News: Starter Pokémon, Legendaries, Region, Release Date for Sun and Moon Revealed!

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Interesting point made by GameXplain is how Caitlin could return. First was the silhouette with the names under them from the Japanese trailer, one of these names being Caitlin. Even though it was the Japanese trailer, there were parts from it that contained English names which wouldn't exactly debunk that theory. Not only that but in the Unova games she talks about how she has Villas all over the world, not to mention how she transitioned from head of Battle Tower in PT/HGSS to Elite Four in BWB2W2. Most importantly more of her dialogue reads "Will I be Champion somewhere next? Who knows!" I could be reading a little too much into this, but it does seem like a possibility?

If she's a gym leader I feel like the game would take place between Pt/HgSs and BW in the greater timescale, mostly as I don't see her being demoted like that. For Green/Blue it made sense, but not her.

 

[MasterSai]

i like rowellet as he is superrrrrrrrrrrrrr cute man

 

[Hikamaru]

I love all three Starter Pokemon. I would normally go with Popplio, but I love Litten and Rowlet too. The Legendaries look awesome too. I pre-ordered Pokemon Moon already, but I might have to pre-order Pokemon Sun too.

Most people usually like waiting for version exclusives before choosing which game to pick, and also wait for the starters' evolutions before choosing who their definite starter will be. I can understand wanting to choose both versions since that's usually me.

If she's a gym leader I feel like the game would take place between Pt/HgSs and BW in the greater timescale, mostly as I don't see her being demoted like that. For Green/Blue it made sense, but not her.

It's true, I really can't see it happening because as you said it would make the timeline questionable.

 

[WingsofBliss]

I think I'm gonna get Litten... usually I've liked the Water and Grass 'mons that were obtainable in each region outside of the Professor's lab.

Also because I've been watching too many cat videos on YouTube... guilty as charged.

 

[Hikamaru]

I think I'm gonna get Litten... usually I've liked the Water and Grass 'mons that were obtainable in each region outside of the Professor's lab.

I can understand you, especially given Fire-types outside of starters are usually rarer compared to Grass or Water-types. One thing I do hope for this trio is that they don't get outclassed by other Pokemon to the point that it's undesirable to use them, and the Unova starters' major flaw was that they were all outclassed in the story by other obtainable Pokemon.

 

[blue]

Fire types have been the best for the past three generations imo. From gens I-IV I mainly chose Water-types and then Grass, but since Unova the Fire-type starters have become so much better design wise.

 

[Hikamaru]

Water has been my traditional choice most of the time, except for 4th Gen where I did multiple unfinished runs of Sinnoh games with each starter at least once, and for Soul Silver I picked Fire which was Cyndaquil.

5th Gen onwards has seen me doing a streak of picking Water (it's my fave type duh), with my respective choices since then being Oshawott for Unova (both incarnations), Froakie for Kalos, Mudkip for Hoenn (again), and then Popplio for Alola.

 

[WingsofBliss]

You know how SM are supposed to be "special" 20th anniversary games? I couldn't help but notice that the starters so far are similar to Gen 1's starters: the Grass starter is a dual-type in its first stage while the Fire and Water starters are single-type. I'm wondering if they'll do a repeat of that and give Litten a dual-type in its final evolution and keep Popplio a pure Water-type?

 

[Hikamaru]

You know how SM are supposed to be "special" 20th anniversary games? I couldn't help but notice that the starters so far are similar to Gen 1's starters: the Grass starter is a dual-type in its first stage while the Fire and Water starters are single-type. I'm wondering if they'll do a repeat of that and give Litten a dual-type in its final evolution and keep Popplio a pure Water-type?

Interesting you picked up on that, and if that leaked "final starter evo types" thing (the supposed Grass/Ground, pure Fire, and Water/Fighting) is to go by we could be getting a similar thing with 1st Gen where one starter stays pure-typed and the other two have secondary types.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I tend to get Fire or Grass. Only ever picked water in Platinum and my second replay of Sapphire. I've also picked nearly all the fire starters as thus at one point, except for Chimchar, and soon Litten will join Chim in the exception column.

Hmm, Rowlet will be my fourth grass starter. I just noticed this, but the pattern is a coincidence. I've only ever chosen the grass starters of the regions introduced in odd gens. Gen VI will be no exception... of those Snivy's the only one who isn't a dual type in it's ultimate stage (thanks to Mega Sceptile being Grass/Dragon), yes this is assuming that Rowlet doesn't pull a Bellossom.

 

[Hikamaru]

I have picked Water for what has been five separate games - RSE, BW, B2W2, XY and ORAS. Second most picked for me is Fire in which I did it in DPPt (at least most of my unfinished playthroughs there) and HGSS. Grass only got the time to shine in one of my unfinished Platinum playthroughs. And I am picking Water again for this generation.

If I were to count Hoenn and Unova's games together, this would overall make Popplio my fourth Water starter for at least a main playthrough.

 

[WingsofBliss]

Although I do think it's likely, I hope we get to have the Volcanoes National Park that's on the Big Island of Hawaii. Would definitely be a good place to implement Slugma horde encounters, if they don't I'll be disappointed. Also, this picture from that area made me think it would be a good place to find a new Pokemon with a Fire/Grass typing:

It's an old volcanic crater-lava lake within Volcanoes National Park.

 

[Hikamaru]

Although I do think it's likely, I hope we get to have the Volcanoes National Park that's on the Big Island of Hawaii. Would definitely be a good place to implement Slugma horde encounters, if they don't I'll be disappointed. Also, this picture from that area made me think it would be a good place to find a new Pokemon with a Fire/Grass typing:

It's an old volcanic crater-lava lake within Volcanoes National Park.

I remember a Fire/Grass Fakemon evolution line that was based on a burning tree. That would be what first comes to my mind when I envision it, but I hope we get that type combination introduced officially in this generation.

Also, I am actually starting to believe the starters will be connected with a "land, sea, sky" theme. Litten representing land, Rowlet representing sky and Popplio representing sea. The fact all three starters are endangered animals creates another connecting theme.

However, I also envision these theories being where the final evos could go:

Spoiler:

Rowlet: I could see its final stage based on the Ornimegalonyx, a species of prehistoric owl that was known to have strong legs, which fits with Rowlet's Pokedex entry saying it can unleash powerful kicks. This also fits in with the speculation about Rowlet losing its flight abilities as it evolves.

Litten: After a bit of research at Serebii Forums, I now think there's an even better reason why it could evolve into a Fire/Dark-type and that's because of the marking for brimstone on its head. Fire and brimstone is a sinful form of punishment, which sees connotations to Hell (and some people also think the marking resembles the symbol for Satan), and we know Dark is called Evil-type in Japan so it would make sense. I'm mostly betting on Dark but Ground could fit with the volcano theory as well.

Popplio: This one is the hardest to pin on at the moment, but if Oshawott evolved into a Pokemon more adept to water, Popplio could do the reverse and adept better to land. The speculators on Serebii Forums also think Popplio could have a whimsical personality, which points at the Water/Fairy theory that I probably don't see fitting Popplio but maybe the evolution reveal will sway my opinion. Also, the Hawaiian Monk Seal (Popplio's design basis) is known as īlio-holo-i-ka-uaua which also translates to "dog that runs through rough water" which further backs up this "becoming more adept to land" theory.

 

[WingsofBliss]

I'm not gonna lie, the brimstone symbol speculation for Litten kinda creeps me out haha. It's interesting to read other people's theories though, they usually come up with ideas that don't cross my mind. The way that I see it, I think they're meant to be stripes; while launching an attack, the raised hair on its back has red tips. The stripes on its head has made me wonder if it will be tiger-like. Which I think would be awesome, the only Pokemon that closely resembles a tiger IIRC is Raikou from way back in Gen 2.

After giving it some thought though, I think I'm gonna pick Rowlet. Back when we speculated about a "Z" version, I had made the decision to use Chesnaught in a supposed Z/XY2. I've always used the Fire starter since Crystal version minus using Greninja on my 2nd round of X(used Delphox in my 1st run). I've usually avoided the Grass starters because I always had the assumption they'd be too weak, but using Venusaur in X has changed my thinking on that. With that said, I'm gonna use Rowlet and see what it'll do.

And now I'm hoping that the animation for Rowlet's final evo bobs its head in battle... imagine the "werk it" and "oh no you didn't!" GIFS coming from that one.

 

[Hikamaru]

I'm not gonna lie, the brimstone symbol speculation for Litten kinda creeps me out haha. It's interesting to read other people's theories though, they usually come up with ideas that don't cross my mind. The way that I see it, I think they're meant to be stripes; while launching an attack, the raised hair on its back has red tips. The stripes on its head has made me wonder if it will be tiger-like. Which I think would be awesome, the only Pokemon that closely resembles a tiger IIRC is Raikou from way back in Gen 2.

Stripes that light up when it uses Fire moves? I think that would definitely be a feature of a possible Litten evolution and like you said, Raikou is sorta based on a tiger but it's got a lot of other design influences as well. We haven't really had a full-on tiger Pokemon yet and Litten evos would make a great candidate.

 

[WingsofBliss]

Stripes that light up when it uses Fire moves? I think that would definitely be a feature of a possible Litten evolution and like you said, Raikou is sorta based on a tiger but it's got a lot of other design influences as well. We haven't really had a full-on tiger Pokemon yet and Litten evos would make a great candidate.

I had also forgotten that there's a set of two stripes above each paw on Litten... yeah, I can kinda see it getting tiger-like characteristics. Interestingly, most subspecies of tigers are either endangered or extinct, so it could maintain the endangered animal theme through its evolution line

 

[blue]

I've seen some fan artwork for Litten's final evolution and I love some concepts people have came up with. I'd really like to see some sort of Fire Panther or Tiger type of Pokemon for its final stage.

 

[Hikamaru]

I've even been seeing YouTube theory videos speculating possible evolutions for all three starters, and they certainly have me more interested in what directions they would go in. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them ended up like fanart had set us up for.

 

[blue]

Here's something interesting to think about.

Spoiler:

It's most probably nothing, but Game Freak do have a tendency to put in subtle hints like that. I know we're way off the next games, but this year does mark the 10 year anniversary of Diamond & Pearl.

 

[Hikamaru]

Here's something interesting to think about.

Spoiler:

It's most probably nothing, but Game Freak do have a tendency to put in subtle hints like that. I know we're way off the next games, but this year does mark the 10 year anniversary of Diamond & Pearl.

I remember people theorizing part of this region may have been based on Pearl Harbor and you know, we had all those Hoenn hints in XY that eventually led to ORAS. While I can't expect DP remakes anytime soon I do love how you pointed this out.