Pokemon: Generation VII

Oh, hey, the seventh generation of pokemon games are announced! We know nothing but the titles and a sneak-preview legendary in an upcoming movie, but we finally get a proper trailer. Here.


Yay Pokemon! They're skipping Pokemon Z, it seems, though honestly with such a varied response to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire... which really only got people hyped for like a couple of weeks after its release thanks to nostalgia factor, and after trying out the new megas and playing the story, it ended up being filled with repetition and just 'hey, all these legendaries are around' without any real reason. Hopefully they do better with Sun and Moon.

We don't get to see much of it, of course. The proportions of the human CG models seem to be more realistic insted of chibified like they were in the sixth generation, and there's a bit of a Hawaii tiki feel to the new region, which is totally unsubtly named 'Alola'.

We get to see the starters and legendaries. The legendaries are... weird but decent. They're not as eyecatchingly majestic like Xerneas and Yveltal were when XY was announced, though. The Sun Legendary is this white lion that looks like that Zoids Ligerzero thing... though certainly a far, far superior lion pokemon compared to Pyroar and his embarrassing fashion disaster of a mane. The Moon Legendary is an insane skeletal bat-thing that seemed to be the secret love-child of Cresselia and Yveltal.

Bowtie owl!

The starters are a bit underwhelming, to be honest, and even though I say that with every new generation there usually are one or two that catch my attention. I do like that, as with generation VI's (non-mega) pokemon, they have dialed back on the flagrant complexity that creeped up from generations III through V. It's simpler, yet at the same time... also kind of boring. But hey, at least they're cute!


The grass starter, Rowlet, is an owl. It's a cute owl, and out of the three I find him the cutest, I think? It turns its head around and around and it's cute for that. It's a grass-flying dual-type (like Jumpluff!), making it, after 20 years, the first starter to have a secondary typing after Bulbasaur, the OG himself. The fire starter, Litten, is a black-and-red cat. Some people think he's a tiger, which is totally on the table. The water starter, Popplio, is a clown seal. Like Oshawott. But a seal. All three are kinda cute!

Fire Hairball cat!

I think one of the biggest underwhelming factors is, well, they literally look like animal babies with palette swaps... though possibly moreso because we already had pokemon based on these animals before (Hoothoot for owls, a crapton of other cat pokemon, the Seel and Spheal lines for seals). Hopefully their final evolutions will prove to be far more interesting. Not sure if the pattern of starters will continue to hold up, though. I mean the 'grass starter must always be a prehistoric reptile' streak was broken in generation VI with the chipmunk-based Chespin, and the 'fire starter is based on a zodiac' streak (which doesn't hold true for Typhlosion anyway) was broken in generation VI again with Fennekin. So, um... yeah, whatever. Rowlet will probably remain grass-flying like, forevermore. Litten seems like she could be fire/dark but who knows? Maybe we'll see her grow to a cat-man and be fire/fighting. Popplio looks like a seal version of Oshawott so maybe another boring pure-water?

Not sure about the two legendaries' typing either. Sun-Mascot could be pure fire or fire-something. It's a sun lion, after all, and it's got red highlights. Moon-Mascot... seems to be... Ghost/Flying? Psychic/Flying? Dark/Flying? It's such a crazy-looking motherfucker! It's got bones, darkness, wings, a generally insane look and I think you can make an argument for it being, well, any type.

So I guess the whole silly Zygarde multiple forms thing will not have its own game, but rather be a sub-plot in Sun and Moon or something. Which is fine. I don't care, like, literally, at all, about Zygarde and his ugly alternate forms. Magearna or whatever she's called is definitely a Gen VII Pokemon as well.

Circus Seal!

In any case, yay Pokemon! I haven't played the game or really even touched my DS for like months, but Pokemon will always hold a dear place in my heart no matter what happens. Hopefully they introduce more memorable pokemon than Generation VI, though, which focused way too much in making the region cool-looking and making a crapton of mega evolutions... which are honestly mostly hit-and-miss.

So yeah, Pokemon Generation VII is coming. In the following months, after I get through my backlog of TV episode reviews, I'll probably do a couple of Pokemon-related articles that I always meant to do. Top ten legendaries, top ten megas, top ten awesome pokemon by type, top ten ugliest shits, top ten weirdest mothefuckers... that's the dream, anyway.