News: Pokémon Sun and Moon Starter evolutions, demo and Ash-Greninja

[Hikamaru]

I'm sorry, awkward? I don't see what's awkward about it. It's not like I see people (in this forum, anyway) moving in droves from Rowlet to Popplio. If anything, these second-stage reveals only marginally changed things; people who were set on Rowlet since day one are probably more set on it now than before.

It's only me describing its mixed reaction. People think it's cool, but some think it's odd like what the middle evolutions are meant to be, aka the awkward teenager stage. I have seen some Rowlet fans still say they are sticking with it, but others are getting drawn away as well.

It was pretty much the same way with Fennekin, who was Rowlet's predecessor as the most popular before-release starter. Braixen's reveal split Fennekin's fanbase a bit as well, and that's what Dartrix seems to be doing to Rowlet at the moment.

 

[blue]

Something that was missed is that the Ice Stone seems to be a new evolutionary stone.

 

[Spinosaurus]

Happy about Ash Greninja. XY anime is pretty cool, despite the end result.

The mid stage starters are ok. Dartrix is dumb looking but I like it for that. I just don't get the connection between a narcissistic pretty boy and a vigilante archer. I doubt Green Arrow was the inspiration here, so I wonder where they got that idea from. Not really what I expected the mid form to look like at all.

Torracat is alright, makes sense for a mid stage between Litten and Tiger Mask, so I'm cool with it. Brionne is ugly to me though, can't say I like it at all. Between the pig tails antennae, the wierd looking frilly dress and the really awkward looking human eyes I really, really hate it. I feel like the eyes are one of the most important design elements for a Pokemon, but the Love Live looking eyes stick out way too much. The whole idol thing doesn't sit with me either, where did it come from? Why did Popplio go from a circus seal, to an idol? And then a siren? what. What happened to Juggalo Popplio.

I'm glad the final evos are already leaked honestly, cuz I really like all of them. This would've made me conflicted about the direction they're going otherwise rofl.

 

[Mawa]

Not confirmed! Just an assumption I made based on the trend. But looking on Bulbapedia, the Chikorita line is also listed as 87.5% male. I agree it's not a huge deal either way though.

I was sure it was more female than male :o Like, not physically but I thought I've seen the ratio before... but you are right! Well, I learned something today. So we don't have any starter with a bigger female ration than male... that's interesting...

my thpughts also Rowlet's evo looks nothing like the leak sooo....

Look at Datrix in the video, he's moving one wing in the air:

It kinda look like the final evo in the leaks:

Plus, there is the triangles on the wing, both the middle and final has it.
Oh and if you take a look at rowlet's green feathers on it's back, he only has one (who look kinda divided in two). Then, Datrix has 2 of them. And the leaks? He got 3. Kinda like the chevron patterns with the Talonflame's line.
The colors of the wings and the little spots on them are just inverted with the middle evo and the final evo.


Well, that's the things I analyzed :3

 

[クリスタル]

Looking at the middle forms, it seems like the previously leaked final evos of the 3 starters are definitely true. Not bad, I'm fine with that.

Though, I have a bit of problem with AshGreninja. I don't mind that this form finally make it into the game, but..... why still calling it AshGreninja? I don't plan to name my player "Ash", I already planned some better name that IMO sounds lot more cooler than "Ash". But the Greninja that have a bond relation with me, is named after someone else!? This doesn't sound right at all.
Also, the bond transformation mechanic is achieved by making it into a Greninja-exclusive ability. It is not a standalone new mechanic that functions individually, but being an ability!? That also sounds something is wrong, especially when that bond transformation is not supposed to be something intrinsic to Greninja as a species, but event-exclusive gimmick that is made specifically for this Greninja. Suppose that special demo Greninja is clearly marked "Ash Ketchum" as its trainer, then it is understandable. But I don't want my Greninja where its trainer is clearly me in my name, evolved into something that represent someone else.

That is just my two cents.

 

[Altairis]

I was sure it was more female than male :o Like, not physically but I thought I've seen the ratio before... but you are right! Well, I learned something today. So we don't have any starter with a bigger female ration than male... that's interesting...



Look at Datrix in the video, he's moving one wing in the air:

It kinda look like the final evo in the leaks:

Plus, there is the triangles on the wing, both the middle and final has it.
Oh and if you take a look at rowlet's green feathers on it's back, he only has one (who look kinda divided in two). Then, Datrix has 2 of them. And the leaks? He got 3. Kinda like the chevron patterns with the Talonflame's line.
The colors of the wings and the little spots on them are just inverted with the middle evo and the final evo.


Well, that's the things I analyzed :3

I see it but I also kinda don't. Hmm. I dunno it looks just really awkward in the middle of the first and final, but I guess I could see it.

 

[blue]

Dart-ix, arrows, archer? Idk, but I'm unwillingly starting to accept the facts that those are the final stages..

 

[Ducolamia]

As if I couldn't get any less hyped... Torracat is actually decent, but the idea that it's still quadruped at this stage but then still manages to find a way to stand up and become that... thing in the end just hurts.

The Mega Evolution animation looks sick and I love it, but confirming that next year's VGC format doesn't allow Mega Stones practically confirms there will be no new Megas. If there were any, there's no way they'd not allow them in next year's format. So there goes that dream.

And Ash-Greninja... Yeah, I don't really need to say anything. I'm even less hyped about SM than I was about ORAS. I'm incredibly disappointed in these "gen 1 set in Hawaii" games and I'm not happy about it.

To be honest, I agree to an extent, Torracat looks pretty cool, but I do wish we had a quad tiger in it's final evolution. I actually don't have much beef with Litten3 as most people do, but while I feel it's disproportionate and kind of ugly, I feel that I kind of predicted it would turn out that way...considering the trend with the starters and all that.

Glad Megas are back but even more glad that theys are getting debuffed. I've said this before and I'll say it again, Megas are too OP. In some cases you can use them for fun, but when everyone online has the same set of Mega Lucario and Kangaskhan set it really becomes a bore.

To some degree, I disagree. I feel these games are turning out to be better than Gen 1 could ever be. While, I admit I'm sick of the gen 1 pandering from these game, I don't feel like it's fair to call these games "gen 1 set in Hawaii". There is so much more lore to this place than I think there has been for any other Pokemon game and these new features don't seem half bad. I feel they really want to go out here and it shows.

 

[Superfox]

Megas being confirmed to return was hinted at with the Jangmo-o article that mentioned Mega Gardevoir, but I still doubt we'll get no new Megas unfortunately.

Wait. I'm a bit confused by your wording here. Do you mean to say that you think we won't get any new Mega Evolutions or that you think we will?

 

[Hikamaru]

Wait. I'm a bit confused by your wording here. Do you mean to say that you think we won't get any new Mega Evolutions or that you think we will?

I think we won't get any new Mega Evolutions.

 

[Superfox]

I think we won't get any new Mega Evolutions.

Oh, okay. Yeah, that would kinda suck. No offense, but I hope you're wrong. LOL. I sincerely hope we get some new megas, if only like three (to cover one of the previous generation's starters). Johto, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos starters need megas, IMO.

 

[Nah]

I don't get why everyone is thinking that the reveal of the mid-stage evos confirms that the Chinese final evo leak is legit. Cuz I don't see it.

Popplio's final evolution is rumored to be a mermaid. This doesn't seem to fit in though with the concepts behind the previous forms. Popplio is based on a circus tricks seal. Brionne is based off of what looks like, to me at least, Japanese pop idols. So the concept with the Water starter line in Sun/Moon is of a performer. And mermaids don't fit into that, mermaids are not performers.

And then there's Rowlet and Dartrix. This is admittedly kind of more like a crack theory of mine but bear with me for a sec (and some of you may guess where I'm going with this). Rowlet's final form is rumored to be an archer, specifically a Robin Hood-esque archer. Nothing so far points to that being the conclusion though. On the official website it states things like:

Dartrix is extremely sensitive to other presences in the area and can detect opponents behind it and throw feathers to strike them without even seeing them.

It conceals sharp-bladed feathers inside its wings. It can even bend these feathers to change their trajectories!

And this is clearly not about arrows, but daggers and throwing knives. If it shot feathers at enemies that'd be a different story, but it's specifically that it throws them. And now this is the crack theory part. This together with the leaf bowtie that both sport and the kind of personality it has.....makes me think of the Butler class from Fire Emblem Fates, and Jakob more specifically. Hey, there's things in Sun/Moon that look like vague references to Fire Emblem to me, stop it with the looks >=(

Litten I have no idea about, right now it's literally just a cat that evolves into a bigger cat, there's really not much to go off of =/


.....ok now someone save this post so when November comes and I'm inevitably wrong you can be like "HA NAH YOU WERE WRONG, YOU WERE WROOOOOOOONG lololololol"


Also yes it's almost certain now that there's no new Megas, and I agree with what ????? said about Ash-Greninja.

 

[kingdenas]

I wasn't expecting the starters' middle evos to be like that! Especially Popplio 0.0 I mean, I'm don't care if it's a feminine design or whatnot, but I wasn't expecting that :/ For me it just looks like the "Female Version" of Popplio, but whatever... If that thing evolves into that gorgeous looking mermaid, than I'm super fine =D

 

[Spinosaurus]

Mallow being in the concept art leak before her actual reveal is more than enough to believe its real.

That's on top of the chinese leak that's been incredibly accurate so far (fire/poison lizard, rugby monkey, mushroom, sea cucumber, werewolf rockruff) mentioning that the starters are archer, wrestler and siren.

Inconsistencies between evolutions is pretty much a tradition at this point.

 

[Superfox]

I don't get why everyone is thinking that the reveal of the mid-stage evos confirms that the Chinese final evo leak is legit. Cuz I don't see it.

Popplio's final evolution is rumored to be a mermaid. This doesn't seem to fit in though with the concepts behind the previous forms. Popplio is based on a circus tricks seal. Brionne is based off of what looks like, to me at least, Japanese pop idols. So the concept with the Water starter line in Sun/Moon is of a performer. And mermaids don't fit into that, mermaids are not performers.

And then there's Rowlet and Dartrix. This is admittedly kind of more like a crack theory of mine but bear with me for a sec (and some of you may guess where I'm going with this). Rowlet's final form is rumored to be an archer, specifically a Robin Hood-esque archer. Nothing so far points to that being the conclusion though. On the official website it states things like:

And this is clearly not about arrows, but daggers and throwing knives. If it shot feathers at enemies that'd be a different story, but it's specifically that it throws them. And now this is the crack theory part. This together with the leaf bowtie that both sport and the kind of personality it has.....makes me think of the Butler class from Fire Emblem Fates, and Jakob more specifically. Hey, there's things in Sun/Moon that look like vague references to Fire Emblem to me, stop it with the looks >=(

Litten I have no idea about, right now it's literally just a cat that evolves into a bigger cat, there's really not much to go off of =/


.....ok now someone save this post so when November comes and I'm inevitably wrong you can be like "HA NAH YOU WERE WRONG, YOU WERE WROOOOOOOONG lololololol"


Also yes it's almost certain now that there's no new Megas, and I agree with what ????? said about Ash-Greninja.

Brionne looks very mermaid-esque to me. Remember, Pok?mon are rarely carbon copies of the things they're based on. So a Pok?mon based on mermaids is not going to look like Ariel. However, it really doesn't take too much imagination to look at Brionne and think "mermaid."

As for Dartix, you do realize that there is not much of a difference, for these purposes, between throwing knives and arrows, right? Both are bladed projectiles. Now, it really doesn't take much imagination to consider that, while Dartix throws its bladed feathers, its evolution then evolves a way to shoot them like arrows.

 

[Keromatsu]

I can't believe it! I love this. My favorite Pokemon getting all the attention! Can't wait for the demo!

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Is this confirmed? The chickorita line as a bigger female ratio, maybe this one will be more female too. But her, Pokemon gender are not a big deal either.



..... Brionne's category is Pop Star Pokemon. Rowlett's evo look emo/alternative? is the new Pokemon representing music? XD Okay that's a random thought...

Bu seriously, I think the chinese leaks are confirmed now. Just look at brionne and Rowlett's evo, Rowlet's line has the wing in the hair like the leaks.
The cat is on 4 legs. The leaks shows the cat on 2 paws, but I wonder if the Pokemon will be like half the time on 4 legs, and some times on 2. Like Purrloin?

Then Torracat must either represent Rock or Metal (music).

 

[Rivvon]

If your answer to all of this is a resounding ?\_(?)_/?, then yes, there's still so much we do not know.

That's fair but I'm not using the potential story as something to get hyped about. It could turn out good or it could turn out bad; right now the characters and plot are so vague that I don't want to have any expectations going in.

As for locations, well, sure. Some may end up being quaint little places. But a few nice towns likely won't make up for the disappointment I've got going right now. A practical example would be in gen 6, how I loved almost every single new Pok?mon, had a character I really really loved (Sycamore), I loved the music, there were some stand-out locations, and character customization was the best thing ever, but all of those things didn't change that XY ended up being a disappointment overall.

It's certainly not unfair to point out the Gen I bias. You're hardly alone in that boat, but my answer to that: who cares? Personally, I've long since accepted that Game Freak is going to pander to Kanto Pokemon since a month ago; if they were going to introduce Alola forms of other Pokemon from other generations, then that would've been a huge center focus already (at least, to me, anyway). As long as the Kanto Pokemon that do have Alola forms are the mostly underrated Pokemon that no one really pays attention to (and for the most part, they are), who cares? Game Freak seems to be doing it right.

Well... I care. I know it's been inevitable but it doesn't make it any less disappointing; even the most "underrated" gen 1 Pok?mon will be held in higher regard than even some of the more popular Pok?mon of other gens. Some Pok?mon may never get a chance to be revamped, and why? Because they're not from gen 1? And there aren't even new Megas to try and balance it out. It just doesn't sit right with me.

Sure, or it can be just about as good as BW or B2W2's, which, as I'm sure you're aware, were praised to the high hills and back for their plot. I don't understand the pessimism if we don't even know what even a portion of the plot even is yet besides the fact that it involved Ultra Beasts, Tapu Koko and.... that's it?

This isn't so much a point of pessimism for me; more like I refuse to look forward to an amazing story when it could turn out any which way and could just end up dashing my expectations yet again.

Sure, that's your opinion, and I respect that. That doesn't mean I won't be disappointed that your plane of hope crashed and sunk into the sea as soon as Gen I specific Alola forms and Ash-Greninja were confirmed. As I've mentioned, the solution is simple: pick another starter, and if you have an issue with Alola forms, don't get them and stick to either the region exclusives, or older Pokemon from past generations.

I don't particularly like any of the starters at this stage, and I never planned on using Alola forms to begin with. But that doesn't change that they're a pretty big focus of the game that really should have been open to other Pok?mon since this is the big series celebration title. And since I generally don't like many of the new Pok?mon, there really isn't much for me to look forward to... I may just have to use older Pok?mon and that's going to be very boring for me--or maybe I'll just have to do a Cutiefly solo run...

I'm also mostly surprised that you mention that you think there isn't anything to look forward to when nothing was even revealed in regards to the post-game content or anything... how can you have such a cynical viewpoint when you yourself aren't sure of what's going to be revealed?

I can't bring myself to fall into that trap. When was the last time we got a game with a post-game that wasn't a rebranded Battle Tower? After all this, I refuse to get my hopes up that we're getting anything substantial. We're almost a month away from release--I have a hard time imagining we have very many reveal dates and things to be revealed left.

I know this is probably my fault for being an idiot and thinking that "celebrating the series's 20th anniversary" and "it all comes together" meant that SM would do something to show respect to all the games, but I still can't get myself out of that mindset and the confirmation of no new Megas today has reaaaaaaally got me down.

To some degree, I disagree. I feel these games are turning out to be better than Gen 1 could ever be. While, I admit I'm sick of the gen 1 pandering from these game, I don't feel like it's fair to call these games "gen 1 set in Hawaii". There is so much more lore to this place than I think there has been for any other Pokemon game and these new features don't seem half bad. I feel they really want to go out here and it shows.

I'm sure SM will be better than gen 1, by miles and miles. But without even new Megas to give some sort of spotlight to other Pok?mon who deserve it, the gen 1 pandering becomes more and more apparent and just gives me even less to look forward to.

 

[Zervais]

I don't understand why they called it 'Ash-Greninja' in the game. The text states it 'evolves' when it's bond becomes strong with its trainer. You're not exactly playing as Ash, are you? So why call it 'Ash-Greninja'. No, I can't think of a better name for it, but the form name just seems silly.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

We could still get like 1-4 Megas with the small number being the reason to ban them for VCG 2017, as those 1-4 could make the teams rather dull...