak off also reduces them to ash, though good luck doing so without pissing them off.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Some Shiny Pokemon have a different color palette from the one they have in the main series, for example, in Unbound, a Shiny Electivire now has white fur instead of it having a more saturated yellow.
• A.I. Breaker:
  • If your Pokémon is holding a Berry that reduces damage from a super-effective move, then the opponent will never use a move of that type on that Pokémon unless the Berry is removed.
  • Having a Pokemon with the Illusion ability in your party messes up the algorithm the A.I uses to determine when it should switch and predict when you will switch, which is why the Zorua line can only be caught during the postgame in non-randomized playthroughs.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: The Great Desert has sprinklings of cacti around the area. Naturally, it's also the home of Cactus Pokémon such as Cacnea and Maractus.
• Alliterative Name: Cube Corp.
  • The Battle Frontier Brains are named Palmer, Paula, Pablo, and Patroz.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: Downplayed, but in Redwood Gym, the puzzle involves you looking back on your journey and each room in the Gym is themed after the various mountains and caves you've travelled through: Icicle Cave, Cinder Volcano, Thundercap Mountain, and Crystal Peak.
• Alternate Continuity: In canon, the Ultimate Weapon was buried in Kalos by the brother of AZ, the king of Kalos, where it was unearthed by Lysandre. Afterwards, it was left in Geosenge Town after the story's events. In Unbound, the Ultimate Weapon was buried at the top of Crystal Peak 3000 years ago, straight after the war.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: It is possible to obtain extra costumes in the game, including Marlon's uniform, and Red an outfit to let the Player cosplay as Red/Leaf. You also obtain a special costume upon becoming Champion.
• Animalistic Abomination: The Shadow Warriors are vaguely draconic, ferocious beasts created by forcibly fusing a Pokémon with the ashes of the deceased (in the older versions) or from 2.0 onward are simply half-human half-Pokémon hybrid artificial soldiers that use Gabite's cry. They can and will set fire to anything that moves, and on Insane difficulty will No-Sell any attack that isn't Fairy-type. They return to ash once their cloaks are pulled off, though.
• Anti-Frustration Features: This game features oodles of them, many of which are pre-programmed into the CFRU engine:
  • Anti Frustration Features from later generations that were added via the CFRU include reusable TMs, repel prompts, the ability to move items between Pokémon in the party, and unlimited item space.
  • While HMs are present, you are no longer required to teach your Pokémon the moves in order to use them in the field; you only need to have a Pokémon that is able to learn the respective move. Once you get the ADM, you are able to use any field move regardless of what Pokémon you have in your party, provided you have the required badge. Additionally, they are also automatically executed by default.
  • Upon getting a new item for the first time, a text box with the item's description appears on the top of the screen, informing the player of what it does.
  • After showing a Scientist all four forms of Sawsbuck, you are able to change your Pokémon's nature for a fee. Additionally, a second Scientist will change your nature in exchange for BP in the Battle Frontier. Like the Bottle Cap Madame, she'll appear in Crater Town upon starting a New Game Plus.
  • In Seaport City, a Madame who comes by on occasion will Hyper Train your Pokémon's stats in exchange for Bottle Caps, which are renewable (albeit rare) via rare Raid Battle drops or mining the KBT Expressway. She also appears in the Battle Frontier and, in the New Game Plus, is permanently available in Crater Town.
  • In addition to the standard Move Relearner, there is an Egg Move tutor in the Battle Frontier who will charge you a small fee in BP. However, she is relegated to the postgame (except in New Game Plus, where she is available in Crater Town in the same house as the Move Relearner).
  • EV Training is streamlined quite a bit, which is a good thing since you'll need to do it on the higher difficulties:
    • A Macho Brace can be acquired right away, and a Black Belt in Blizzard City (or Crater Town on Expert and Insane difficulty) will upgrade it for you at the cost of Everstones, increasing its effectiveness to a max of 10x.
    • The Trainer House in Dresco Town has trainers that can be defeated to earn lots of EVs in Attack, Special Attack, Speed, and HP. The HP Trainer is also good for EXP grinding, as he has a full party of Audino on his team before Post-Game (provided the Level Cap is enabled). Additionally, the trainers are subject to Level Scaling, making it a great place to Level Grind.
    • The secret area in Icicle Cave, which is unlocked upon completing a mission, has tall grass that contains only Alolan Sandshrew, which give Defense EVs upon defeat.
    • The DexNav makes a return, which can make EV Training easier via chaining a Pokémon which gives the EVs the player needs.
    • In the Battle Frontier, there is a Black Belt who will max out your Pokémon's EVs in exchange for BP. Like the Scientist, Madame, and Egg Move tutor, he will appear in Crater Town upon starting a New Game Plus.
  • Another Battle Frontier AFF is the Hidden Power Changer, who appears at night and will change your Pokémon's IVs to give them a desired Hidden Power. Additionally, your Pokémon's Hidden Power type appears in the summary and battle screens.
  • The summary screen will tell you if your Pokémon has max friendship via a heart icon. It also indicates IVs via letter grades next to the Pokémon's stats.
  • One of Professor Log's assistants will let you check your Pokémon's exact stats, EVs and IVs included. Upon catching 50 Pokémon, he will give you the Stat Scanner, which allows you to check them anywhere, anytime. Upon finishing the mission where you have to read every sign in the region, you're handed a notebook which can then be given to the assistant who will upgrade the Stat Scanner, which will then let you teach moves from the Stat Scanner anywhere. You still have to provide the necessary payment (like Heart Scales or BP) but it saves you a ton of time actually having to go to the respective NPCs for their services.
  • As part of a sidequest, a Breeder will give you a 6IV Ditto with his OT to make breeding a lot easier upon hatching 50 Eggs. Once you hatch 100 Eggs, you are given the Magma Stone, which makes Eggs hatch faster (in addition to its usual purpose of summoning Heatran).
  • Speaking of Eggs, the Daycare Center man can now hold up to 100 Eggs at a time, as opposed to the main series games, where he holds only one, and no more can be produced until either it's taken off his hands or he's told to keep it. If the Player has no room in the party for all the Eggs, he instead sends all of the excess ones to the PC.
  • If you use the move Knock Off on a wild Pokémon that is holding an item, after capturing it or knocking it out, the item is automatically sent to your Bag, saving time using Thief or Covet and then taking it from your own Pokémon.
  • Should the Player accidentally try to run from a Shiny wild Pokémon, a message will pop up, confirming if the Player really wants to run, to give them a bit more time to slow down and stop before it's too late.
• Anti-Grinding: Played with. There is an optional level cap set in place, which raises after each Gym Leader battle, preventing you from simply grinding and overleveling to overcome the game's challenges. On higher difficulties, this cap is switched on by default to prevent players from brute-forcing their way through bosses. Upon reaching the level cap, your Pokémon will gain such minimal EXP so that it's essentially stuck at that level until the cap raises again after another boss fight.
• Anti-Villain: After Marlon's defeat on Thundercap Mountain, he accepts his loss with grace and releases Zapdos. He's also part of the Shadows in an effort to bring his son back to life, alongside his wife Ivory. Even Zeph's main motivation for leading the Shadows is to use Hoopa's power to also bring his child back to life.
• The Artifact: In-universe, Mel's gym is this. It was originally run by Tessy, the Water-type Gym Leader, but she moved to East Borrius some time before the events of the game. Once Tessy moved, Mel took over the Gym, but was too busy working out to redesign the Gym, resulting in a Gym that's full of water but trainers that only use Normal types.
• Artificial Brilliance: Because of the enhanced engine, the AI is a lot smarter and will switch out a lot whenever they're in a bad spot, so be prepared for a lot of switching during tough boss fights. However, your AI partner in the various double battles throughout the game is also (for the most part) pretty smart as well. If you have a move that hits everyone else on the field like Earthquake or Lava Plume, and your partner has Protect, they'll usually use it to let you use the spread damaging move safely.
• Artificial Stupidity: When Marlon takes control of your Pokémon during the Primal Groudon battle, he can sometimes make some very poor choices with their moves, such as abusing a status move over and over again.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: Like the Ultra games, one side quest chain explores the idea of Dittos transforming into humans. You find a little Tuber NPC all over Fallshore City who keeps being blown away by the wind, only to find out both she and her mom are Ditto. Unlike those games however, these Ditto actually speak, and could even convincingly pass as human if they were able to maintain their disguises. Also, even though the little girl turned out to be a Ditto, that's still a little girl that's getting lost in a big city, and then eventually nearly taken away by a Drifloon which is something its Dex entries bring up.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The Daily Quiz sometimes asks the Player "Which type of Pokémon is the most common?" with the clue being that "there's too much of it".
  • An old lady at the Battle Tower mentions her shock at seeing a Rotom-Fan carrying an Air Balloon, warning the Player not to underestimate that "redundant freak of nature", in her own words.^note Holding Air Balloon gives you an immunity to Ground-type attacks until you get hit, which pops the balloon. The thing is, Rotom-Fan is part Flying-type, which is already immune to Ground-type attacks. And it has the ability Levitate, which also gives you an immunity to Ground-type attacks.
• Back from the Dead:
  • At the climax of the story, Zeph's son is brought back to life, although their reunion is cut short as Zeph is apprehended for his crimes for leading the Shadows.
  • Prior to version 2.0, after getting drowned and incinerated respectively, Marlon and the player character are revived by Arceus in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. From version 2.0 onward, the player character and Marlon are instead banished to Cube Space, a pocket dimension where people store their items. An explosive reaction boots you and Marlon back out into Borrius to put a stop to Aklove.
• Badass Boast: Marlon delivers a pretty solid one to you at Thundercap Mountain, after seizing Zapdos.
  Marlon: No matter how it happened, no matter that you're here now... None of it changes the fact that I have Zapdos in my possession. With its power in my hands, there's no chance you'll be able to stop me from leaving. And if you think there is, then, I will show you first-hand... the power of Zapdos! The power of a Legendary Pokémon!
• Bad People Abuse Animals: The Shadow grunt that controls Hoopa, AKA Aklove, forces it to overexert itself, with Hoopa noticeably showing reluctance to follow his orders.
• Bag of Holding: Well, more like CUBE of Holding - the Bag in this game is a small portable device, designed to convert physical matter into data and store it virtually inside, eliminating the need to haul a backpack around. The Cube granted to Aklove by Fey can even convert organic matter into data, allowing him to trap both Marlon and the Player inside Cube Space.
• Balance Buff:
  • Beldum is one of the possible starters in this game. As it could only learn the suicidal Take Down in the mainline games, Unbound gives it a few new starting moves, including Metal Bash, a new, early-game Steel-type move.
  • The level Pupitar evolves into Tyranitar was lowered from 55 to 48 in Unbound, as the level cap would have meant the Player would need to wait until they'd obtained the 6th Badge otherwise (Metagross can be obtained after defeating Successor Maxima, while Garchomp, which also evolves at level 48, can be obtained after beating the 5th Badge).
    • In the same vein, Vanillite's evolution into Vanillish was lowered from a level 35 requirement to only level 24, to prevent players from being stuck with a basic Pokémon until after 3rd Gym.
  • The Ability Gale Wings has been reverted to operating on its Gen 6 mechanics, rather than its current mainline version, where it was only useable at full health. Word of God confirms that the decision was due to the belief that Gale Wings was the only reason to use Talonflame to begin with.
  • Gengar gets its Levitate ability back, allowing it to avoid Ground type attacks, which it's normally weak to. It lost Levitate in Gen VII, then lost its Mega Evolution in Gen VIII, but here, it's able to take full advantage of both.
  • Aegislash has its stats reverted back to how it was before Sword and Shield, back to a mighty 150 Def and Sp Def in its Shield form and 150 Atk and Sp Atk in its Blade form, as opposed to the 140 it currently has in the main series. In addition, its King's Shield was also reverted back to dropping the assailant's Atk stat by 2 stages rather than 1.
  • Fling is reworked so that if you Fling a Snowball, you guarantee infliction of frostbite. This is notable since this is the only method of guaranteeing the Frostbite status effect, even if it's once per battle, whereas otherwise you just have to rely on the rare chance from a move like Ice Beam or Blizzard to do so.
  • Rock Smash will now lower the opponent's Defense 100% of the time, whereas there was only a chance to do so in the main series games.
  • Smog is also 100% accurate (but can still miss if evasion is increased or accuracy is lowered).
  • Dark Void's accuracy has been restored to 80, when it was reduced to 50 since Sun/Moon.
  • The Burn status condition has been reverted to inflict damage equal to 1/8th of the burned Pokémon's HP, rather than 1/16th as per Gen VII and beyond.
  • Many Pokémon received new moves and abilities, improving their viability, often getting other abilities that are renamed and repurposed to suit them. For instance, Machamp gets an ability called Focus Belt, which is functionally the same as Sturdy, while Pyroar once had some very situational abilities, but now it has some pretty straightforward power boosting abilities like Adaptability and a new ability that's the Special equivalent of Moxie.
  • Regigigas goes from a Joke Character to actually being able to do damage as it gets Stall as a Hidden Ability. While this does force Regigigas to move last, it still fits its lore while being able to actually use its massive Atk stat, letting it be a Mighty Glacier.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: At Thundercap Mt., the Player sets free several Timburr, locked in electrified cages by the Shadows. Once you rescue them, they thank them by rebuilding the stairs Marlon destroyed, allowing the Player to reach Marlon and take a shot at rescuing Zapdos.
• Big Bad: Zeph, the leader of the Shadows, seeks out Hoopa's power, and has the Shadows hunt down the Legendary Birds of Kanto for his schemes. In truth, he just wants Hoopa's power to try and bring back his deceased son, and his actions are out of desperation. Once Hoopa's power is unbound however, the real villain takes center stage: Aklove, who wishes to use Hoopa's power to activate the Ultimate Weapon and rain destruction on Borrius.
• Big Fancy House: Tarmigan Mansion is essentially an unofficial Gym 4.5, which Jax even lampshades. There's a puzzle or two to be solved, trainers to fight, and Successor Maxima awaits you at the end. Defeating her lets you progress the story, and she gives you access to Mega Evolution and an Altarianite to start off with.
• Big Good: Arthur, Jax's grandpa, Professor's Log's friend, and the former Champion of Borrius, is who tasks you to take down and fight the Shadows alongside his grandson. At the climax of the story, Arthur and some authorities apprehend Zeph for his crimes for working with the Shadows, but he's convinced to let Marlon go free.
• Bittersweet Ending: The end of the Black Emboar/(player name)'s set of sidequests. Despite the efforts of the player, the Black Emboars are ultimately defeated by the Black Ferrothorns, and they are forced out of Antisis City. However, they accept their loss with pride, leave for Magnolia Fields, and give the player a Heracronite as a parting gift. Additionally, this means one less gang in the Wretched Hive that is Antisis, giving the few remaining citizens a glimmer of hope that the city will return to its former glory.
• Black Comedy:
  • In Tehl Town, a scientist will change the nature of your Pokémon for a hefty fee after you show him all four forms of Sawsbuck. This is accomplished via unanesthetized lobotomization, which is painful to the point of causing your Pokémon to scream in pain and reduce its Friendship with you. This is all played for laughs.
  • Similarly, Fallshore City has a Bottle Cap collector from Kalos who will boost the IVs of your Pokémon in exchange for Bottle Caps. It's implied to involve some painful genetic engineering that also reduces your Pokémon's friendship, and is also played for laughs, especially considering the collector's comically thick accent.
• Book Ends: The game starts and ends with a Double Battle. First a Double Battle against a Shadow grunt alongside Ace, and then at the end of your journey, the Final Boss is a Double Battle against Jax, who after teaming up with you in Double Battles in the entire game, challenges you to one as your final battle.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: On the snowy part of Victory Road, there are two Trainers, a male and female Expert, blocking your way, who aren't skippable, but you've fought plenty of Experts and Double Battles, so it ought to be easy, right? That is until the battle music for Mega Trainers starts up, and suddenly it's revealed that both of them are not only in sync with each other's team (with one side setting up harsh sunlight with Drought, while the other throws out powerful Fire-type attacks or a no-charge needed Solarbeam), they also carry a Mega Charizard Y and a Mega Venusaur.
• Boss Rush: In addition to the usual Elite 4 + the extra boss, the Player can access the Battleground during the Post Game, where they can enter the Leaders Gauntlet, fighting all of Borrius' Gym Leaders back to back.
  • Even during the main story, the Player also fights several Legendary Pokémon back to back, without rest, courtesy of Hoopa.
• Bowdlerise: From Version 2.0 onwards, instead of getting killed and sent to the afterlife to be judged by Arceus, the player and Marlon are instead sent to the inside of the Cube Space.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Entering the Hall of Fame tells you how you beat the game, but for biggest flexing possible, one must enter it playing on the 'Capped True Insane' path - that is to say, play a brand-new game on Insane with the level cap always on, switching option permanently on Set, no trading between games, and no enhancement options such as Scalemons or Randomiser. If you alter any of the option settings at any point during the game, it will remember it and you'll be locked out of that achievement.
• Breaking Old Trends: Compared to the main series, this game bucks a few old trends.
  • For starters, the game doesn't open with the region's Professor welcoming the Player to the world of Pokémon. Instead, the Player is taken to a character customisation screen, where they can choose appearance, name, and options on how the Player wishes to enjoy the game.
  • Mascot Legendary Pokémon have long been part of a Pokémon villain's plan, and/or key in defeating them, but they are usually only captured or controlled during the game's events. In this case, the Mascot Pokémon BEGINS the game under the Big Bad's control.
  • The starters are not the typical Grass-Fire-Water trio that's so prevalent throughout the series. Rather, they are the Ground/Dragon Gible, Rock/Ground Larvitar, and Steel/Psychic Beldum. They don't exactly follow a typical elemental triangle, as technically, Garchomp has the advantage over the other two. They're also pseudo-legendaries, powerful Pokémon that have stats that rival actual legendaries, but evolve very late. They're normally only available to the mid to late game anyway, but here, they're your starter.
  • The starting town and first route and cave are all ice-themed, allowing you to acquire Ice-type Pokémon immediately. This is in contrast to most games where the snow themed areas are all later in the game, and thus, Ice-type Pokémon are also acquired pretty late.
  • Most Pokémon protagonists ride regular bicycles around the region. Here, you get to ride a motorbike. While functionally the same, it's way cooler and it also has a turbo boost function, letting you really ride around quickly.
  • This game has a Dark type Gym Leader in Véga, and he's the second Gym Leader to boot, something very unheard of in the main series, at least until Sword and Shield. Véga is also the first Gym Leader to be a villain since Giovanni, as he is actually part of the Science Society.
  • This game is the first to have a dual-typed Gym, as the Dehara Gym has an equal focus on Electric and Steel types.
  • The villainous team of the game aren't called a Team, but are simply referred to as the Shadows. The same applies to the Light of Ruin.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • There's actually a Mission where an NPC claims that every time you turn off the game without saving first, it results in the entire world being destroyed. It's just that no-one notices because an alternate world is created whenever you reload. The Mission is of course to not destroy the world by manually saving regularly.
  • One of the Missions in Antisis City can only be completed in the evening (after 8pm). The guy who gives it tells the Player to just change the clock on whatever they're playing the game on, if they can't wait that long. He promises not to tell anyone if you don't.
• Brick Joke: After your battle with Mirskle, a few Black Ferrothorn goons rush in looking for him. Mirskle and the other trainers proceed to jump into the pond in the middle of the Gym, and that seems to be that. You can return in the postgame with the ability to Dive under water, and you find out that underneath the Gym is a greenhouse that manufactures Oddish Leaves. Those goons at the start weren't there for nothing.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Battle Frontier is accessed via Seaport City in the postgame, and is full of facilities that test your mastery of Pokémon team building. They all have their own rules and mechanics, each have a Frontier Brain to fight, and each of them also have specific rulesets that you can play under to diversify your team building.
  • The Battle Tower is as straight forward as it gets, with no nonsense pure Pokémon battling, and it functions much the same way as the other Battle Towers in the series. Palmer from the Sinnoh games is also the boss of the Battle Tower here.
  • The Battle Sands has you relinquish your Pokémon to a passing by NPC who fights in your stead. It's pretty much a Luck-Based Mission as you have no control over what the NPC does.
  • The Battle Circus has various rules and conditions applied before the battle begins, and these can include, but are not limited to: Inverse Battles (where the type chart is reversed), various weather, Wonder Room (which reverses every Pokémon's Def and Sp Def stats), and Shadow Tag (where you cannot switch out).
  • The Battle Mine challenges you to build a team that can handle multiple rulesets at any given time. For instance, you might have to do a Single Battle in one match, then a Double Battle the next, then the Camomons ruleset, and then the Benjamin Butterfree ruleset, and you just have to adapt to each one as it comes.
  • The Battle Ring is not officially part of the Battle Frontier, but is held in Antisis Gym, as a series of 1v1 battles where you can only pick one Pokémon to face off against another, and a type gets banned before each match, barring you from using any move of said type.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: The swampy, marshy Cootes Bog in east Borrius is visited late in the story, right before the climax at Crystal Peak.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: You run into a white-haired guy sitting in the corner of each Pokémon Centre who tells you a brief bit about each Gym Leader. When you're in Dehara City, he mostly talks about how great that town's Gym Leader is and how he's the best. Turns out this guy you've been running into is said Gym Leader, Galavan.
• The Cameo:
  • Gym Leader Candice from Sinnoh appears in Blizzard City as an Optional Boss.
  • Champions Red and Cynthia from Kanto and Sinnoh respectively appear in Magnolia Town on certain days. You can trade with Red to receive two Pikachu and his outfit, while Cynthia can be challenged to a battle. Red also shows up as a possible Raid Den partner and a possible boss fight aboard the S.S Marine.
  • Giovanni, the former leader of Team Rocket and former Viridian Gym Leader, shows up as a possible Optional Boss in the Battle Frontier. Oddly, despite having his own battle theme, he uses the Terror Granbull theme instead.
• Casting a Shadow: Fittingly for their name, the Shadows use Ghost types, alongside the typical Poison and Dark types that most villainous teams would use.
• Central Theme: This game's main theme is about legacy, and how the various characters (and even the game itself) measure against those who came before them.
  • You are the child of Aros, who was a key figure in shaping the history of Borrius, and was renowned as a hero. You get compared to him every now and then, but you end up being a great hero in your own right, taking down all of the villainous groups and criminal gangs in Borrius, all for the sake of doing good.
  • Ace's parents have gone missing, so he dedicates himself to his training and aiming to be the strongest trainer out there, partly so he has the resolve to find them, and partly to prove his strength to them when he eventually does. His parents being Marlon and Ivory kind of complicates things however, but he at least resolves his issues with Marlon by the end.
  • Jax has been training under his grandpa Arthur, the former Champion of Borrius, so that Jax will be able to defend Borrius from harm as any good Champion should. However, the pressure of having to live up to such a great figure does get to him, and causes him to act rashly, which sometimes puts him and his Pokémon in harm's way. You also prove yourself to be the stronger trainer between the two of you every time, but Jax realizes that he needs to get stronger for his own sake, so that he's able to stand on his own merits and eventually your equal. And he does exactly that, as he becomes the Final Boss of the game.
  • Aklove has a darker take on this concept, as he's the descendant of AZ, the King of Kalos, who fought against the King of Borrius long, long before the story of the game began. While players of X and Y know that AZ has come to regret his decisions, Aklove doesn't, and he believes his destiny is to activate the Ultimate Weapon once more and destroy all of Borrius. In the end, the legacy of AZ was lost on Aklove, and instead, he simply projected his own desires and nearly wiped out the region in the process.
  • This game itself has a lot to live up to, as it's a ROM hack of an existing game in the Pokémon series, and aims to hit all the same story beats, have an interesting region to explore, and have as many of the features that the main series provides. However, this game does all this and then some, as Pokémon Unbound has many ways of playing (with a few difficulty modes, stat balancing, randomizer options), it manages to tell a similar story (go around the region, stop the local villainous team) but with a slightly darker take, it has a region that's got plenty to discover, and has an incredibly extensive post-game that can be played for who knows how long.
• Character Name Limits: The character limit has resulted in several attacks and in some cases Pokémon names being shortened. For example, Stomping Tantrum is called Bad Tantrum in this game, and Fletchinder had to be shortened to Fletchindr.
• Character Select Forcing: There are some battles where you are forced to use completely different Pokémon, or locking you into using a certain type of Pokémon.
  • At Crystal Peak, you are forced to use Mamoswine, Vaporeon, and Toucannon on your team against Ivory, as Ace is almost knocked unconscious but still urges you to fight Ivory with his own Pokémon.
  • In Redwood Forest, there is a Mega Trainer who will only challenge you if you bring four Kangaskhan and nothing else. Serves as a Mirror Boss as well, as she also uses four Kangaskhan, including a Mega Kangaskhan. Your reward is the Kangaskhanite that she used.
  • The Devil Duo in Frost Mountain, who can only be challenged after defeating every other regular trainer in Borrius, use only Mimikyu. You cannot challenge them unless you have only Fighting or Dragon types on your team, two types that happen to be disadvantageous against Mimikyu.
  • One mission in Seaport City tasks you to take down some criminals in a warehouse, but you can only bring Ice and Fairy types.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of the game, a Cube Corp. Scientist is demonstrating to Zeph that the Shadow Warriors are immune to extreme heat and cold, but the electrical immunity was still not yet implemented. Later, at Thundercap Mt., Zapdos becomes the only Legendary Bird to repel and destroy the Shadow Warriors meant to restrain it, allowing the Player to fight Marlon alone and successfully rescue Zapdos.
• Climax Boss: This game has two: The first is against Hoopa and Mega Rayquaza atop Crystal Peak. On Insane, it's immediately followed up by another fight against a Dynamaxed Hoopa. Afterwards, you fight Aklove one more time, and that wraps up the Light of Ruin plot for the main story, although he's still on the run by the postgame.
• Co-Dragons: Both Shadow Admins Marlon and Ivory serve Zeph and the Shadows, enacting their wicked schemes upon the people of Borrius. Like Zeph however, they're motivated to also bring back their deceased child. Marlon stays loyal to Zeph to the bitter end and even fights alongside you once Aklove takes the spotlight. Ivory however, defects to the Light of Ruin and stays by Aklove's side, in the hopes that he would be the one to help bring back her child.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • Starting in the second gym, boss trainers such as Gym Leaders will be able to use Mega Evolution. You won't be able to use Mega Evolutions until the fifth Gym.
  • On higher difficulties, the Gym Leaders and Elite Four will have field effects that work in their favor permanently active, such as the negative emotions in Véga's gym, which hurts all except Dark- and Ghost- types, and the Electric Terrain in Galavan's gym that also protects his Pokémon from Ground attacks. On Insane, Big Mo takes this up a notch, as not only does he ban moves that are super effective against his specialty type, but he also has a permanent Trick Room up, turning his Mighty Glaciers into Lightning Bruisers.
  • On the Insane difficulty, to compensate for a lack of field effect or gimmick, the Final Boss has Pokémon with illegal EV spreads, well over the 510 limit. Jax's Arcanine has four stats with 252 EVs, while his Mega Rayquaza, Zygarde, Suicune, and Kartana have 252 EVs in all of their stats. This carries over into the Title Defense matches, where every challenger also has illegally maxed out EVs in every stat on all of their Pokémon.
  • The many Legendary Pokémon that the player must fight throughout the story also have maxed out EVs in every stat on Insane, and they get a +1 boost to all of their stats in battle as well.
  • On the Insane difficulty, should the Player challenge Candice at the first opportunity, her Glaceon will carry Mirror Coat, a move it cannot learn until Level 45, below the Level Cap of 32. Her Sneasel also carries Night Slash, a move it cannot learn at all until it evolves into Weavile.
• Composite Character: Your rival, Ace, shares a few traits with several rivals in the main series.
  • Just like Silver and Gladion, Ace pursues strength, is very blunt and he doesn't mince his words. He's nice enough to you at least, but he doesn't exactly respect his elders, and he detests the Shadows. And just like those two, Ace is also the child of one of the villains, being Ivory and Marlon's son. He even has red hair like Silver does.
  • Similarly to Barry, he's a bit impatient, but he's a pretty competent trainer, and he tries to stay one step ahead of you whenever he can. And just like Barry, his dad is also a powerful trainer, who even manages to have a Legendary Pokémon under his control (Zapdos for Marlon, Regigigas, Heatran, and Cresselia for Palmer).
  • Just like Hugh, he has a bit of a short temper, and sets off on his journey in search of something important to him relating to his family. In his case, it's to find his missing parents. And just like Hugh, he is also taken completely aback once the truth of his quest comes to light. Hugh was disturbed when his sister's Purrloin grew up to be a Liepard under Team Plasma's control, while Ace is not sure how to process the fact that the parents he's been looking for have been part of the villainous Shadows the whole time.
• Convection, Schmonvection: In Cinder Volcano, you can use Surf on the lava if you have a Fire type Pokémon on your team. Despite being that close to the lava, the player character is no worse for the wear.
• Convenient Weakness Placement: Fighting Ho-Oh and Lugia at the Ruins of Void will likely be your first time having to deal with Dynamax barriers, which protect the Pokémon from direct attacks until they're all destroyed. Brick Break (and Psychic Fangs) were buffed in this game to destroy two barriers at once, and it just so happens that the TM for Brick Break can also be found somewhere at the Ruins of Void.
• Creator Cameo: The developers of Unbound can be found in one of the houses in Dehara City. During the Post-Game, they can even be battled daily.
  • Nex, one of the game's artists, can also be found in the Distortion World in the Post-Game, waiting for a friend. If you battle and defeat him, he gives you the Griseous Orb meant for the friend that never appeared, and then leaves.
• Crystal Landscape: Crystal Peak, the mountain where the game's climax occurs, is full of gems and crystals that can be activated and deactivated through the use of switches. There's even a room where you can mine for Gems in particular.
• Cyberspace: How the Cube basically works regarding item storage: it breaks down items into data and then stores it in a shared virtual space, so its user can carry a large number of items without being weighed down.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the main series, this game tackles some pretty dark themes, including deceased children being the main motivation for the Shadows (Zeph, Marlon, and Ivory) while Aklove seeks to destroy all of Borrius with the use of the Ultimate Weapon. There's also a lot of kidnapping and Pokémon being used to directly harm people, and a lot of characters get sent to their doom, including the player character at several times. Pokémon are also shown to be experimented on, especially by the Science Society. Even two beneficial NPCs that are supposed to help you improve your Pokémon (a Nature changer and an IV maxer respectively) perform surgeries on your Pokémon and it's described as causing harm to the Pokémon, and it actually affects your Pokémon's Happiness, dropping it completely or by a bit.
  • It was even darker and edgier in older versions, especially the aspects about the Shadow Warriors. Prior to version 2.0, the Shadow Warriors were forcibly created by combining the ashes of the deceased with Pokémon to create those artificial soldiers, and the poor old couple on Route 9 were killed off to make an example of this. That's also why the Shadows had a habit of incinerating anyone who stands in their way. From 2.0 onward though, that aspect was done away with, as the old couple were forcibly turned into the Shadow Warriors but defeating them brings them back to normal. There's also the event at Ruins of Void, where prior to version 2.0, Aklove just has Hoopa summon a stream of fire to burn the player alive, sending you to the afterlife to be judged by Arceus. You and Marlon, who was there too after being drowned, are both given a second chance at life to end the suffering from the Shadow Warriors. From 2.0 onward, you and Marlon are instead banished to Cube Space, a digital pocket dimension where people store their items in. The player's long lost father Aros is revealed to be stuck here too, but manages to induce an explosive chain reaction that has just enough power to send you and Marlon back out into Borrius to put a stop to Aklove.
• Dark Reprise: Inverted. The first time you visit Thundercap Mountain, the Ruins of Void, Vivill Town, and Crystal Peak, you hear a more sinister remix of each area's themes, incorporating the themes of the villains into the tracks, as you're there to stop the villains that have infiltrated those areas. After clearing 'em out though, you get to hear the proper versions of each track.
• Desert Skull: The Great Desert does have the skeleton of a Pokémon, somewhere. It's hard to spot, however, since skeletons don't exactly litter the area.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you lose to Ace during your first match with him in Frozen Heights, he'll actually comment on this during your second match in Icicle Cave and wonder if you'll actually beat him this time.
  • An old lady at the Pokémon League informs you that some of the Elite Four will challenge you to a Double Battle, and suggests you to pick up the Protect TM, which you can buy in Fallshore City. It's moved to Seaport City on Insane, but her dialogue will be updated accordingly and she'll tell you to go to Seaport City instead.
  • Big Mo's pre-challenge dialogue is slightly different, depending on whether or not the Player has completed the Mission 'The Black Emboar'.
  • During the Mission The Rogue Electivire, when the time comes to fight Dynamax Electivire, should the Player have never entered a battle where they could Dynamax their Pokémon, such a Max Raid Battle in a Hidden Grotto, the game will run you through an explanation of how Dynamax works before you fight it.
  • An NPC in Dehara City will comment on the Player's current Costume, based on whether it's suited for wearing in a desert oasis city - for example, he asks if the Player's default outfit isn't way too hot, but says that the Red/Leaf cosplay outfit seems to be a better choice. Similarly, in the house where the dev self-inserts live, Kwen (one of the character designers for this game) will compliment your jacket if you happen to have the default outfit on, saying that it was designed just for you.
  • Prior to Version 2.0, no Pokemon from Galar were available to catch in the game. However, they were still coded in, on account of the game's enhanced engine. So if you were able to get them somehow, then they'd work just fine. Averted as of Version 2.1, where they became available regularly.
  • The default "the water is deep blue..." message appears prior to Surfing, as per usual for these games, EXCEPT when trying to surf in Cootes Bog, where it describes the water as "murky brown". Similarly, you can surf on lava in Cinder Volcano if you have a Fire-type on your team, and you'll see a message saying that the lava is a crimson red, indicating that it can be surfed on too.
  • Deoxys can be found at the end of a hidden path on Route 5, but only if Jirachi is in your party. If you have the portable PC, the game prevents you from accessing it while you're on that path, preventing you from removing Jirachi from your party, to ensure that the path remains open to Deoxys.
• Didn't Think This Through: Aklove's attempt to dispose of Zeph's Houndoom, and later Zeph himself. It's one thing to teleport a Houndoom, a Fire-type with the ability Flash Fire, to Cinder Volcano in order to get rid of it. It's another thing to teleport said Houndoom's trainer, to whom it's undyingly loyal, to that very same location.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: The Ruins of Void is this. It's ominously always raining, you're told that the Shadows are there to try and perform some sort of ritual, and the area is full of trials, puzzles, and even fights against Legendary Pokémon, but the story carries on from there and introduces a new set of villains and sheds a bit of light on the Shadows.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • Subverted with the starters, Larvitar, Beldum, and Gible. While they may be pseudo-legendaries, they're still subject to Magikarp Power and late evolution levels (with 48 being the earliest for two of the starters, so with the Level Cap on, after the 5th Badge). Additionally, Gible and especially Larvitar have underwhelming defensive typings, while Beldum lacks an offensive presence until it evolves into Metagross.
  • Also subverted with Ditto, at least on Insane Difficulty. On Insane, it's impossible to obtain a Ditto with its Hidden Ability Imposter, something that can usually be obtained as soon as the Dexnav is available. This is to prevent players using Ditto to copy an opposing mon that's buffed itself up and then using it to easily sweep the opponent's team.
  • Averted with the DexNav. Skeli deliberately delayed when the player could obtain it to prevent the player from getting high IV mons with powerful egg moves early on, citing a Pikipek with Brave Bird as a specific example.
  • Played straight with Cutiefly. It's obtainable right before the second gym, which is weak to both of Cutiefly's STAB types. You can evolve it into Ribombee right before said gym as well at which point it gains good Special Attack and blistering speed. Upon evolution it learns Pollen Puff, which is a 90 BP STAB move at a point when most Pokémon have 60 BP moves at most. It can also hold its own until the endgame, thanks to its ability to set the speed-controlling Sticky Web.
  • Clefairy is also another Pokémon that can be acquired and evolved as early as the second Gym, which it happens to have the type advantage against, plus its Magic Guard protects it from the Gym's field effect which inflicts damage over time on any non Dark or Ghost type. There's a static encounter with Clefairy in Crater Town, and you can mine for a Moon Stone at the KBT Expressway to evolve it quickly, as well as a Heart Scale to teach it Moonblast, a powerful move at that stage in the game. Afterwards, its good bulk, vast movepool, and Fairy type lets it remain strong throughout the rest of the game.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The first Gym is full of fog, the Gym is themed around plants and plant Pokémon, the Gym Leader is a hippie, and you find out he deals and supplies something called Oddish Leaves. If it wasn't obvious enough, one of his Gym trainers is named Doobie. Let's just say he and Mina from Alola would probably get along quite well.
• Dual Boss:
  • There are a few bosses where you team up with an ally (usually Jax, a few times Ace), such as the battles against Marlon or Ivory and a Shadow grunt. This gets inverted later on, as you end up fighting Véga in a two-on-one on higher difficulties as you team up with Marlon, and then this happens again later with Aklove with Ace to help you out at Crystal Peak and Jax to help you out at the Ruins of Void.
  • The Legendary fights at Crystal Peak are this, as you have to fight two Legendaries at once: first Reshiram and Zekrom, then Hoopa-Unbound and Mega Rayquaza. The former two, you team up with Ace, but for the latter two, you're on your own.
  • A pair of Experts are your final opponents in Victory Road, and must be fought to proceed, and they use a combination Sun and Grassy Terrain team.
  • The Devil Duo in Frost Mountain are another pair of Experts that must be fought together, but can only be fought after defeating every other trainer in Borrius. These two only use Mimikyu, but require you to only use Fighting or Dragon types, types that their Mimikyu prey upon. They use all sorts of disruptive status moves and take full advantage of Mimikyu's Disguise that lets them withstand a single hit from full health almost all of the time.

E-I

• Eldritch Location:
  • The Rift Cave in Dehara City is a maze that loops in on itself, implied to be the distorted space brought on by Palkia that awaits within.
  • You visit the Distortion World, the very same from Platinum, complete with Strength puzzles and everything. Like its original depiction, it is an alternate dimension devoid of life, with bizarre geometry and physics, and Giratina awaits you at the end.
• Emotion Eater: Something about Véga, or his Gym, results in the absorption of the frustration, anger, and other negative emotions of the Trainers that struggle against him. Those emotions then turn on other challengers, tormenting their Pokémon with Damage Over Time, in a Vicious Cycle.
• Enemy Mine: You have to fight alongside Marlon against Véga late in the story once the Light of Ruin and the Science Society have made themselves known and the former have taken over the spotlight as the main villains. After, you both have to fight a rampaging Primal Groudon, but your Pokémon are under the AI's control since you're separated from them and Marlon has to command them.
• Excuse Plot: Averted - the plot is basically everywhere, at least up until the events at Crystal Peak. Even the act of getting most of the Badges is a means to an end (getting to where the Shadows are predicted to be moving next) - something that Jax even Lampshades at one point.
• Failed a Spot Check: One Mission involves rescuing a Hiker, who stranded himself on an island after his Pokémon dug a hole there, and then forgot the move Dig. He lost the TM for it, and so can't teach the move again. After you rescue him, the TM for Dig is your reward - he had it in his pocket the whole time.
• Fantastic Livestock: Magnolia Town has a ranch where Miltank, an all-female species of bipedal cows, are farmed for their milk. There's even a Mission located there in the Post Game, requiring the Player to fetch them after they're kidnapped from the ranch.
• Final Boss: Similarly to the Alola games, after you beat the Elite Four, you are ONE step away from the Hall of Fame and becoming the champion, when you are interrupted by the Final Boss: a trainer who fights you for the title. Your final opponent is Jax.
• Final Boss Preview: On the Insane difficulty, fighting Mega Rayquaza and Hoopa-Unbound at Crystal Peak can be seen as a test to see how well you can handle fighting Mega Rayquaza in a Double Battle, as Jax has one of his own during the Final Boss fight.
• Final Solution: Aklove's ultimate goal is to destroy the Borrius region and its inhabitants with the Ultimate Weapon as Revenge for tormenting his ancestor, the King of Kalos, during the war.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are featured in this game, all being captured by the Shadows. Marlon even captures Zapdos right before your eyes and uses it against you. This also applies to three of the mountains of Borrius in Frost Mountain, Thundercap Mountain, and Cinder Volcano, the latter two being where you can even catch Zapdos and Moltres to begin with.
• Flunky Boss: The battle with Hoopa at Crystal Peak is this. It begins the battle by summoning a Mega Rayquaza and entering a Double Battle with the Player. To make things worse, even if you knock out Rayquaza, Hoopa will spawn another to take its place mid-battle until Hoopa is knocked out itself.
• Forest of Perpetual Autumn: Routes 9 and 10, as well as the Auburn Waterway.
• Fountain of Youth: The last Gym invokes this, as it has a special rule in that any Pokémon that faints reverts to its previous evolution stage before going down. On higher difficulties, the Gym Leader Benjamin will take full advantage of this by using Pokémon like Scizor, Magnezone, and Rhyperior, all of which evolve from what were previously fully evolved Pokémon. Benjamin himself is subject to this, as he starts the battle as an old man, and then appears as a young boy after the battle, saying that the same thing happened with his Butterfree (which reverted back to Caterpie).
• Foreshadowing: When confronting Ivory on Route 9 alongside Jax, Jax questions the motives of the Shadows, believing them to want to seek out Hoopa's destructive power to destroy the region and plunge it into chaos. Ivory mocks the idea, questioning why she would even want to send her own region into chaos, and instead states that Hoopa's power isn't for destruction, but rather to save something that was lost. You later find out that what was lost was her and Marlon's dead son, and Ivory's whole reason for joining the Shadows is to find a way to bring him back.
• Free-Range Children: A staple for the franchise, although it's downplayed in the Player's case: the Player's mother is for the most part unaware of the danger since Professor Log keeps telling her that you're on the run-of-the-mill Gym Challenge, to hide your involvement with the fight against the Shadows. Ace is a more traditional example, as he can't wait to get away from Log and go find his parents.
• Frictionless Ice: Inside Icicle Cave (obviously) as well as the final puzzle to Victory Road, 'The Torture Chamber'.
• Funny Background Event: While the Player's trapped in Cube Space, various items can be seen flying around the virtual world below, even during cutscenes. However, for some reason, among the sea of items, you can also see some people like a Tuber Girl and a middle-aged woman floating around.
• The Gambling Addict: In the postgame, Successor Maxima can be found spending her time at the Dehara City Game Corner.
• Gang of Hats: The three Antisis gangs all have distinguishing features:
  • The Black Emboars wear bright red jackets instead of the black ones the other gangs have, with most of the members having beards similar to Emboar's as well.
  • The Terror Granbulls all have pointy hair, a la the Pointy-Haired Boss.
  • The Black Ferrothorns have green spiked mohawks that mimic Ferrothorn's barbs.
• The Ghost:
  • Despite being important to the story and being mentioned a lot, as of the current version 2.0, Fey is nowhere to be seen in the game, despite having her own unused battle theme and everything. However, she and the Science Society will likely show up and be more important in a future update that adds the Cube Corp interior.
  • The player's father, Aros, is renowned as a great hero of Borrius, and some characters often compare you to him or talk about his greatness. He is long gone by the time the story begins though, nowhere to be seen. Except not, as he was stranded in Cube Space the entire time, but when you and Marlon end up running into him, he decides to help you and Marlon return to Borrius even if it means he remains stuck there.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Much like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, during the Post-Game, legendaries from various regions appear via giant rings scattered around Borrius. Some, like the ones at the Ruins of Void, are the remnants of where Hoopa had opened portals over the course of the game, but some (like the one containing the Ultra Beasts) are completely unexplained.
• Gilded Cage: In the Post-Game, the locked house in Crater Town can be unlocked, which is revealed to contain a Jirachi, sealed inside the house out of fear of its power being exploited. It's a pretty nice house, and Jirachi was asleep the entire time was sealed in there, but it was still deliberately kept in there.
• G-Rated Drug: Mirskle's 'Oddish Leaves' and 'Rose Incense'. Several gang members also use 'stat enhancers' that they either manufacture themselves (like the Black Emboar) or are supplied with by the Science Society (like the Terror Granbull). Not much is known about them, except they're applied to Pokémon via injection. The former can be used to create Dream Mist, which unlocks a Pokémon's Hidden Ability, and the latter are used to drastically boost a Pokémon's stats during battle.
• Gratuitous French: The Bottle Cap Lady, who came all the way from Kalos.
• Grows on Trees: On Route 18, just before Victory Road, there's a female Rancher, who says she's found a tree that literally grows money. She'll even give you some of it, every day.
• Guide Dang It!: The Egg Lady at Magnolia Town Café won't give the Player any Eggs that will hatch into Froakie until the Post-Game. There's no indication, other than the lack of Froakie, that this is the case, since it's still possible to get Chespin and Fennekin from her, and nothing in-game indicates this restriction is in place, and so the Player may spend hours soft resetting before realising it can't be done.
  • If the Player has Jirachi in their party, then the chances of finding a Wishing Piece after a Max Raid battle slightly goes up.
  • Necrozma's Portal is found in Frost Mountain, but won't appear unless the Player has both Solgaleo and Lunala in their party. Nowhere in its description of the Portal does it indicate you need the two of them.
• Harder Than Hard: The Insane difficulty is incredibly difficult, as bosses have far more dangerous and competent teams, and as early as Crater Town's Gym, they can have Mega Evolution. Boss Pokémon also get higher stat boosts and better moves, and some Gym Leaders even add a few more restrictions like Delta Stream in the Blizzard City Gym or banning moves that are effective against Fighting types in Antisis's Gym boss fight. You also cannot trade Pokémon from another game on Insane difficulty until the Post-Game.
• Healing Checkpoint: The Chansey found across Borrius, who will heal the Player's party when talked to. They'll also act as the closest respawn point should they lose a battle, rather than scurry back to the nearest Poké Center. There's also a few NPCs that fulfill the same purpose, such as a nurse in the Great Desert or a dude on Route 5 who will heal you after your trek through Cinder Volcano.
• Heel–Face Turn: After escaping Cube Space with you and fending off against the Light of Ruin and a rampaging Primal Groudon, Marlon joins the side of the heroes, as the Light of Ruin is the greater threat to Borrius. Zeph believes you to be one of Aklove's spies at first upon returning, leading to a battle with him, but he comes around after that too. He's then directed by Fey and Véga, two members of the Science Society, towards Crystal Peak so Zeph can modify the Ultimate Weapon and stop Aklove's plans.
• House Rules: In the Battle Frontier, there are plenty of rulesets used that are used by Smogon that can be used here, including the standard OU tier, the Ubers tier that allows for Olympus Mons, a Little Cup tier that uses Pokémon that aren't fully evolved yet, as well as a few others like the Benjamin Butterfree and Camomons rulesets that Benjamin and Tessy normally use. They all match up with Smogon's tiers and rulesets, bans and all. This is all so that you can build almost any kind of team for any of the various modes.
• Hub City: Fallshore City and Dehara City. Both of them connect to three towns, Dehara has both the largest Mart in the game and the Game Corner, while Fallshore has the most Missions (with even a building dedicated to giving them out, even if most are locked behind Post-Game) and has a market that sells Effort Value-reducing Berries, Vitamins, and Technical Machines.
• Human Disguise: Two Missions deal with a woman who has lost her child, and the Player has to retrieve them, as they are dragged all over the local area. The first time you meet them, and you manage to finally catch the child, it's revealed that...both the mother and child are actually Ditto, who just walk off together after giving the Player the reward. The second time is at Crystal Peak, where the child is kidnapped by a Drifloon. The stress causes the mother to lash out and Transform back to a Ditto, entering a battle where it's possible to actually capture it, whereupon the Drifloon takes the child Ditto and flies away with it. You don't see either of them ever again, either, and why they were disguised as humans is never explained.
  • A possible NPC on the S.S Marine is also definitely not a Ditto in disguise on the run from the Science Society. Not at all, Ditto!
• Improbable Power Discrepancy: Commonly, small-time hobbyists like Bug Catchers or even small children wielding Mythical and Legendary Pokémon like it's no big deal. And yes, that even includes Pokémon such as Hoopa!
• Instantly Proven Wrong: At the end of the Exp. Millionaire Mission, the lady that gives you the Mission is so impressed at how much Exp you accumulated in a day, she burns her life savings, believing herself free from "materialistic desires". And then she realises that she needs to actually buy food, to eat, and so offers to upgrade the Player's Lucky Eggs for a price, just to keep herself afloat for a bit longer.
• Internal Deconstruction: Regarding the competitive use of Pokémon, mostly expressed through optional use of NPC services, some Missions, and signs. In mods focused more on difficulty and using competitive strategies to succeed such as Radical Red and Inclement Emerald, being able to change Nature, Individual and Effort Values and the like is treated with little ceremony, if at all. In Unbound, it's made clear such processes harm Pokémon, subjecting them to such things as Mind Rape, all to get them to a perfect state. There's even several NPCs throughout Borrius who even acknowledge Pokémon as things to just be traded or used for battle, in terms of values and numbers.
• Ironic Death: Subverted with Zeph. Aklove tries to invoke this by teleporting him to Cinder Volcano due to all the people he had incinerated. However, he is saved by his Houndoom, who was previously teleported there by Hoopa.
• Irony: Big Mo is the Fighting type Gym Leader, a type known for being honourable and just, and yet, his Gym employs some underhanded tactics. During the trainer fights, moves that are super effective against Fighting types are banned, and this type ban applies to Big Mo's boss fight on Insane as well. For Big Mo's boss fight, weight determines Spd, and with really heavy Pokémon like Aggron and Snorlax at his command, you are all but assured to be outsped, giving him a team that's bulky, strong, and get to move first.
• Item Farming: Some Missions will require you to do this, as will upgrading the Amulet Coin and Lucky Egg during the Post-Game. However, it's a lot easier to do it in Unbound than mainline games, since the move Knock Off was changed to always pick up the item after the opposing wild Pokémon is defeated or captured. That makes a Pokémon like Drapion (who can get Super Luck as a Hidden Ability and can learn Knock Off via levelling up) ideal for harvesting items, combined with the Dexnav.

J-N

• Just Like Robin Hood: One early-game Mission involves an Alolan Sandslash, who regularly steals food from a man's fridge. After chasing it down and defeating it, you discover it was only doing so to feed its fellow Sandshrew, since the Ranger that usually feeds them had stopped visiting.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • Before Version 2.0, the Shadows tend to incinerate anyone who stands in their way. Zeph's Houndoom usually makes quick work of them, so he can create Shadow Warriors out of their ashes. This is also done by Aklove later in the game, dispatching the player character with Hoopa who summons a stream of fire to burn you to a crisp. Aros met his end this way, as he was burnt to a crisp by the human-Pokémon hybrid that he created, which would become the first Shadow Warrior.
  • While such tactics are abandoned from Version 2.0 onward, Zeph still has Houndoom as his Signature Mon, and the Shadow Warriors still leave behind trails of fire that, when touched, inflicts Burn on all of your Pokémon.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: The Player, Ace, and Jax, respectively.
  • The Player, being The Hero, naturally fits the Knight archetype.
  • Ace is a loner who relies on his own strength and his only other aim, aside from finding his parents, is to become stronger, fitting the Knave archetype. In fact, he doesn't really learn to play with others until Crystal Peak, where he acknowledges he may need someone to help in the climb to the top.
  • Jax is the most friendly of the three, and the one who is most likely to jump into danger, often at Leeroy Jenkins levels.
• Last Lousy Point: Although the data for the various types of Cosplay Pikachu are in the game, there's no way to catch any for yourself, except through an extremely frustrating series of steps. First, you have to win 100 times in a row in the Battle Tower Random battles, in the right format. Then you have to hope that one of the Trainers you battle fights you with a Cosplay Pikachu. Then you have to win that battle, and add the Pikachu to your party afterwards. THEN you have to win the next battle with the Cosplay Pikachu, and only then does the guide offer you the chance to keep it for yourself. Oh, and if you ever lose, you have to start the climb to 100 wins all over again. So for anyone wanting to complete a collection...good luck.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Jax has a habit of rushing into danger, and it unfortunately causes either him or his Pokémon to get hurt. He eventually wises up however, after some reflection from being banished to the Distortion World, he does things a bit more cautiously. When Aklove tries to send him hurling through a portal again, he immediately calls upon his Gastrodon to keep both of them affixed to the ground with Gastrodon's Sticky Hold ability, showing Aklove some quick wits.
• Leitmotif: Similarly to the Alola games, there is a recurring riff/melody heard throughout many of the tracks in this game, called the Borrius leitmotif, and is essentially the main theme of the game. It can be heard in several tracks, like the Gate theme, the Pokémon League theme, the final battle victory theme, as well as Seaport City's theme. The latter was even composed with this main theme in mind, and even received a bonus remix in the game's soundtrack.
• Lethal Lava Land: Cinder Volcano is a tall, sprawling volcano with lava everywhere, and is accessed not too long after the first Gym. Moltres can be acquired at the volcano's peak.
• Level Grinding: Taken to pretty big extremes in the Post-Game, where completing a certain Mission allows the Player's Lucky Eggs to be upgraded a level, to award more bonus Exp than before, with the maximum level being 10. Fighting the Normal-type Trainer at Dresco Town's Trainer house and defeating his Blissey, at a difficulty that scales the opposing Pokémon's level, can award a Level 1 Pokémon Exp in the hundred thousands per defeat.
• Level Scaling: On Difficult and above, all Trainers will scale their Pokémon's level relative to the highest levelled Pokémon in the Player's party. To what extent depends on the difficulty setting: on Difficult, the opponents can still be under-levelled compared to you, whereas on Insane, their levels can be equal to yours. (Regardless of difficulty, however, all members of the Elite 4 plus the extra Trainer will scale to your level.)
• Light Is Not Good: The Terror Granbull use, well, Granbull, a Fairy type, usually associated with light. Biker gangs on the other hand, usually aren't associated with light, and tend to use Poison or Dark types instead. There's also the Light of Ruin, who also use Fairy-type Pokémon, wear white uniforms, and are even more evil than the Shadows, as they seek out Hoopa's power to activate the Ultimate Weapon for the purpose of destroying Borrius.
• Limit Break: In the postgame, you get access to Z-Crystals, allowing you to use Z-Moves. Some Pokémon specific Z-Crystals can be found before the Pokémon League however. Bosses won't use them until the postgame either, unless you're playing on the Insane difficulty.
• The Lost Woods: The Redwood Forest is a maze that's easy to get lost in, but it's the only way to find and catch a Zoroark, as well as obtain the Kangaskhanite. It's also one of two paths that lead to Cube Corp.
• Luck-Based Mission: The Battle Sands in the Battle Frontier has an NPC trainer fight in your stead while you give them two or three of your Pokémon temporarily. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is command the trainer to fight or switch, and the moves chosen are at random, so there is no guarantee or certainty that the NPC will do what you want them to. Trying to win, let alone trying to do it fifty times in a row for the Gold Print, is essentially just up to chance.
  • As of version 2.1.1, battling in the Battle Tower or Battle Circus in Random Battles format results in the Player progressing with rental Pokémon, similar to the Battle Factory in Pokémon Emerald, with the option of swapping one of your party members with a member of the last opponent's team.
• Mad Scientist: The Science Society comprises of these. They're willing to help out criminals like the Black Ferrothorn, Terror Granbull, and the Light of Ruin, and there's a few missions against some unhinged scientists. One of them steals a trainer's Electivire just to experiment on it, while another rigs her home with explosives and uses three Electrode that are equipped with Normal Gems and of course, Explosion. During the battle of Antisis City mission, where you raid the Black Ferrothorn HQ, it's revealed that the Science Society also helped rig up the puzzles and traps that the Black Ferrothorn use to keep intruders out, and they've also supplied them with power enhancing stimulants that give their Pokémon an immense boost to a single stat.
• Magikarp Power: The starters are Gible, Larvitar, and Beldum, all of whom evolve into incredibly powerful pseudo-legendaries. However, they evolve pretty late, and are stuck in their mediocre middle forms for the midgame when the rest of your team will likely be fully evolved. Once they do fully evolve though, they'll be strong enough to take on most things.
• Make My Monster Grow: Like in Galar, there are Raid Dens scattered throughout Borrius where you can Dynamax your Pokémon and participate in Max Raid battles. You team up with an NPC and the mechanics work pretty much the same way it did in Sword and Shield, although Brick Break and Psychic Fangs are buffed so that they can break through two barriers. You also fight several Dynamax Pokémon in some missions, and on Insane difficulty, Hoopa is fought in a Max Raid battle immediately after defeating it alongside Mega Rayquaza. At the Ruins of Void, you fight Ho-Oh and Lugia who, while not Dynamaxed, also have Dynamax barriers to bust through.
• Mars and Venus Gender Contrast: The Daily Quiz in Magnolia Town sometimes asks the Player "What are the mysterious creatures that inhabit our world?" No, of course it's not Pokémon. It's women. Wasn't that obvious?
• The Maze:
  • Tessy's Gym is the Tricky variety of maze: you have to Surf on swamp water, that will wash you to the point of land you were last on before the wave hit. Reaching Tessy may also rely running on land to force a wave, to clear the countdown before Surfing again.
  • Rift Cave, during the Post-Game Mission A Rift In Space where you must rescue a child that got lost inside. In fact, it's acknowledged by people in Dehara City, blaming it for several disappearances (and yet it's never been closed to the public as a result).
• The Medic: Several Chansey are scattered around Borrius (a Cube Corp idea to provide relief for the weary Trainer), who will heal your Pokémon for free...unless you're playing on Insane Mode, in which case (as of Version 2.1) they charge you for their services, for the buying price of 6 Full Restores, 5 Revives, and the selling price x2 of Max Elixirs.
• MegaCorp: Cube Corp. You rely on their Cube for storage, hear on TV sponsored alerts from the company about Swarms, and even some Trainer Tip Signs across Borrius are marked as being sponsored by them.
• Mercy Mode: On a new game, it's possible to bump down from Expert or Insane difficulty to a lower one, but once it's been lowered past Difficult, there's no way to put it back up again, since the intention was for anyone who picks a higher difficulty to stick with it.
• Mini-Game: There's several mini games the player can partake in throughout Borrius.
  • The mining mini game from Sinnoh returns, as parts of the KBT Expressway, one room in Crystal Peak, and anywhere underwater can be mined for various evolution stones, type Gems, even Plates.
  • The Safari Zone, normally an area where you have to explore and catch Pokémon with a special set of items rather than using your own Pokémon to weaken them, has been retooled to be a bit more active. Sprites of the Pokémon move around on the screen, and you have to manually aim your Poké Ball to catch the Pokémon, and you can use Berries to help make things easier.
  • In addition to the standard slot machine mini game, there is also the Cloud Burst mini game at the Dehara Game Corner, a mini game where you control an Altaria, fly around, popping balloons to earn score.
• Missing Secret: In Version 1.1, some shady guy at Seaport City can sell the Player a Ticket to a place called Glimmer Isle, for the low, low price of 999,999,999 Poké Dollars. Unfortunately, Glimmer Isle as of the 2.0 Update is not actually in the game, despite the fact the ticket still appears as a Key Item in the Player's Cube, after patching to the latest version.
• Money Grinding: Taken to pretty big extremes in the Post-Game, where completing a certain Mission allows the Player's Amulet Coins to be upgraded a level, to award more bonus reward money than before, with the maximum level being 10. Fighting and defeating the Dark-type Trainer at Dresco Town's Trainer house, at a difficulty that scales the opposing Pokémon's level, and stacking the reward with moves like Pay Day or Happy Hour can award money in the six digit range per win, at least $260k or so.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Every Gym Leader and Elite Four member have a special set of rules that for the most part serve to challenge you and cause you to think twice about how to approach each battle. Some are fair, others less so, especially on harder difficulties.
  • For the Gyms:
    • Mirskle's Gym is full of fog, so every attack has a slight chance to miss. This affects most Pokémon, with the exceptions being ones that can ignore weather or accuracy drops entirely, but it can be dispelled with another weather or Defog. Mirskle's fight is also a Double Battle.
    • Véga's Gym is full of negative emotions, which inflicts damage over time on any Pokémon that isn't a Dark or a Ghost type. Seeing as how the entire Gym is full of Dark types, this mainly affects the rest of your Pokémon.
    • Alice's Gym has a permanent Tailwind that affects Flying types, letting them almost always outspeed you. On Insane, Alice's battle also provides her team with Delta Stream, which removes the weakness of Flying types.
    • Mel's Gym has the Inverse Battle ruleset, which reverses the type chart. This unfortunately means that his Normal types get to run wild as nothing would be able to resist their attacks.
    • Galavan's Gym has permanent Magnet Rise applied to any Electric and Steel type, removing their Ground weakness. His boss fight is also a Double Battle, and on Insane, he also has Electric Terrain applied in his battle.
    • Big Mo's Gym has a few rules. Against the trainers, you can only use one Pokémon and you can't use any Flying, Psychic, or Fairy type attacks, which are super effective against the Fighting type. Against Big Mo himself, his special rule is that he essentially has Trick Room permanently active but it accounts for a Pokémon's weight rather than their Spd, and Big Mo uses some of the heaviest Pokémon out there like Wailord and Mudsdale. On Insane, the type ban also applies to his boss fight.
    • Tessy's Gym has the Camomons ruleset, where your Pokémon's type matches the types of their first two moves. On higher difficulties, Tessy's boss fight will have either rain or heavy rain as well.
    • Benjamin's Gym has a bizarre ruleset where if a Pokémon faints, they instead devolve into their previous form until they no longer can, and then they faint. On higher difficulties, Benjamin takes full advantage of this with Pokémon that evolve from what were previously fully evolved Pokémon like Scizor and Rhyperior.
  • And for the Elite Four:
    • Moleman has a vicious sandstorm applied in the battle, which is a permanent Sandstorm that deals more damage to Pokémon, boosts the Sp Def of Ground types, and it can't be dispelled or replaced with another weather. His fight is also a Double Battle.
    • Elias has Shadow Shield applied to all Ghost types in the battle, where they take half damage from full health, and the moves Substitute and Safeguard fail when not used by Ghost types.
    • Arabella has Misty Terrain applied during the battle, and any Fairy type that switches in gets their lower defensive stat boosted by one stage.
    • Penny has Serene Grace applied to all Dragon types during the battle, where the chance of secondary effects from moves to occur become doubled. Her fight is also a Double Battle.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Like with every Pokémon game, there's an NPC in Frozen Heights who is floored by the power of science. Here, he mentions how incredible it is that ROM hacks can be played on most devices, complete with a real time clock.
  • Before the Player leaves for Bellin Town, their Mom says she knew they'd eventually leave home one day. It said so on TV.
  • A Collector in Cinder Volcano questions if there's such thing as a "bird-type Pokémon". There might be, albeit as a glitchy monstrosity found alongside Cinnabar Island.
  • Before your third battle with Ace, he mentions that he's now registered 100 Pokémon in his Pokédex - similar to how Blue bragged about catching 40 Pokémon when he fought Red on the SS Anne.
  • Once again, an invisible path can block the Player from progressing further into an area (Route 16), which turns out to be a Kecleon.
  • The Player can complete a Mission in the Post-Game where they must collect all the treasure inside the Tomb of Borrius. The reward for completion is an egg containing a Larvesta - a reference to the Volcarona found in the Relic Castle.
  • A Post Game Mission involves having the Player raise a Butterfree to Level 70, before 'releasing' it so it can find a mate, just like Ash's Butterfree in the anime. You do get rewarded with another Butterfree with the Gigantamax Factor, however, so you don't lose out on your old one.
  • An NPC onboard the S.S Marine will lament the crime rate across Borrius, before saying she's thinking about moving to someplace called Orre, since nothing bad ever happens there, right?
  • Taking a page out of Unova's book, every Gym here has its own unique theme just like in Black 2 and White 2, which all suit the Gym Leader in question. The theme that plays when a Gym Leader is down to their last Pokémon also plays in this game as well.
  • The nicknames of some of the Pokémon you can receive at Magnolia Café can be references to other media, or throwbacks to other games, such as the Xatu you can get from Alice being called 'Kwah!', after the sound Xatu that appears in both Red/Blue Rescue Team and Explorers makes.
  • Pokémon Trainer Solenk is a Youngster who appears as a potential Title Defense challenger at the Pokémon League, almost exactly like Youngster Tristan from the Alola games, proving that even a lowly Youngster can rise up to the top and challenge the Champion.
• Nerf: Using a TM will teach your Pokémon a new move, but unlike the main series games, it will not teach it with a fresh set of PP - the PP of the move deleted to teach the TM move carries over to the new move (but if the TM move has less PP than the deleted move, it will instead start with full PP).
  • Several Pokémon identified as being a potential Disc-One Nuke have also had their movesets updated to make them less problematic. Azumarill for example doesn't learn some of its best physical attacks such as Play Rough until its Level is in its 30's, whereas in the main series games, it could learn it as early as level 21, as a Marill.
• New Game Plus: After defeating Aklove at the Ruins of Void in the Post-Game, this feature is unlocked. This allows the Player to carry over their current party (although they'll all be reverted to their first forms and set to Level 10), along with any held items they had (excluding Z-Crystals), as well as essential Key Items obtained from the previous playthrough. Any progress the Player has made in the Pokédex will also be carried over.
• New Media Are Evil: One Mission sends the Player on a quest to cure children who have become mindless zombies from having watched too much television. The reward is the Pokémon that was apparently responsible, Rotom.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In the opening cutscene, Aros throws Hoopa, still in its Poké Ball, into a river so that Zeph won't find it and try to unseal its power. It ends up drifting into the ocean and getting washed ashore, where a young man picks it up. The young man turns out to be Aklove, who uses Hoopa's power for an even more heinous purpose.
  • There are several fights where you have to face two villains at once while teaming up with an ally, like Jax for instance, who has a Staraptor with the ability Intimidate. It's a pretty good ability to have in Double battles since it inflicts an Atk drop on both opponents. Unfortunately on Insane mode, one instance of this has you both go up against a Meowstic with Competitive, which boosts its Sp Atk whenever it receives a stat drop, so Jax inadvertently helps the opponent out. The same happens later in the game against Véga, where you team up with Marlon, who leads with Krookodile. On any other difficulty, it's a pretty good lead, but on Insane, Véga actually uses his Bisharp right away, which has the Defiant ability, which boosts its Atk whenever it receives a stat drop. And he has an Adrenaline Orb equipped, which also boosts Bisharp's Spd after being hit by Intimidate.
• Nintendo Hard: This game can be quite tough, especially on higher difficulties. Most of the good moves and items are gated off until way later in the game while you could still be stuck with weak moves by the mid game. On top of that, thanks to the enhanced game engine, the AI is a LOT smarter here and will often switch out when they're in a disadvantageous position, and bosses will often use Mega Evolutions to try and stop you. On harder difficulties, Mega Evolutions could show up as early as the second Gym.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • The game is programmed to disallow Rare Candies and Master Balls from being withdrawn from the PC's Item Box, as a means to prevent cheats that clone the most staple items from being useful.
  • Anti-cheese measures are implemented during the Aura battles, so you can't just easily take out a boss with cheap moves such as Destiny Bond, Perish Song, Encore, and Disable.
• Non-Ironic Clown: There's four clowns scattered across Borrius, all of whom are related in some way to weather. They all give the Player Technical Machines related to their respective weather (Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Hail, and Sandstorm) should you find them/complete any side missions they have for you. Obtain all four of them, and one more clown will appear at Seaport City and bestow the Weather Pokémon Castform as a reward.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In a Post-Game Mission Endless Nightmare, the Player gets sucked into a child's nightmare, in a space that is completely black and featureless, save for some illusionary people here and there.
• Notice This: Accepting the Mission Powerhouse of the Cell spawns Zygarde Cells all over the map that the Player can collect. They appear as sparkles on the ground, as solid tiles that you can bump into.
• Not Now, Kiddo: When the Player returns to Cinder Volcano, they stumble upon one of the Light of Ruin. They then attempt to warn their boss, Véga, of the Player, but gets constantly ignored in favour of the conversation between Marlon and Véga. In the end, she has to shout just to get his attention.
• NPC Roadblock:
  • The Player will be blocked from going into Grim Woods until the Player has defeated the first Gym and spoken to Arthur.
  • Two Trainers will block the Player from going into Route 12 and towards Dehara City until they've obtained a Mega Keystone from Maxima at Tarmigan Mansion.
  • A Rancher in Magnolia Fields will actively block the Player from travelling to Redwood Village until the events at Crystal Peak are completed.

O-T

• Obvious Rule Patch:
  • Elias's Shadow Shield prevents entry hazards such as Spikes from affecting his Ghost-types when they are at full health, to prevent people from bypassing the Shadow Shield effect with passive damage the moment they enter battle. The moves Safeguard and Substitute will also fail when used by a non-Ghost type.
  • The Porta PC can't be used at any point while fighting the Elite 4, to prevent players from healing without items, or changing the party for every different opponent.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Véga mentions to Marlon that he has the means to control the monster that attacked the Shadows at Cinder Volcano, knowing that Groudon, an Olympus Mons, is about to drop on you can only lead to this reaction from the ex-Admin.
  • Zeph, during the raid on the Light of Ruin's base. It is going well, with the gang getting to the heart of the base, ready to destroy the Shadow Warriors at their disposal...and then a Portal opens up, and Aklove returns earlier than expected.
• Old Save Bonus: As of version 2.1, if the player transfers a Pokémon from Generation 8 (from Grookey to Eternatus) to Unbound from another game that uses the CFRU engine like Radical Red, then on certain routes and areas, the Dexnav may reveal the existence of a Gen 8 Pokémon that has not yet been registered as caught. This is especially important, as this enhanced Dexnav feature is the only way the Player can capture Regieleki, Regidrago, and Enamorus without trading (it will not trigger if the Player has the right Pokémon in the party to trigger the encounter, but still only has the base game).
• Olympus Mons:
  • This story heavily features them, as Hoopa is able to summon Legendaries through portals. Throughout the story, you have to fight Zapdos, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Giratina, Primal Groudon, Reshiram, Zekrom, Mega Rayquaza, and Hoopa itself, and some of these battles are consecutive. On higher difficulties, bosses will regularly have such Pokémon, including Latias, Landorus, and even Ultra Beasts who are similar in power like Blacephelon and Naganadel.
  • In the Battle Frontier, unlike basically every Battle facility in the main series, you are allowed to use the stronger Legendaries like Zygarde, Necrozma, and Ho-Oh (to name a few) if you choose the Ubers ruleset. This also means you'll be going up against other trainers who will also use such strong Legendaries though.
• One-Time Dungeon: Cube Space is this, since as of the current update, there is no way for the Player to rescue Aros, who remains trapped inside.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: The Claydol at the Ruins of Void battles any intruders, who seek passage into 'the heart of the Temple of Void'. Having said that, it's only one Pokémon, and when a large group like the Shadows storm the place all at once...
• Optional Boss: There are plenty of bosses that, while not necessary to fight, still provide a fair challenge to you.
  • There are Mega Trainers all throughout Borrius who are optional boss fights that yield you Mega Stones. Some of them won't even fight you until you've fought everyone else on the route.
  • Various side missions will also have boss fights against trainers or Dynamaxed Pokémon as part of their quest line. Examples include the boss fights against the various biker gang leaders throughout Borrius, or against a Dynamax'd Magearna as part of the Tomb of Borrius quest.
  • There are also just a few bosses the player can challenge in the overworld, such as a Pokémon Breeder with a full team by the Day Care, or a pair of Experts called the Devil Duo who you can only fight once you've fought every other trainer.
  • Like the Alola games, defeating the Elite Four has you defend your Champion title against various trainers who arrive to challenge you. These challengers include Ace, Jax, Youngster Solenk, Poké Kid Milo, Zeph, and Marlon.
• Outlaw Town: Antisis City is full of criminal biker gangs, and you're warned to stay away if you can help it. Even the Pokémon Centre and Mart are run by these gangs, with the former even charging you a little bit of money to use the normally free service.
• Palette Swap:
  • Prior to Version 2.0, some characters just resembled existing trainer classes but just with a different colour. For example, Successor Maxima was just a Lady trainer with red hair.
  • Upon defeating Successor Maxima, you have a choice of what sort of Mega item you want, like a Mega Ring, Cuff, or Bracelet, but they are all functionally identical and just comes down to preference.
  • In the Battle Frontier, you can set which battle background to look at while you're battling, ranging from the Elite Four backgrounds, to the various locations in Borrius. This affects nothing other than aesthetics however, and all battles are treated as if they take place on indoor terrain for the purpose of some moves.
• Pals with Jesus: Prior to version 2.0, Aros managed to befriend Arceus, who helped him make Borrius what it is today. It's implied that part of the reason it revives the player character is because he asked Arceus to watch over his child before parting ways with it. From 2.0 onwards, Arceus was written out of the story and is just relegated to being one of the many postgame Mythicals you can catch.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Aklove's password to his security door is his own name, something Zeph lampshades to be arrogant.
• Patchwork Map: Comes parcel and package for a Pokémon game. There's even an NPC in Gurun Town, who Lampshades how a harsh sandy desert can have a forest full of bugs directly north, without the two climates apparently merging together.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling:
  • The Trainer Houses in various towns all provide EXP and money for you to earn, and they're usually not that tough to clear. They also scale to your levels and can be challenged repeatedly by exiting and re-entering the building. There's even an NPC to heal you up if you need it. The one in Dresco Town is perfect for EV training, as each trainer specializes in a certain stat, while the Normal-type trainer also uses the high EXP yielding Chansey line and Audino. The other Trainer Houses focus on a specific ruleset like Double Battles or Inverse Battles, to help prepare you for the Gym in said town.
  • There's also Route 18 and Victory Road, which has wild Audino that you can grind on.
• Permanently Missable Content: The Ditto that you battle during the Mission One Purple Balloon only gives you that one chance to capture it. It's certainly nothing special stat-wise, but it's the only Ditto that can be caught at Crystal Peak specifically.
  • The Dynamax Feraligatr during the Mission Protector of the Swamp likewise only offers one chance to capture it. Croconaw do appear as a Swarm in Cootes Bog sometimes, but if you have Level Scaling turned on, and you wanted to capture a Level 100 Feraligatr, that's the only time you can.
• Player Personality Quiz: Should you start a New Game, when the game asks you if you're playing Unbound for the first time, if you answer 'Yes', the game takes you through a series of questions regarding your overall approach to Pokémon, to determine the difficulty level that would best suit the Player (note that the quiz makes it impossible to play on Insane difficulty, considering that would probably be too harsh for a newcomer).
• Police Are Useless: The few officers there are in Antisis City can make almost no dent at all to the criminal activity rampant in Antisis City, only making two on-screen arrests only because of a tip-off. Even outside of Antisis however, it's up to the Player to assist the police in two Missions, one of which involves having to track down and subdue members of the Terror Granbull yourself before they can be arrested.
• Port Town: Seaport City. It's pretty self-explanatory: it sure is a city, which is by the sea, and it's considered the port hub of Borrius, as the sign says.
• Post-End Game Content: Several new Missions are unlocked after becoming the Champion. As well as unlocking several Legendary and Mythical Pokémon for capture, the Player can also explore Dive Spots (once they get the ADM) which contain Pokémon that couldn't be caught before Post-Game, such as Mareanie/Toxapex. Redwood Forest and Cube Corp. also become available for visiting, which contain several more Post-Game Pokémon. After defeating the True Final Boss, more missions and Legendary and Mythical Pokémon become available as well.
• Race Lift: Prior to version 2.0, Galavan resembled a middle aged man in a typical lab coat. From 2.0 onward, his redesign made him appear younger, with a more futuristic looking lab coat, and his skin went from white to brown. This happens with Successor Maxima's redesign as well, going from looking exactly like a Lady trainer class with red hair, to looking more like a proper princess with twintails, and she has tan skin instead.
• Railroading: The plot of the game progresses by virtue of the Player needing to get the next Badge, because the HM Move it unlocks allows them to progress to wherever the Shadows and later, the Light of Ruin are planning to show up next, something Lampshaded by Jax when the time comes to get the 7th Badge.
  • There's a brief moment at Crystal Peak, where the Player is unable to move towards the Ultimate Weapon to switch it off without first fighting Hoopa. If they do, Hoopa opens a portal which dumps the Player right back in front of it.
• Rainbow Speak: Important words in dialogue or mechanic explanations are highlighted in green.
• Real Men Wear Pink: The Terror Granbull, despite being a tough biker gang, use Fairy types like their namesake Granbull, as well as Fairy types like Togekiss and Dedenne, and cute Pokémon like Skitty and Pachirisu.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jax delivers one to Aklove, during the Post-Game, after the latter's Motive Rant.
  "Let's say you're right. Let's say the legend's true and the king's still alive. But 3000 years...Do you really think not a second of that was spent on reflection? On regret? Isn't it possible he no longer wants war? How would you know? You just projected your desires onto a myth and nearly destroyed our region because of it!"
• Recurring Element: This game is structured pretty similarly to the main series games, so it follows a lot of the same beats, namely involving you stopping a villainous team while you also take on the Gym challenge.
  • Just like Silver in the Johto games and Gladion in the Alola games, your rival here is quite blunt and can even be a bit rude at times. And just like those two, your rival is also the child of one of the villains, namely Marlon and Ivory here.
  • Similarly to Black 2 and White 2, you infiltrate the villains base late in the game, with teleporter pads to send you all over the base and a password to find to reach the boss. Even the theme sounds similar to the Plasma Frigate's theme.
  • Similarly to the Sinnoh games, the game's climax takes place atop a mountain where a Legendary Pokémon is summoned and the villains make their last stand. In this case, it's Hoopa doing the summoning, requiring you to face off against Reshiram, Zekrom, Mega Rayquaza, and Hoopa itself.
  • Just like in the main series, the starters (all pseudo-legendaries here) are usually reserved for important or main characters. You and your rival's starters can become any two of the following: Tyranitar, Metagross, or Garchomp. The other pseudo-legendaries, while not starters, are used by Jax with his Salamence during the Final Boss fight, while on Expert difficulty, Aklove uses Dragonite at Crystal Peak.
  • Just like most games, the Final Boss is a recurring character who has helped you along your journey and serves as the final opponent to defeat. Said Final Boss is not the Champion, just like in the Alola games, but still serves as the final test of your skill to prove that you've earned the Champion title. Your final opponent is Jax, analogous to Hau from the Ultra games.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Despite its almost entirely original soundtrack, there are some recycled themes: Gym Leaders down to their last Pokémon play the near victory theme from Black and White, and some Optional Boss characters retain their old battle themes (except Candice, who receives a remix to her Gym Battle theme, however). Nearly every Legendary and Mythical Pokémon also either have their original themes when you encounter them, or for tracks from the later generations, remixes that match the soundfont of the game. The only exception is Hoopa, which gets its own encounter and battle theme, being the star of this game.
• Redundant Researcher: The archaeologists at the Tomb of Borrius. The puzzle they're mulling over before during the main game isn't solved until YOU do it during the Post-Game. Once that unlocks further passage, the leader of the team makes the Player take the lead, powering through the obstacles to the last room (including fighting the boss Magearna at the end).
• Reforged into a Minion: After defeating Ivory at Route 9, she has her scientists from Cube Corp. transform Dr Harth and his wife into Shadow Warriors, to hold off Jax and the Player while they retreat with the Prison Stone. Luckily, defeating them both reverts them back to normal.
• Required Party Member: Several Post-Game Legendary and Mythical Pokémon set these conditions.
  • As has been the case for previous games, capturing Regigigas requires Regirock, Regice and Registeel (but in Unbound, they must be in that order, in the first three slots in the party).
  • Capturing Necrozma during the Post-Game requires both Solgaleo and Lunala in the Player's party. Solgaleo and Lunala, in turn, requires the opposite number to be in the party (whatever evolved from the Cosmog you can obtain in-game) for their Portal to appear.
  • Capturing Celebi in Redwood Village requires the Spiky-Eared Pichu from Seaport City.
  • Deoxys can also be found at the end of the path on Route 5 where the Hidden Grotto is located, but the Player needs to have captured Jirachi in Crater Town and brought it to the designtated place.
  • Once the Player has the enhanced Generation 8 Dexnav, the Player can capture Regieleki and Regidrago in Icy Hole, but only if Regigigas is in the party. Similarly, Enamorus can be encountered in Magnolia Fields, by carrying Landorus.
• Rescue Arc: Ace himself undergoes one, climbing Crystal Peak with the Player, not only to help defeat the Light of Ruin, but also rescue Marlon and Melony, who still remain in captivity. A more major one happens during the Post-Game, the Player's Mom, and as you discover, Arthur and Zeph Jr.) have been taken hostage by Aklove. Rescuing them requires going into a newly unexplored area of the Ruins of Void to rescue them.
• Rhythm Game: Capturing Meloetta requires having to complete one of these, having to match Meloetta's dancing until it believes you worthy enough of a shot at catching it.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: Zeph's Signature Mon is Houndoom, a Doberman-like Pokémon whom he uses to incinerate his foes.
• Royal Blood:
  • The player character is the child of Aros, and in turn the descendant of the king of Borrius. They are Hoopa's true trainer, and it repeatedly attempts to save and join them.
  • Aklove is the descendant of AZ, the King of Kalos who is still Walking the Earth to this day, 3000 years later. Aklove foolishly believes that it is his destiny to restart the great war from long ago, and that he'd use the Ultimate Weapon to do so, even if it means wiping out Borrius in the process.
• Sandbox Mode: This game has one, which lets you start the game with plenty of features unlocked right away that help you customize your experience. For instance, you can change a Pokémon's stats and moves at will with the Stat Scanner, while you get the Dex Nav right away to help you catch more Pokemon and build any kind of team you'd like. It's intended to be a testing ground for when you want to try out the Expert or Insane difficulty, letting you experiment and test things out before trying it out for real. However, you cannot trade in this mode, and there is no postgame. The moment you become the Champion, the game ends right there.
• Self-Deprecation: Right outside the room containing the game's developers, the Player can see a notice scrawled outside the door, wondering if they couldn't afford a proper sign.
• Shape Dies, Shifter Survives: In a case of Involuntary Shapeshifting, Dr Harth and his wife are turned into Shadow Warriors by being merged together with two Gabite. Of course, this being Pokémon, neither subject of the fusion actually dies: they just split apart, and the Pokémon used flee the house.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Great Desert is the most direct route to Gurun Town, and it's a route with a constantly raging sandstorm.
• Ship Level: The S.S Marine, an optional cruise ship that can be sailed on after the main game is completed. Like any ship in a Pokémon game it includes trainers to battle.
• Shout-Out:
  • During the Mission 'The Terror Granbull', right before you battle their leader Gruff, the police officer approaches, declaring "Stop right there, criminal scum!"
  • One of the Trainers inside the Fallshore City Gym warns you, "Don't go chasing waterfalls!"
  • A Shadow Grunt you defeat at Thundercap Mt. laments, "Despite my rage, I'm still just a Rattata in a cage..."
  • A Bird Keeper on Route 11 challenges you, quoting directly from a certain well-known song about flying.
  • Two officers at Antisis Port are called Officers Peralta and Holt.
  • An NPC on board the S.S Marine can sometimes waste your time by telling you to look at your Pokémon, now look at him, then back to your Pokémon, then back to him...
  • A Scientist NPC at Cube Corp. encourages the player to shoot for the moon, and if they miss, shoot for it again until they finally destroy the moon.
  • Another Scientist NPC at Cube Corp. can convert Everstones into Evolution stones. If you haven't used his services before, and you reject his offer, he gets upset.
  "Shun! Shun the non-believer! Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!"
  • Yet another NPC at Cube Corp. speaks in a...hmm, yes...hoh, hoh...similar manner to Dr. Hotti. It's even revealed he's not a real scientist, just a test subject the REAL scientists keep an eye on.
  • In an optional Post-Game sidequest to obtain a Kangaskhanite, you battle a movie-star using Kangaskhan, while you also using nothing but Kangaskhanite, to help film an upcoming movie. Said movie generated lackluster reviews on Rotten Tamato Berries.
• "Simon Says" Mini-Game: Storming the Black Ferrothorn's HQ in the Battle for Antisis mission requires the Player to go through this, to open up the doors leading to the top floor, where the boss Barbs is waiting.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Several parts of Icicle Cave of course, but the final puzzle at Victory Road is an especially difficult sliding puzzle, given the in-game nickname 'The Torture Chamber'. It CAN be bypassed by paying the person at the entrance to the puzzle a rather hefty sum, however.
• Some Kind of Force Field: Ivory sets up an invisible barrier up on Route 9, which stalls Jax long enough for the Player to catch up to him and have to help him get around it.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Unusually for a Pokémon game, this game has a few of these, where you have to avoid the line of sight of an NPC or you get sent back to the start of a section. Crater Town's Gym combines this with limited vision, where you have to avoid getting spotted by patrolling NPCs while also battling enough trainers so that your vision is increased to begin with. Some sections in the Ruins of Void, Crystal Peak, and the Tomb of Borrius also feature these, and in some cases, you have to use Strength to push boulders in front of the NPCs so you can avoid being detected.
• Stuff Blowing Up: A Mission in Antisis City involves raiding the house of a Cube Corp. Scientist, who's rigged the place with Electrode. After you navigate the traps and battle her, it's revealed all she has to battle you with is Electrode, who only know Explosion. She then makes one last effort to sic some more on you...and ends up knocking herself out with her own explosions.
• Summoning Ritual: The overall outline of the Shadows' plan - capture the Legendary Birds and use them to release what Borrian legends describe as 'the dark force'. The problem is, their leader fails to realise that the force needs a vessel to contain and channel its power, that being Hoopa, and it just so happens a traitor in their midst manipulates them into completing most of the ritual for him.
• Superboss: In the postgame, there are several, very powerful bosses to be fought, often using Olympus Mons, especially on higher difficulties.
  • All of the Gym Leaders can be rematched in the Battleground of Seaport City in the postgame, still with the same rules from their battles, but with way more competent and dangerous team compositions.
  • The devs of Pokémon Unbound themselves can also be fought in Dehara City after becoming the Champion, and one of the devs is also hidden away in the Distortion World.
  • Champion Cynthia from Sinnoh shows up at Magnolia Café for you to battle after you become the Champion. On Insane, she has a full team of Legendaries.
  • Red can be fought randomly on the S.S Marine during the postgame.
• Super Mode: Mega Evolution is heavily featured in this game, and bosses will not hesitate to call upon Mega Evolved Pokémon to take you down. You acquire the ability to Mega Evolve yourself after defeating Successor Maxima at Tarmigan Mansion. Throughout Borrius, you can fight Mega Trainers who all have full teams and a Mega Evolution to fight you with, and defeating them rewards you with their respective Mega Stone.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Averted, partially - unlike previous games, the Player can only use the move Dive in conjunction with the ADM, which functions as a submarine. This trope still applies to the Player's Pokémon, however.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After doing some missions for the Black Emboar/[player name] gang, they decide to storm the hideout of a rival gang, the Black Ferrothorn, who have Antisis City under their control. Even after getting past a few grunts, traps, and beating the big bad boss Barbs himself, all of the Black Emboar/[player name] gang get wiped out and driven out of town. As gutsy as they were, they were outmatched in numbers and even in tech, considering that their base was pretty run down while the Black Ferrothorn had an actually pretty high tech base courtesy of the Science Society. Barbs commends you for your strength, but it's not enough to ruin his gang's standing at all.
• Take Over the World: This is definitely NOT the purpose of the Shadows, but it doesn't stop several of its members thinking that it is (what other reason would there be for making living weapons like the Shadow Warriors and seeking out what is described in Borrian legend as 'the dark force'?). Several members apparently willingly turn themselves into Shadow Warriors for the power they think it'll grant them, and those that don't are the first to ditch the Shadows for the Light of Ruin instead.
• Talking Animal: A Claydol at the Ruins of Void acts as guardian against trespassers, speaking in a loud voice described as ethereal.
• Temple of Doom: The Tomb of Borrius. It is said that the ruins are the final resting place of King Borrius III. However, only the entrance is accessible before the end of the main story. During the Post Game, the Player can plumb its depths, where they can encounter Magearna at its deepest point. It is also where the Player can obtain Relic items, and should the Player collect all of them within the Tomb, they can complete a Mission with an Egg containing a Larvesta as a reward.
• Theme Song Reveal: Shadow Admins Marlon and Ivory both incorporate the Shadow battle theme with their boss themes, but they also incorporate other themes. Both of them incorporate Ace's battle theme, as it's later revealed that Ace is their child. Ivory's theme also mixes in the Light of Ruin leitmotif, which foreshadows her eventual betrayal of the Shadows to align with Aklove's plans.
• Thin Dimensional Barrier: During the Post-Game, portals appear all over Borrius, which the Player must track down as part of a Mission. Some of them are traces of the various Legendary Pokémon Hoopa summoned throughout the story, others are gateways containing the Ultra Beasts that respawn daily, while others contain Pokémon from various other regions, including the Eternal Floette, King AZ's beloved partner!
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Family-friendly example: one of the Black Emboar goons, after being defeated, says, "We're the Black Emboar, you litch!"
• Troll:
  • Apparently Mirskle once knew someone who kept falling over. He blamed it on a genetic problem, but it was actually because Mirskle kept secretly tripping him up with Grass Knot.
  • A Hiker in Frost Mountain claims that there's twenty floors to climb before reaching the end. There's actually only three. His friend on the floor above doesn't know why he persists in this lie, though.
• True Final Boss: Aklove, who has taken the player's mom, Zeph's son, and Jax's grandpa all hostage, all to lure out the player and Jax. Defeating him rolls the credits again, and allows you to start the New Game Plus.
• 20 Bear Asses: Alice's Mission involves having to fetch 20 Pretty Wings, which are held by wild Wingull or Pelipper.

U-Z

• Undying Loyalty:
  • While most of the Shadow Grunts defect to the Light of Ruin, a number of them stay behind out of loyalty to Zeph and Marlon.
  • Zeph's Houndoom also counts. It follows his every command, and saves him from falling into the lava of Cinder Volcano when he is teleported there.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable:
  • The fight with Giratina in the Distortion World, with an ill-suited party, could be this, especially on a higher difficulty. As the fight takes place in an area the Player can't leave until the boss is beaten, if the Player's party just isn't equipped for it (there's no way to change party or even level grind, as there's no wild Pokémon to train against), they may be unable to progress and be forced to either lower the difficulty or just start again.
  • If you construct a Zygarde with the Zygarde Cells you collected in Powerhouse Of The Cell, succeed in collecting all 100 of them, but then release the Zygarde you constructed, it becomes impossible to complete the mission, since you need to deconstruct the current Zygarde to create Zygarde Complete Forme to do so. And no, a Zygarde that you obtained elsewhere, such as from another game, or one you carried over from a New Game Plus, doesn't work.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: There's no way the Player can capture a Shadow Warrior for themselves - all battles with them involve knocking them out.
• Unwanted Assistance: You might find yourself feeling like this regarding your partners in certain boss fights, especially on harder difficulties. Véga invokes this on himself during his battle at Cinder Volcano on Expert Difficulty and above, making his fight a battle where the Player can no longer gang up on one partner's Pokémon to make the fight easier.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The procedures to change the Nature and Individual Values of a Pokémon are described as painful to the subject, with an IV change lowering friendship, while a Nature Change completely takes friendship to 0. And as long as you can afford the price, you can subject the same Pokémon to multiple operations, over and over…
• Video Game Delegation Penalty: You may choose to leave two of your Mons at the Pokémon Day Care. Pokémon in Day Care gain one experience point per every step the player takes. While it's nice to have a Pokémon leveling up while you simply walk around, there are several drawbacks to this method. For one, Pokémon in Day Care will not evolve. Two, if a Pokémon reaches a level where it can learn a new move, it will always learn that move; if the Pokémon already knows four moves, its first move will be forgotten and the new move will be placed last. This can lead to your Mons forgetting moves you wanted while learning moves you do not. Third, the Mon will not gain Effort Points as it would have if you leveled it up yourself through battle. This will leave it with somewhat lesser stats at higher levels than it would have had if you leveled it up yourself.
• Video Game Randomizer: A possible mode to play on when starting a New Game. There's also the option to vary randomness - from Abilities, level up movesets, encounters, even the option to temporarily disable randomness during boss battles.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Cube Corp. They provide technology to enrich the lives of Borrian citizens everywhere, and yet they also sponsor the Shadows and the Light of Ruin, while practicing unethical science experiments on Pokémon.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The third Gym Leader, Alice, is the first Gym Leader to use Mega Evolution ^note Unless you're playing on Insane, in which it's Mirskle, if your team is above level 35, who makes use of a Mega Beedrill., as she has a Mega Pinsir. She also has permanent Tailwind active for her Flying types, which doubles their Speed, turning her Pokémon into speed demons, as they're all fully evolved (while you might still be using Pokémon that have not fully evolved yet) and can hit hard with good coverage. She also leads with a tanky Pokémon that can set up Stealth Rock (Minior normally, Skarmory on Insane). All of this tests you on how well you can take hits from hard hitting Pokémon, how well you can deal with a speed disadvantage, and how well you can deal with Stealth Rock, and on Insane, how well you can also deal with Delta Stream, as that removes the Flying type weaknesses of her team. Despite being a Flying type specialist living near a route and forest full of Ice types, Alice is more than prepared with her speed, power, and coverage moves.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Discussed in the postgame, where Arthur points out that Aklove could have just killed him, the player's mom and Zeph's son after kidnapping them, but kept them all alive to bait out Jax and the player for the purpose of a battle. As Arthur puts it, his ego outweighed his common sense.
• You ALL Look Familiar: As is typical in games, NPC trainer classes have limited models. Several of the Shadow grunts (and grunts from the Light of Ruin) will ask if you remember them, and you may recall where you first saw them, but of course, they all look the same, so that probably won't help (although the Shadow grunts do have some variations, but they're still limited).
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Mostly. While you can't stop the Shadows from capturing Articuno and Moltres, the Player DOES thwart the capture of Zapdos. Unfortunately, Aklove just uses Hoopa to summon another Zapdos, allowing the Shadows to proceed with the plan anyway.
• You No Take Candle: A Post-Game Mission is given by an NPC who speak ungood. He headbutt too many trees. You get revenge by attacking trees, and teach trees to be good.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Just like in Sun and Moon, after beating the Elite four, you technically are the Champion, but as always, you end up having to fight a surprise opponent right before you can claim that title as yours (in this case, Jax).
• You Shall Not Pass!: A Shadow Grunt attempts to block the Player from entering Thundercap Mt. and stop Marlon from capturing Zapdos. Mel clears the way for you, in the least gentle way possible: a Miltank's Body Slam straight to the Grunt's face.

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