Gen VII: Pokemon Sun and Moon Discussion MKII

[Codraroll]

Okay, I started this discussion, time to contribute my 0.1643 NOK:

I think the main contenders for being part of three-stage evolutionary lines (outside of Pikipek and Grubbin, of course) are Salandit, Cutiefly, Wimpod, and Turtonator. I'm kind of unsure about Minior and Drampa for the time being.

Okay, reasoning time:

• Salandit gives me a bit of a Sandile vibe. It is explicitly described as "not a very powerful Pokémon", which, unless they're giving us another Farfetch'd situation, indicates an evolution or even two. I'm not sure if Salandit could be a pseudo-legendary, but it'd probably fit right in next to Axew and Sandile.
• Cutiefly is small, cutesy and with quite poor abilities. It is such a tiny and weak creature that it would be strange for it not to evolve. Klefki is a similar, tiny Pokémon, but is backed up by decent stats and a great ability. The designers put it in a mid-late-game area, where it could feasibly replace a fallen-behind team member, and pull some weight for the rest of the game. Cutiefly is not helped by its abilities, and appears too small to have good stats either. It seems like you'll either encounter it very early in the game, and it will fall behind fast, or it has an evolution or two, like Flabébé, which help it progress as the game gets tougher.
• Wimpod, for reasons stated by others. Although it could be another Stunfisk in that it's a mud-crawling Pokémon with a quirk, Wimpod seems like the kind of Pokémon that would grow strong upon evolution. It's described as cowardly, yet curious. Would an evolution lose its cowardice and become tougher? It could end up with only one evolution, though, or even none at all. The way it behaves sounds like an overworld encounter mechanic (stay still to attract Wimpod, if you move you scare them away), and the flavour blurb about "storing anything, including garbage from the sea" suggests a wild variety of natural hold items. It has enough gimmicks to make it on its own, and an evolution might disturb those gimmicks too much.
• Unlike the three others, Turtonator seems to be a final evolution, and a rather powerful one at that. It has nearly unresisted STAB, only losing out to certain Fairy combos (Water/Fairy, Rock/Fairy, Fire/Fairy and Dragon/Fairy), and its design and signature move suggest a tanky build. The tough design and relatively rare Dragon typing could be a sign of pseudo-legendarity, although the same could be said about Druddigon, and we all know how that one turned out in the end. Still, though... after four generations of Attack-focused pseudo-legends, then Hydreigon (Sp.Atk) and Goodra (Sp.Def), could we be seeing the first Defense-focused PL?
• As for Minior, it has a design that lends itself to evolution, and a gimmick that suggests it'll remain standalone. Shields Down involves a mid-battle Form change, which would clash a little with a possible evolution. We've had evolution chains with changing Forms before, but usuall only at the end of the evolution chain (Aegislash, Cherrim, Darmanitan... and every Mega ever, I guess). The exception is Burmy, so I guess there is some presedence...
  Also, the "Mini" prefix suggests the possibility of bigger evolutionary cousins.
• I can't really see Drampa being standalone. One of Drampa's design bases is its age. It's right in the name, it's a grandfather of dragons. If it's standalone, it means it is bred and hatched old. Okay, we can breed Chansey with an egg ready on its stomach and even Kangaskhan with a freakin' kid in its belly pouch, but a Pokémon of old age from the moment it leaves the egg? It would be far out, at least, although I won't write it off as impossible.
  In short, I could see Drampa having at least one pre-evolution. Possibly even two. It's hard to imagine it as the pseudo-legendary, but... still not totally impossible, I guess...

 

[deluge]

Wimpod, for reasons stated by others. Although it could be another Stunfisk in that it's a mud-crawling Pokémon with a quirk, Wimpod seems like the kind of Pokémon that would grow strong upon evolution. It's described as cowardly, yet curious. Would an evolution lose its cowardice and become tougher? It could end up with only one evolution, though, or even none at all. The way it behaves sounds like an overworld encounter mechanic (stay still to attract Wimpod, if you move you scare them away), and the flavour blurb about "storing anything, including garbage from the sea" suggests a wild variety of natural hold items. It has enough gimmicks to make it on its own, and an evolution might disturb those gimmicks too much.

I see Wimpod as a water type that fits in with the style of Magikarp and Feebas.
The former starts out weak and gets strong while Feebas is supposed to be ugly and gets beautiful on evolution.
They both have a certain annoying quality to them too. Magikarp is so weak that it's hard to level it up and Feebas was a pain to find and raise its beauty high enough to become Milotic.
Wimpod is a coward who will be also be PITA to catch with its ability. I think it will evolve into a strong pokemon with a lot of moxie.

 

[Codraroll]

Wimpod is a coward who will be also be PITA to catch with its ability. I think it will evolve into a strong pokemon with a lot of moxie.

That's a very good point, actually, I completely forgot about its ability. I guess that unless Game Freak wants to make a completely useless Pokémon for the sole sake of padding the bottom of the barrel (making other Pokémon seem better by comparison), Wimpod has to evolve out of its annoying condition. Question remains, though: once or twice?

 

[Mova]

If Wimpod is the "useless mon" of the region, does that mean it will be that one Pokémon that cannot learn TMs outside of its level-up move pool? Unova had Tynamo, while Kalos has Scatterbug and Spewpa.

 

[Nelson Tangela]

If Wimpod is the "useless mon" of the region, does that mean it will be that one Pokémon that cannot learn TMs outside of its level-up move pool? Unova had Tynamo, while Kalos has Scatterbug and Spewpa.

I think that the Scatterbug line falls more into the "early Bug-type" category with Butterfree, Beautifly and friends.

 

[CTNC]

You all seem to be forgetting that you can throw a Quick Ball at Wimpod or use Toxic on it to catch it easily. There's no way they'd make something like Wimpod have a low Catch Rate. (In before something likeWimpod has a low Catch Rate.)

I don't think anyone's said this about Mimikyu, but I'd be disappointed if he didn't get Thunderbolt. I'd also be disappointed if I had to explain why I'd be disappointed.

 

[Norne]

You all seem to be forgetting that you can throw a Quick Ball at Wimpod or use Toxic on it to catch it easily. There's no way they'd make something like Wimpod have a low Catch Rate. (In before something likeWimpod has a low Catch Rate.)

I don't think anyone's said this about Mimikyu, but I'd be disappointed if he didn't get Thunderbolt. I'd also be disappointed if I had to explain why I'd be disappointed.

I think some safari zone pokemon in yellow had this trick. Dragonair comes to mind.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

I think some safari zone pokemon in yellow had this trick. Dragonair comes to mind.

Urgh, most of the BS Safari Zone Pokemon had that problem. And because they're so rare it makes them horrible.

 

[CTNC]

Let me rephrase what I said. There's no way they'd make something common have a low Catch Rate.

Also, please don't mention the Safari Zone. The possibility of Shiny Pokemon running away... ;_; It almost happened to me...

 

[Karxrida]

Let me rephrase what I said. There's no way they'd make something common have a low Catch Rate.

Also, please don't mention the Safari Zone. The possibility of Shiny Pokemon running away... ;_; It almost happened to me...

Basculin was pretty common in Gen V, and it has a lower catch rate than Chansey at 25 (tied for 3rd lowest).

 

[CTNC]

Basculin was pretty common in Gen V, and it has a lower catch rate than Chansey at 25 (tied for 3rd lowest).

Let me rephrase what I said again. There's no way they'd make something common in the early game have a low Catch Rate. Also, they decided to give Basculin a catch rate based on its predicted popularity.

 

[QuickBH]

Hold on...I just realized something.

Since now your trainer is shown during the battle...how the heck are they going to have Pokemon battles while surfing? Like...put the Pokemon on the Pokemon surfing's back? I have no actual clue.

 

[Nelson Tangela]

Hold on...I just realized something.

Since now your trainer is shown during the battle...how the heck are they going to have Pokemon battles while surfing? Like...put the Pokemon on the Pokemon surfing's back? I have no actual clue.

Probably just standing on a little "island" that "happens to be" right there.

 

[Oddish.]

Hold on...I just realized something.

Since now your trainer is shown during the battle...how the heck are they going to have Pokemon battles while surfing? Like...put the Pokemon on the Pokemon surfing's back? I have no actual clue.

Maybe the trainer will be swimming in the water?

 

[Nelson Tangela]

Maybe the trainer will be swimming in the water?

IF this is the case then I'll be using Electric Terrain ingame... alot.

 

[WaffleTitan]

Maybe they won't show the trainers in the background for all battles. That'd be my guess.

 

[Kiga]

Maybe the trainer will be swimming in the water?

That sounds more like a drowning risk than anything. I could see a slight possibility where Surf loses it's overworld function, and we're completely reliant on Lapras, Sharpedo, and the like to move across bodies of water. If that's the case, then we'll likely be shown riding our steed during battle.

 

[Johta]

That sounds more like a drowning risk than anything. I could see a slight possibility where Surf loses it's overworld function, and we're completely reliant on Lapras, Sharpedo, and the like to move across bodies of water. If that's the case, then we'll likely be shown riding our steed during battle.

That would be so, so, soooooooooooo a w e s o m e.
And the good thing is: it would make a lot of sense too so it is a legit possibility. Hype!

 

[Cresselia92]

Hold on...I just realized something.

Since now your trainer is shown during the battle...how the heck are they going to have Pokemon battles while surfing? Like...put the Pokemon on the Pokemon surfing's back? I have no actual clue.

Hmm… maybe this?

Hide

Or this?

Hide

 

[bluegrass]

Have they ever revealed this much info about each individual mon in the past? I've never kept up with new game hype before for pokemon but the dex descriptions(?) on the official pokemon websites are quite long compared to normal dex and add some character to each pokemon species. Seriously, Bulbasaur has like 3 sentences and almost all the aloha mons have 3 paragraphs. I'm taking it as a sign that this means more interaction with your mons outside of combat/contests and probably better overall world building. GF seems to realize that it's the pokemon themselves that have kept this game chugging along for 20 years so they're not afraid to finally shake up the gym formula in a main game series.

 

[Primal Ivysaur]

Have they ever revealed this much info about each individual mon in the past? I've never kept up with new game hype before for pokemon but the dex descriptions(?) on the official pokemon websites are quite long compared to normal dex and add some character to each pokemon species. Seriously, Bulbasaur has like 3 sentences and almost all the aloha mons have 3 paragraphs. I'm taking it as a sign that this means more interaction with your mons outside of combat/contests and probably better overall world building. GF seems to realize that it's the pokemon themselves that have kept this game chugging along for 20 years so they're not afraid to finally shake up the gym formula in a main game series.

Oh, I honestly hope so. I can't help but imagine some sort of fleshed out Pokemon-Amie function at best if this is the case because it'd be pretty hard to create overworld models for every Pokemon like HGSS did (which isn't to speak of GF not seeming too keen on using mechanics from previous Gens. in newer ones)

 

[Pikachu315111]

Hold on...I just realized something.

Since now your trainer is shown during the battle...how the heck are they going to have Pokemon battles while surfing? Like...put the Pokemon on the Pokemon surfing's back? I have no actual clue.

The trainers won't be in the background when some moves are used would be my guess.

 

[Zowayix]

I don't think anyone's said this about Mimikyu, but I'd be disappointed if he didn't get Thunderbolt. I'd also be disappointed if I had to explain why I'd be disappointed.

Why? It's supposed to be trying to mimic Pikachu's appearance, not its behavior or learnset.

 

[Karxrida]

A number of Ghosts randomly get Thunderbolt, so it's not completely out of the question for Mimikyu to follow suit.

 

[Vanillish Wafer]

True, and unless I'm getting it confused with something else, we DID see Mimikyu use Discharge in some gameplay, so that pretty much confirms it does have electric powers and will get Thunderbolt.