u/Soul-10

So some context definitely needs to be added to this run showcase. Absolutely none of these were Mass outbreak or MMO Snorunt's, all static encounters, even the Glalie. The only 2 odd and somewhat unfortunate parts of this haul are that the only Mass outbreak capture I have is the lone Zorua from it's kind, but that outbreak contained 0 Shiny Pokemon. Also, somehow only the Glalie of the 4 shinies of it's line managed to be Female, which does me no good, because it's already evolved. Which means.... yes. All 3 Snorunt were male. So no Lass for me in this GOATed haul, which means we are not done. Also, I found it insane that all of shiny Pokemon belonged to the same one line. No deviation in species except from pre-evo to evo form. And on top of that, I had been in a Space-Time Distortion the day before in these very Icelands and blacked out while trying to capture an Alpha Espeon before I could even engage it in an encounter (one of the last 2 Eevelutions I had at the time not captured the Alpha version of), thanks to a horde of unavoidable attacks from the group of Pokemon that spawned with it. They jumped me as expected, which resulted in me basically being stuck in a vortex of frames spent recovering from previous attacks. I in the midst of repeatedly checking the map for Shiny mons got a ST Distortion and was able to reclaim the Alpha Espeon I missed on the prior trip. At the time of the ST dist, I had 2 shiny runts and the Glalie captured. This was all in one overlay of spawns. I never rested at the campsites, I never did anything to intentionally reset the spawns of the map. I just started at the front and worked my way back and it resulted in 4 Shiny mons. Checked every corner, every spawn at least once, even the underground mons in every sector of the frozen caverns. Never gotten this many in one trip or run of a map. Truly a great roll of the dice there, and that Shiny Charm did it's thing. Lastly, I have recordings for the first 3 shiny encounters, those will be posted in comments below shortly. Awesome stuff.

And he tried to hurt me 🥺🥀

He was only cranky cause Volo wouldn't let him enjoy his weather outside... I mean look at him enjoying the beautiful weather... 🥹

I elected to do this battle at nighttime too for aesthetics and mannn, the cutscenes did not disappoint. Been playing the game 200+ hours and finally decided to stop waffling around, take a break from Shiny/ Distortion hunting, and start tackling the Volo plot related stuff and perhaps what I guess is the final End Game content.... also... I really like the touch of him having a necklace that strongly resembles the Old Charm of Cynthia's if I'm not mistaken. Then after the battle he remarks in the midst of his monologuing, something to the effect of, "Perhaps maybe we should refer to this region as the Sinnoh Region....." sooo good. And lastly. Learning he was the one responsible for the rift incident actually made me somewhat dislike him finally. As covertly insidious and ambiguous as his character seemed to be, a nugget finally emerges to make you embrace more of the role of the hero, tasked with the responsibility for putting him down finally after feigning the identity of some harmless traveler, a relic seeker, a truther, a simple explorer of the Gingko guild that simply "wants to uncover all the secrets of Hisui" and nothing else. Great antagonist, cool story background, great parallels drawn to Sinnoh, and also understandable and digestible motivations for him taking the path he did and it not seeming forced. 👌

A S/T Distortion spawned right on my head, lmao. If this has ever happened to me prior, its while I've had the game left on idle and was AFK doing something else, never while I was actively doing somtehing. I had volume up too, so it was pretty shocking to say the least.

-- Something I've been thinking about for a while because I can't remember... Yamato was the one moreso going over Chakra Natures in specific with Naruto before/during the Rasenshuriken training, not Kakashi, so Im unsure if Kakashi himself ever volunteered the information... but what IS Kakashi's most proficient Ninjutsu Chakra element? Naruto is clearly in Wind Release, and Sasuke, Fire Release, and to a slightly lesser extent, Lightning Release. Kakashi has shown a number of cool and crafty techniques in both Earth Style AND Lightning Style. So he's clearly proficient in both. And he uses them both with little favoritism seemingly of either. But I'm curious if he is measurably or verifiably more proficient in one over the other.

-- At first I assumed he was better in Earth Style, because he used it more in Part 1, or that it was his favorite element, until he showcased how creative and resourceful he was with the many Lightning Release techniques he used in Shippuden. Chidori was really the only Lightning Style jutsu he ever used in Part 1. It seems he tends to use Earth Style more defensively, while relying on Lightning Release offensively, understandably, to deal damage and get kills [Chidori]. Itachi, even while as a 30% clone controlling a Sand Village Jonin's body even complemented Kakashi on the speed and skill in which he deploys Earth Style, and Itachi is usually pretty reserved when it comes to lauding others... others usually just fawn over the feat of Kakashi copying 1,000 jutsu.

-- He outright completely cancels out the Lightning Mask's Lightning Release attack seemingly with his bare hands, or via a small output of his own Lightning Release amping his hands against Kakuzu in order to save Team Ino-Shika-Cho. He's done as many things if not more with Lightning Release than even Sasuke has, and that's saying something, being Sasuke made Kirin entirely on his own seemingly. Is Kakashi a more natural or better Lightning Style user, Earth Style user, or is it just fair to chalk it up and say he is just equally naturally proficient in each?

-- He is quite emotionally intelligent, and wary of the all the subtle things, like body language and tendencies of people he meets. While him and Madara are up on the mountain top/cliff spouting ideals... he effortlessly crafts as close to a perfect revised system as possible for Shinobi coming together and coexisting within a shared space- so much so, that other nations copied it and it worked for them too, down to the practicality of having a Ninja Academy for the Youth to promote them becoming strong in a productive, educational, and non-violent way that benefits everyone. It wasnt until later, when unfortunate events transpired both within and outside the Village that criticism was even brought to the system's potential credibility and sustainability. Kids his age weren't thinking of this type of stuff at all. Even Madara with the mind he had, thought the idea sounded a bit outlandish but somehow still achievable if they both pursued it wholeheartedly, and embraced it fully. It wasn't perfect, obviously, as nothing is, and the 5 Great Nations did as they would and should- looked out for their own well-being first. But it was even his idea to disperse and share the Tailed Beasts so there wasn't a Monopoly on power, to show as a gesture that the Land of Fire wanted to maintain peaceful relations with the rest of the world as long as they were also willing, and to be fair to all other Nations.

-- He realized and recongized as a kid and was willing to admit over all the adults presently at that time that the only way forward past a war-ridden nation, and seemingly never-ending Clan squabbling was cooperation, and that pride dressed in tribalism was a foolish means to an end and only bred eternal vengeance, a similar notion that Pain many years later explains to Naruto. Yet he also was realistic and practical enough to tell Madara that they desperately needed to become stronger, because only words and ideals backed by undeniable force and strength would be honored, and he was of course, again correct. Mind you, he again is saying all of this around the age that most future generations after the Village was built would be just getting their feet wet at the academy. Sure he has had a lot of time on his hands to dream and wonder about the future, but despite everyday being focused purely on survival, the now, the current state of affairs staring them in the face, he in the midst of turmoil came up with a successful system for all of his and everyone else's successors to peacefully co-exist.

-- This argument in particular here I'm about to make, I can't prove, but I believe based on his reactions to how Madara spoke of his siblings, and his family, and mistakenly yet briefly mentioned how great his eyesight and vision was, that he already had somehow suspected Madara was an Uchiha and decided to momentarily ignore that possibility, because once again he had a vision for coexistence and recognized early on how much they had in common. His expression when he sees Madara finally activate his Sharingan leads me to also believe he actually feared that he was correct about it too, because he knew that would be the only thing that would mostly likely instantly derail the achievement of the dream that they shared, because he nor Madara would ever foresake nor abandon their families. It was though in that very moment, their perfect dream they had crafted just days prior, had just died and been buried before his very eyes.

-- And lastly. There seems to be a running pattern in Naruto, that the most talented and skilled Shinobi are usually also among the most intelligent as well. Many fit this bill, such as Kakashi, Minato, Itachi, Sasuke, just to name a few. Him creating a never before seen Sage Mode when Sage Mode most likely wasn't known to anyone in that time period to me just reflects his aptitude and Natural IQ, even if it wasn't easy. Power isn't automatically proof of IQ, but the display of it and application of it can reflect one's intelligence.

-- Hashirama to me if anything is more goofy and jovial than outright dumb. He was never shown to be making mistakes in-battle like forgetting what jutsu an opponent has, like Naruto, or having a moment like not knowing how to explain Chakra interaction like Naruto again in the War. He really couldn't afford to be an idiot, because of the timeframe he was born into. Those without talent and the smarts or means to become strong died and there pretty much was no exception to that. His thriving and success to me overall means he is quite smart, is a visionary, and understood a lot for his age.

Its crazy because watching this clip you can even see it spawn just baaareeelyyy before the pause menu 😬

My favorite Hisuian Pokemon, and it has an amazing Shiny.... can't wait to cause havoc with Shiny Sneasler... 🤌✨️

I would've attached the recording of when I first found it in real time instead of just still-frame image attachments, but unfortunately my Switch was at the time out of memory space, so I had to make do with these. Another update will be coming as I already had a (non-shiny) Sneasler as a part of my Final team for this game, but decided once finding the Shiny and Alpha version to replace it with this one... it's so great. From the moment I saw how Shiny Hisuian Sneasel looked, I knew I would always want one. Almighty Arceus did not make me wait long at all... 🙏✨️

-- Of course Orochimaru had him by his side, but still took way more of a liking to at first Kimimaro, but then totally Sasuke (after failing to steal Itachi's body). Maybe not that Kabuto would've necessarily needed it, but if Orochimaru didn't meet his end being so tirelessly obsessed with the Sharingan, things maybe would've shook out a little differently. We know as much as Orochimaru and then later Kabuto himself thought of him, I doubt they would say that at the point he was Izanami'd by Edo Itachi he had maxed out his potential 100% and achieved the highest heights he possibly could've if he were able to keep progressing in his conquest for power.

-- But what say you? Kabuto seemed to think that with the Sharingan and all of it's secrets and powers he could've ascended further and even reached Six Paths heights. Im not sure about all that. But for someone not apart of a special Clan with special Kekkei Genkai, special chakra, nor a Tailed Beast, he ended up with power at the end that would've allowed him to Solo the Verse, or at least trump 99%+ of it if not in less than favorable circumstances, and in my opinion had little room left to improve without being powered up by say the Sharingan, Rinnegan, or Six Paths powers himself. I still tend to think only Naruto and Hashirama were stronger with Sage Mode than he was. I'm not sure if he even really needed the Sharingan like he wanted considering where he ended up in strength... thoughts?

Wanna tell us where you learned that nifty little jutsu, Kakuzu?

Because Haku was basically in a faction much like the Leaf's Anbu Unit in his own village, it made me wonder.... of all the talented Shinobi with Kekkei Genkai and interesting traits+jutsu, if Haku were in the Leaf's Anbu instead of the Hidden Mist Rogue Shinobi tracking unit, where would he rank in raw skill and strength? How would he measure up against the likes of teen Itachi, young Yamato, or young Adult Kakashi?