Article: The Yamper line: a disappointment?

Thanks for the comments in the previous thread about Yamper! Some hot takes included :V

So, what are your thoughts about Yamper and Boltund?

While I love Yamper, Boltund just looks like a generic real world dog to me. I never felt the need to use one. Boltund is still an okay Electric type, though, at the very least, but its character design is just... average at best. :( Yamper is precious, though, he's a good boy, and deserved to place so high among the Galar Pokemon of the Year. Maybe if Boltund gets a Gigantamax form, it'd be better off, but eh... we'll see.

Boltund's a slew of wasted opportunities. During prerelease I was hoping for Yamper to evolve to an Electric/Fairy Cu Sith. But nope, it evolves into a pure Electric-type based on an ordinary dog with no signs of a fae theme. Its design also reminds me of a complaint people have with the Lilipup line - sure they're very realistic, but Herdier and Stoutland are more than capable of pulling their weight throughout the game.

Bolthund: 69/90/60/90/60/121
Herdier: 65/80/65/35/65/60
Herdier can take hits better than Boltund, and its attack stat is only 10 points weaker.

Bolthund: 69/90/60/90/60/121
Stoutland: 85/110/90/45/90/80
Stoutland had 100 attack in Gen V, and even then was 10 points higher than Boltund's 90. It builds on Lilipup and Herdier's design elements (dark blue fur on back, brown body, face fur) and actually looks like their evolution.

All it has going for it is its speed. Gamefreak ignored a lot of potential mythological inspirations with Gen 8 imo. It's a shame too since I love dog Pokemon.

Boltund is quite an evolutionary downgrade, not gonna lie.

Yamper should have definitely evolved into a lazy royal doggo, considering the scarf, a corgi's association with the Queen of England, and overall low Speed stat.

The pupper has plenty of dedicated fans and it was a slap in the face when it evolved into a generic cartoon doggo.

That would also be another symptom of how rushed SwSh are, but that's just nitpicking on my end.

I personally don't think anything's wrong with them. They have good stats and they are both quite adorable. Not my favourites but I think the backlash is undeserved.

In my opinion there are way worse designed generation 8 pokemon.

I think they're both adorable. Haven't used them in battle yet but I'm sure they're decent. And they're both reasonably look like pokemon. As far as design goes a pokemon like Eiscue is disappointing to me.

Yeah, pretty much. I tried Boltund in my nuzrun of the game and it was fun... until I eventually boxed him because he was just not interesting to use and yes, it's design was one of the biggest reasons to why it wasn't that good. It's... just simply a dog with electricity and that's it. It wasn't too good with stats either. I think the best way to improve the line is to straight up make Boltund evolve. Now THAT would be interesting.

Not a big fan of yamper but boltund is very cool looking. I personally like the simple designs based on real animals.

Competively, boltund can be a good clean up. His stats don't particularly leap out at you, but his elemental fang coverage, coupled with strong jaw and add a choice band/life orb. He can hold his own surprisingly well.

I don't think he'll ever be an OU contender or a first choice when there's better strong jaw users, but boltund shouldn't be taken lightly lol.

I remember when Yamper was revealed and I said it looks boring and someone told me I don't understand Pokémon. Those were good old times. I still find it pretty lackluster and boring. But it has fun ability for singleplayer. I don't even want to remember Boltund, but design-wise it's still a little bit better than Galarian Rapidash.

Yamper is alright, I wasn't a huge fan of it to begin with but I didn't dislike it either.
Boltund is as generic as dog pokemon can get. Plus, we already had a way nicer looking canine electric pokemon in the form of Manectric and they didn't do anything to make Boltund stand out. No special typing, nothing about its appearance. Really strange for a pokemon whose pre-evolution was heavily used for marketing before release.

But then the shiny. It's so awful. I'm already not a fan of shinies that barely differ from the original but Boltund did this in the worst way possible. I'd actually prefer shiny Garchomp or Gengar over it. The sole reason I hunted for a shiny Yamper was for completion purposes, it being the last breedable Galar pokemon I hunted.

Pyrax said:

Boltund's a slew of wasted opportunities. During prerelease I was hoping for Yamper to evolve to an Electric/Fairy Cu Sith. But nope, it evolves into a pure Electric-type based on an ordinary dog with no signs of a fae theme. Its design also reminds me of a complaint people have with the Lilipup line - sure they're very realistic, but Herdier and Stoutland are more than capable of pulling their weight throughout the game.

Bolthund: 69/90/60/90/60/121
Herdier: 65/80/65/35/65/60
Herdier can take hits better than Boltund, and its attack stat is only 10 points weaker. .

Click to expand...

Hah, Herdier being more bulky... and that's before an Evolite as well!

Ninetales said:

I personally don't think anything's wrong with them. They have good stats and they are both quite adorable. Not my favourites but I think the backlash is undeserved.

In my opinion there are way worse designed generation 8 pokemon.

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For sake of discussion or argument, which ones do you feel are worse?

Dracowyn said:

Yamper is alright, I wasn't a huge fan of it to begin with but I didn't dislike it either.
Boltund is as generic as dog pokemon can get. Plus, we already had a way nicer looking canine electric pokemon in the form of Manectric and they didn't do anything to make Boltund stand out. No special typing, nothing about its appearance. Really strange for a pokemon whose pre-evolution was heavily used for marketing before release.

But then the shiny. It's so awful. I'm already not a fan of shinies that barely differ from the original but Boltund did this in the worst way possible. I'd actually prefer shiny Garchomp or Gengar over it. The sole reason I hunted for a shiny Yamper was for completion purposes, it being the last breedable Galar pokemon I hunted.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not a nice shiny at all imo. I've seen worse, but it's not one I like.

Kudos on getting all of them though, that seems quite the achievement!

Still wondering if Boltund is a reference to the movie Bolt. xD

bobandbill said:

Hah, Herdier being more bulky... and that's before an Evolite as well!
For sake of discussion or argument, which ones do you feel are worse?
Yeah, it's not a nice shiny at all imo. I've seen worse, but it's not one I like.

Kudos on getting all of them though, that seems quite the achievement!

Click to expand...

Thanks, it was quite the task. I still need all four fossil ones though since soft resetting isn't as fast as it was on the 3DS so I'll try for those later on.

I like both of them. I named mine after my friend's dog Shelby who looks like Boltund.

boltund looks silly to me. i think it's the eyes and snout. just looks. idk. bland. it was nice to have a cute little chunky corgi and then he turns into that and it's meh. reminds me a lot of blitzle and zebstrika. great designs and people were hype for them, but ultimately failed to impress in battle. although i'd rank zebstrika much more visually appealing than boltund. still though, it's a shame.