{"id":319061,"date":"2025-10-20T17:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/319061\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:12:12","slug":"z-as-alolan-raichu-quest-set-me-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/319061\/","title":{"rendered":"Z-A\u2019s Alolan Raichu Quest Set Me Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know, about 24 hours ago I had every intention of pitching a post for Kotaku about how I could finally forgive Alolan Raichu<\/a>, the surfing, psychic, pancake-loving regional variant of my favorite Pok\u00e9mon, for its crimes. For many years, I have looked upon Alolan Raichu with disdain as it usurped the Kanto original as The Pok\u00e9mon Company\u2019s favorite Pikachu evolution. The Alolan mouse was featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, is a playable character in the MOBA Pok\u00e9mon Unite, and received some significant promo in the anime and Sun and Moon. Meanwhile, my boy\u2019s legacy has mostly seen him overshadowed by his own pre-evolution<\/a>, and this all began with an episode of the anime that painted him as inferior to Pikachu in battle decades ago. Then, Game Freak announced he was getting not one, but two Mega Evolutions<\/a> in Legends: Z-A\u2019s DLC<\/a>. For a moment, it seemed Raichu would finally get some respect put on his name. I\u2019d decided I could finally forgive Alolan Raichu for stealing the spotlight and let the electric rats coexist in my mind\u2026until this little shit showed up in Legends: Z-A with the audacity of someone who\u2019s never been told \u201cno\u201d in his life.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering where Alolan Raichu is in Legends: Z-A, know it is only available in the post-game. I hadn\u2019t given the regional variant much thought until I was heading to do a quest in Lumiose City. There I was, walking toward the Quasartico Inc. building minding my own business, Raichu by my side, when all of a sudden, I see this agitating, dopey, maple-syrup-smelling twerp hovering alongside a woman on the way in. \u201cPshaw!\u201d I say in my mind as the side quest marker hovers above them, as if inviting me to inquire about this odd-looking rodent when I have spent 30 hours having only seen Raichus that are orange and have their feet planted firmly on the ground. I know who you are, Alolan Raichu, and you\u2019re a war criminal. But then I think, maybe if I do this side quest, they\u2019ll go away and I won\u2019t have to see them next time I come to Quasartico\u2019s office. So I speak to the woman. She introduces herself as Griddella, a member of CHARGE, or \u201cCommittee to Highlight Alolan Raichu and Generate Excitement.\u201d I guess even serial killers have fandoms.<\/p>\n

\"Griddela\u00a9 The Pok\u00e9mon Company \/ Kotaku <\/p>\n

Griddella asks if our Raichus can battle, and she wants to make some ceremony of it. I have to remove all my other Pok\u00e9mon from my party before I can complete the quest, so it\u2019s just me and Raichu against Griddella and the Pocket Monster equivalent of Bizarro from Superman. The Alolan Raichu we face is decently powerful at level 64, but my guy\u2019s at level 70 and we just finished the endgame, so we\u2019ve faced much tougher foes than this imposter. Raichu smacks Alolan Raichu around the field a bit and then Griddella congratulates us on our win. Alright, cool. Kanto Raichu supremacy has been established. Let\u2019s get back to what we were doing, Raichu. But no, Griddella\u2019s not done with us yet, as she then asks a baffling question: \u201cLet\u2019s trade: your Raichu for my Alolan Raichu! What do you say?\u201d<\/p>\n

What do I say, Griddella? I say \u201cHell fucking no, are you kidding me?\u201d But the game only lets me say \u201cNo thanks,\u201d so you will never hear the disgust with which I decline your insult of an offer. Not only have I gone to hell and back with this guy throughout Legends: Z-A\u2019s story, but he also just whooped your faker\u2019s ass in the middle of a crowded area of Lumiose City. Why would I reward my king\u2019s loyalty and strength by giving him to you for this second-rate phony? He\u2019s been with me since Day One, and we have journeyed through every region of the Pok\u00e9mon universe together, saving the day while this guy serves pancakes to people in Alola. When the Mega Dimension DLC comes out, he\u2019s finally going to undergo Mega Evolution like he should have a decade ago. The Pok\u00e9mon Company may not respect him, but I do. I\u2019ll never trade my OG for a pretender. Even if it means I\u2019ve gotta see him every time I go to Quasartico\u2019s building because they will not leave unless I make the trade. Guess that quest\u2019s not getting finished. \u201cKen, just catch another Raichu and trade it.\u201d No! It\u2019s the principle!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know, about 24 hours ago I had every intention of pitching a post for Kotaku about how…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":319062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[94646,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-319061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-pokemon-legends-z-a","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115407614819843829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}