Reviewing Fanmade Pokemon: Quarantine Crystal, Part 2

Part two of my review of the fan-game Quarantine Crystal! If you guys missed the first portion of this, it's a review of the fan-made rom-hack Pokemon game Quarantine Crystal, where the creators of the game replaced the 251 Pokemon with brand-new ones. 

The screenshots of every single Pokemon in that fan-game is provided by the amazing Heckbot. Also, additional thanks to MrKyurem, one of the actual creators of the game, who provided some additional updated sprites!

I've only played a little of the fan-game itself, and for the most part I'm guessing on what things like types are. So far it's been amazing! The previous 50 fan-made Pokemon I've reviewed had included a lot of stuff that I liked, like a parasitic wasp line, a drill rock squid, a literal fruit bat, a goose barnacle goose, an asbestos rock spider and a walking mesa among others. Let's see if this one has any contenders for my favourite Quarantine Crystal Fanmade Pokemon...

...and we start off with something that I already consider my favourite, an animal that I really think is a matter of time before it got made into a Pokemon. The ever-terrifying Bobbit Worm! And honestly, I really do think that if Pokemon ever made a Bobbit Worm, they would probably do something along these lines? Eunice aphroditois is an utterly alien-looking creature that... sure, it's basically a large worm that hunts fishes, but its colours, size and the sheer badassery of its giant trap-jaw mouth really makes it so alien. Seriously, google videos about the Bobbit Worm out there and come back here. I'll wait. 

Now back to Bobbite here. I don't think real Bobbit worms actually use lures -- although some would argue that part of its head that pops out of the sand might be intended as one. I absolutely love the idea of this, though, that the Bobbite has an anglerfish-esque lure that ends in a Pokeball, and it just bursts out of the sand to bite at potential prey. Presumably, this is the Voltorb/Foongus equivalent of the region, and I am all for it. 

It then evolves into a much, much larger predator. Presuming that the tongue-lure Pokeball is still of the same size, Bobbitrap is probably just about the right size to prey on humans! And it's not that big to swallow humans whole, I don't think, so there's a fair amount of rending and maiming going on that causes 'unwary explorers' to, well, not emerge from the crevasses where Bobbitraps hang out in. Yeah, all those ten-year-olds running around in Quarantine-Johto probably end up as Bobbitrap lunch. Absolutely love the design of Bobbitrap, where it gets the general shape and details of a real-life Bobbit Worm's horrifying visage, but stylizes it in a cartoony way that's still recognizable for those who know what the basis of the organism is. I appreciate that.

From the colour and the description of them hiding in crevasses, I assume that Bobbite and Bobbitrap are terrestrial? So maybe Bug/Ground, Bug/Rock, pure Bug or pure Ground? I feel like any one of those would work. 

Oh, like the Halley's Comet. But it's also a cute little baby kitty, so it's a Nyalley. Okay? I assume that there's a pun somewhere that I'm not seeing. Is there a 'cat comet' or a 'comet cat'? A 'shooting star cat'? Google comes up empty. Or maybe it's just a general star-shaped cat? Regardless, it's adorable is what it is. I don't think it's quite as obvious that Nyalley is meant to be a kitten and not just a general ball of adorable fluff, but the evolution definitely makes the inspiration a bit more obvious. 

Felioritte isn't quite as cute as its pre-evolution, I feel, but it has a more defined feline anatomy. Or vulpine? I kind of also get a bit of a fox-ish vibe from the body. I like the idea that Felioritte and Nyalley just literally runs around in the sky. So I guess they 'fall down' from the upper atmosphere and land onto the ground for trainers to encounter, sort of like Minior? I think I like Nyalley a fair bit. 

I'm going to guess that they are Fairy-types, since I'm now made aware that Fairy-types exist in this demo? But from the colours, I'm guessing that Felioritte is Fairy/Ice. After all, comets are, in a sense, icy space rock. 

I get it! It's a Faraday Moray Eel! I can't believe it took me that long to figure out what the 'day' part of this guy's name is referring to. I like the inspiration of this guy. It's an electric eel, but it's magnetic! Somehow, nature is so weird that an eel that has the innate ability to electrocute people is literally too mundane to become a Pokemon. So Moraday is a creature that is also attuned to the magnetic field. From the description of its species as a "Tunnel" Pokemon, I'm assuming that it actually is another terrestrial Pokemon based on an aquatic animal? I approve, mostly because I love the idea of this eel just writhing, suspended in the air as it levitates with its magnetic powers while it hunts down the static-themed Ambinni. Visually I feel like maybe they could've done a bit more to highlight the magnetic theme here, but I also equally appreciate the restraint. 

Typing's a bit hard to guess, though. Eelektross is a levitating electric lamprey-eel and she's pure-Electric. Moraday could be pure-Electric by that logic. But I could also as easily see Electric/Steel, pure-Steel, or even Water/Electric or Water/Steel. 

Okay, there's this thing where seeing 'just a cat/dog/rat' early on in the Pokedex numbering means that you're probably getting something a bit more straightforward. Like Poochyena turning into Mightyena, or Litleo turning into Pyroar, or Purrloin turning into Liepard. None of them are bad designs, but they're also kind of obvious designs. When you see 'just a cat' a bit later on in the Pokedex numbering, though, you usually get weirder motherfuckers like Espurr or Eevee or whatever. 

Which is to say, poor Shabbycat here just looks like a malnourished stray cat. You can feel just how sad it looks, how it probably hasn't eaten well, and is utterly skittish as it tries to avoid not only humans that try to catch it, but also roaming packs of aggressive barnacle geese that honk at you, lumbering lawn-stealing ogres, nine-feet-long bobbit worms and magnetic hovering eels.

Yep, we go straight from 'it's just a sad, sick cat' into whatever the hell Purrdle is. It's a Cat Pile Pokemon, and... it's just a pile of cats! I think it's not only a riff on the Magneton and Dugtrio method of 'stick a bunch of the same Pokemon together' old-school evolutions, but also on crazy cat people. As someone who is a crazy dog person, I kind of chuckle at the idea that in this world, you can just adopt like so many cats that they act as a symbiotic legion. I mean, we have video game monsters that are swarms of insects or bats or whatever, so why not cats?

No idea about the typing. A cat's probably just a Normal-type, so if you merge a bunch of them, they'd still be Normal-types, right? 

Glorious. Meowtain is the obvious end-point of the Purrdle concept, but I love that everything about this still obviously has the cat anatomy down. Like, the 'eyes' of Meowtain is made by the curled-up tails of two cats that also form Meowtain's ears. there are obvious cats that has their bodies a bit more distinctly picked out by the sprite art, but then you look closer and the shading of the main body makes it obvious that every single part of this eldritch abomination is made up of so many cats merged together into one. Even the 'mouth' of Meowtain is a negative space shaped like a cat! I love how terrifying this would be on paper... but on the other hand, it's also probably as friendly as a pet cat would be. I love this. 

I love how the description of this guy's creation talks about how it's created by "a critical mass", and how it is formed out of "evolutionary energy". And yet somehow in the world of Quarantine Crystal, this thing that seems to be straight out of Call of Cthulhu is a natural Pokemon, and Grubboid is considered an abomination? How?

Okay, this evolutionary line was one I kind of dismissed, but the more I think about it, the more I write about it, the more I like it. So 'Sappura' here is a bonsai tree, but it's not until I read the description of the next evolutionary stage that I really understood what's happening here. So Sappura isn't just a weirdly-contorted bonsai tree. (A Sakura bonsai tree, too, just to add another thing into the mix) It's a weirdly-contorted bonsai tree that has its branches coil through the head-and-chest of a mannequin!

And... and it's kind of weird, sure, but I love how this concept turned out. The description of Sappura makes it sufficiently creepy, too, noting that Sappuras are found in an abandoned mall, somehow 'springing from the residual energy of the building'. Is there some sort of eldritch ghostly energy that is animating these mannequin parts? Or is it more of a 'force of nature' kind of energy, causing Sakura-bonsai plants to grow and take over mannequins? Is this creature Grass/Ghost, Grass/Fairy, Grass/Psychic, or something else?

Leaffigy (oh man, that name) explains the concept of this line a bit more, as this creature, this thing that starts off as just a bunch of weird branches, slowly grows into a fuller body. A fuller tree -- and, as it does so, also incorporates more mannequin parts. It's got an arm! It's such an interestingly twisted take on the 'monster tries to mimic humanity' trope. Because Leaffigy is... it's a sentient cherry blossom tree that has merged itself with mannequin parts, and is clearly growing its body in such a way that the trunk and roots resembles a woman's dress, and the giant mass of leaves resemble hair. 

In a completely different context, this would make for a much more terrifying monster that could carry a horror story on its own. I feel that the fact that these tree-mannequin ladies are bright pink makes them so much more creepier than if they were just pure-white or coloured in blacks and browns. 

The final form is Sakuronna, where the anatomy of the creature seems to resemble a mermaid of sorts. She's got a full mannequin body, and the 'legs' of the mannequin merge seamlessly into the tree-trunk of the Sakura tree. And the leaves of the 'mermaid tail' end up as the hair for the faceless mannequin face. I love this particularly creative part of the design, by the way -- that the 'mermaid tail' extends out and becomes the hair of the 'humanoid' body. 

Also, knowing what we know about how this thing grows from Sappura into Leaffigy into Sakuronna, it's probably not hard to realize that the entire mannequin body is a literal puppet and that the tree is the real being. It's sort of like Dhelmise, where it's a ghost algae that controls a ship anchor... except this is so much creepier since Sakuronna explicitly tries to mimic human bodies. With 'psychic roots', so I guess it's Grass/Psychic? I love how sinister the Pokedex entry makes it sound even without actually saying that it does anything sinister. For all I know all these guys want to do is to just pose around and shop for clothes in their abandoned mall. 

Okay, I was also a bit baffled by this one until I took a closer look into its sprite art. Respectre here is a creature that is 'found camouflaged' in graveyards, and leaves 'slime trails'. It's a fucking snail. It's a snail with a tombstone for a shell, and you can see that there are two itty-bitty beady eyes poking out of the ground. If not a snail, then a hermit crab, since the eyestalks seem to be connected to some stubby arms... the idea, I think, is that Respectre's main body resembles a zombie arm bursting out of the soil. I kind of like this idea! It sounds so much like an old-school RPG enemy. It's even spooky, with the slime tails turning into what's basically a mist machine. 

Ghost/Bug or Ghost/Rock? Does it even count as a ghost? 

Anyone who knows anything about my monster preferences and had seen the complete Quarantine Pokedex... it's probably not a surprise to know that the Cremigo line is one of my all-time favourites in here. Honestly, alongside the parasitic wasp, this is probably one of the Pokemon that for sure will be in my party if I play through this game. 

When I first saw this guy, I thought it's just the true slug/snail form of Respectre. And that'd be cool enough! But no, Cremigo is the start of an entirely new evolutionary line. It's a 'sporeshed' Pokemon that shambles through the woods, spreading spores which somehow helps it to see. That's so cool! I actually don't even know and I don't think that any real-world fungi does that. Spores are reproductive, right? It wouldn't be able to help to sense? Unless they grow and add into the hyphae network and thus end up becoming extensions of the primary organism, thereby granting them sensory perception? But seeing by spreading spores around is such a great idea that feels right at home among old sci-fi monster films. I love it. 

Either way, Cremigo here (the line has to be Grass/Poison, it has to be) is cute but not super-unique. It's a quite purple blobby friend with eyestalks. Or, well, knowing what it is, fungal stalks! 

It grows into kind of a turd, this huge 'Sporetower' Pokemon called Amanigo. But it's not really a turd, is it? It's more like... like a pile of ear fungus or bracket fungus that pile up together like a cartoon martian, and the fungal colony's hyphae function as tentacles? The name of the Pokemon seems to call Amanita mushrooms, one of the more notoriously poisonous fungi out there, but it really doesn't look like the toadstool shape of an Amanita. 

I absolutely am eating up the fact that this fungal creature goes around spreading fungus, and inhaling said fungus gives us the absolutely creepy and Lovecraftian effect of causing the victims to be compelled to aid Amanigo. I love that description. It 'compels the victim to aid', which sounds so much more subtle and sinister compared to just forcible mind-control.  

And I say 'Lovecraftian', because Yuggromi is almost certainly based the Lovecraft story Fungi from Yuggoth. (Cremigo also borrows its name from Mi-Go, a species from that story) I love that, just like Sakuronna up there, the Yuggromi's body vaguely resembles a person in the dark woods -- something that feels so associated with traditional cryptids and alien sightings. We have a pretty strong Mothman-esque vibe to the description to this thing, and I while it's basically just the same thing but bigger, in this case I really don't think that there's anything wrong with it. Yuggromi is essentially just a gigantic sentient pile of tentacled fungus living in the dark woods. I love the chilling but not over-the-top description in its dex entry.

It's honestly a simple design, but I love this thing so much. It's so weird! And that was the original sprite. The updated sprite makes Yuggromi's fungal inspirations so much more evident. Look at that adorable toadstool 'head'! Look at the asymmetrical shape of Yuggromi's 'torso'! It just builds up on what made Amanigo so weirdly delightful, and the end result is honestly one of my favourite designs in the game so far. 

Awww, what a cutie! Ambinni here is a dust-bunny! A literal one, since it doesn't even have the obvious bunny ears! We first see Ambinni being mentioned here as the prey of Moraday the magnetic faraday moray eel, so oh no! This poor cutie! being made up of dust and lint, Ambinni is a creature with a whole lot of static electricity. 

There's a cute little early-stage Digimon vibe with Ambinni here, since it's just a head and a fish-like body attached to it. Since it revolves around static electricity so much, it's Electric-type, I guess? Does 'dust' have an element of its own? Electric/Ground? Electric/Normal? Wait, does this mean that this adorable electric-themed bunny creature is the 'Pika-clone' of the region? That's awesome. 

What's more awesome is that the 'Pika-clone', if this is what the designers intended this line to be, is a three-stage line! Who was the last Piakchu clone that actually evolved? Was it fucking Marill, all the way back in 1999? Seriously, Nintendo? Okay. Anyway, Bundegraf (I get it, it's a pun on van de graaff, I love these puns) is a bit more mammalian looking, although not obviously based on any real-world mammal. It's got two giant wing-like ears, and a Marill-style body of being a round ball with stubby limbs.

I love the description noting that if they discharge their collected static electricity, their fur falls flat. It's like giving a Pomeranian or something a bath! The first part of the description means that this Pokemon is my natural-born enemy, though. Dust allergies! Ugh!

Voltinger is based on the Wolpertinger, a bunny cryptid that I'm a huge fan of -- I'm not sure if it's Hearthstone or Pokemon Uranium that made me aware of this thing first, but it's around the past couple of years that I'm aware of that glorious being. Voltinger does have two obvious horns jutting up from its head, and I guess it's quadrupedal now... but it's also around 80% dust-fluff by mass, so it really doesn't resemble a traditional Wolpertinger! Pretty neat idea. I really like the idea of a static electricity dust bunny. 

I'm not sure what the basis is for this guy, other than the fact that it's probably, uh... some sort of terrifying blob-y human experimentation? It's sort of like the common fan-theory that Ditto was a failed Mew clone that escaped the Cinnabar Island laboratory, actually, except instead of keeping it ambiguous, this one is a bit more explicit in that it's a 'growth' Pokemon. Some sort of... self-replicating, quasi-cancerous cell slime-blob monster? Or something? except it's adorable and it's got cute X-shaped pupils? I would've said some sort of slime mould as the inspiration for this thing if not for the 'human origin' part. I think the idea is that it's constantly budding off parts of itself, which is why it's got a bunch of little blob-tipped tentacles all around it. 

It evolves into the wonderfully coloured Helactal. I love just how unnatural lavender and that creamy-orange is next to each other! It's got more defined 'hands', until you realize that those 'hands' are actually just smaller Mandelblobs being created and budding off of it. The ears are also kind of proto-Mandelblobs! I actually like this idea, the idea that there's this creature that's constantly budding off parts of itself while it just smiles and goes around its merry way. Unlike the Cremigo line, this one doesn't even look or feel like it's hostile in any way. 

No idea about the typing, though. Pure-Normal? We actually do have a cell Pokemon in Reuniclus, so maybe this guy is also Psychic-type? 

There is a lot going on with Wyrmometer here! It's a snake Pokemon, and presumably a Fire/Poison-type. We don't have a fire snake Pokemon yet? Huh! As far as I know, no snakes go around eating fruit, but the idea that this guy goes around seeking especially spicy berries to empower their fiery venom is such a cool Pokemon-esque idea. It adds such a neat strain of biology to the world-building instead of 'oh, this snake breathes fire just because'. No, this snake has evolved and adapted to the existence of super-hot Tamato berries or whatever that it can synthesize its diet of berries into burning venom. Like the arsenic-leaf-munching caterpillar example that I noted in the grass starter of this game, or something that the Glaucus sea slugs can do by ingesting jellyfish poison cells. It's something that feels so weird but also so natural!

From the name, Wyrmometer is also based on a thermometer, I think, with the darker parts of its tail being the 'bulb' of a traditional mercury thermometer. I guess it also doubles as kind of the 'rattle' of a rattlesnake, but with spikes? 

Wyrmometer evolves into Ignaga, which I guess is based on myths of the Naga. Or, well, more popularized, Westernized version of the Naga where they are humanoid snakes instead of serpentine dragons. It's a pretty cool design, though, with those long ears also resembling a cobra hood. I'm not the biggest fan of the humanoid-looking chest, but I guess the idea is that this is also a somewhat humanoid-looking creature? I like that it shoots its fiery venom like a spitting cobra. That's cool!

By the way, it spits fireballs powered by capsaicin! It shoots superheated chili! I'm someone who can't handle spicy food, and Ignaga combined with Voltinger seems to be tailor-made to murder me specifically!

Oh oh oh! I know the basis of this one! Colobopsis saundersi, a species of carpenter ants from Malaysia whose workers can initiate a self-destructing explosion in order to protect its hive! Thanks, Terraformars, for educating me on bizarre insect abilities! Hell yeah! (And you guys thought 'Self-Destruct' wasn't based on real life?)

Antpyre is such a simple but great design, too! It's a cartoon ant but its abdomen is a grenade. I love it. The new, updated sprite has it in a much more adorable-looking pose, standing on two legs! It's simple and communicates the idea that this is a Self-Destruct Pokemon. The idea is honestly something that makes a lot more sense than Gravelers and Boldores and Voltorbs, too, because Antpyres are disposable ant drones protecting their colony! Presumably, Bug/Fire? Or just Bug?

Generopsis (its name is from the genus of the exploding ants!) is a bit more intricate, and I confess to take a bit longer to really understand the anatomy of the head and the thorax of this Pokemon. Its head is vaguely shaped like a general's hat and it's got a little flower on top of its 'hat', and those seem to be the remnants of wings attached to its thorax. Since Generopsis is probably the 'queen' of the colony that commands the little disposable soldier ants, it makes kind of some sense that it has the ripped-off wings. 

Presumably, this line has the same thing with Combee where only the females can evolve into a 'queen' (even though Generopsis is more equivalent to a supermajor soldier) but the male-to-female ratio is pretty stacked. 

Okay, so we're here for a bovid Pokemon! Calfeen is reasonably cute. It's a pink baby giraffe that butts heads! I like that the Pokedex entry basically hints that this is an Electric-type Pokemon due to its 'high energy reserves'. But I guess since it's not evolved yet, all that energy goes to them just being hyperactive babies! I'm not sure if this is a branching evolution, but it appears to be, considering Amapala and Blazelle seem to be of different types. 

The first (presumed) branch evolution, Ampala, seems to be an Electric-type. It's based on an impala! Antelopes and the like tend to be overlooked when people look for animals to design Pokemon off of. Ampala here is pretty cool, even if the horns don't really resemble a real impala's. It's shaped like lightning bolts, though, so it's neat. I'm... not entirely sure what that spike club-like appendage is, though?

Blazelle is a fire gazelle! I like the idea the 'boundless energy' in Calfeen means that it can evolve into one of two high-energy types in Fire or Electric. A pretty cool fire gazelle in any case, I like the shape of the neck and head in particular, even if it does look a bit too snake-y for me. I like the connection between the two, apparently Ampalas create loud booming thunder noises with their electric horns, which attracts Blazelles. So are these the male and female of the species instead?

Not my favourite ones of the bunch, but there's enough interesting things going on here that I can't just handwave this as 'oh, it's just a fire animal'. The branch evolution, and taking antelopes and gazelles as inspiration, are both things that elevate this into something a bit more memorable. 

You know, a 'pirate parrot' is kind of an obvious idea for a fantasy monster. But Budganeer is still adorable! The artwork is adorable, I loev the shape of the budgerigar beak, and I like that it has a stereotypical pirate cabin boy striped shirt but drawn as the patterns on its body. 

Budganeer is just kind of a simple take on 'what if a cute parrot was also a pirate', but Macawsair is a more over-the-top take on it. It's a bit more humanoid, sort of like a Mandibuzz or something. It's still obviously a bird and not a humanoid with bird features, which I definitely appreciate. the tips of its feathers around its head are straight-up on fire, which, if you don't know, is a reference to the historical pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, who ostensibly set the tips of his beard and braided hair on fire. Pretty neat concept, if nothing else. 

Presumably Fire/Flying. That's a pretty cool and unexpected type for a pirate monster!

Oh, I get it! It's a shaggy dog, one of those dog breeds like the Komondor that looks like a giant walking mop! I get the joke. And this guy has a literal mop handle sticking out of its... forehead, I think? I'm not sure if real-life Komondor dogs are surly and only obey their owners, but that sounds pretty doggy enough to me! I like how chaotic the sprite for Moperdor is, because it's presumably jumping around and its mop hair is flying all over the place. 

Presumably Normal-type, although maybe the evolution becomes Water-type because it's a mop?

Majesdor is a larger, adult version of Moperdor! It looks pretty majestic, and I love the effect of wind blowing the mop-hair around to allow us a clearer view of the canine body beneath. The mop handle has grown into a straight-up unicorn horn! I'm not sure why a unicorn horn specifically. Is there a mythological horned dog that I'm not aware of? On the other hand, it does look pretty neat! I do like this one, honestly. Sometimes Pokemon does 'just a dog' and it's cool -- I do like my Herdiers and Yampers and Rockruffs. But I really do wish that they exaggerate on features of specific dog breeds like this to make them all stand out a bit more. 

Rubber ducky, you're the one! Rubber ducky, you make bath time extra fun! Like the pirate parrot, not especially original, but still a very fun concept that I appreciate a lot! Sqwucky is quite literally a rubber duck coloured like a rubber duck. They apparently are just naturally living in the open sea as a flock of ducks? Okay, that's... surprisingly mundane and natural-sounding. I expected something more about them being made out of rubber and being used in baths. Sure!

This line is Water/Flying, obviously. 

So Sqwucky evolves from a rubber ducky into a pool float? One of those giant rubber floats with a duck head and duck wings that people use in pools? But, uh... it's also got a pair of human legs dangling below it? I get the idea that a rubber ducky 'evolves' into a larger rubber float, but the human legs are apparently a 'false bottom' that leads predators into attacking it. And the Squeenie rubber-duck-kicks it? Okay. Not the biggest fan of this one. 

On the other hand, this one! Lanatun is a fish shaped like a watermelon slice. I love just how wacky this guy looks! I love how the flesh and the rind of the fruit opens up into a fish mouth, I love how the eye is integrated in one of the teardrop-shaped watermelon seeds, and I love the description that they will gather together -- a bunch of slices sticking together to form a whole watermelon fish to pretend to be a bigger fish. It's so creative!

Water/Grass? Since it's a fish that is shaped like a fruit?

And also, oh, I get it! It's a puffer fish! Only instead of inflating itself, the 'small' pufferfish needs a bunch of its friend to 'puff up' and look imposing! Or it can evolve, and Lanatun evolves into Pepoffer, the 'melonball' Pokemon. I love that it's got a bunch of leaves and vines in place of a tail, although apparently in this form it can't even swim anymore and just bobs around rivers. 

A very fun and out-there idea. I love this one! I mean, a pufferfish alone is so cool of an animal that I'm surprised it's not made into a Pokemon already (Qwilfish, my baby, I'm sorry I forgot about you) but combining it with a watermelon is such a weird idea that works so well!

Oh, so we're in the part of the Pokedex where there's a huge, huge bunch of Water-type Pokemon. Or aquatic-based Pokemon. I absolutely approve! As I keep emphasizing in these Pokemon reviews, the ocean has one of the widest biodiversity in the world, and I'm happy to see that represented in Pokemon games, be it official or fanmade. 

Slisces is an interesting one, though! It's a fishy Pokemon based on... water pollution? Which is a horrible thing, of course, but it's interesting that this particular "trasheater" Pokemon is basically a pair of scissors that swim around in the ocean and help cutting fishing lines to help other aquatic life. So all the terrible plastic junk that choke turtles and larger fish to death, Slisces will swim around and cut them apart. Pretty cool! Now I don't think this is actually based on any specific type of fish, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong. Presumably Water/Steel. 

Dreadge (presumably pronounced identically to 'dredge'?) is an interesting evolution for Slisces. The edge of this much larger Pokemon is still a pair of scissors, and you can see the anatomy of Slisces still intact as the head of Dreadge. But the small set of fishy fins on Slisces has evolved into this super-long billowing cloak that the pokedex tells us is a fishing net! It tapers off into a nasty set of fish-hooks attached to the end of the fishing net. 

Of course, being an aquatic creature himself, Dreadge actually uses its massive, newly-obtained giant trawling net to ensnare fishing boats and 'feast' on them. I'm not sure how it does that, but it does have a set of metal fangs, so I guess it eats the boats? Does it eat the humans, too, or does Dreadge just let them drown? Either way, some karmic death awaits them, I guess. 

-Link's Awakening intensifies- Okay, I'm unreasonably excited about this guy. Upwhale is a baby whale and it's a cute little baby whale that jumps into the air and shoots cloud instead of water out of its spout. Yes, this is basically 'just' a baby whale for now, but it evolves into something much cooler later on. Presumably it's just pure-Water at this point, judging by the description of the Pokedex. 

Upwhale then evolves into Nimbocetus, where it presumably evolves into Water/Flying. Yes, somehow, upon evolution, Upwhale evolves into a whale that is 'built for the wide open skies', breaching through the clouds instead of the waves. From the dex entry of Upwhale, I'm going to assume that the fun cartoon logic is that it has too much air in its lungs because it keeps sucking in air as an Upwhale. I love that logic! Again, not much to say here since Nimbocetus is just a cartoon whale that lives in the clouds, but what a pleasant sprite. 

And Stellocean is just absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely something that looks so, so much more impressive in sprite art than if someone made a full-on 3D model of it. Sort of like what happened to poor old Moltres! But look at this gorgeous being. It went from a sky whale into a space whale, having a literal galaxy etched onto its skin. I aboslutely love just how majestic the eyes look, and I didn't really notice it before, but this evolutionary line doesn't even have mouths, do they? It just makes them look more majestic, I feel. Stellocean presumably lives in the stars, since it is 'only rarely seen returning to Earth for air'. So where real-life whales live mostly in the ocean and breach into the surface for air, Stellocean presumably swims in the sea-in-the-sky, in space, and do a reverse-breach into our atmosphere for air. That's so awesome. I love this game's concepts. 

I actually wonder if the later parts of the game actually has a dedicated 'sky sea' area? Because here's another aquatic Pokemon that lives in the sky! Wandulus is another take on an airborne jellyfish -- which we already have in Pokemon in Drifloon. Where Drifloon is a haunted jellyfish balloon, Wandulus is a jellyfish made out of clouds! It's adorable! There's a heavy Zelda/Megaman enemy vibe to this guy. It's got adorable eyes, and I really like the little sad description that 'the winds carry it to distant skies unwillingly', just like how real-life jellyfishes don't actually swim so much as they just let the waves take them wherever. 

Interestingly, Wandulus transforms into Nimborem, an angry electric jellyfish with lightning bolts in place of venomous tentacles? Many jellyfishes have oral tentacles in the middle, and then a set of venomous tentacles around them, and it seems like that is what the designers are going for, with the equivalent of oral tentacles being regular cloud anatomy, while the lightning bolts are the equivalent for venom. The actual Pokemon game have equated venom stings with electricity in Pincurchin, so it's very, very cool to see all those concepts wrapped together into a single adorable Pokemon. 

I guess this line is Electric/Flying, then? Man, since jellyfishes feed by essentially also 'trawling' for small fishies with their long tendrils, does Nimborem do that with terrestrial animals? Does this adorable cloud jellyfish eat chubby hamsters or errant lost kids and consume them in the stratosphere? 

I had thought that this guy is a standalone Pokemon at first before I deleted the paragraph I wrote here, realizing that, no, this is the final form of the Wandulus and Nimborem evolutionary line. It's Stratowar -- a Portuguese Man-o-War Jellyfish! Duh! Even the shape of what I thought to be the head of a giant flying cloud serpent-god is in the rough shape of a Portuguese Man-o-War, except with the distinctive 'sail' replaced with clouds. I actually love how this design doubles for a far more majestic-looking bearded Chinese dragon whose rear body tapers off into tentacles, but it's still essentially just a jellyfish. Yeah, this elevates the Wandulus line from being 'adorable' into 'holy shit, what an awesome line'. Absolute A+ for sure.  

And, yes, as what I thought happens with Nimborem, the Stratowar straight-up just fishes and drags people and smaller Pokemon on the ground and eaten in the sky. That has to be a horrifying feeling!

Okay, yes. I love the idea of this. I was only obliquely aware of something like 'Sea Monkeys' -- which I had to google for a bit. What I thought to just be a toyiline turned out to be a novelty aquarium kit where kids can make use of brine shrimps of the genus Artemia as basically an ant farm. Artemia undergo cryptobiosis, which means that it's literally a 'plop in the frozen shrimp babies and they will hatch' for the kiddies. No idea why they call it 'sea monkeys', but there you go, it's branding. 

Anyway, that's to say that Prawmate is a fusion of a baby shrimp and a monkey. It took me a while to get it, but those two orbs on the side of the monkey 'head' are actually the two large eyeballs of the shrimp, and what I initially thought to be the Y-shaped stylized monkey head is the mouth. Imagine this to be a creature like Anorith, and it is showing off its underside to us. Pretty creative art direction for sure, to make this a shrimp that looks like a monkey. 

(Water/Fairy, I guess?)

Oh man, what a gloriously terrifying abomination. Shrimpanzi has the main anatomy of an adult Brine Shrimp, but it's replaced its two main frontal legs with furry monkey arms, and the monkey face in-between the shrimp eyeballs has became a bit more prominent. I like the juxtaposition of a the brine shrimp's already fuzzy set of legs into essentially becoming monkey fur. I do like that the description of Shrimpanzii and Prawmate describes their colony life as something more similar to monkey groups. 

Mmm, okay, so the final stage of this evolution is a bit more monkey than shrimp. Which, if you know anything about me, is of course what I would feel to be the less interesting option. But honestly, the previous two lines has been so utterly weird. Swimian, at least, keeps a bunch of the shrimp parts, mostly having the shrimp eyeballs and a pair of mandibles (?) act as kind of a helmet to the angry monkey face. The monkey legs and arms and belly is a bit more obvious, though, and... I don't know. I really like just how weird crustaceans look, okay? Not my thing, but I can see why this is the final stage of the evolution. 

Oh. Ooooh, what is this? An actually creepy and terrifying anglerfish? Yes, yes, I believe it is. All respect to Chinchou and Lanturn, and I get that Pokemon can't be too creepy, but man, they are missing the nightmare-inducing badass faces of anglerfishes and frogfishes and lots of other lure-using fishes. Stranglure here is kind of interesting, in that it lure also doubles as an arm... but the rest of its body looks so... it looks so cool! Three eyeballs above a grinning mouth, and it looks like it's wearing a poofy little dress. Is it just algae camouflage, or is Stranglure also an adorable tiny ballerina? I love this. Look at her. She just looks so happy waving its cute nub-arms around. 

Water/Dark or Water/Fairy, I'm assuming. I'm only saying Fairy because of the pink. 

Okay, holy shit, this is the evolved form? This is our 'mermaid', then, not Sakuronna above. Shamsel (who borrows her name from an angel!) is still a terrifying anglerfish. Just look at her 'lower body', it's basically still a grinning, happy anglerfish! Okay, it sadly loses the central eye, which makes it look a lot less alien, but said central eye has basically mutated into a full-blown lure shaped like a human body! Complete with a smiling face! Actually, looking more closely into Stranglure's sprite, the central eye kind of has a :) thing going on, does it not? 

Absolutely cool-looking, and I do love that the original lure of Stranglure basically becomes the fake arms of the humanoid mermaid entity, and it's got two more glowing lures coming down from the sides of its fake humanoid head like a pair of twin ponytails. The description of Shamsel is pretty badass, too, noting that sailors will see the humanoid body of Shamsel like mermaids on the rocks, swim towards them for some happy fun times... only to get devoured by the grinning, hungry true body of the anglerfish. An absolutely badass design. I love this man-eating monster. 

I was going a bit back and forth, because I wasn't sure if the Pokemon from 100 to 103 are related or not. I thought it was kind of like an Eevee-esque deal where Stiklbrat might evolve into either of the three, but I think Stiklbrat, Sidficious and Salarito are an evolutionary line, and Pekoi is standalone. 

Stiklbrat is a pretty simple fishy. It's got spines on its back that it uses to intimidate others! I don't think it's based on any specific fishie -- those with spines tend to go a bit all-in on the spines like pufferfishes and lionfishes. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though!

So where Stiklbrat is a panicky little fish who just tries to look cool, Sidficious here got an 'involuntary piercing' from a fish hook. I wonder if Quarantine Crystal actually has brand-new evolution mechanics... is this a fish that evolves the moment you catch it with a fishing hook? How does it work? But Sidficious still has the hook embedded into its mouth, and apparently this makes it so badass that it spontaneously changes colour into orange, and grows a dorsal fin in the shape of a mohawk. It's still got Stiklbrat's spines on its back, and I kind of think that it's probably Water/Dark because it's a punk, or Water/Steel?

I'm not entirely sure if this is an evolution of Sidficious, or an alternate evolution of Stiklbrat? It does have the mohawk of Sidficious, but it's now fallen down onto the side. It also has the spikes of its two brethren. Poor Salarito basically went from a punk into a tired working man. Too real, man! It just looks so tired. Is that what happens when you lose the badass lip piercing you got as a youth? Poor Salarito is just a working salaryman who gets 'attacked by higher-ups' and has to develop a tough and rubbery hide. It's just so depressing!

 

Not my favourite aquatic Pokemon from this entire page, but that's because Quarantine Crystal has so many good offerings already. 

It's a... it's a brown koi that looks like a goldfish? I was a bit baffled by what's going on here until I looked at the species name and I realized that it's a 'Taeleaf' Pokemon. It's a fish with a teabag on its chin! To be honest I'm not the biggest fan of this visually, but conceptually? I've never even thought of tea bags as a potential idea for an aquatic Pokemon, and I absolutely love the backstory that the dex entry gives it. It's imported from another region to create healing tea or something, and it remains super-haughty even after presumably becoming native in Johto. 

Pure-Water? Or Water/Fairy? I have the niggling compulsion to call all food-based Pokemon needs as Fairy-type...

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And that is where I will leave off today as I go off to brew a cup of tea for myself. A lot of very, very strong entries here! And we're still not out of the watery portion of the Pokedex yet! There are a lot of favourites here. Shamsell, Stratowar, Sakuronna, Bobbitrap, Ignaga, Antpyre, Lanatun... lots of amazing concepts here that are just executed well, and I really love how so many of these go in pretty unexpected directions and combine unexpected concepts. So many cool animals, too, and we're not even halfway through! It's so, so refreshing to see such variation among the Pokemon, and for the most part they all feel like something that would fit in the Pokemon world with minimal change. Yes, okay, maybe Nintendo might tone down the more 'lures humans with a human-shaped-body' ideas, but honestly, it's not like official Pokemon doesn't already have a whole ton of humanoid Pokemon already. These actually have a humanoid look for a reason! 

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. This is 052 all the way to 103 of the Quarantine dex. This is the Generation II dex, so it goes up to 251, and while I've been trying to fit 50 per page, I think I'll let it be a bit more relaxed and see what number ends up being more natural. I've been trying to force this into two or three articles since that's what I did with Insurgence and Uranium... but this is such a comparatively larger fan-dex that it deserves me talking a lot more about it!