Yeah, so a new trailer showed up last night. It basically confirms that the leaks -- both the datamine and the Chinese leaks -- are accurate. And the starter evolutions, in particular, are very real. Which is freaking unfortunate, because I think two of those designs are straight-up ew, and even my favourite among the three felt like a sub-par design. Mind you, the official artwork and the 3D models do make the designs a fair bit more presentable, but I still really find this a very underwhelming set.
Rowlet evolves into Decidueye, which is honestly a weird but somewhat cool name. Decidue and eye. And Decidueye isn't a Grass/Flying like literally everyone and their mother expected, but he's Grass/Ghost! That was unexpected, yet makes a lot of sense considering the whole owl theme. I like him. He's an owl Robin Hood wearing the doofiest pair of circular glasses. Oh, and is it hilarious that Rowlet has a bow-tie and Decidueye uses a bow and an arrow?
Litten evolves into Incineroar, which... isn't the most horrible name. And he's a Fire/Dark, which is cool since Fire/Fighting starters are just a bit of an overran joke nowadays. Incineroar, ironically, would actually make sense as a Fire/Fighting, because he's a wrestler. Not an epic and fun-looking one like Hawlucha or Machamp, though. Incineroar just looks like a badly designed humanoid tiger. I have to admit that he has a lot of great animations, like the lariat whirlwind or the taunting pose, but man he just looks so ugly. I probably will grow to tolerate him, though, simply because generation VII had a far worse-looking cat pokemon in it.
Primarina isn't the best design out their either, trying to pull off a Milotic or Xernas-esque majesty but just having so much nonsense tacked on to her design that she just looks weirdly overburdened with unnecessary details. She's Water/Fairy, which is a pretty cool typing, even if it's not one I expected. Primarina isn't bad, but I just can't bring myself to find her looking cool. That animation when her hair goes all kraken when she attacks is decent, but not enough to make me like her.
The three starters have a signature move. Decidueye has 'Spirit Shackle', which is basically Mean Look, possibly with damage. Incineroar has this well-animated spinning wrestling clothesline called Darkest Lariat, which ignores stat changes... that's a decent move, and a great animation, if only Incineroar wasn't such a bad design. Primarina can... do some stupid nonsense like healing your opponent of burn. Um, what? Hopefully it does damage and functions like a Wake-Up Slap, otherwise it'll be the most stupid special attack ever.
All three starters also share typings with previous Pokemon -- Decidueye with Trevenant and Gourgeist; Incineroar with Houndoom; Primarina with Azumarill. Just felt like putting it out there.
The three other Tapu deities are revealed, and they share this absolutely insane-looking Z-Move, Guardian of Alola, where they summon a gigantic energy body, the Tapu transform into their totem head form, and attach themselves into the giant body who smashes the ground and blows it the FUCK up. The three other Tapus, as everyone guessed, all guard a single island, and apparently despite sharing colour schemes with Orirocio, they do't share the typing. They're all part-Fairy, which is cool. We do need some more badass fairies. They also immediately cast one of those 'Terrain' moves from Generation VI as their abilities, which is... unique? Not sure if it's useful, though.
Tapu Lele is the pink one that looks like a little girl peeking out of a jack-in-the-box. Her artwork shows some weird multi-coloured eyes, which I really like. Tapu Lele is Psychic/Fairy, and apparently she scatters scales that stimulates people, either healing the wounded or providing way too much stimulation (ahem) for non-wounded people, and Tapu Lele is apparently a borderline psychopath. Hmm. A cool design, a way to make the 'cutesy' one of the bunch look somewhat battle-ready,
Tapu Bulu is a bull. Get it? Bulu? Bull? Kudos for the effort of trying to make a totem look like a bull, but the end result is a bit suspect. The unfolded totem head thing looks messy and half-assed, with two random horns glued onto it and a weird body that just grows down with weird tendrils and cow hooves hanging from his bottom. Oh, and a bell, because his design isn't already stupidly busy enough. Tapu Bulu is Grass/Fairy, and what he lacks in visual appeal, he makes up by being a bit of a badass, using entire trees as clubs and creating giant horns made up of wood. In theory, anyway. Easily my least favourite Tapu, though.
Tapu Fini (fin, heh heh) is a bit cooler. It's like this narwhal-inspired totem that splits open where a shark's mouth would be to reveal the mermaid-esque fairy within, with long hair, fin-themed eyelashes and webbed claws. Tapu Fini's cool. She's Water/Fairy, obviously, which just invalidates poor Primarina so much. See? This is how you make a design both elegant and complex, not whatever you're trying with Primarina. I think Fini hands-down wins the best Tapu contest, though Lele and Koko aren't half-bad either..
Oh, and a new dude! Cosmog is a little floating mini-galaxy shaped like a Mickey head that's apparently something passed down in the Alolan royal family. It's, like, something that the leaks like to place next to Lunala and call her a baby Lunala. Which may be true. I dunno. Cosmog is Pyschic, which supports this little theory, but at the same time I'll be fine if it's just its own thing that's sorta-related to Lunala but not exactly its pre-evolution. So long as they don't do a Phione-style nonsense again.
Oh, and Alolan Persian looks as stupid as ever, and his bio isn't flattering at all, describing him as the most pampered, shittiest self-indulgent cats in the world that often underestimate their enemies. Fuck Alolan Persian, fuck off and die. Incineroar, as bad as his design is, at least has some cool wrestling moves in him, and he's a fighter, not a pampered little ball-faced shit like Alolan Persian. Alolan Persian has... Fur Coat as an ability? Fuck off, I don't even care. If their mission is to make a cat uglier than Purugly, they definitely succeeded. What the fuck is this thing, even.
Also, because they want to surprise us with all the leaked Pokedex sprites, apparently we will be forming the Pokemon League as like a post-game or some shit, and it'll see the return of Cynthia, Wally... plus Alolan versions of Red and Blue! Blue basically switches his outfit, but Red looks like he's got one hell of a haircut that if not for the colour coordination he would be easily mistaken as someone else. Again, as much as the G1 fanboy in me is squeeing at Red going ... ... ... ... ... I'm a bit pissed at yet another example of the other generations being relatively pushed aside for Generation One again, though at least Wally and Cynthia showing up means that it won't just be like the Kanto gym leaders.
Overall, I'm hyped for the game, that's for sure. I just kinda wished the leaks didn't happen so things like Cosmog would still surprise me. Please, Nintendo, be a troll and actually have like 20-30 new Pokemon/Alolan Forms not leaked in the game.
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