TL;DR, I really wish they bring back the national dex (and I guess they kind of are), but I loathe the toxic backlash that parts of the fandom has been doing towards the game creators.
Whatever the case, Generation VIII brings with it a slew of 90-something new monsters and a bunch of new alternate forms and whatnot, and instead of focusing on what we've lost, we're going to look at what we've gained and by jove, we're going to review 'em all.
For the purposes of these reviews (and because chunks of them were written before the announcement), I have not seen nor read anything about the new expansion packs for Sword and Shield or whatever, and I understand that with that comes new Galarian forms and legendaries and whatnot. I'll be reviewing every single thing that came with the base game first, and we'll talk about the rest after we get to see them in-game with stats and whatnot. Whether I'll add in the forms into these older articles or to make up an extra part for all of the DLC additions, we'll see depending on the amount of content added.
The way I'm structuring this is that we're going to review all the new Pokemon based on their National Dex numbering, and when we get to that chunk in the National Dex where all the new evolutions (Obstagoon, Runerigus, et al) are clustered, we'll take a pit stop and talk about all the Galarian Forms as well. And at the end, we'll talk about the Gigantamax forms of older Pokemon separately. And then after that, we'll talk about the DLC stuff. I'll also be implementing a rule that I don't actually complain about the games themselves -- there's a lot to say about them, but this is going to talk about the Pokemon moreso than the actual game they debuted in.
Ready? Let's go!
Click here for the previous part.
Click here for the next part.
Click here for the index.
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[Note from the future: This article was written before the DLC were released, and I reviewed the Gigantamax versions of the starters in their own article with all the DLC additions.]
#810-812: Grookey, Thwackey & Rillaboom
Two decades down the line ever since we first saw an onion frog, a lizard on fire and a bubble-blowing tortoise and we're still arguing with fellow Pokemon fans about which one of the three starters looks the cutest and grows up to be the 'face' for your team, so to speak. There's just this basic appeal about having to select one out of three starter Pokemon to start off your journey, y'know? And sometimes you get a generation where all three starter Pokemon are absolutely winners, which is what I feel for the past two generations. Sometimes I get into a generation where I'm sure that this is the one, only to fall in love with the other starters. Over the years I've sort of stopped placing the starters at this sort of hallowed pedestal and started judging them as just Pokemon of their own... but it's really hard to do so. The starters are, meant to appeal to the biggest range of potential players out there from how they look, which is why they are so variable, particularly in recent years.
For the grass-type this time around, we start off with Grookey, a cute little chimp baby with a little wooden stick that he uses as a Flintstones-style topknot, and then he whacks rocks with it to make grass grow. It's cute and simple, and one of the biggest complaints that people have about Grookey is how "it's just a cartoon monkey, not a Pokemon monkey", and I know that's a complaint I made about some other Pokemon in the past before, and I've never been the biggest monkey fan out there... but eh, Grookey's all right. It's certainly a lot more adorable than Pokemon's previous grass monkey attempt, anyway. Sorry, Pansage. Grookey isn't anything super-special for me, but a little drummer monkey is pretty cute. Just a monkey with a stick isn't that special, but the little drummer thing adds a bit of an oomph that ends up giving the line a lot of personality.
Grookey evolves into Thwackey. It's... it's got very long proportions, huh? Those legs really don't look like they could properly support the rest of the body. The weird lime green that they went also feels like it clashes rather oddly with the rest of Thwackey's browns, greens and oranges. Middle evolutions tend to be awkward but Thwackey just looks... it just genuinely looks so weirdly proportioned every time I look at it. The 3D model has Thwackey pull out his hair-sticks and the little hair-leaves end up springing up, and that's neat I guess, but the whole thing still looks mal-proportioned to me in all the wrong ways. Slapping the brown arms onto the long line-coloured body just looks bizarre. Thwackey's dex entries focus a lot more on the drum-beating stuff, noting that Thwackey societies are basically a drum-o-cracy, where the Thwackey that can beat drums the fastest is the most respected, and, in a particularly neatly dark entry in Shield, apparently Thwackey sometimes gets so caught up in its drum-beating attacks that sometimes it doesn't realize it's beating on a
Thankfully, Thwackey's bizarrely violent and elongated teenage years quickly give way to Rillaboom, a mighty gorilla with a massive mane of hair made out of leaves and vines. I do appreciate that Rillaboom's proportion looks a fair bit more athletic and lean, compared to how most cartoon gorillas tended to be over-exaggerated with musculature. Is this our first proper gorilla Pokemon? I guess we got Slaking, but that's a weird sloth-ape thing; and Darmanitan was far more ambiguous. Rillaboom's official Sugimori art doesn't do him justice, though, because he's never seen without his little funky wooden drum that he pulls out of his back in in-game models. And it's not just typical anime hammer-space logic either, look a bit closely at Rillaboom when you play with it in Pokemon-Camp or whatever and you realize that Rillaboom has his precious portable drum strapped onto his back under that luxurious mane of hair.
With an actual prop to drum, obviously Rillaboom is themed even more around being a drummer, and it took me right about now to realize that beating on the drum is likely an adaptation of how real-life gorillas pound their chest. That's actually pretty neat! Practically every single Generation VIII Pokemon has a signature move or ability, and Rillaboom's signature move, "Drum Beating", has Rillaboom beat the drums, which causes the drum to extend roots beneath the ground to whack Rillaboom's enemies. Apparently, all three of the starter lines are based on a specific trope of job based on something from the United Kingdom (since Galar's based on the UK), and the entire Grookey line is based on Brit-pop musicians? Okay, if you say so. I guess this means we're not having the whole "grass starters are prehistoric animals" theme any more, unless there's a drum-playing extinct gorilla I'm not aware of? Anyway, a good monkey. A decent monkey.
3/6.#813-815: Scorbunny, Raboot & Cinderace
Our fire starter this time around is Scorbunny, the very first Pokemon revealed for Sword and Shield in that very first announcement trailer, and hoo boy I really disliked this little bunny the first time I saw it. Now I really like it! Sure, it still kinda looks like a ripoff of the energizer bunny and the proportions are still a wee bit off for a Pokemon, but having around half a year to get used to what Scorbunny looks like (and which is why I allowed myself a couple of months for the knee-jerk reactions to subside), it's pretty cute! Very simple and honestly kinda obviously-marketable, but that's honestly not a bad thing. Scorbunny is particularly adorable in the 3D models or the anime with its pitter-patter running, and I think thanks to its longer limbs, Scorbunny might actually be one of the most expressive starters out there. It's really surprising, really, because I was pretty dang vocal at how much I disliked Scorbunny the first time I saw it. It's a good thing I let myself have some time before reviewing the new generation, because if I did this when the game was fresh Scorbunny'd probably get a 1/5 or 2/5.
Where Grookey's line is based on musicians, Scorbunny's already very obviously based on football players (soccer to some of you), and football's huge in the UK, so much that an entire facet of the Galar games is basically a loving homage to football stadiums and tournaments. From the focus on its large kicking/jumping feet and the little 'I just got injured' band-aid on its nose, Scorbunny's the very scrappy, energetic starter from this set, and a neat adaptation of football players without being too on-the-nose.
I do really appreciate the Pokedex emphasizing that, no, these aren't band-aids, but are pads (which you can also see on its feet!) that radiate heat, but Scorbunny has to 'charge up' these pads by actually running aroud a field and exercising. Adorable, and it's been quite a while since we've seen one of these attempted fantasy biology for one of these Pokemon.
I don't quite have quite as warm of a feeling for the middle stage, Raboot, as I do Scorbunny. This was a form I loathed when I first saw it in-game, but I've warmed up to it a lot. Raboot's pretty charming, even if it's a one-note charm. Raboot's fur has grown to become a weird facsimile of a hoodie or a tracksuit or something, and he has this awesome vibe particularly when you interact with him in Pokemon camp. The hoodie collar covering its mouth, the droopy ears and the fact that Raboot can tuck its paws inside its belly hoodie-pocket is extremely expressive. I'm not sure why Raboot make me go "eeeh" like most other Pokemon with clothes-like body parts. I guess it's because Raboot's got such an attitude? I just find the emo-teen vibe pretty hilarious, I suppose. Anyway, a neat little emo-bunny.
4/6 for both Scorbunny and Raboot.
And then we get Cinderace, which... ditches everything appealing about Raboot and Scorbunny. It's not even a rabbit at this point, is it? Just someone's fursona with bunny feet and bunny ears glued on? It's got a bunch of decent animations of it kicking up a rock and kicking it at the enemy and turning it into a fireball and shit, and that's neat and all, but Cinderace just doesn't feel like a Pokemon. I dunno. It's just so bland, and it's not even an interesting animal-man monster like Zeraora or Lucario or Zoroark, all of whom at least looked fierce or cool in their own way, looks like they are at least building upon the animal basis, and I can respect them to some degree even if not all of them are my thing. Cinderace is just... it's just there. The animations they gave this thing in the games are neat, but ultimately it's just... it's just a random anime soccer player with a bunch of vaguely bunny-shaped details glued onto it. And I know I'm being very harsh and I don't tend to reall tear into Pokemon designs like this, but I dunno. Cinderace just feels very bland. Like, it's like the designers are trying so hard to make a generic anime animal person appealing, but they're failing pretty bad. Not even the colour palette is interesting at all. I really tried to see if I would like these starters given time or given that I could see them in motion in-game (which is what made a lot of the Generation VI-VIII Pokemon far, far more likable) and... I just don't like it, y'know? Which is kind of a shame.
1/6.#816-818: Sobble, Drizzile & Inteleon
You know that feeling when you see something like a little puppy or a comic book cover or a fictional monster design and you just know that it's the thing for you? I've never quite had that feeling, honestly, and I've always seen the huge arguments at the beginning of every generation about which starter is the best, which starter is everyone's baby, to be pretty quaint. I mean, sure, I've got my preferences, and, like, last generation it was unambiguously Rowlet, but it didn't quite grab me by the heartstrings.
Not so for Sobble. I can remember watching the Pokemon Sword/Shield announcement trailer, watching as slowly Scorbunny gets revealed and sort of shrugging it off as "yeaaah I don't like this"... and then a little invisible head peeks out of the CGI pool and starts to take form. This is our water starter? A sad boy that's also a water-type chameleon? And his personality is that it's a freaking little crybaby coward that skitters around and hides in pools and trees because it's so freaking shy? What a cutie. What a glorious cutie. It's a very easy personality to sucker people in, and I fell for it hook line and sinker. Sobble also cries a lot, and according to the Pokedex, its tears "pack the chemical punch of 100 onions", allowing Sobble to weaponize its own crying to make its enemies cry! Awww what a baby.
Besides, look at Sobble's design! What a very solid starter Pokemon. Like Grookey, I feel like Sobble wouldn't feel out of place if it showed up in one of the earlier generations. And it's a water chameleon, too, apparently achieving chameleon powers because its skin changes colour when it gets wet -- and it's something that's kinda weird, but also believably so. If you told me that there's some obscure species of toad or prawn or fish whose skin refracts light specifically because of how it interacts with water, I'd probably believe you. And it even plays into Sobble's shy-shy-boy personality. It helps him hide away from all the exhausting extrovert energy, very relatable!
Anyway, I love Sobble. I love everything about it, from its sad face, to its ability to disappear, to its adorable chameleon hands.
6/6. for Sobble. All of the scores for Sobble.
Not so for Sobble. I can remember watching the Pokemon Sword/Shield announcement trailer, watching as slowly Scorbunny gets revealed and sort of shrugging it off as "yeaaah I don't like this"... and then a little invisible head peeks out of the CGI pool and starts to take form. This is our water starter? A sad boy that's also a water-type chameleon? And his personality is that it's a freaking little crybaby coward that skitters around and hides in pools and trees because it's so freaking shy? What a cutie. What a glorious cutie. It's a very easy personality to sucker people in, and I fell for it hook line and sinker. Sobble also cries a lot, and according to the Pokedex, its tears "pack the chemical punch of 100 onions", allowing Sobble to weaponize its own crying to make its enemies cry! Awww what a baby.
Besides, look at Sobble's design! What a very solid starter Pokemon. Like Grookey, I feel like Sobble wouldn't feel out of place if it showed up in one of the earlier generations. And it's a water chameleon, too, apparently achieving chameleon powers because its skin changes colour when it gets wet -- and it's something that's kinda weird, but also believably so. If you told me that there's some obscure species of toad or prawn or fish whose skin refracts light specifically because of how it interacts with water, I'd probably believe you. And it even plays into Sobble's shy-shy-boy personality. It helps him hide away from all the exhausting extrovert energy, very relatable!
Anyway, I love Sobble. I love everything about it, from its sad face, to its ability to disappear, to its adorable chameleon hands.
6/6. for Sobble. All of the scores for Sobble.
And throughout the pre-Sword/Shield era, I remained blissfully unspoiled about anything beyond, like, the third or fourth trailer, and the first time I laid eyes on Drizzile and Inteleon was when I was playing through the games, which is easily the first time in two decades that I've been surprised by a Pokemon's new form. And... and Drizzile isn't terrible. It's not a flat-out disappointment like some people make it out to be. But while I genuinely am not sure what I expected from Sobble, this certainly wasn't it.
But that said... Drizzile isn't terrible at all! Not at all. I even like Drizzile a lot, I just don't enjoy it as part of a set attached to Sobble. Because there's a lot of Drizzile that's awesome. The blue colour scheme coupled with the slight hints of purple and neon green, showing off a neat teenage punk attitude? The fact that it generates little water balloons to chuck at people as part of its 'rebel' stage (beautifully animated ones, at that)? Hell, you could even argue that the punk mascara and hands are part of its chameleon theme, which kind of works a fair bit even if Drizzile does drop the far more interesting-looking chameleon twig-fingers that Sobble has.
The dex notes that Drizzile is able to indefinitely manifest water balloons by controlling the moisture secreted by its palms, which is a pretty cool and relatively unique gimmick. Playing to its whole "shy, hiding in the shadows" theme, Drizzile is noted to be more of a trapster -- something that isn't reflected at all in gameplay terms, but I can totally see this colour-changing punk go invisible and lob water balloons at people's faces. It's no Scrafty, but it's actually a decent punk lizard. I kind of feel like Drizzile might've been conceived as another design before being modified and turned into Sobble's evolution. I dunno.
4/6 for Drizzile, if we take it as a standalone design. 
Of course, we change themes yet again from a sad baby to an anarchist punk protester to... James Bond? Inteleon is straight-up noted as a "secret agent Pokemon", and James Bond sure is a very cool British thing, but other than the honestly vague connection of how spies often work from the shadows, Inteleon feels so off from the original concept of Sobble that beyond the colours and lizard theme it feels like it belongs in a completely different line. Inteleon's head is a neat lizard-y head, I suppose, but the neck and twig-like body it's connected to just doesn't look nice at all. The underlying concept of a lizardman shooting compressed water out of his fingers isn't inherently a bad one, but the execution is pretty bleh to me, and that's without attaching Inteleon as the final form of Drizzile and Sobble. And I've had Pokemon evolution lines that I prefer the pre-evolved forms to the evolved forms, but I don't think I've ever quite felt as strongly about it as I did when I saw Sobble's final form. I've heard tales of people feeling sad and disappointed when their Dratinis evolved into a Dragonite and stuff like that, but I've never experienced that anticipation of seeing a beloved Pokemon's final form and be utterly and completely disappointed.
And... and I dunno. I tried very hard to like Inteleon. I really do! But it's not hard to notice that throughout my playthrough of Pokemon Sword, Inteleon was, more likely than not, benched in the box in favour of someone else, and mostly just hung around in my party only for the coverage. And it's not like there isn't things to like about Inteleon -- the "Snipe Shot" animation is badass, and I do like how Inteleon apparently has a bunch of neat secret agent style features like that cape that opens up to help him glide around (like winged lizards) or nictitating eye-membranes allow it to pinpoint the weak spots in the enemy... although visually, Inteleon is... uh... it's awkward, let's put it mildly. I'm always a fan of stylized artwork that over-exaggerate features, but even then Inteleon's gigantic, disproportionate fingers have always bothered me, as are its weirdly bendy hips and spindly legs.
But y'know, I've never quite felt the feeling that some people complain when they see their babies evolve, because for the most part, Pokemon's been great at making the evolved forms of their creatures still feel like they're the same creature, only grown up. Here, beyond a common 'based on lizards vaguely' background, half of the colour scheme and that head-crest, Inteleon is so far removed from Sobble aesthetically, conceptually and thematically that it's still really hard to see Inteleon as being Sobble or Drizzile's evolved form, and that's without taking into account the massive love I have for both of Inteleon's pre-evolved forms. I dunno. I tried -- I really did -- to make peace with how this thing looks. But even after trying and forcing myself to use one, I can't help it, I just really don't like this thing. Doesn't help that honestly he's a pretty crappy starter with a limited movepool that quickly became the weakest member of my party. Anyway... There are many ways to make a lizard-man cool, but Inteleon sure as hell doesn't do it for me. I own one and used it in my playthrough, but even then despite really trying to like it, the best I could come up with Inteleon is 'tolerable'.
1/6 bordering on 2/6.#819-820: Skwovet & Greedent
Here's our early-game rodent, and... I'm very underwhelmed? Skwovet (man what an awkward name) looks more like something from a fan-made Pokemon game, and I say that without any malice -- it just genuinely feels like such a straightforward adaptation of an animal, a squirrel in this case, without adding any real twist to it, y'know? It sure is a cute cartoon squirrel, but it doesn't feel like a Pokemon cartoon squirrel, if you get what I mean. It fills in the role of the early-route rodent well enough, but Galar's got a fine selection of two-stage early-route mammals that Skwovet really ends up just being kinda there. The whole point about this squirrel is that it holds berries in its cheeks and that's it. Like, I get that not all Pokemon has to be something super-creative and revolutionary, but even the likes of Bidoof or Pidgey or Patrat has something going on for them, y'know? Skwovet's just a hungry squirrel. Hell, the Skwovet line doesn't even do the "rat pest" role that Rattata, Bidoof, Yungoos and their ilk are famous for, because they're actually relatively scarce outside of the first two routes or so in Galar.
Skwovet evolves into Greedent, another awkwardly-named entry, an it's a bit neater in that it's got the little gimmick of stashing berries in its massive tail because it's a greedy hungry fat rat, but I really can't think of much to say here. It's pleasant looking enough, and it's inoffensive, but it's so forgettable to me. There's nothing wrong with being a bit more down to earth, but Skwovet and Greedent do so little with their inspiration that unlike some of the other "just an animal" examples down below, I really can't find of anything to say here. Like, sure, the game's fresh right now, but give or take another two generations down the line and Skwovet and Greedent would easily be the ones I completely forget from this generation. It's like... it's sort of a meme to hate on Greedent, but even so I find someone like Bidoof infinitely more charming than them.
Some people note that Skwovet and Greedent are, like, a reference to the invasion of the Eastern gray squirrels into the UK that displaces the local red squirrels, but I really don't see it -- it's not like Alola's Raticate and Gumshoos where the whole thing surrounding their lore is that they're butting into each other's territory.
1/6.#821-823: Rookidee, Corvisquire, Corviknight & Gigantamax Corviknight
After the early rodent, we've got the early bird, and Rookidee is actually the very first early-route bird evolutionary line that I've used throughout my playthrough of a game. Outside of Nuzlocke challenges, of course. But I've never used Pidgeot, Noctowl, Swellow, Staraptor, Unfezant, Talonflame or Toucannon, but there's just something about Rookidee that made me instantly fall in love with it. While Rookidee's English name seems to specifically call out the Chickadee as the inspiration, colour-wise Rookidee seems to take more inspiration from the Chickadee's relative, the Eurasian blue tit. Yes, 'tit' is a classification of birds, get your minds out of the gutter. Rookidee's design is honestly pretty much what you expect by now from an early route bird, an exaggeration and simplification of a real-life bird, with a characterization that note how small they are but also how vicious they are. I think it's Rookidee's eyes that really caught me, those large eyes that simultaneously look cute but also look sort of angry. What an odd-looking set of eyes, too, with the half-circle white part and the oval pupils that extend all the way into the black fur. Regardless I'm a big fan of the contrast between blue and yellow. A very simple and neat design.
Also, for no particular reason, Rookidee is pure Flying, a typing previously reserved only for the elemental Tornadus. Is there something about Rookidee and Corvisquire that causes them to be excluded from the "Normal" type slapped to all the bird Pokemon before? Or is it just Gamefreak/Nintendo being different for difference's sake? My money's on the latter.
Corvisquire is Rookidee's first evolved form, which drops the yellow -- which is sort of a shame -- but also sort of gives a hint towards where we're ultimately going. All of these early birds always go from a cute little songbird like a pigeon or a robin or a woodpecker and slowly transform into birds of prey, and Corvisquire's basically what you expect as the middle part of this line, a bigger bird whose features start to grow more into the bird-of-prey body layout. The head and face are a bit meaner, the wings are a bit bigger and it's basically a big dark blue raven. Corvisquire, as its name implies, is noted to be a bit more intelligent as far as battlers go, able to use tools like rocks and rope in battle thanks to the 'lessons of many harsh battles'.
Corvisquire's final evolution is the imposing Corviknight, the second-ever metal bird since Skarmory all the way back in the 90's. Corviknight is one of the very first reveals in the region, and it's absolutely cool. It's a simple formula, just a big fuck-off raven (already an animal people consider cool) with exaggerated features vaguely themed after a knight, and completely covered with metal plates. Plus it's got glowing red dot-eyes to make it extra-menacing! Corviknight's dex entries even take note of how Corviknight 'reigns supreme in Galar's skies' with the black luster of its steel body.
Something that's not quite communicated by these art pieces and something I personally didn't appreciate until playing the games themselves is that Corviknight is fucking huge. Part of it is thanks to how the wings themselves are sort of shaped, but seeing Corviknight next to other bird pokemon of the past really ends up causing Corviknight to look like this terrifying doombringer, a raven straight out of the depths of hell that exists to bring war and death. ...which is why the people of Galar mass-breed Corviknight to use as a taxi. Because Corviknight is big, and they can carry around entire taxi cabs all over the region. That's just such a mundane usage of a badass metal bird monster. I love it.
But wait, there's more! See, the gimmick of this region is basically sort of a remixed version of Mega Evolution from Generation VI, which is Dynamaxing. In some specific areas, the power from deep within Galar allows Pokemon to become gigantic kaiju-sized super forms called "Dynamax". Which, according to some in-game characters, is apparently a giant illusion made out of energy instead of actually becoming gigantic? The game and its supplementary materials kinda goes back and forth between the Pokemon actually becoming giants or just appearing to be gigantic. Like Mega Evolutions, you can only Dynamax a pokemon per battle, and unlike Mega Evolutions (which lasts the entire battle), the Dynamax state only lasts for 3 turns, but in those turns all your moves basically become
Some specific Pokemon can get the ability to Gigantamax, though, which actually changes their physical shape. G-max Pokemon have access to slightly different super attacks, but they're mostly just around to be cool. The problem? Your Corviknight that you raised throughout your adventure can't Gigantamax. It can only Dynamax, becoming kaiju-sized. You have to grind out the raid battles to catch specific, special members of a certain species that can Gigantamax. It's arbitrary, and it's honestly pretty damn stupid. I've ranted about how this runs so counter to what Pokemon's central theme is meant to be enough, but anyway, Giga Corviknight (I'll refer to all G-Max forms as Giga-whatever from now on) is the first such creature we're going to cover.
And... there's not much to really say here. Other than the tacky and completely unnecessary halo of weird red smoke, most of what Giga Corviknight adds to the design is the glowing red feathers, which admittedly adds a fair bit to the design. Something that's pretty cool in Giga-Corviknight's animations is that it's got a bunch of tiny little buddies called "Blade Birds", which are airborne feathers that sprout their own wings and attack the enemy. Functionally, this doesn't amount to much difference in gameplay, but it looks rad as hell! It's basically Funnels from Gundam! I would imagine if these were framed as Mega Evolutions, or had a mechanic similar to them, maybe Corviknight would have had an ability change to reflect his little swarm of sentient energy feather-birds?
I actually will give them a 5/5, because they are the only regional birds that I have actually brought up all the way to the end of the game and had them evolve and fight alongside me. I've never actually liked any of the regional birds enough to do so -- not even Pidgeot!
6/6.
6/6.#824-826: Blipbug, Dottler, Orbeetle & Gigantamax Orbeetle
Okay, this is pretty cool. It's the second generation in a row that we're getting the early-route bug as something that's not a butterfly or moth, and a ladybird (or ladybug, using the US spelling), specifically the Seven-Spotted Ladybird Coccinella septempunctata, is pretty perfect for the UK! I admit that Blipbug didn't immediately strike me as a ladybug larva or indeed any sort of grub at all. It's got the colouration and the spikes that you could associate with a Coccinellid larva if you put a picture of both side-by-side (and the seven-spotted ladybird larva even have Blipbug's purple and yellow colour scheme!) but Blipbug looks like such a generic, stylized bookworm style creature that I genuinely wasn't sure what insect this was going to turn into. And Blipbug's pretty neat. It's not my style of Pokemon wiggly-grub-bugs, but I absolutely love the two gigantic eyes resembling spectacles and the bunch of spikes that form a bow-tie. Blipbug is noted to be a collector of information, using hairs on its body to collect information to offset its weak nature. Not my favourite design from the generation, but a neat one.
Dottler is the 'pupa' of the stage, althogh it really doesn't look like a ladybird pupa at all, and the chrysalis stage feels a bit more symbolic, akin to Swadloon three generations ago. Dottler looks neat, though, as the 'radome' Pokemon with its constantly glowing dome-spots and little wiggling hands. Interestingly, in a neat variation of the whole "cocoon pokemon can only learn Harden", Dottler is given Reflect and Light Screen instead, making it a different sort of defensive. I was definitely surprised to learn that this bizarre dome-shaped beetle with tiny hands is Bug/Psychic, our very first usage of that specific combination of types. Dottler's not my favourite design, but I really do love those eyes and how combined with his tiny arms he looks like he's constantly waving his hands in panic.
Dottler's evolution is a design that genuinely took me by surprise. Okay, a ladybird isn't too far-fetched, but what a gloriously bizarre design! We've had a relatively simple anthropomorphize'd ladybird Pokemon before in Ledyba and Ledian, but Orbeetle takes the distinctive dome-shape of a ladybird's body and turns the entire dome into Orbeetle's... head? Can you even call that its head? It's more like Orbeetle's huge dome-abdomen thing (which still functions like a normal bug abdomen, the wings can open up and everything) has became the primary body, and the tiny humanoid body that hangs down from the side ends up feeling a lot more vestigial than anything. The little conical feet and tiny bug hands do still look threatening, even if they look so dwarfed by Orbeetle's body. Most interesting, I feel, is Orbeetle's face, which just doesn't look bug-like at all and brings to mind a Gundam crossed over with Kabuki makeup. From the glowing neon-blue eyes to the yellow horns to the red 'lipstick', it's a combination of features that ends up being so striking, and taken together with the rest of Orbeetle it just ends up making a design that I really didn't think I would like, but ended up finding so freaking weird that I grew to like it. It's not how I would prefer a ladybug Pokemon to be, ultimately, but man, Orbeetle is so weird. I'm a fan.
A lot of people attribute Orbeetle's psychic type to how apparently people use ladybirds as "fortune telling", but I can't really find any real evidence to corroborate that, unless observing a ladybird cluster's sensitive response towards weather counts. They are a pretty prominent insect in Europe, though, and while thematically it doesn't quite gel with the psychic-bug theme, it works well enough. Orbeetle's described to have a massive brain (of course) to contain all that psychic power, allowing it to observe things from six miles away. Neat.
Giga Orbeetle (oh, 'orbiter', I get it now) goes full-on-ham with a UFO theme. What? Is there some association between ladybirds and UFOs that I'm not aware of? The humanoid figure dangling off Orbeetle's giant dome-head doesn't get altered a lot beyond the customary "spiky things get spikier" that Gigantamax and Mega forms tend to have, but the ladybird abdomen has been transformed into a straight-up cartoon UFO with little spherical landing pads and Orbeetle's spots have changed into these swirling cybernetic-looking concentric circles. Its dex entry describes it as being able to "control the minds of every living being in its vicinity" if it uses all its psychic powers. It's probably one of my favourite Giga forms, simply enhancing what made Orbeetle look so dang unique.
Overall, this is such a gloriously bizarre entry into the Pokemon franchise and a pretty appropriate one for our first Bug/Psychic. Not my favourite Pokemon from this generation by a long shot, but definitely one I like a fair bit!
4/6.#827-828: Nickit & Thievul
Thievul is a more straight-up cool fox monster, but while it does lose some of the unique proportions that Nickit and its big bushy brush tail has, Thievul's gigantic thief mask and the hilarious Lupin-the-third mustache (which appears on all genders) just makes such a strikingly hilarious appearance. Apparently as a Thievul it gains the ability to 'mark' potential targets with a scent that it can only follow, which is pretty cool. Apparently it's enemies with Boltund, all fox-and-the-hound style. That's a British work, right? Thievul's neat. These two aren't my favourite additions to the region, but they're definitely a very, very solid duo that I'm happy to see be added into the Pokemon ranks. A solid pair of asshole fox criminals.
3/6, could be 2/6.#829-830: Gossifleur & Eldegoss
A pair of pure Grass-types that I kind of feel are just there, but that's mostly because we've seen the concept of a cute little cotton puff creature done before with Jumpluff and Whimsicott. These were among the very first creatures revealed for the eighth generation, and they're just there. I actually genuinely prefer Gossifleur compared to Eldegoss, mostly becuase it feels kinda fresh? A little teardrop-shaped fairy-like plant with hair made out of flower petals and another giant flower on top of its head. S'neat, even if its dex entries don't really tell us much more about it beyond being a happy flower baby. The line is based specifically on the windflower (Anemone nemorosa), a native European plant that's common to the British Isles and apparently inspired a fair amount of folk songs and whatnot, but I really feel that this ended up as an even greater missed opportunity of actually capitalizing on those and if not making Gossifleur and Eldegoss be part-Fairy, at least give them interaction with them. I dunno. I guess the past two generations and their quality-over-quantity methods have sort of made me expect a bit more from each and every Pokemon? It's okay for these little buddies to just be flower-sprites, really.
Eldegoss is pure-Grass, not Grass/Flying or Grass/Fairy or whatever, but we actually do see in-game that Eldegoss are genuinely just haplessly blown about by the wind instead of having some modicum of control like Jumpluff, so I guess that excludes it from being a proper Flying type. It's got a pleasant somewhat sunburnt-looking shade of green to it, but otherwise it sort of feels somewhat just there. Not a huge fan of the weird shape of its face, which I know is meant to represent the sepals of a flower but ends up looking like Eldegoss has a gash down her forehead. The dex entries talk about how pleasant its seeds are and how it can either heal other Pokemon or be spun into yarn. Ultimately, while kind of boring from a lore and gameplay perspective, I do genuinely like the look of these two visually enough to give them a 3/5 marking even if they don't bring much to the table. Eldegoss's got a pretty cool name, though, and these two feature a neat series of colour combinations we don't see often in Pokemon.
3/6.#831-832: Wooloo & Dubwool
Wooloo, otherwise known as "everyone's day one darling". Personally I never quite got into the Wooloo hype. It's just a circular cartoon sheep. An adorable one, but I was always underwhelmed because it's just a cartoon sheep. Compare it to Mareep, for example! Wooloo did sort of win me over in the game -- by the simple fact that they travel by rolling around in a ball and just spinning around, which just looks so ridiculous. It's even part of a mandatory mini-game at one point for you to herd these spinning clumps of wool to get through a gym puzzle! Wooloo's another one of those "just a cartoon animal" Pokemon, but it's cute, it's got very distinctive eyes, and it's particularly prominent in Sword and Shield, being featured prominently in your hometown, being basically the go-to roadblock for the first chunk of your journey, and being your rival's signature Pokemon. I absolutely love the little detail about how if Wooloo's fleece grows too long, it can't move and becomes helpless.
Wooloo evolves into Dubwool, which... is sort of what you expect from Wooloo's evolution. It's got a bunch of extra details, it's got a pair of sheep horns (explicitly noted only to be used to impress other Dubwool and not to ram each other like barbaric goats and deer) andcow splotches for some reason a pattern based on the British breed of sheep known for its black-and-white coloration, the Jacob Sheep. Hell, even Dubwool's twin pairs of horns are shared by the Jacob Sheep, with two pointing backwards and two curving forwards! Okay, that's pretty dang cool. You learn something new every day! Apparently its wool is so springy that people who weave fabric out of it end up basically with things like trampoline-carpets and the like. It's this sort of little random details that I do kind of love reading in a dex entry, although I wished that it reflected a bit in-universe. You'd think that in a game where you could customize your character's clothes, there'd be at least a Dubwool coat or something. Dubwool's... honestly sort of just kind of there? It's neat, I don't mind that they exist, they do look cute.
2/6.
Wooloo evolves into Dubwool, which... is sort of what you expect from Wooloo's evolution. It's got a bunch of extra details, it's got a pair of sheep horns (explicitly noted only to be used to impress other Dubwool and not to ram each other like barbaric goats and deer) and
A lot of these don't get scores as high as the Unova or Alola Pokemon, but I still like them! 3 is a neutral rating, and while a lot of these aren't revolutionary designs that grab me like a lot of the Alolan designs (that's a region whose aesthetic was tailor-made to me, admittedly), I like Galar's Pokemon, they just feel a bit more mundane and 'safe', so to speak.
2/6.#833-834: Chewtle, Drednaw & Gigantamax Drednaw
I was absolutely baffled at Chewtle's face the first time I met it, but it looks a bit better with its mouth open. It still looks daft as all hell, like a Charlie Brown cartoon crossed over with an anime animal from the 80's or something, but it does have a fair bit of personality, even if that presonality is just a little brat of a snapping turtle who bites everything with its mono-teeth. I'm ultimately not that huge of a fan of Chewtle, but at least it has a memorable appearance. It's certainly a neat way to adapt a 'snapping turtle' without adapting the real-life animal's massive beak the way Turtwig or Drednaw do.
3/6 for Chewtle. Not the biggest fan of the face.
Drednaw, on the other hand, is a pretty cool-looking tortoise dude. Snapping turtles are cool, and it's actually surprising by this point how many flavours of turtles and tortoises we have! Drednaw becomes water/rock, and while he has a pretty cool rugged, armoured shell and a wacky horn that looks like someone shoved half of a cleaver into its skull, I do still like the fact that Drednaw's most distinctive feature is still its massive chompy-jaws, which is highly exaggerated from a real-life snapping turtle's beak. It does look pretty dang cool, though, I can't complain. Even if I'm not the biggest fan of that very toy-kibble-esque orange 'joint' on the base of its mandible. Drednaw's pretty neat looking, and I feel like the Sword/Shield team likes Drednaw a fair bit, having it pop up as an overworld Pokemon in multiple places and making it the signature Pokemon of the water-type gym leader.
While the game models don't quite emphasize Drednaw's neck, the dex notes that Drednaw's supposed to have a rapidly-extending neck with which it can surprise-chomp down on its enemies. G-Max Drednaw is... it stands up, and its shell sort of ends up in a neat little layout where it looks like a giant pair of jaws with a little head inside, which is an interesting visual for sure, but it's kind of just there. I really also don't like the weird spinning red smoke halo within Giga Drednaw's shell-jaws, because unlike Giga Corviknight or Giga Orbeetle above, it certainly doesn't look like it's integrated particularly well into the design of Giga Drednaw. It's definitely kinda awkward looking, even if there's a neat little Ultraman/Godzilla-enemy kaiju charm to a bipedal turtle-giant with little stumpy arms. I do like the little dex entry from Shield talking about how a Giga-Drednaw once broke down a mountain to stop a flood, which is pretty neat. I don't mind the whole line all that much, other than the fact that their knowing Rock Slide makes raid battles against them a bit of a nightmare and I got my save file stuck at a Giga Drednaw for a month or so because I'm a single player and the A.I. are doo-doo. Chewtle's a bit underwhelming, but Drednaw and Giga-Drednaw gets extra points because it really does look like a waddling Tokusatsu monster suit.
3/6 for Chewtle. Not the biggest fan of the face.Drednaw, on the other hand, is a pretty cool-looking tortoise dude. Snapping turtles are cool, and it's actually surprising by this point how many flavours of turtles and tortoises we have! Drednaw becomes water/rock, and while he has a pretty cool rugged, armoured shell and a wacky horn that looks like someone shoved half of a cleaver into its skull, I do still like the fact that Drednaw's most distinctive feature is still its massive chompy-jaws, which is highly exaggerated from a real-life snapping turtle's beak. It does look pretty dang cool, though, I can't complain. Even if I'm not the biggest fan of that very toy-kibble-esque orange 'joint' on the base of its mandible. Drednaw's pretty neat looking, and I feel like the Sword/Shield team likes Drednaw a fair bit, having it pop up as an overworld Pokemon in multiple places and making it the signature Pokemon of the water-type gym leader.
While the game models don't quite emphasize Drednaw's neck, the dex notes that Drednaw's supposed to have a rapidly-extending neck with which it can surprise-chomp down on its enemies. G-Max Drednaw is... it stands up, and its shell sort of ends up in a neat little layout where it looks like a giant pair of jaws with a little head inside, which is an interesting visual for sure, but it's kind of just there. I really also don't like the weird spinning red smoke halo within Giga Drednaw's shell-jaws, because unlike Giga Corviknight or Giga Orbeetle above, it certainly doesn't look like it's integrated particularly well into the design of Giga Drednaw. It's definitely kinda awkward looking, even if there's a neat little Ultraman/Godzilla-enemy kaiju charm to a bipedal turtle-giant with little stumpy arms. I do like the little dex entry from Shield talking about how a Giga-Drednaw once broke down a mountain to stop a flood, which is pretty neat. I don't mind the whole line all that much, other than the fact that their knowing Rock Slide makes raid battles against them a bit of a nightmare and I got my save file stuck at a Giga Drednaw for a month or so because I'm a single player and the A.I. are doo-doo. Chewtle's a bit underwhelming, but Drednaw and Giga-Drednaw gets extra points because it really does look like a waddling Tokusatsu monster suit.
4/6 for the Drednaws. #835-836: Yamper & Boltund
Who is a good boy??? YES YOU ARE. Yamper is a big fat corgi dog and it's also an electric type and I feel it does a pretty great job at capturing everything that makes a corgi so appealing. I feel like there is perhaps maybe one too many detail on Yamper, but that is honestly kind of nitpicking. The body's fat and squat, I love the heart-shaped butt markings, and the addition of the olive marks on Yamper's ears is pretty neat. Throw in that perfect dumb-puppy look, those nub-feet and just how gosh-darned adorable Yamper is with its animation, and Yamper's honestly a pretty adorable buddy. It's no wonder they chose to make it a star in the new anime season, as I take it! Yamper's got an absolutely adorable ability, "Ball Fetch", where if you toss a Poke Ball and it misses its target, Yamper's going to quite literally fetch it for you, running to get it and retrieve it as a held item. Absolutely impractical and useless in battle, but what an adorable little detail!
I absolutely love just how much the pokedex establishes that, how like many cute puppies out there, Yamper's a hungry, gluttonous little shit who only helps humans out because it wants treats. As someone who has raised multiple small dogs, I can confirm that most of the time, that's pretty true! Also, like real corgis, Yampers are used as herding dogs in the Galar region, and there's even a minigame in one of the gyms in Sword/Shield that involves a Yamper herding a herd of Wooloo. That's cute!
6/6 for Yamper. A good boi!
Yamper evolves into Boltund, which I still like because I'm also someone who's raised bigger dogs... but I just really love how Yamper looks, y'know? We've got hound-like Pokemon in the past, but we didn't really quite have a corgi Pokemon before. Boltund is established to be a speedy, powerful hound with lots of stamina like real greyhounds, and considering how it's noted in some pokedex entries as being enemies with Thievul, presumably it's specifically based on the English Foxhound, originally bred specifically to hunt foxes by scent. Boltund is okay. He just doesn't wow me and made me go 'd'awww' the way Yamper does. The 3D model is a bit better, and I do love just how Boltund's fur rises in a row of spike-like protrusions when it uses its attacks, but I kinda wished that there's some uniformity between how its legs look. The front legs look like they're wearing socks thanks to the markings, whereas the ones on the rear look a bit more naturalistic. I kinda wished they were uniform.
Other than that, though, I like Boltund, and I really like Yamper. They're a bunch of good dogs.
4/6, but because Yamper and Boltund fetched the balls.
4/6, but because Yamper and Boltund fetched the balls. 
Starters this gen were a bit of a miss for me, which is a shame since I loved the G7 starters and came around to the G6 starters once I saw their final forms. Was sad to see the Sobble fans fall apart a fair bit once Inteleon was leaked. Oh well, atleast Snipe Shot and Pyro Ball have solid animations.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately have never had a problem forgetting the Skwovet+Greedent line, pretty sure mentioned before but abhor them. Feel like cereal mascots to me. Some people seem to like the chunkiness+berry stuff so good for them. Wonder whether Greedent or Watchog will be more remembered in a couple gens, Greedent has more going for it gameplay wise but Watchog has the eeeyes.
Rookidee's color scheme is sooooo nice. Would be dissapointed about it not being continued with the rest of the line if Corvi wasn't also sweet looking. As far as why the early birds only pure flying this time, maybe Rook/Squire just more of a longterm flying species hence why Corvi works so well as a taxi later? So they spend more time in sky then pure flying? Idk. Or GF didn't wanna confuse people like w Talonflame dropping normal typing for fire.
Really love Dottler's blinkies. Also neeever made the "orbitter" connection, bless you. for the knowledge.
Agree with the Gossifleur>Eldegoss take, get the latter confused w Jumpluff(and Whimsi) too much. Damn round grass types.
Kinda wish the Dubwool evolving into a wolf in sheep's clothing speculation had been true. Oh well.
Started off thinking Drednaw looked a loooooooot like a fan pokemon, but its grown on me.
Designs this gen do feel quite distinct from Gen 7 for better or worse. More cartoony generally with a dash of hyper angular on a few? Odd gen.
I think why the generation's starters felt off to me is that each generation's starter sets since Generation II tended to have a mixture between more anthro final forms (Blaziken, Delphox, Incineroar) and more beast-like final forms (the likes of Torterra, Primarina, Samurott, Swampert, Serperior, basically all the generation 1 starters) and final forms that are a bit more between both extremes. Whereas Generation 7 went in with making all the starters look super-humanoid, and then going a bit more in making Cinderace and Inteleon look more like just a human-in-a-suit. Plus Rillaboom is based on a monkey, so while he looks like his base animal, he also happens to really look like a human as well. Most starter sets tend to have some combination of a 'sleek-and-cool' one, a 'tough' one, a 'pretty' one to some degree, but the Gen VIII starters veer more towards a lot more of a combination between 'cool' and 'pretty', and even Rillaboom doesn't look as fierce as something like, oh, Samurott or Infernape. I dunno. I guess part of it is the artstyle, but the fact that there isn't much of a variation among the 'vibe' of the starters' final forms is probably what turned me off from the final forms of all three Galar starters.
DeletePlus there's also an argument that none of the Galar starters felt complete as 'final forms' because they were saving something for the Gigantamax forms in the DLC, but at the same time I've peeked at the G-max forms for the Galar starters and they're basically the same deign with extra accessories. I dunno. I think part of why I didn't like the Galar starters so much is that all the final forms don't even feel like they're connected to the original forms. Like, sure, Cinderace and Scorbunny are both fire-themed bunnies, but they don't look like they're part of the same evolutionary line, y'know? It really does feel like they're designed separately and then mooshed together and given similar colour schemes, and it doesn't really work.
The designs for this generation feel particularly distinct because, as far as I can gather, we got a lot of new blood from outside of Nintendo Japan in the creation of this game. A different art director, a different art team, and it's no surprise the artstyle feels so different. And that's good, sometimes, with so many Pokemon like the Frankenfossils or Duraludon or Eternatus or Mr. Rime being great variations on the Pokemon artstyle, and then you get things like Stonjurner or Eiscue that not necessarily everyone agrees with. It's kind of an odd generation, like you said -- a lot of the 'regular animal' Pokemon look particularly regular, and a lot of the particularly wacky Pokemon end up being particularly super wacky. I'm also not sure, the fact that they're saving a chunk of the Galar dex for the DLC might mean that the region feels a bit more complete when you view Generation VIII as a whole? We'll see.
I've thought about it a little and I think the thing that bothers me the most about Skwovet and Greedent are their huge constantly puffed-up cheeks? The fact that they are just there, static and unmoving and looking more like tumours instead of actual puffed-up cheeks really bothers me a lot about what would otherwise be an okay squirrel design. Watchog will always be more memorable to me, though. I don't particularly like that line, but at least I can kinda get what they were going for with the whole neon markings and creepy eyes.
Rookidee's entire line is just a winner, isn't it? Rookidee's such a solid design that I could see people very easily decrying it if we had gotten another Inteleon situation, but Corviknight is just such a clean design that I approve of all the popularity it's gotten.
DeleteGossifleur's thing is that its colour palette is so, so nice, and the specific shades used for it is just so different from anything we've gotten in the past 800+ Pokemon. Eldegoss is just... it's not an unpleasant design, but there's a fair bit of overlap with the two previous floating cotton-ball Pokemon. And sure, they're all technically different -- Jumpluff is a dandelion seed; Whimsicott is a cotton flower; Eldegoss is a windflower, but design-wise they're all just little sprite-fairies with a giant puff of wooly-fluff.
Dubwool and Chewtle are designs that I don't particularly care for when I first saw them, but that's why I give myself a couple of months before doing these things, to flush out the whole 'new things' excited vibe and give my opinions once they've fully settled in. Dubwool being a sheep-in-wolf's clothing would've been great, but I dunno, I never really kind of expected it? I expected Gogoat 2.0, because of how early Wooloo shows up in the game and Pokemon as a rule never does anything super-wacky for their early route creatures.