Okay, some of you guys might've already read part of it, but I decided to basically take the already-published "Isle of Armor" review segment that I did in early September and basically combine it with the new additions from the Crown Tundra. Considering that each of them had around less than 10 designs, I thought it'd work better -- particularly in comparison to the rest of the articles in the series -- as a single longer article. It'll also allow me to go back and give a bit of a revision to the Pokemon that I reviewed from the Isle of Armor.
These guys debuted in Isle of Armor: Kubfu, Urshifu, Zarude; Galarian variants of Slowpoke and Slowbro; Gigantamax Urshifu, Venusaur, Blastoise, Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon.
These guys debuted in Crown Tundra: Regieleki, Regidrago, Glastrier, Spectrier, Calyrex; Galarian versions of Slowking, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.
If any of you are interested, I've gone back and done a few slight revisions to the scores and writeups to the Galar Pokemon. Not too much, and there isn't any who had a full 180 or anything, but I felt like I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to some of them. Or maybe you never read them in the first place! In which case...
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So the star and basically the 'main character' of Isle of Armor's storyline is Kubfu, a pure-Fighting-type little kung-fu bear. Honestly it's still kind of weird to me how the whole Isle of Armor vibe is. The location is (if we're using real-world terms) an island off the coast of Britain, but it's Chinese-themed with pagodas for some reason? Still, I really do like that they did actually try and have a companion Pokemon that you hang around and train to help you become stronger. Now, cards on the table -- I didn't care for Kubfu at all the first time I saw it. Sure, it's a kung-fu bear and all... but we've had this sort of concept a lot of times in Pokemon. And the fact that this little not-very-impressive-looking bear is somehow also a Legendary Pokemon did rub me the wrong way.
Unlike most evolutions, Kubfu's evolution depends on whether you, the trainer, brings Kubfu to one of two towers. It's thematic to the whole martial arts thing, but I really wished that they had some actual distinction between the two forms of its final evolution, Urshifu. Because... well, other than the shape of the headband and their Gigantamax forms, they look basically identical. Their typings, however, aren't. Single-Strike Urshifu has a trailing headband and is Fighting/Dark, whereas Rapid-Strike Urshifu has weird pigtails and is Water/Dark.
Then we have the Gigantamax forms. The two Urshifu forms have near-identical base forms but gets different-looking Giga forms, with Single Strike being white with red accents and Rapid Strike being white with blue accents. I also appreciate the official Sugimori art showing the personality of these two. Single Strike is angry and explosive, while Rapid Strike is calm and doing a 'be like water my friend' pose. I also really like that the hair of Giga-Rapid-Strike Urshifu is flowing down around his arms, that's pretty cool.
2/6. Would be easily 1/6 without the DLC story.
The star of his own movie, Zarude is a legendary forest monkey creature! Essentially the equivalent to event-exclusive Pokemon like Mew or Jirachi, Zarude is... an interesting one? He's not a cute-looking pixie thing, but a very, very feral-looking monkey monster with a set of toad-like feet and extremely clawed hands. He's also got some yoga arm warmers for some reason, too -- which, based on the Pokedex description, turn out to be vines wrapped around his arms that he uses Whiplash-style to beat up anyone who intrudes into his territory. Again, I've never been the biggest fan of simians in general, but Zarude does look pretty cool! By simple process of elimination, I guess he's my favourite monkey Pokemon? Those fur markings that resemble a ribcage are perhaps my favourite part of his design. Interestingly, despite being a fierce-looking Dark-type monkey... Zarude's unique ability is 'Forest Healing', where he unwinds those vines on his arms to heal people with energy from trees. I like the subversion.
3/6.
4/6.
3/6.
3/6.
5/6.
Speaking of a well-executed 'legendary'... Calyrex! A good chunk of the Crown Tundra's storyline revolves around the little old town of Freezington, and the ancient legends surrounding the "King of Bountiful Harvests", an ancient and powerful Pokemon king that once made the Crown Tundra a lush and beautiful series of farmlands and even had a castle erected in its honour. But it's all just stories... until, of course, your character finds the enigmatic Calyrex, who claims that he was said King of Bountiful Harvests, but somehow, somewhere down the line, the humans stopped believing in him and that causes him to lose his powers. The fine points of how this legend really makes sense is a bit... questionable (how did Calyrex help the humans the first time if he needs their belief? How did a literal magic god-fairy cause humanity to somehow lose faith in him? etc) but I really do like the sheer awesome demigod/nature god vibe to this storyline. Even moreso because Calyrex is probably the first Pokemon to actually speak to you telepathically in the main-series games. Sure, speaking (or telepathic) Pokemon has been around since forever in the cartoon, manga and other assorted side-games, but unless I'm missing one of those exclusive event Pokemon, Calyrex is probably the first one to actually be a main character in the story that interacts with you.
3/6 overall, thanks to the story. Its design is probably just 1, if we're being honest.
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#891-892: Kubfu, Urshifu & Gigantamax Urshifu
So the star and basically the 'main character' of Isle of Armor's storyline is Kubfu, a pure-Fighting-type little kung-fu bear. Honestly it's still kind of weird to me how the whole Isle of Armor vibe is. The location is (if we're using real-world terms) an island off the coast of Britain, but it's Chinese-themed with pagodas for some reason? Still, I really do like that they did actually try and have a companion Pokemon that you hang around and train to help you become stronger. Now, cards on the table -- I didn't care for Kubfu at all the first time I saw it. Sure, it's a kung-fu bear and all... but we've had this sort of concept a lot of times in Pokemon. And the fact that this little not-very-impressive-looking bear is somehow also a Legendary Pokemon did rub me the wrong way.
However... playing through the Isle of Armor storyline, I can't not like Kubfu. It won't be making any top ten or top fifty favourite Pokemon list for sure, but that is sure a lot more of an opinion than I used to have on Kubfu. The design itself is yet another one that works a lot better in motion, with Kubfu's weird dot-fingers and eyebrows really translating well into its CGI model. Design-wise, there's honestly nothing too spectacular, it's a cartoon bear with fur shaped like a headband. At least, unlike Throh and Sawk, the headband is clearly part of its anatomy. Interestingly, both the Pokedex and in-game NPC's note that Kubfu hails from a distant land. Poke-China for the next generation, perhaps?
Unlike most evolutions, Kubfu's evolution depends on whether you, the trainer, brings Kubfu to one of two towers. It's thematic to the whole martial arts thing, but I really wished that they had some actual distinction between the two forms of its final evolution, Urshifu. Because... well, other than the shape of the headband and their Gigantamax forms, they look basically identical. Their typings, however, aren't. Single-Strike Urshifu has a trailing headband and is Fighting/Dark, whereas Rapid-Strike Urshifu has weird pigtails and is Water/Dark.
Their names are pretty descriptive, Single-Strike focuses all its power into a One-Punch Man style punch, which is... somehow 'dark' and underhanded? Eh. Multi-Strike is a lot more thematic, going through a 'be like water' motion to flow like the river and strike at the enemy many times. I like the concept of training to achieve full mastery in a type of martial arts, but I really wished that they had been a lot more flavourful in the design. As it is, both Urshifus look pretty much near-identical. I have no real complaints about the two of them. Like Kubfu, they're both pretty bland in their 2D artworks, but a lot more fun and dynamic when you see their 3D models move.
Then we have the Gigantamax forms. The two Urshifu forms have near-identical base forms but gets different-looking Giga forms, with Single Strike being white with red accents and Rapid Strike being white with blue accents. I also appreciate the official Sugimori art showing the personality of these two. Single Strike is angry and explosive, while Rapid Strike is calm and doing a 'be like water my friend' pose. I also really like that the hair of Giga-Rapid-Strike Urshifu is flowing down around his arms, that's pretty cool.
If I was designing this thing I probably wouldn't have bothered with so many random forms thrown in, but at least they made Kubfu and Urshifu feel special. Their prominence in the DLC story made me not hate them and remember them, but they're still designs that I find pretty underwhelming. I could feel the effort and I don't hate them, but they're certainly a neat effort.
2/6. Would be easily 1/6 without the DLC story. The star of his own movie, Zarude is a legendary forest monkey creature! Essentially the equivalent to event-exclusive Pokemon like Mew or Jirachi, Zarude is... an interesting one? He's not a cute-looking pixie thing, but a very, very feral-looking monkey monster with a set of toad-like feet and extremely clawed hands. He's also got some yoga arm warmers for some reason, too -- which, based on the Pokedex description, turn out to be vines wrapped around his arms that he uses Whiplash-style to beat up anyone who intrudes into his territory. Again, I've never been the biggest fan of simians in general, but Zarude does look pretty cool! By simple process of elimination, I guess he's my favourite monkey Pokemon? Those fur markings that resemble a ribcage are perhaps my favourite part of his design. Interestingly, despite being a fierce-looking Dark-type monkey... Zarude's unique ability is 'Forest Healing', where he unwinds those vines on his arms to heal people with energy from trees. I like the subversion.
He's an angry, aggressive monkey who's actually kind of a softie, adopting children and healing others. A special version of Zarude, "Dada Zarude", has a pink scarf and is explicitly based on the Zarude in the movie. It's got a unique model and a unique pokedex entry in the game and everything. Okay, sure? It's also yet another legendary/mythical Pokemon that's explicitly noted to live in large packs, so yeah, I guess at this point legendary and mythical is more about the status of the Pokemon as far as Nintendo views them moreso than an in-universe label.
3/6.#894-895: Regieleki & Regidrago
So in probably one of the more unexpected moves, the Crown Tundra added more than just its 'star' attraction legendary, Calyrex, but had a lot of focus around variants of older legendaries, too. And something I never expect we would get in 2020, more than ten years after their debut, are two new members to the Regi family! And just like their 'elder' siblings, the two new Regis added into the eighth generation are utterly weirdos. You only get to choose one in the 'Split Decision Temple' after tracking and catching the three Regis that were originally from Hoenn, and Regieleki here is the one I chose. He's... he's not actually very impressive in the official artwork, but when I saw him in motion? Again, Regieleki is another creature that works so well in motion when you see him bounce around on that utterly tiny set of lightning-bolt feet, bouncing up and down like an overly excited child, and those huge weird bulky arms? They are actually long fingers shaped like (or are) lightning bolts, and its animation has it open its large bulbous fingers. Its attack is even a very flavourful one called "Thunder Cage", which, well, is a cage made out of electricity.
One of the thing I loved the best about the original three Regis is that Regirock, Regice and Registeel all look so different aesthetically, but somehow look part of a set. Despite being spread apart over years, Regieleki and his twin Regidrago also manage to fit in the aesthetic, although I'd argue that Rgeieleki fits a bit better. Huge arms attached to a huge head-body, and teeny-tiny feet? Also, those Tesla-coil-looking blue rings around Regieleki's shoulders and lower body are actually some sort of seal that locks Regieleki's body in place, whereas the center of Regieleki is apparently an 'organ' that generates electricity. What a strange concept for a golem monster, feeling actually pretty fresh. I'm not sure how to quantify it, but this being of elemental energy really does feel somehow like it is part of the set of the 'golem of rock, golem of ice, golem of steel', while also feeling like a fresh take.
4/6.So what's the final Regi golem, then? A Grass-type golem of wood? A ground-type golem of mud? A fire-type golem of lava? Some sort of fantasy RPG 'elemental' like Regice or Regieleki made out of poison or sand or water or wind? None of the above. Catching probably everyone who speculated on future Regis off-guard is Regidrago, which... yeah, no one expected that, I can say for sure. A pure-Dragon type, Regidrago does kinda-sorta fit in the same art style of being a giant golem with a huge head-body, two large arms and two stumpy legs, but at the same time... what the hell! Its two arms are just the two jaws of a giant skull dragon, ever-so-slightly resembling something like a Charizard with extra nose spikes. Utterly bizarre! The dex entries don't really help in explaining what exactly this "Dragon Orb" Pokemon is meant to be, noting that it's apparently theorized to be 'once the head of an ancient dragon' and that the body is comprised of 'crystallized dragon energy', whatever that means, and that Regidrago has 'the powers of every dragon pokemon'. Some sources even claim that apparently Regidrago here got sealed before Regigigas was able to make a full body for it. Neat!
Most certainly one of the weirder things to come out of the expansion or of the eighth generation in general, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's so weird, for sure, and I do love that its animation for its signature "Dragon Energy" move has him spin around and basically turn into a giant dragon skull that unleashes a beam. And, well, Asian dragons are associated with holding orbs of power. It kinda reminds me of Necrozma, huh? Which is also a pair of assorted dragon body parts. It's just that... I dunno. I really don't find this design super-duper appealing? I don't mind it, but I don't really like it the way I do the other four Regis.
3/6.#896-897: Glastrier & Spectrier
One of my favourite parts of playing through the Crown Tundra is finding out that I've got two entire Legendary Pokemon that was unspoiled for me, and it's another one that the DLC allows the players to choose. You basically get one out of two choices for a horse legendary, and unlike Latias/Latios or the two Urshifu forms, it's not just colours that are different but the entire appearance of the horsies themselves. The first one in the dex is Glastrier, who is the ice-type steed, and it's very, very cool (heh). It's been a while since we've gotten an animal-themed Legendary Pokemon that's just... an impressive looking animal with some elemental decals, you know?
The most impressive thing is that how much they managed to fit in what's essentially 'horse with ice instead of hair'. Or, well, a unicorn, I guess. The icicles are neatly put all around its mane, tail and around its legs like armour, and I love that the ice has basically encroached around the left side of its face, making the left side of its face look eyeless. It's got a regular eye on the right side of the face (apparently 100 times harder than diamond, according to the Pokedex), though -- and it's a great contrast to its twin, Spectrier. Glastrier also has one of the most impressive looking signature moves ever, freezing the enemy, then creating a giant spear of ice to stab them.
Both Glastrier and Spectrier basically are introduced in a Schrödinger's cat choice, where Calyrex has an ancient steed, but rumours are so unreliable that it could be either one. Glastrier and Spectrier both have the same backstory, they are giant rowdy monsters that actually menaced the populace, wiping out their crops and scaring the villagers until Calyrex tamed it and turned it into its partner and steed. Very cool, you very seldom see horse monsters actually portrayed as actually being scary.
That said, Glastrier itself is... kind of boring? I kind of like to mock some of the older legendaries for being too complicated, and I realize that as I'm typing this sentence, but on the other hand Glastrier feels like it's just one detail off from actually feeling like a proper legendary instead of just like an ice-type Galar Rapidash. Maybe not something as obvious like icy wings, but I felt like they could've done a bit more with the horns or tail.
3/6.Of course, I didn't choose Glastrier, as much as I wanted to. This was actually one of the harder choices I had to make in the Sword/Shield DLC's, because I prefer Regieleki so much over Regidrago, while the two Urshifu choices had me going 'haha fuck I don't care'. I really, really do like Glastrier, but eventually my inner Ghost-type fanboy won out and I picked Spectrier. And... look at this thing. It's a Ghost-type, but both Glastrier and Spectrier are basically sort of embodiments for forces that could wipe out crops, huh? the very same thing that Calyrex protects the villagers against? Glastrier represents the winter that kills the crops, while Spectrier is the actual 'death' of the vegetation itself? Neat.
Spectrier's a bit more fancier, and for a moment I thought that it's just a jet-black horse with a nice set of mane and tail that looks like bubblegum-flavoured cotton candy. Which would be enough to make me like it, but the more I look at the model, the more I really, really like Spectrier! Its 'hair' covers the right side of its face like armour plating, but the left eye isn't so much and eye but more of a set of eyelashes. The dex notes that it doesn't even use the sense of sight, which is neatly spooky! Perhaps the coolest part of Spectrier, however, is the fact that its hooves are separated from its legs, which is such a small detail but adds so much flavour in making him a 'ghost horse' instead of just giving him black colours and calling it a day. Really love the shadowy flames that trail off the back hooves, and kudos to whoever at Gamefreak had the restraint to not give Glastrier and Spectrier the too-obvious pegasus wings.
Spectrier's dex entries are both pretty spooky, and really does highlight him as some sort of eldritch nightmare (heh, mare) horse. Its kicks can 'separate soul from body', and judging by how its hooves are already separated from the body, I'll believe that. And as it dashes through the night, Spectrier can apparently absorb the life-force of sleeping creatures. I'm not sure if there's any sort of specific horse in mythology and legends that this is drawing from, but these two horses certainly do feel more like a true legendary since they actually, y'know, have legends!
5/6.#898: Calyrex
Speaking of a well-executed 'legendary'... Calyrex! A good chunk of the Crown Tundra's storyline revolves around the little old town of Freezington, and the ancient legends surrounding the "King of Bountiful Harvests", an ancient and powerful Pokemon king that once made the Crown Tundra a lush and beautiful series of farmlands and even had a castle erected in its honour. But it's all just stories... until, of course, your character finds the enigmatic Calyrex, who claims that he was said King of Bountiful Harvests, but somehow, somewhere down the line, the humans stopped believing in him and that causes him to lose his powers. The fine points of how this legend really makes sense is a bit... questionable (how did Calyrex help the humans the first time if he needs their belief? How did a literal magic god-fairy cause humanity to somehow lose faith in him? etc) but I really do like the sheer awesome demigod/nature god vibe to this storyline. Even moreso because Calyrex is probably the first Pokemon to actually speak to you telepathically in the main-series games. Sure, speaking (or telepathic) Pokemon has been around since forever in the cartoon, manga and other assorted side-games, but unless I'm missing one of those exclusive event Pokemon, Calyrex is probably the first one to actually be a main character in the story that interacts with you.
His design is... interesting. I hated it when we first got the brief glimpse of it in the DLC trailers, but I've warmed up to it a lot, and realized that everything I disliked about it -- its eeriness and how wrong it looks -- is intentional on the part of the designers to depict some sort of unearthly nature spirit. Now Calyrex is Grass/Psychic... and I kind of get the 'Grass' part (it's the king of harvests, after all) but I kinda felt like the vibes surrounding this creature is very heavily Fairy-type? I guess it does prominently use his psychic powers a lot, so eh.
Not the biggest fan of its 'crown', although I will concede that it immediately does give him a bizarre, unique silhouette. I like its horns, at least. Its face is something that most people see as a 'deer', but I've also equally seen people call it a hare, or something that's meant to be a wolpertinger... it's a mysterious fairy-like nature spirit, and I feel like it should look like some sort of nondescript creature. Its super-long tapering legs, the leaves that form a 'cape' and its face are all well done! Probably the only thing that I don't like that much are the beads around its neck. Not that the beads themselves are terrible, because they do fit into the design... but the Zelda Triforce symbols are very distracting.
Throughout the story, as Calyrex's story revolves around it trying to find out what happened to him and his trusty steed, you craft a plot device ccalled the 'Reins of Unity' and Calyrex would later reclaim his steed... and fuse with it. Fusion is still a somewhat controversial topic in Pokemon that keeps showing up generation after generation, although the previous two that could do it (Kyurem and Necrozma) had a hint of sci-fi absorption to them. Calyrex just rides his horse, and this is called the "Ice Rider" and "Shadow Rider" forms. In these forms Calyrex keeps his Psychic type and gains the mono-type of his steed, and they even share abilities!
Not a whole ton to say here, since it's just one Pokemon riding another one -- it's almost stupid that this counts as alternate forms or whatever. I wasn't particularly hyped by the DLC build-up, but apparently there was a decent amount of speculation that Calyrex's alternate form would be him going from a 'fallen king' to a true form. Nope, he just rides his horse buddy. That's kinda a funny subversion, but I really wished that there was some change beyond the cape.
Still, I definitely prefer him so much more that Kubfu and Urshifu. He went from probably my least favourite design in the DLC into probably somewhere around the 3.5 benchmark total thanks to all the lore surrounding him in-game as well as the actually well-done story and mood crafted around him. Design-wise Calyrex honestly does feel like an odd disappointment, but I will give the points for the actually well-done story they crafted out of this weirdo.
3/6 overall, thanks to the story. Its design is probably just 1, if we're being honest.
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Time for new regional variants and Gigantamax forms! I thought about folding these back into the previous Gigantamax/regional variant page, but eh, I guess I'll do all the DLC stuff on this page.
And that's it for the new Pokemon. Not so for new Pokemon designs, though, because as usual for these new games we get a bunch of extra regional forms and super-forms. Galarian Slowpoke here was released earlier than the others as a bit of a preview event and... it's not that much more different than Slowpoke, yeah? All they added was a bit of yellow on the tip of the tail and the head, plus some ridges. Apparently this means that Galarian Slowpoke keeps getting compared to curry (ooookay?) and it's a pure Psychic type instead of being Water/Psychic as before. Unlike most of the other regional forms there really isn't any proper reason why this is so. Slowpoke's dex entries still talks about the same things as regular Slowpoke, and even in the game Galarian Slowpoke still hangs out near beaches. I dunno. Making it pure-Psychic is neat but there isn't even an attempt to give us a reason, y'know?
Galarian Slowbro, on the other hand, is significantly more derivative boring than its pre-evolution. The pink-and-purple colouration is pretty cool (and reminds me of ice cream) but in Galar, instead of clamping on a Slowpoke's tail, the Shellders bite down on Slowbro's arm. This ends up causing a chain reaction with all the spices that Galarian Slowpoke eats (I still don't get the obsession with curry), turning Slowbro into a Psychic/Poison Pokemon. We've actually been told many times over the past generations that Slowbro and Slowking get more powerful because of toxins that Shellder secretes, so having a version of Slowbro that can actually weaponize said toxins is pretty cool.
4/6 as a set.
4/6 for Galarian Articuno.
Galarian Zapdos, a.k.a. the Road Runner, is my favourite of the three. Based on some sort of ratite at the very least, Galarian Zapdos will lead you on a fun, merry chase around Galar's wild area. It's the Road Runner, and you're Wile E. Coyote! It's probably one of the most unexpected and best reimaginations of the iconic thunderbird Pokemon ever, and I absolutely love how all of Zapdos's spiky wings and feathers are arranged to proportionally fit what a ratite bird would have in the first place. Huge legs, small, tiny wings, long neck... and, most importantly, huge big-ass cassowary legs. Galarian Zapdos did not skip leg day.
6/6 for Galarian Zapdos.
The final member of the trio, as always, is Moltres. And while Articuno's psychic powers can be an explanation for its ability to freeze people in place and Zapdos has lightning bolt trails because of the laws of anime action; Galarian Moltres is Dark/Flying. The flames on him? The dex straight-up just calls it a 'sinister aura', and an NPC also explicitly says that it's not hot to the touch. That's right, all the flames on "Fire" here is just an anime-esque evil menacing aura. I'm not even mad, that's hilarious. The flame-like aura is apparently used to "consume the spirit of any creature it hits, which become burned-out shadows of themselves", because holy fuck Moltres doesn't fuck around.
5/6 for Galarian Moltres.
Isle of Armor finally does the other starters justice after being all about but good ol' marketable Charizard. Now the fandom can complain that Sword/Shield is all about good ol' marketable Kanto! No, seriously, Gamefreak, give Typhlosion or Torterra or Samurott or Delphox something.
6/6. There is a bit of a bias here but let me have this.
On the other hand, Giga Blastoise is also pretty cool! Just like Mega Blastoise, Giga Blastoise's design focuses a lot on the cannons that made Blastoise so distinctive. Instead of adding extra cannons on his hands, they instead turn Blastoise's entire shell into basically its own battleship. And... again, that's pretty fucking cool. A whole mountain with lots of tiny turrets pointing upwards and sideways? The pokedex notes that because of this (and probably because Blastoise can't actually see where he's pointing at) Giga Blastoise is terrible at precision shooting... but since it's, y'know, got the armament of a small military base on its back, do you even really care?
5/6.
3/6.
Mmmm, okay, that's kinda cool, actually! Particularly in motion -- the games and the brief shots of this thing in the anime makes a giant rabbit man riding a giant grinning fireball with a face look pretty awesome. It's gimmicky as all hell, but at least it's not boring in the way that Cinderace was.
2/6. Bonus ball for the cute bunny face fireball.
2/6.
#079-080; 199: Galarian Slowpoke, Slowbro & Slowking
And that's it for the new Pokemon. Not so for new Pokemon designs, though, because as usual for these new games we get a bunch of extra regional forms and super-forms. Galarian Slowpoke here was released earlier than the others as a bit of a preview event and... it's not that much more different than Slowpoke, yeah? All they added was a bit of yellow on the tip of the tail and the head, plus some ridges. Apparently this means that Galarian Slowpoke keeps getting compared to curry (ooookay?) and it's a pure Psychic type instead of being Water/Psychic as before. Unlike most of the other regional forms there really isn't any proper reason why this is so. Slowpoke's dex entries still talks about the same things as regular Slowpoke, and even in the game Galarian Slowpoke still hangs out near beaches. I dunno. Making it pure-Psychic is neat but there isn't even an attempt to give us a reason, y'know?
Galarian Slowbro, on the other hand, is significantly more derivative boring than its pre-evolution. The pink-and-purple colouration is pretty cool (and reminds me of ice cream) but in Galar, instead of clamping on a Slowpoke's tail, the Shellders bite down on Slowbro's arm. This ends up causing a chain reaction with all the spices that Galarian Slowpoke eats (I still don't get the obsession with curry), turning Slowbro into a Psychic/Poison Pokemon. We've actually been told many times over the past generations that Slowbro and Slowking get more powerful because of toxins that Shellder secretes, so having a version of Slowbro that can actually weaponize said toxins is pretty cool.
Also, the spiral-shaped Shellder looks somewhat different from the version we saw in regular Slowbro and Slowking, and Galarian Slowbro uses this as his personal Megaman style arm-cannon. The pokedex notes that Slowbro will squeeze the tongue of the Shellder on its arm to get the Shellder to launch their poison attacks. Honestly, that's a pretty cool take and ends up giving Galarian Slowbro a pretty cool cannon arm. Perhaps not what we expected, but a very welcome addition. Really love the pink/purple colouration, too.
While Slowpoke and Slowbro debuted in the Isle of Armor, the item needed to evolve Galarian Slowpoke into Slowking is from the Crown Tundra, turning him into the "Hexpert" Pokemon Slowking. And... it's a weirdo for sure. The base Slowbro/Slowking body is still similar, and that includes the fun purple/pink colours, but here the Shellder on top of Slowking's head is a lot more sinister. It's taken over the entirety of Slowking's head, and the two angry eyes are now in front of the body. I also do like that the little regal collar on original Slowking is now some sort of a nice witch poncho-cape thing. This form is also Poison/Psychic (the pokedex clarifies the 'poison' part as being based on a witch making concoctions and potions)... but I really didn't care for this form until I saw it in-game. Galarian Slowking... is always on the verge of teetering and losing its balance, and this is because the entire body is being puppeteered by the Shellder crown, similar to the sinister machinations of the fungus on top of a Parasect! I'm actually not the biggest fan of Galarian Slowking, still, but it's different and memorable, at least.
4/6 as a set. #144-146: Galarian Articuno, Zapdos & Moltres
Three more Galarian forms show up, these ones being regional variants of the Kanto birds! There's a bit of a conflict going on in-universe, with one of the major NPC's going "wait, this isn't the Articuno/Zapdos/Molters I was thinking of, but I guess they're similar enough", and the Pokedex entries seem to lampshade that these three 'impostors' have very, very similar aesthetics to Kanto's birds of frost, lightning and flame, yet the similarities are only physical since they all have different typings. Are they just birds that coincidentally look identical to the Kantonian birds, and thus cause the researchers to give them identical names? Or are they simply a set of the Kanto birds who have migrated to Galar and transformed to adapt there? I think way too much about these sort of questions.
Galarian Articuno is Psychic/Flying, for one. Regular Articuno has always been the fanciest looking of the three, and Galarian Articuno went just a bit more over-the-top with designing this. In flight, Galarian Articuno flies like a regular bird, but when it's hovering next to you it poses like some sort of royalty, putting its massive wings like long sleeves. The fact that both Articunos have that nice, long tail also helps, in addition to the posh masquerade ball mask with Cyclops visor-eye-slits on them. Again, Galarian Articuno keeps all of the anatomy of Articuno intact, but reimagines them with a different style. In a little easter egg to their original inspirations, while attacking parts of their feathers will glow in the same colouration as their Kanto counterparts.
The 'cruel' Galarian Articuno has a particularly memorable little minigame when you chase him, where he'll split apart into three illusory clones to test you, and its signature move, "Freezing Glare", unleashes an awesome-looking psychic beam that can 'freeze' you in place. The Shield entry notes that this is why it is named 'Articuno', which makes a bit more sense when you remember that Articuno's Japanese name is 'Freezer'. He's cool, but he's my least favourite of the three... but it's three very good designs, so that's not a knock against Articuno.
4/6 for Galarian Articuno. Galarian Zapdos, a.k.a. the Road Runner, is my favourite of the three. Based on some sort of ratite at the very least, Galarian Zapdos will lead you on a fun, merry chase around Galar's wild area. It's the Road Runner, and you're Wile E. Coyote! It's probably one of the most unexpected and best reimaginations of the iconic thunderbird Pokemon ever, and I absolutely love how all of Zapdos's spiky wings and feathers are arranged to proportionally fit what a ratite bird would have in the first place. Huge legs, small, tiny wings, long neck... and, most importantly, huge big-ass cassowary legs. Galarian Zapdos did not skip leg day.
Interestingly, Galarian Zapdos is Fighting/Flying, because it has powerful muscles on its legs that aid it in jumping and kicking -- it's signature 'Thunderous Kick' move has him jump in the air and do a Kamen Rider dropkick while leaving an anime lightning trail behind it, which is like, the most awesome thing ever. It can canonically kick a dump truck with a single kick, and anyone who's met one of these giant running birds will know that they must be treated with respect. We even get a neat explanation of why it's called 'Zapdos' (or Thunder in the original Japanese), it's because when its feathers rub together, they make a sound like electricity. I would totally believe that if that's the case, when Galarian Zapdos beep-beep runs through the plains, it'd sound like a booming thunderclap.
I didn't think much of this, but the colours, the animation, the fresh take on the concept and the fact that they managed to preserve everything about Zapdos while making him be so different makes him my favourite Galarian legendary bird, if not my favourite regional variant.
6/6 for Galarian Zapdos.The final member of the trio, as always, is Moltres. And while Articuno's psychic powers can be an explanation for its ability to freeze people in place and Zapdos has lightning bolt trails because of the laws of anime action; Galarian Moltres is Dark/Flying. The flames on him? The dex straight-up just calls it a 'sinister aura', and an NPC also explicitly says that it's not hot to the touch. That's right, all the flames on "Fire" here is just an anime-esque evil menacing aura. I'm not even mad, that's hilarious. The flame-like aura is apparently used to "consume the spirit of any creature it hits, which become burned-out shadows of themselves", because holy fuck Moltres doesn't fuck around.
He's probably the one that changes the least from his original inspiration, but the black and bright pink-red shades used really gives Galarian Moltres a very fresh look. Throw in the two tails, and the change to the face -- the curved beak and the more sinister looking eyes does really sell that this is a nasty, mean-spirited Dark-type monster. Overall I like G-Moltres a bit more than G-Articuno. A solid design. I am actually very pleasantly pleased with all three new legendary birds and the two horses, it's been a while since we've got these legendary Pokemon that has the combination of feeling legendary and also not over-cluttered.
5/6 for Galarian Moltres. #003: Gigantamax Venusaur
Isle of Armor finally does the other starters justice after being all about but good ol' marketable Charizard. Now the fandom can complain that Sword/Shield is all about good ol' marketable Kanto! No, seriously, Gamefreak, give Typhlosion or Torterra or Samurott or Delphox something.
Still, the Generation I starters in particular, are always designs that lends itself very, very well into a giant, kaiju-sized form. I've always found that Mega Venusaur was more than a little disappointing and messy... but Gigantamax Venusaur, on the other hand? The fact that they turned Venusaur's huge pink flower into this creepy, somewhat-fleshy mushroom cap that covers its entire body is actually very cool, and that shadow cast over Giga Venusaur's face looks downright sinister. That's pretty neat. Also, while the vines have always been prominent in the Bulbasaur line's animations thanks to the anime, Giga Venusaur is the first to almost permanently show off the vines in its 'default' state, and the vines are apparently able to topple 10-story-buildings. I'm not going to lie, I actually like Giga Venusaur a whole ton. It's the 'more monstrous giant plant' Venusaur design I always wished Mega Venusaur was.
6/6. There is a bit of a bias here but let me have this. #009: Gigantamax Blastoise
On the other hand, Giga Blastoise is also pretty cool! Just like Mega Blastoise, Giga Blastoise's design focuses a lot on the cannons that made Blastoise so distinctive. Instead of adding extra cannons on his hands, they instead turn Blastoise's entire shell into basically its own battleship. And... again, that's pretty fucking cool. A whole mountain with lots of tiny turrets pointing upwards and sideways? The pokedex notes that because of this (and probably because Blastoise can't actually see where he's pointing at) Giga Blastoise is terrible at precision shooting... but since it's, y'know, got the armament of a small military base on its back, do you even really care?
I don't think I like it as much as I did Giga Venusaur, but it's still cool and it does something different to the design. Again, shame about the Kanto favouritism (and I still don't like G-max as an in-game mechanic), but I have to admit that they're definitely making a great series of giga forms for them.
5/6.#812: Gigantamax Rillaboom
One of the biggest complaints I had about Generation VI is that their starters never got mega evolutions... when the Generation I and III starters got them. Generation VII's starters got unique Z-moves, which is the gimmick of that generation... and Generation VIII's starters very nearly skipped out on having Giga forms. Isle of Armor fixed that!
Yeah, at least two of the three Galar starters did feel incomplete, but on the other hand... I dunno. Giga Rillaboom is awesome looking. It's a gorilla whose little stump-drum has evolved into a full drum set complete with cymbals and stuff. I like that he uses his vine-hairs to hold drumsticks and play them... but the running theme among the three Galarian starters is that their 'true' bodies stay the same while their accessories become gigantic. Honestly, the more I look at this design the more I like it, from the hair-vines to the cymbals to everything. It's honestly not my thing, but I can totally get to see why someone would love this.
3/6.#815: Gigantamax Cinderace
Mmmm, okay, that's kinda cool, actually! Particularly in motion -- the games and the brief shots of this thing in the anime makes a giant rabbit man riding a giant grinning fireball with a face look pretty awesome. It's gimmicky as all hell, but at least it's not boring in the way that Cinderace was.
I almost wish that the ball of flame had bunny ears too, but I get that this is more of the 'soccer' part of Cinderace's design. It definitely deserves an improvement in score compared to its original form, and goes a long way at making Cinderace feel more like a Pokemon instead of just a generic bunny-man. I still think Cinderace is my least favourite Galarian starter (and probably my least favourite starter final form full stop) but this giant soccer ball with a grin is very fun.
2/6. Bonus ball for the cute bunny face fireball. #818: Gigantamax Inteleon
And... good ol' messy Inteleon, the starter that I picked and I really didn't like. I actually find this Gigantamax form to be pretty creative, if, again, somewhat messy like Inteleon himself is. His tail gets the bulk of the gigantamax energy, and it just coils up into the sky and forms a little sniper's nest for the main Inteleon body to hang out on. And he's holding a sniper rifle made entirely out of water (even if it's not clear in the artwork). I feel like it's a pretty neat evolution of concepts, all things considered, going from a lizard-person who snipes with his fingers to a lizard-person who creates a sniper rifle out of water and uses it to blast people from afar.
We also only see it very briefly when Inteleon first Gigantamaxes, but we get to see Giga Inteleon in not a sniper's-nest position, just standing with a giant tail lashing all over the place before it becomes rigid for Inteleon to perch on. It's... it's still not my thing, and Inteleon overall still feels like so many different concepts that are smooshed together into a single package. This form makes it a lot less boring, but it's still kinda messy. I'll give it a neutral 2, though, becuase the addition of this to the package does make it feel a lot less boring.
2/6.____________________________________
That's it for now! Unless we've got an extra mythic legendary or two (which I'll retroactively add into this page the way I did with Meltan and Zeraora) see you guys for generation nine! see you guys for the surprise new game with a bunch of new forms in Generation Eight: Pokemon Legends Arceus!
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