Pokémon Spoilers Topic (Current Info Leaks - Scarlet/Violet DLC)

[Big Panda]

http://Bulbapedia’s Galar page has two separate in-game maps; one from Sword and one from Shield.

I honestly can’t tell what difference is meant to be.

[Blue Blood]

4 hours ago, Noodle Panda said:

http://Bulbapedia’s Galar page has two separate in-game maps; one from Sword and one from Shield.

I honestly can’t tell what difference is meant to be.

Just the colours of the Stow-on-Side and Circhester gyms. They're the same otherwise.

[Salamander]

I finally completed Sword for myself a few days ago, and have been letting it stew before I write down my final thoughts.  The short version (the long version is really long, I'm afraid) is: The game is better than I was expecting, but obviously flawed and unfinished.

A big part of that is that, of all the things they nailed, they got the Pokemon right.  This might just be one of my favourite batches perhaps even since Gen IV, perhaps helped by the fact that we see a more diverse revisit to the idea of regional forms and the triumphant return of cross-region evolutions.  It's amazing that there are, technically, fewer new Pokemon here than in Gen VII - and yet somehow there feel like a lot more; perhaps because there isn't quite such an overabundance of legendaries and quasi-legendaries squatting at the end of the dex.  The complaint overleaf that a lot of Pokemon feel more like individual characters now than plausible animals isn't unfair, mind, and given that there are some frankly weird Pokemon this gen (Stonjourner, Eiscue) then a few more at the more normal end of things perhaps wouldn't hurt.  With that said, count me as fully in favour of the new fossils; not just a nod to early paleontology, but a fun mix-and-match game that fantastically subverts the traditional fossil process and makes it even a bit difficult to look back.  In the final analysis, I think that GameFreak's less revealing PR campaign really helped SwSh's set of Pokemon; it was amazing to finally have that sense of discovery again, to keep on encountering new creatures I had no idea about.  The only downside is the inane insistence on locking some Pokemon behind sub-5% encounter rates, and some of the more bizarre strategy-guide evolution methods (it's unacceptable that the arch that evolves Galarian Yamask has nothing tying it to the Pokemon at all).

With that said... Dynamax is a bit undercooked.  The range of Max Moves is pitiful and not at all comparable to the seeming plethora of Z-moves (...I think; I never used a single Z-move in two games), the power boost having a cap means that all moves end up looking very similar, and a lot of the additional effects spend a lot of time not doing much.  Gigantamax forms mostly look good (though a few give the lie to the idea that it's all that different from Mega Evolution - G-Max Machamp is thoroughly uninventive), but the fact that they're functionally barely different from regular Dynamaxes makes them fairly superficial and uninteresting.  And this isn't touching on how increasingly slow and clunky the current game engine looks, taking multiple text boxes every single time to say what could be said in one or even zero.  And for all that vaunted talk of HD-ready models back in the day, a lot of the HD models actually don't look that great - specifically when it comes to features like faces and other details just being textured on rather than present in the model.  Ferrothorn looks particularly pathetic, for a Pokemon that's clearly meant to be grooved and recessed.  Ironically, GameFreak really would be better off tossing a lot of them out and redoing them from scratch.

I did like the Wild Area a lot more than I thought I would, though.  In the early game especially, there was something very satisfying about wheeling around checking out the new raids and occasionally going up against Pokemon that wouldn't naturally show up until much later in the game.  It's not a system without flaws, however; when every patch of grass in an area spawns the same thing, without the corridor structure of routes, it's tempting to think that all that space is just a bit redundant - and as a long-time fan it's hard to get too excited at the sheer quantity of same-old-same-old wandering around (I do appreciate that Dexiters will feel very differently).  It was a bold move of GameFreak to rush the player to this area so quickly, but at the same time, I wonder if it might've done with being pushed back just a little, as it's easy to get overlevelled in the early game... and in general; I had to make a clear decision never to use experience candies on my team, which actually led to the game being a lot more balanced than I expected.  I'd be happy to see something like the Wild Area return - but with a bit more structure to it, rather than two big circles joined by a corridor.

And with that mention of "corridors," we get to the big flaw and the point in which the game is clearly rushed and unfinished: World design.  Oh, there are a couple of decent routes - but even those have nothing like the depth we've had in previous games, and some routes are barely-embellished straight lines, mere transitional areas.  The triumphant return of gyms turns out to be the triumphant return of maybe three gyms, four tops if you're being really generous, with the final two gyms effectively not existing at all.  Dungeons disappear completely toward the end of the game, with not one but two obvious final boss lairs reduced to elevator rides; and the various plot-revealing tapestries and statues would be well-served by being hidden at the end of dungeons, too.

The lack of dungeons and lacking world design overall are an obvious symptom of a rushed game, and it feeds into the story, too - but I want to take a moment here to praise the characters, actually.  Okay, there are some weak links; Hop spends too much of the game having his dreams crushed into the dirt by you and could use some of his post-game development bringing way forward, and Sonia's journey is badly undermined by the superficial nature of her research and the fact that she makes all the big discoveries, as I recall it, off-screen in foreign texts right at the end of the game.  Bede and Marnie, though, I thought were quite effective.  Bede is a good return to form for the jerk rival and has a decent arc which would only really be served by another appearance or two, particularly in his long period of downtime over the latter gyms.  Marnie, meanwhile, is not what I expected, fundamentally a nice but perhaps standoffish kid with a lot on her shoulders that she doesn't really view as her responsibility; and again she would be served by another appearance or two to flesh her and her motivations out - which would frankly help the insubstantial and barely-relevant Team Yell, too.  The real success story, though, are the gym leaders.  Putting them all together in the opening ceremony near the start of the game was a masterstroke that made them feel so much more like real people with a place in the world, and this is helped by the fact that most put in more appearances outside their gyms later as well, with Opal and Piers playing fairly significant roles.  Their League Cards and the postgame quest help bring them to life, too; and overall they're a really good mix of designs.  The only ones which don't have quite as much going on are the game-exclusive ones - and frankly, that's probably exactly why they're game-exclusives, and it's a shame that Bea and Allister don't perhaps have something like the link between Gordie and Melony to bring them to life.  It's for this reason that I'm actually quite happy that this game has no Elite Four, as they're usually the very worst when it comes to existing only to sit around in a room.  However, I think the game missed a bit of a trick there; when I started the Champion Cup, I assumed that the "Elite Four" of the game would be me and my three rivals and maybe someone else thrown in for good measure, but... no, it's much more fragmentary.  Frankly the Champion Cup would've been much improved the way I suggest; as indeed might the final confrontation with Eternatus, or maybe that's just me.

But that brings us to the plot, and oh boy.  While I appreciate that they actually did a Black/White and left the climax of the story until the actual end of the game, the result is that the pacing overall is atrocious, with long stretches of the game where you the player just jump through the hoops set out for you - while, insultingly, the other characters take care of interesting-sounding events off-screen.  It was difficult to believe that they actually unironically wrote "Let the adults take care of this" - how tone-deaf, for a Pokemon game!  But as it's entirely conceivable that there were events scripted which were just killed off by the game being rushed, perhaps it's simply a terrible excuse.  Where it's far, far worse is in the execution of that finale, though.  Eternatus comes out of absolutely nowhere, Chairman Rose acting like a supervillain makes no sense with his stated motivations, and overall the plot is weirdly third-versionesque, with the legendaries putting in some distinctly last-second appearances in which your character has minimal agency.  I have to presume that a lot of this is simply because they didn't have time to insert the context; they just had to throw in what they had.

There's something I want to talk about.  GameFreak have said that the theme of the game is, I think, "ambition"; but I disagree.  It seems pretty clear that the actual theme of the game is "passing the torch."  Magnolia passing her professorship to Sonia; Opal, her gym leadership to Bede; Leon, his championship to you...  The game is about a generation of adults finding young people who can live up to their goals.  I almost wonder if something like that was meant to be the case with Rose; that, in despair at the upcoming energy crisis, he released Eternatus to provoke a state of crisis in which the best young trainers would have to step up, in which he might be able to find someone capable of taking on his legacy as the man who made Galar.  Because he sure seems happy about being defeated, doesn't he?  Add on top of that a very obvious and practically already written fossil fuel metaphor to Eternatus - sinister glowing engine to which we manically feed more and more ore until eventually it destroys us all...  Sure reads a whole lot better than the game's current unbelievably poor final message, "it's crazy to make sacrifices now in order to avert an energy crisis in the future."  What an appalling look in 2019.

I have some more detailed thoughts about how you could rejig the game's pacing and plot, but honestly, I think we'll probably end up with some of them anyway.  This is a game which absolutely needed another year in the oven, and unless they do an X and Y on us, it probably will get that, in the end... assuming they actually devote any real resources to it, something they clearly didn't do for Ultra Sun/Moon.  The crunch has finally caught up with GameFreak and produced in Sword/Shield a very obviously rushed title, and it makes me deeply ambivalent both about the prospect of a remake of my favourite generation (even more so than the conservative and ungenerous ORAS did) but also about the prospect of paying again in a year or two for the game this should've been the first time around.  I don't regret buying Sword, but it's clear that in future I am going to have to wait for the reviews.  Mostly, they still have the necessary imagination to make a Pokemon game; but somehow, the most profitable franchise in the world somehow hasn't the time.  It feels weird to be saying this, but: The longer we have to wait for the next game, the better.

[Sonictrainer]

It's been confirmed that the Hisui Starters have Hisuian Final Forms

 

Hisuian Starter Final Forms

Spoiler

Hisuian Typholosion is Fire/Ghost (we haven't seen its flames yet)

Hisuian Samurott is Water/Dark

Hisuian Decidueye is Grass/Fighting

 

Hisuian Growlithe & Arcanine

Spoiler

Both are Fire/Rock

 

Hisuian Voltorb & Electrode

Spoiler

Both are Electric/Grass

 

[Salamander]

All the new Pokemon/forms have been leaked by now, and - well.

So, I've never been one to hate on a new generation's Pokemon just for being new, only to come to terms with them later.  Actually, I usually like them a lot from the outset, and I think there are very few true misses among Pokemon.  I've also never let my personal feelings for a game itself colour my feelings towards the Pokemon in it; I was deeply disappointed in SwSh but felt it had some of my favourite new Pokemon designs in a long time.

So with that in mind, let me just say that some of these are the worst freaking Pokemon designs I have ever seen.

[SonicLegends]

Here is Hisuian Samurott (shiny too) with added complimentary image.

Spoiler

I'm definitely picking it as my starter.

[SonicLegends]

2 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

More plus thoughts in spoilers
 

  Hide contents

I really liked some of the Hisuian forms they've shown off like Braviary and Zoroark and the new evolutions like Wyrdeer and Kleavor. 

Not a fan of the starters (except for Samurott but it's also the only starter line of the three in this game I actually liked to begin with). There are some conceptually neat ones like Sneasel (I love the typing) but don't really like its evolution. And good God what have they done to Dialga and Palkia. Kind of hit and miss overall which is a shame because the last two Gens have had some of the best modern designs in the series for me.

 

Spoiler

I like how so far it seems Samurott is receiving the most likes around compared to Decidueye and Typlosion (who we don't know if the flames will save as apparently it looks cool with them and will have them in game as leaker said model shown doesn't give it justice. I agree with you on Sneasel and how its evo just completely made it something I don't want to have. As for Diagla and Palkia the former is just completely proportionally terrible with those legs and the cannon/corn buried in its throat and then the latter I can understand but I kinda am growing a bit for it as its centaur like but it should have kept arms as otherwise it seems like a discount Arceus of sorts. Of the Hisuian forms I would want on my team for sure: Samurott, Zoroark and Arcanine. Then others I do like are Braviary, Wyrdeer and Kleavor but I think I'll just go with a mixed team of 3-3 Hisuian and regular.

 

[Zaysho]

I actually deleted the post and meant to rewrite it because I noticed the pic in the tweet got deleted. But yeah, thoughts still stand so I'll leave the quote alone. I'll just go hunt for a copy of the image to edit in.

[Salamander]

I think it may pay to wait until we're seeing them in something like in-game context, or with official art; it may help us to understand just what they were going for with some of the stranger designs.  I'll freely admit, though, that there are a few where I already get what they were going for and think that they're clever... but still feel a powerful distaste.

[KHCast]

Spoiler

I hate the Palkia and Dialga designs good god. Not to mention lore wise, I really don’t get it since multiple times in the series we’ve seen that in past they were their regular forms? I just…why? They’re so fucking ugly

 

[KoDaiko]

My sibling showed me some leaks this morning and I had a good laugh.

Spoiler

It's unsurprising the better looking variants were the one they officially revealed (well Kleavor was meh for me). Most of the rest look very meh.

Some do feel like regional variants, but others feel like "yeah sorry I'm not surprised you went extinct" or "what the f*ck did they do to you". Lilligant, Sneasel evo?, Palkia and Dialga hurts me the most. Not sure how to feel about Ursaring (evo?).

Quilfish evo I don't hate but it looks more like a Splatoon character.

Kinda wondering if and how they're gonna bring the Hisuan variants into the (modern) main game. Time travel? Parallel universe shenanigans?

[Sonictrainer]

22 minutes ago, KoDaiko said:

Kinda wondering if and how they're gonna bring the Hisuan variants into the (modern) main game. Time travel? Parallel universe shenanigans?

If they have the technology to bring fossils back, I wouldn't be surprised if we got a Hisuian Incense or Charm like item to use them.

...or just call them Sinnohian Forms...

[Salamander]

Following the latest leaks, and the game is starting to look more promising; there's been a lot of streamlining to battle speed and enhanced QOL, and the trimmed Pokedex has brought model improvements and better animations across the board.  Very positive signs for the future, if they carry forward.

The game maps still look too structureless for me, though I'll need to get a look at more footage to be sure - but just wandering open areas searching for Pokemon doesn't really do it for me.  However, that would presumably be something a more linear traditional game might resolve.  I'm playing Shin Megami Tensei V at the moment, and that game's Netherworlds seem like a good model, technically linear but in an open-plan fashion with multiple routes and points of interest.  I am, though, excited by word of a proper dungeon with actual puzzles, though I don't yet know what those constitute.

On the new Pokemon and forms themselves, on reflection, there are more I like or am indifferent to than I thought, the bad ones just exercise undue weight.

[Sonictrainer]

We now know how Hisuian Typholosion's flames look

Spoiler

 

 

[Sonicka]

Ok, well having watched the opening 30-40 mins and a few other videos out there in the wild, at least the Arc-Phone and everything surrounding the mash up of some future tech and feudal ideologies makes a bit more sense in context of the story, not to mention who your main character/avatar is. 

The game in general appears to at least run well enough (performance wise) and the Pokémon catching elements and battles look like an interesting mash up of typical Pokémon fights with a Final Fantasy X twist (and you can still move your avatar around while the battle ensues - that's cool! So there might be a little more depth to this whole gameplay loop than I gave the first few trailer reveals credit for. 

However, the world layout and maps so far look so uninspired and devoid of life - I still can’t help but look at this and have the immediate take that it’s a less colourful and blander looking Breath of the Wild type of art style. Sometimes there is barely any assets on the screen as well so it surprises me to see an incredible amount of pop/fade in for characters and Pokemon, hell even for long grass mere meters ahead of you! So this really breaks some of the immersion in the game world for me. 

I will say that moving across these maps at least looks quite fun, certainly an evolution on Sw/Sh (but this is not saying a lot). Riding Wyrdeer and being able to jump and gallop almost anywhere (even up and across steep slopes) appears to give a surprising amount of flexibly with traversal, however the flight stuff definitely seems less grandiose and awkward to use.

IMO, this looks a bit like a Prototype run for a game that could have (and should have) been released later. I genuinely hope the game does well enough anyway for them do a sequel.

I'd rather they take this new game in the series/spinoff and build on it, OR find a way to combine some of these gameplay elements and the larger maps into the next 'mainline' Pokemon game. 

[Sapphirine Wind]

11 hours ago, Son-icka said:

However, the world layout and maps so far look so uninspired and devoid of life - I still can’t help but look at this and have the immediate take that it’s a less colourful and blander looking Breath of the Wild type of art style. Sometimes there is barely any assets on the screen as well so it surprises me to see an incredible amount of pop/fade in for characters and Pokemon, hell even for long grass mere meters ahead of you! So this really breaks some of the immersion in the game world for me. 

Ah, this has been my issue with the game. I can't really see the point in getting this open world game if the world is... bland and empty. spoiler images have done the world very few favors, and that's a shame.

The Pokemon designs, as usual, are the only part of the game that I can find myself completely happy with.

I don't think spoilers are necessary in this forum, but I'll use them anyway; my commentary on the new Pokemon is somewhat long.

Spoiler

Growlithe and Arcanine's new forms play very well into it's inspiration of Komainu/Shi/Shisa. If other spoilers I've seen imply what I am thinking, there's also a volcanic element that really fits in with them.

Really like the Voltorb and Electrode designs. I think their hallowed out, apricorn designs work so much more than the normal designs and give them much needed depth.

Sneasel's new form is really neat, and I liked the Sneasel evo's lanky design, it felt much more weasel-like and I wonder if it will play more into the Kamaitachi inspiration.

Nothing but happy with Sliggoo and Goodra's addition of a snail shell. I wonder if this form was inspired by the Shussebora?

The Quillfish form is simple but sweet, and its evo feels very appropriate for the species over all.

The new Lilligant form is grass/fighting, so this design with no "dress/skit", shorter hair and smaller flower makes a lot of sense. It's also cool to see its legs.

And the Avalugg form is also very nice. It's essentially the glaciers forming and melding with the sediment as it smooths them over, and is a concept that never occurred to me.

Both Basculegions are nice. I like the different take on suffering loss that both have; one is enraged while the other is sorrowful.

Ursaring's evo is one I'm very fond of. Although Ursaring's ring on its body can be interpreted as the new moon, I really love that the moon symbol returns to its forehead, looking like a full moon behind clouds. It's quadrupedal look is also welcomed.

The new Force of Nature is also a good addition to the now quartet. It feels like it's meant to follows Keldeo in terms of how different it's meant to look fro the other 3. And now, it looks like the group is "completed" (somewhat), with each Therian form of the Forces of Nature taking inspiration from the Four Symbols of Chinese origin; Tornadus/Vermillion Bird, Thundurus/Azure Dragon, Landorus/White Tiger, and Enamorus/Black Tortoise. There is a missing rep; the fifth Yellow Dragon, but that is likely for later. (and the weather Enamorus represents? Love is in the air.)

I know they're weird, but I do like how Dialga and Palkia's earlier forms look. They emulate elements of Arceus, but they also look like they're coming into their own. How bizarre they look is also something I think fits very well; they are among the very first 7 Pokemon to ever exist; they ought to look weird, and even ignoring that they're the first, they were still created by a god to represent concepts of reality that we can't control or measure in a meaningful way. To me, they're a like how biblically accurate angels look.

The Hisuian starters final evos/new forms are also satisfying.

Decidueye's coloration fits its english name very well (a deciduous tree is a tree whose leaves change colors in the fall), and seems to take inspiration from a samurai, who would wear these hats on their travels? I'll check bulbapedia one day, because they usually research a Pokemon's inspiration very well.

Typhlosion also has origins I can't trace with confidence just by looking, but that doesn't mean its ghost typing and use of spectral fire is any less cool. The fire spots on its neck are also cute and give me a feeling that it was selectively bread that way to protect itself from predators, functioning similarly to spike collars.

and Samurott, they hardly needed to change much to make it fit into anything; it's still a samurai, but a likely a ronin, or just a slight comment on how terrible Samurai could be back in the day. One way Samurai would test their new swords was to hide and wait at a crossroad, and when a commoner would come by, they would strike and see how well their blade worked; it's a crossroad killing, which is also the Japanese name of Night Slash.

 

[Salamander]

11 hours ago, Sapphirine Wind said:

Ah, this has been my issue with the game. I can't really see the point in getting this open world game if the world is... bland and empty. spoiler images have done the world very few favors, and that's a shame.

The Pokemon designs, as usual, are the only part of the game that I can find myself completely happy with.

I don't think spoilers are necessary in this forum, but I'll use them anyway; my commentary on the new Pokemon is somewhat long.

  Hide contents

Growlithe and Arcanine's new forms play very well into it's inspiration of Komainu/Shi/Shisa. If other spoilers I've seen imply what I am thinking, there's also a volcanic element that really fits in with them.

Really like the Voltorb and Electrode designs. I think their hallowed out, apricorn designs work so much more than the normal designs and give them much needed depth.

Sneasel's new form is really neat, and I liked the Sneasel evo's lanky design, it felt much more weasel-like and I wonder if it will play more into the Kamaitachi inspiration.

Nothing but happy with Sliggoo and Goodra's addition of a snail shell. I wonder if this form was inspired by the Shussebora?

The Quillfish form is simple but sweet, and its evo feels very appropriate for the species over all.

The new Lilligant form is grass/fighting, so this design with no "dress/skit", shorter hair and smaller flower makes a lot of sense. It's also cool to see its legs.

And the Avalugg form is also very nice. It's essentially the glaciers forming and melding with the sediment as it smooths them over, and is a concept that never occurred to me.

Both Basculegions are nice. I like the different take on suffering loss that both have; one is enraged while the other is sorrowful.

Ursaring's evo is one I'm very fond of. Although Ursaring's ring on its body can be interpreted as the new moon, I really love that the moon symbol returns to its forehead, looking like a full moon behind clouds. It's quadrupedal look is also welcomed.

The new Force of Nature is also a good addition to the now quartet. It feels like it's meant to follows Keldeo in terms of how different it's meant to look fro the other 3. And now, it looks like the group is "completed" (somewhat), with each Therian form of the Forces of Nature taking inspiration from the Four Symbols of Chinese origin; Tornadus/Vermillion Bird, Thundurus/Azure Dragon, Landorus/White Tiger, and Enamorus/Black Tortoise. There is a missing rep; the fifth Yellow Dragon, but that is likely for later. (and the weather Enamorus represents? Love is in the air.)

I know they're weird, but I do like how Dialga and Palkia's earlier forms look. They emulate elements of Arceus, but they also look like they're coming into their own. How bizarre they look is also something I think fits very well; they are among the very first 7 Pokemon to ever exist; they ought to look weird, and even ignoring that they're the first, they were still created by a god to represent concepts of reality that we can't control or measure in a meaningful way. To me, they're a like how biblically accurate angels look.

The Hisuian starters final evos/new forms are also satisfying.

Decidueye's coloration fits its english name very well (a deciduous tree is a tree whose leaves change colors in the fall), and seems to take inspiration from a samurai, who would wear these hats on their travels? I'll check bulbapedia one day, because they usually research a Pokemon's inspiration very well.

Typhlosion also has origins I can't trace with confidence just by looking, but that doesn't mean its ghost typing and use of spectral fire is any less cool. The fire spots on its neck are also cute and give me a feeling that it was selectively bread that way to protect itself from predators, functioning similarly to spike collars.

and Samurott, they hardly needed to change much to make it fit into anything; it's still a samurai, but a likely a ronin, or just a slight comment on how terrible Samurai could be back in the day. One way Samurai would test their new swords was to hide and wait at a crossroad, and when a commoner would come by, they would strike and see how well their blade worked; it's a crossroad killing, which is also the Japanese name of Night Slash.

 

I've enjoyed reading your thoughts; I've been lining up my own as more footage has come in, and I think I'm ready to put them down in black and white (as it were).  I have a couple of ideas which connect with your own.

Spoiler

Hisuian Arcanine: A bit disappointing after Growlithe, oddly.  Its smoother and more styled mane is a different look, but I don't like the way the dark grey colour looks against its reddish fur, and overall it feels like a design they could've done more with.  They should've leaned in harder, I think, and given it a really billowing mane of spirals, if it's going to resemble the classical lion dogs.

Hisuian Electrode: I honestly think this is a subtle, clever bit of commentary on the design relationship between Voltorb and Electrode.  It's weird that Voltorb goes from having full cartoon eyes to just dot-eyes, so the Hisuian form reinvents the dots as weird holes in its surface and adds a cut-out area to create the suggestion of the cartoon eyes; and just as Electrode is a flipped Voltorb, the Hisuian form's drawn-on mouth appears to literally be standard Electrode's smirk, flipped upside-down!  I think it's quite clever.  Unexciting, but clever.  I'd say I agree that the designs do have a little more depth; more texture.  Pokemon's designs have increased in sophistication and complexity as the series has moved through more advanced hardware, and I think these designs also help to make Voltorb and Electrode feel a bit more at home in the HD era.

Hisuian Sneasel and Sneasler: I don't really care for Sneasel, which is just Sneasel with a goofier colour scheme - and in general I've never been fond of the reinterpretation of Sneasel from a frownier beast to something smug and mischievous.  Sneasler, meanwhile, is just a stretched-out Sneasel, and its too-humanoid proportions give it powerful "guy in a mascot suit" energy; and again, there's just something about the colour scheme which looks unpleasant to me.  To be honest, I don't think even Weavile was as good a design as the original Sneasel, though, which was effective for how understated it was.

Hisuian Sliggoo and Goodra: Leaning into the snail aspect of Sliggoo and extending that into a reinterpretation of Goodra's tail was a smart move, and going with a Steel-typing creates a highly distinctive result.  The new Sliggoo is a bit weird for my tastes, but that's fine as it's only an intermediate form before Goodra.  Interesting idea that it derives from the yokai Shussebora!  It's a new one on me, but sure, why not?  Once the Pokedex entries become more accessible, they may shed some light on this.

Hisuian Qwilfish and Overqwil: I mean, it doesn't do anything wrong, but it doesn't really do anything right, either; it's just a fairly obvious design that you wouldn't necessarily know came from Pokemon.

Hisuian Lilligant: It's actually a nice design, a bit angular, reminiscent of a human martial artist in some respects, but it's actually a bit more conservative a design than the original Lilligant and reads as being a little plain as a result.

Hisuian Avalugg: Adding rock textures to its sides so that it's only really snowy on the upper surface and on the head makes its design a little more interesting, but fundamentally it's just Avalugg with a snowplough, and Avalugg always had serious limitations as a design.  Maybe you have to see it in action, but in general I think all Avalugg really needed was to be in a game with free camera control so you could actually get a better look at all angles of its design.

White Stripe Basculin and Basculegion(s): White Stripe Basculin appears to be a combination of design features from Red Stripe and Blue Stripe. I like the paler Basculegion form as a complement to the red, but it strikes me as odd that there are red and white Basculegions, but not really a blue one.

Ursaluna I agree is a hit.  Ursaring was a fine design for its time but looks very plain now, and reinterpreting it as a beefier quadrupedal bear with masses of shaggy fur gives it a fresh look with some of the complexity I expect from a final form - and it looks more unique, too.  The clouded-moon motif on its forehead sets it off; it kind of annoys me that it's asymmetrical, but it's fine, I guess.

Enamorus: So there are some clever things here.  I like the way the design reinterprets the odd genie "tail" as a serpent, and how it becomes a scarf to give it some of the upper body bulk that the previous genies had.  I like how elegantly this dovetails into the Therian form and (retroactively?) complements the other Therians as a giant allusion to the Four Guardian Beasts.  Given that Landorus is a more positive force compared to the destructive Tornadus and Thundurus, adding a second positive force as a balancing act makes sense, here representing the advent of spring and the coming of new life.  And I like that they had the guts to add to this very male-coded group, so very near to being recolours when first introduced, a female member with a more unique design.  ...What I don't like is that it looks very, very much as if they decided to make a female genie and then slapped on all the shallowest, most obvious gender coding there is.

"Lord" Dialga/Palkia: So, the idea of giving them new forms as a complement to Giratina's Origin Forme makes sense.  Those designs being inspired by Arceus makes sense.  But they're really messy - and detract, I think, from what the clean, stylish, almost robot-like designs of the originals.  The new Dialga I don't think works at all; it just looks like a bunch of random parts fused onto it with no rhyme, reason, symmetry, the colour scheme changes mess with the cleanness of the original, and without its "armour" it looks weird naked around the torso, almost like an edit.  Palkia looks okay in motion, like a proper centaur with its upper torso having knightly aspects - but this actually makes it look strangely less alien and more like an ordinary sort of chimera.  I don't really see the logic in these designs; it's like they were made just to be new forms rather than being particularly grounded in a unifying idea, and the designer had artist's block and just had to throw in any old gubbins.

Hisuian Decidueye: This is the one people seem to think is a ronin, the wanderer with the straw hat.  I personally don't like the frondy appearance of its hat, or its goggle-like eyes - but I'm willing to put this down to taste, and what I do like is the way it arranges its wings into a mantle, and that they were willing to change its colour scheme.  It's just not as strong a design as the original, in my view.

Hisuian Typhlosion: People were not ready for a chill Typhlosion.  Neither was I - but for a Ghost-type, its eerie serenity is fine, and I think the purpler colour scheme, the unnatural motion of its flames, and the additional front flames give its design some of those necessary extra details where its original design now looks a bit plain owing to the evolving styles of the series.  Apparently its signature move indicates it has some ties to the Hyakki Yagyo, the night parade of the demons.

Hisuian Samurott: It's Samurott with a new hat.  It's not even a very new hat, it's largely just a change in the colour scheme of its off-details.  There are also slight tweaks to its facial hair... but fundamentally, this design doesn't really do enough; it looks more like Samurott in a costume.  I agree that it's meant to represent the dark side of the samurai, but it needed to do something more.  I'm no designer, but if I were I suppose I'd play around with additions to the surface of Samurott's body; designs resembling scars or bloodstains, maybe, it's a bit obvious but it's a starting-point.  Just animating it in an unfamiliar way would do a lot.

At this point I'm just waiting for easier access to the Pokedex entries; they're out there, but until the official release they won't be showing up in the obvious places.

[Sonictrainer]

Fuecoco & Smoliv's Evolutions have been leaked

Spoiler

 

[Sonictrainer]

There's not a lot of Spoilers for the Teal Mask, since the Kitakami Dex was already leaked months ago but some new information has leaked recently via Twitter.

 

[Blue Blood]

Lol what? That's one new form I don't think anyone expected for even a second. 

Spoiler

Ursaring was always one of my favourite Gen 2 'mon and Ursaluna was a really fun addition in PLA. They really didn't need to go and add yet more to it by giving it that Blood Moon form. I kind of wish that another Pokémon got the attention instead. 

 

[Salamander]

It's weird how much love the DLC is giving to Pokemon from literally just one generation ago.  Well, you can't accuse them of Gen I pandering!