Evolving legendaries - cheap or not?

[Rabbit]

The only exception to this that I can come up with is if somehow, the scientists captures, or collected data, on the three Legendary Dogs and then merged that data into an undeveloped Pokemon Egg that could hatch into the pre-evolution. Actually, that sounds pretty good...

That's the way it works, actually. In my gameworld, no-one has ever been able to capture a legendary Pokemon (let's pretend that Suicune from the Anime never existed). All the evidence scientists have that the Legendary Dogs exist is some scraps of genetic material painstakingly collected from places they were rumoured to have been seen. The DNA is incomplete, but gaps have been filled in with genetic code from other, similar species. Working with that genetic material, the scientists have finally been able to 'clone' a Legendary Dog prototype. Supposedly, coming in contact with the right evolutionary stone at the right location fills in gaps in the Pokemon's DNA, turning it into Suicune, Raikou, or Entei.

I don't think that breeding them is a good idea I kinda spoils the idea of getting a legandary that no one else has. But evolving is an alright idea.

Hm, I didn't realize that Legendary Pokemon couldn't be bred at all, even with a Ditto. I think I'll go with that - a Pokemon that evolves into any one of the Legendary Dogs, but can't be bred. That way, the player will have to choose which one they want, and stick with it.

 

[ThePokemonChronicles]

naw, i wouldn't say cheap, i really like that idea!

 

[Maruno]

I like the idea of giving prevolutions to legendary pokémon (not evolutions - they're strong enough already). Many legendaries just look too "old" to be newly born (in the wild, so it makes sense that there's some unseen prevolution to them that we just don't see because their nests are hidden).

However, I'm not fond of the idea of the three legendary dogs (or birds) having a common prevolution. They may be grouped together by humans, but that doesn't make them related. Having separate prevolutions for them (Suicub, Raikid, Entyke) would be fine, though.

And starting off with the prevolution is kinda cheap, yeah. Giving the protagonist a rare pokémon as their starter (or having them easily obtainable) kinda comes off as "I don't have enough other features to keep people interested".

To (try to) stop people complaining about "zomg legendaries don't evolve lolzorz!" (I don't do leet), make it clear that you're not mimicking the established Pokéworld, and that you're taking your own spin on the idea. A parallel Universe, perhaps.

Also, no one said the three killed pokémon (that Ho-Oh revived) weren't already a Raikou, Entei and Suicune. Ho-Oh didn't necessarily take three Houndours and change them into new pokémon, y'know.

 

[Rabbit]

And starting off with the prevolution is kinda cheap, yeah. Giving the protagonist a rare pokémon as their starter (or having them easily obtainable) kinda comes off as "I don't have enough other features to keep people interested".

Nooo. It's not the player's starter - that would be totally cheap. The prevo egg appears in the middle of the game, similar to the Wynaut egg in R/S/E.

 

[Maruno]

Nooo. It's not the player's starter - that would be totally cheap. The prevo egg appears in the middle of the game, similar to the Wynaut egg in R/S/E.

I hope you've got a really good reason for the scientist to randomly give you an egg containing an experimental baby legendary egg. The harder it would be to obtain, the better (maybe like Tyrogue in Gen 2 - long cave with a space in party).