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bumboclaat
Until recently, Game Freak seemingly settled into a predictable three-year release cycle. These days we receive DLC patches instead of a remake, but the lifespan of a generation remained the same. As much as we appreciate predictability, the last two core game releases left much of the fanbase wishing they had a little more time in the oven. For all of the issues with the games themselves, Game Freak usually knocks it out of the park when it comes to the new Pokémon themselves. This is the internet, and everybody has an opinion, so here are ours on what the tide dragged in!
| Browt | Pombon | Gecqua |
| Click on the images to reveal everyone's thoughts! | ||
sunny
One of the most immediately striking things to me about Browt (and Geqcua, more on that later) is how...similar it seems to past-generation starters, specifically Rowlet and Torchic. Don't get me wrong—it's cute, but we already have a Grass-type bird and a chicken amongst the starters! Browt does have some redeeming qualities. Not only does it have the aforementioned cute factor, but its chicken-like nature is thematically appropriate: if this IGN article that I skimmed and Wikipedia are to be believed, chickens were first domesticated in Southeast Asia and Oceania (where this game is set). Additionally, if Game Freak fully leans into the bird-like aspects in Browt's evolutions, we could see another Grass / Flying Pokémon, which is a type combination that could stand to see some more representation. I remain cautiously optimistic for Browt.
a blue banana
Browt reminds me a bit of Rowlet in animal inspiration and a bit of Flittle in shape language, as its design emphasizes the round shapes of an avian hatchling. The brow implies to me that this is a monster with highly expressive faces and animations, compared to Grookey and Sprigatito's cookie-cutter, egg-shaped eyes. While I'll choose Pombon regardless, I think Browt is the most well-designed of the three, and I'm interested in how these first-stage traits would carry to its evolutions in terms of theme, body/silhouette shape, and the Grass-type theme.
bumboclaat
I'm far from the only person that finds Browt somewhat reminiscent of Rowlet. Game Freak does a great job of providing each starter a distinct identity, but we are ten generations in, and there is bound to be overlap at some point. Furthermore, it isn't surprising that this comes with the Grass-type starter, as it imposes relatively limited design parameters to get the "vibe" right relative to other types. Despite this, I quite like Browt. It is a simple design—just a cute chick with a leaf for a beak, yet it oozes personality. Importantly, it doesn't pigeonhole the evolutionary line into a specific direction, letting the imagination run wild. Will it end up as a fast offensive presence a la Meowscarda and Serperior or a bulkier tank in the vein of Venusaur and Torterra? I like but don't love Browt, yet it is my favorite of the three starters at this stage.
Eledyr
What is Game Freak cooking with Browt? Bird starters are conceptually difficult to have in the Pokédex because they're directly in competition with the early-route birds. This is the reason why none of the previous bird starters ever ended up having a Flyingtyping for their final evolution. That being said, I like the fact that its beak is actually made off of the base of the leaf, and the leaf itself makes for its eyebrow. I can imagine it having a clumsy behavior. All in all, among those three, it's the one in the middle for me: cute, but not as cute as Pombon.
Kaiju Bunny
So, for me personally, I'm not a big fan of this design—I'm already not sold on bird starters to begin with (there are sooo many...looking at you, Torchic, Piplup, Rowlet, and Quaxly...), but the fact that this is the second bird Grass-type starter kinda leaves me feeling meh about this thing. It feels like they took the red Angry Bird and turned him into a Pokémon starter, and if I had to choose between him and Rowlet, I'd probably go with Rowlet. Be that as it may, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't partially because I know Rowlet evolves into something pretty badass, so hopefully that'll be a similar case here! Who knows, but there's only one way to find out, right? :) Hopefully I'm thrown for a loop with its final evolution, but for now, I def can't say I'm feeling strong about this lil' green booger bird.
uppa
Browt is such a strange one. With Grass-type starters, there's always this unpredictability with how much the design will lean into a plant element. On the scale of green animals like Decidueye and Meowscarada to living terrariums like Venusaur and Torterra, there's really no telling where Browt will end up. We can't even be sure it'll stay a chicken. Regardless, Grass-type starters are always a delight to see where they end up, and I'm hoping that its "Bean Chick" species name alludes to some sort of unique flora in its final evolution. As it stands, though, there's not a lot I love about the guy. Comparing it to past starters, I think it's the eyes that put me off. Having such a huge proportion of sclera is something we've seen work well for Popplio and Tepig before, but it's something that speaks more to expressive mammals rather than a feisty chicken. For how much of the focus of the design is on its face, the fact that it doesn't land for me makes it hard to appreciate, given the rest of the design is quite plain.
heritage
So....... Browt, huh? Duolingo would love to use this fella in their advertisements, I'm sure. I love this guy in the same way I love Mega Starmie. The design isn't much to speak of at first, but it's absolutely hilarious and oozing with potential for memes. A single Google search will show you a handful of them already. Browt, aside from that, is quite endearing though. It feels like a design you'd see in older generations, it's simple and it sticks. The official art doesn't show it very well, but if you look in the trailer, it also has a hilariously large puffy tail, which is...very silly. Does it suck we're getting ANOTHER bird starter, especially when we already got Rowlet? Yeah, absolutely. These starters in general aren't anything original in terms of their species, admittedly. But Browt's design is adorable, and Grass-type starters always seem to really bloom with their evolutions and people tend to warm up to them down the line, so I do hope the same applies here.
sunny
If I had to pick a "favorite" starter at this point, it's probably Pombon. Fire-type starters tend to occupy a more privileged position among the Fire / Water / Grass trio, as Fire is a relatively uncommon type in most games compared to Grass and Water. Despite that bias, though, Pombon has several traits that put it at the top for me. One, it's a Fire-type (see previous sentences). Two, it's a dog (I'm a huge dog person). Three, it's cute as hell (I mean, just look at it)! I, for one, am excited to see where they take this evolutionary line, so long as they don't make Pombon's evolutions bipedal. Enough with the bipedal Fire-type final evolutions already! To illustrate my point: Tepig, Fennekin, and Litten are the obvious culprits, but you could make an argument that Cyndaquil's and Chimchar's evolutionary lines exhibit the same phenomenon. They did a great job with Skeledirge—can we continue this success with Pombon's evolutions? Only time will tell.
a blue banana
As a personal fan/owner of small dogs, I'm legally obligated to choose Pombon when the games release next year. Its design and personality pretty much capture the idea of a tiny, rambunctious Pomeranian, and I'm interested to see how its personality carries over to its next stages and ties into the Fire-type overall. The cone-shaped tufts of fur on the sides of its face might hint at a more aggressive nature for its evolutions.
bumboclaat
It is pretty surprising that it took ten generations to receive our first dog starter, and I love dogs! That being said, I don’t like small dogs all that much, and that bleeds over to my thoughts on Pombon (sorry sunny!). I may not love Pombon, but one doesn't have to personally like something to appreciate it. Pombon is a distillation of the essence of a starter Pokémon: a cute Pokémon that is just as eager as you are to set out on the journey and grow with you. I love Pombon as a concept, but the execution isn't a direction I'd have gone with. However, everybody has different tastes, and Pombon doesn't feel like a Pokémon many people will dislike even if it isn't their vibe. Pombon will also likely look a lot better in-game relative to its official art.
Eledyr
Fluffy fire doggo.
Kaiju Bunny
At first, I definitely felt pessimistic about this puppy Pokémon. I'm not even entirely sure why, but it's slowly growing on me! The more I think on it, the more I realize that having a dog starter is honestly pretty ingenious and makes me wonder why they hadn't done something like it sooner. After all, who wouldn't want to travel the country with their favorite loyal pet that also can double as an elemental fighter?? It sure sounds a bit more realistic and cozy by extension than, say, traveling with a literal monkey (no hate to the Infernape line, I promise). Now the real question is, will this puppy follow after Fuecoco and stay on all fours? Here's to hoping. I may be entirely biased in enjoying Pokémon on two legs more, but it would be nice to see more quadruped final evolutions for the Fire-type starters lol.
uppa
I have pretty strong feelings about this one. Something about it feels very cold and calculated to me. The other two starters have a clear vision to them, and they're both divisive and interesting to me because they were designed with an idea in mind. Pombon feels like the opposite of that, sacrificing all inspiration and direction in favor of marketability, like they focus-tested it to a wider and wider audience until it became just an orange Pomeranian with no discernible traits. To give it some credit, there's something to be said about having a more zoomorphic starter to give players an option to project onto, rather than having their Pokémon's personality rigidly defined by their visual design. Skeledirge and Swampert come to mind as sort of "blank slates" that help counterbalance an otherwise anthropomorphic trio, and Pombon seems like it might be filling that same role. Depending on its final evolution, I can see myself warming up to it. For now though, it's easily my least favorite of the three.
heritage
Meet potential dog. I have to admit, this is a rather unspectacular design. Now don't get me wrong, I love dogs and I love Pombon (this is a crazy good name, by the way). He truly is the goodest boy. But it's literally...just a dog. I have more to talk about its future than the design itself. The fact that we FINALLY have a dog starter is nice, which is even cooler due to the fact that it has the same typing as Litten, a cat starter. I would love to see anime interactions between the two of them, similarly to what they did with Rockruff in the Sun and Moon anime. There really is a TON of potential for what the evolution could turn into as well. They're going to have to glue its paws to the floor though, I don't think I'd be able to mentally handle another bipedal Fire-type starter.
sunny
Gecqua...not only is it a pain to spell correctly, but it, unfortunately, strikes me as rather uninspired. Not only does it share striking similarities to Froakie, Treecko, and Sobble, but Gecqua will mark the sixth reptilian/amphibian Water-type starter (Squirtle, Totodile, Mudkip, Froakie, Sobble, and now Gecqua) out of ten trios. It's like Game Freak took the previous five of those and plugged them into a generative AI program with the prompt "Create a new Water-type starter Pokémon." I, for one, wish we could have a more fish-like Water-type starter. Whenever Game Freak makes a fish Pokémon, they default to it having a Water-type anyway—so why can't we extend that to a starter Pokémon? The answer probably lies in whatever market research data TPCi has for the starters (fish probably aren't very marketable for merch), but I digress. Out of the three starters, Gecqua takes last place for me, and it is the starter that I am the least excited about. Hopefully its evolutions will prove me wrong.
a blue banana
Initially, I wasn't much into this Pokémon, but looking at it now, I can appreciate some of the design choices for Gecqua. The emphasis on wavy lines and shapes for its head and tail, as well as its raindrop-shaped eyelashes, makes it tie more to the general themes of the Water-type compared to Sobble, probably its closest comparison. Hopefully, these design choices stay consistent for its next stage and not be completely dumped for something entirely different like Drizzile.
bumboclaat
Water-type starters seem to draw the short end of the stick when it comes to design diversity due to some unwritten rule that they must be inspired by an animal associated with water in the real world. When the Pokémon Direct first dropped, Gecqua was my favorite of the three starters, but it really doesn't translate well into official artwork. In the Direct, Gecqua was a cute, feisty little gecko that left you wondering what directions its evolutions would take. Its official artwork is in a Frankensteinian uncanny valley that appears to have used the BDSP character art style as its inspiration. It looks more like a Pokémon you'd find rustling in the grass atop Mt. Pyre than a starter. It is quite the dichotomy.
Eledyr
I don't like where this one is going. We had Sobble in SS, which ended up being a slim bipedal amphibian, and we had Froakie in XY, which ended up being a slim bipedal amphibian. This one is definitely going to be a slim bipedal amphibian too. I don't mind some overlapping, but this trend in Water-type starters is pretty much like the Fire / Fighting type combination for Fire-type starters. I think it's super boring, and I hope it'll turn into something different.
Kaiju Bunny
I think this starter has gotten the most hate so far, based on what I've seen. But I actually don't get it at all; I think this design is pretty freaking cool! So it reminds me of some limited-edition Littlest Pet Shop collectible, that just makes it memorable! I know what you're gonna say: "But Kai! You just complained that there were two bird Grass-type starters! Isn't it hypocritical to not point that out here with two lizard Water-type starters?" To which I say, does it suck to have two same animal-based starters of any kind? Yeah. Do I think Gecqua is a whole upgrade from Sobble? Also yeah. Between the two, I'd say that at least to me, Gecqua is definitely more interesting and superior to Sobble in every way, and I'm excited to see how this lil' fella glows up. Maybe don't have the fourth sassy final water evo in a row, though? I can't say that's the most pressing problem I have with this Pokémon, however, if I have any to begin with. If it wasn't clear as is, this would def be the starter that I'd choose.
uppa
Ever since SM, there's been a pattern of Water-type starters getting the most humanoid, "Pokémon with a human job"-type designs out of their trio, and Gecqua seems like it'll follow suit. Unlike the other first forms, though, it's starting out with anthropomorphic elements rather than growing into them. Having Gecqua show its hand early like that makes me optimistic that its final evolution won't feel as out of place as Inteleon, which I gather a lot of people fear due to the similarity to Sobble. Like many, I found the choice of Another Lizard Starter questionable at first, but the more I compare the two, the more optimistic I am that Gecqua will deliver something unique. The fat tail, eyes and fingertips are such strong visual landmarks that I hope get the same natural progression as Chimchar's hair or Chikorita's necklace. Certainly my favorite out of the three, though it took me a while to get over its uncanny resemblance to a Littlest Pet Shop doll.
heritage
All my confidence in being able to spell every Pokémon's name correctly is out the window with this one. The charisma of this Pokémon absolutely oozes from the design, and the bright pink eyes are a huge stand-out feature. I cannot stress just how much I love that every part of its body looks like it could melt right into a puddle. The eyelashes look like raindrops falling off leaves, and the teardrop on the forehead is kinda just icing on the cake. If this was the first of its kind, I would absolutely be more excited. To be fair, I've loved all the sassy little Water-type starters (Inteleon being my favorite starter of all time, actually. I know, controversial opinion), but we gotta stray away from that at some point. There's totally potential for this design to go the exact opposite direction of Sobble though, where it could be a total beast of a Komodo dragon, so fingers crossed.
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