[Sword & Shield] Anyone else disappointed with Rolycoly's evolutions?

Rolycoly is pretty cool in its firm form:



But then it evolves into these two guys:



I was really disappointed when I saw the middle form, and it didn't get much better at the final evolution. Gives me Rhyperior vibes, I thought it would look better. :x Does anyone else agree, or do you like it?

Carkol has an awful case of middle-stage syndrome in my opinion - I think it's the face, it reminds me of the train Digimon in the Frontier season for some reason - but I love Coalossal, both for its design and its naming sense. I don't think the parallel to Rhyperior is necessarily a bad thing; a lot of Gen V Pokemon could be directly paralleled to Pokemon from earlier generations (the Timburr line is pretty clearly the Unova version of the Machop line, Tympole is Poliwag, etc.) and it fits the Galar region; I think in this case lore and inspiration trump aesthetics. The Gigantamax version is a letdown for its lack of variety, but I don't think much of most Gmax Pokemon so I wouldn't say it was any worse than some of the others.

I did hope for something else due to the base form, but Coalossal is a pretty good mon. Guess I was just hoping for something that kept the wheel?
As for Carkol... I rarely care for middle stages =p

Middle evolutions usually tend to be the weakest, design wise. Coalossal Is okay! But.. that's about it lol.

Yeah, not really a huge fan. I got a strong one from Surprise Trade and stayed with it for the remainder of my first playthrough (especially since it could Gigantamax), but in subsequent playthroughs I never really bothered to use it again. Currently, the Coalossal is just sitting in the PC unused.

Scorbunny is the only Galar starter I like, so having a second Fire-type in my party is redundant anyway. As for a Rock-type with a design I like, I would have chosen Rockruff if the DLC were out back then.

I def am!
When I first saw Rolycoly, I loved it a lot and was anticipating it would turn into a train. And then I saw the leaks and my excitement just turned sour when I saw Carkoal and Coalossal.

They aren't even good designs, they took everything that was so unique and creative from Rolycoly and turned them into the most generic designs I have ever seen. I guess Carkoal at least looks like a mine cart and kept the wheels but I just don't like the face at all; why did it have to have generic triangle eyes???? And I agree Coalossal just looks like Rhyperior 2.0 but with much less flow because they took a rock monster and was like "oh right it's supposed to be made out of coal" and slapped the coal on it. Ig the Gigantimax is slightly better but it fails to reverse my disappointment.

If Lucario weren't a mess, Coalossal would easily be my least favourite Pokémon but for now it's my second least favourite.

I am not really a big fan of Carkoal's design, but I understand what they were going for. They wanted Carkoal to resemble a mine trolley, but it just came out looking stupid in my opinion. However, I like Coalossal's appearance. It's a mixture of a stack of coal, dried magma from a volcano, and, in some ways, a giant walking hand grenade.

As soon as I saw Rolycoly, Carkoal and Coalossal I instantly liked it and used it as my Fire type on Sword and Coalossal has been amazing on the team absolutely one of my favourite Galar Pokemon I managed to catch Coalossal on Route 3 as a Rolycoly in a Luxury Ball.

This was my team on Sword

Inteleon
Corviknight
Toxtricity (Amped Form)
Coalossal
Eldegoss
Thievul

I think all three are pretty ace to be fair, and Coalossal VMAX was a really viable rogue deck for a while

We actually loved Carkool when we saw it and instantly added it to our team, and not having any leaks we didn't know what it would evolve into until it evolved and... yeah. We'd probably love Coalossal a lot more if it fit the theme, but as it stands it feels kind of generic and a disappointing end to the line

While I love my shiny Coalossal as its the first shiny I've succesfully bred, I wanted it to commit to the train theme, especially in a region based on the UK. Then again, I can't actually visualise a design in my head that would work. That may be a lack of imagination given I know how it actually looks, or it might mean something...

Anyway, I find this sentence from its Pokédex entry has a lot to unpack:

Pokédex said:

It's usually peaceful, but the vandalism of mines enrages it.

Click to expand...

So...before the industrial era did Coalossal exist? Or by vandalism do they actually mean mining, in which Coalossal was a horror movie villain for miners? The latter one would work really well on film / animated with its current design - you'd see the glow from the flames coming up the cave, but due to its size as it got closer things would actually get darker, before lightening again as it unleashes a Fire attack!

I wasn't that disappointed, I thought Carkoal was pretty cute, actually. Coalassal isn't all that bad, either. I think it pulls off the "coal" theme well, so I was never really disappointed.

I think that every design in Sword and Shield have an interesting concept, although some failed design-wise. But I'm ok with pretty much every single one. For a long time I didn't like Drizzile and Inteleon, but then when I chose Sobble as my starter, I started growing more attached to them.

As for Carkoal and Coalossal, I do like 'em. I just think Carkoal's face needs a bit of a redesign. Again, love the concepts and don't hate the designs, but I do think that Rolycoly is a bit better.

Rolycoly is a perfect name, oh my goodness...

No one beats Magcargo in my book as far as the rock and fire type combination go. I do however enjoy this evolutionary chain from Galar, even though to me out of its three members the finest looking one is Coalossal since, after all, it does have a good carbon based monster appearance. Its signature ability's great as well and fits the concept.

Oh fully agree. Given Carkol's design I was expecting it to continue the coal theme and evolve into a living steam train. Coalossal's kaiju design feels very out of place - Remoraid to Octillery and Dewott to Samurott kept the weapons and samurai themes respectively but that mountain of coal looks so tacked on imo.

I like all of this Pokémons evolution stages. Could definitely see them being super popular as mobile heat sources in a RL Pokémon world.