Farigiraf: Hey, look who's not looking like an actual giraffe (albeit a giraffe that's wearing a Chain Chomp hoodie)! This wouldn't have been my first thought of what a Girafarig evo would be like (I'll admit I'd unimaginatively went with the tail becoming a full grown head like it's beta sprite), but I like it better. Not just because it's a swerve of what we thought they'll do, but it keeps with the general aesthetic of Girafarig, if not expanding upon it, which making the tail into another head might have taken away. Instead the two "heads" have become one, but there's still the "main" head while the previous tail head now is front and center but still serves as an auxiliary head. Instead of just being a pair of eyes in the back, its more directly connected with the main head's brain amplifying their power and more aware of their surrounding (but I do like the added info that it's body sometimes isn't able to react as fast as the heads can think, showing there was a tradeoff made).
Still the same species category, "Long Neck" Pokemon, would have changed it to something like "Double Neck". Also, just for the flavor, I would swapped its Type to being Psychic/Normal. Though, that said, with the way they're describing the auxiliary head covering it sounds like it should have become something like Psychic/Steel. At the moment Girafarig is a pretty balanced in stats with Special Attack being its highest stat, though Farigiraf sounds like its more physical in both Attack but also Defense. Like, if I was taking that into account and assigned to give Girafarig's base stats an extra 100 BST, I'd probably make it go from 70/80/65/90/65/85//455 to 80/110/105/100/75/85//555.
But probably the biggest change it does actually bring are two new Abilities. Cud Chew sounds like it could set up for some neat antics, whether its double healing or getting another passive stat increase. And Armor Tail is yet ANOTHER copy of Dazzling, that's three now (the other being Queenly Majesty); how many priority blocking Abilities do we need (especially Signature ones?)? Like, was Farigarif even threatened by Priority (and Bruxish and Tsareena for that matter, it's not like any of them are super fast)? I would hope these won't be Signature Abilities... but then again until GF decides to allow Pokemon to have more than 2 normal & 1 Hidden Ability I can't see them changing any older Pokemon to having these Abilities (or any of the numerous new Signature Abilities they have made).
I'm sure there's other stuff I missed, but I'm sure others have brought it up so I can address them as I go through everyone else's posts:
Other than Farigiraf, these dudes also apparently showed up in the minimap at some point
I... don't know what to those of those four (or three?). Like Rookidee being there is a good example for sort of my problem with them: they don't look like Pokemon. Note Rookidee is using its in-game model, so that means these four/three would be too. And they're just a couple of bipedal white mice (there's suggestions they're actually one Pokemon instead of two different ones), a green parrot, and a brown Super Mushroom with a white block in its head (I've seen some suggestion it could be something related to rock salt). Like the Rock Salt, okay, I'm having a hard time overlooking it looks like a new power-up for Mario, but it's stylized enough I can at least see it being a creature. But the mice and especially the parrot? They look like placeholder models. "
Oh, you mean like Meltan was theorized to be"? Yes, yes, hindsight is 20/20, I'm not going to say these aren't Pokemon, just that I'm having a hard time seeing the bigger picture with them.
Btw, they shown new mons by error in our trailers. In the japanese one, the mons depicted in the minimap were hidden.
Then again, if the Japanese version (which I'm hearing is a later build) had them hidden maybe this time it is placeholder for what Pokemon they actually represent.
-Ceruledge/Armarouge Pre Evo seen during the Team Star stuff today
And I don't really have anything to say for that. I'm not doubting its their prevo, but we barely got a glimpse of it. I wished they were both mono-stage, if this is another Applin situation I feel its unnecessary. I don't think that many even liked what Applin did as it felt sorta forced and added two more evo items to the ever-growing item bloat. Version exclusives are fine, but version exclusive evolutions I feel crosses a line.
So the answer to "why are they hiding levels" was simply "the specific parts of gym battles that we saw, jsut do not show levels, for no particular reason"
Huh, well that's a disappointing conclusion to months of speculation build-up.
Still has to be seen how that'll work out for "one of" like legendaries.
Still guessing there's going to be a way to change Tera Types so wouldn't be surprised if they're not concerned about that.
Also, we're a little over a month away from release and we haven't seen the starters second form. That feels... odd.
Wouldn't mind if they kept it secret then. Unlike not seeing any other new bosses for the three storylines, I don't see them not showing the Starter's Evos as a downside.
I still expect this to be called Paldean Quagsire until further notice. This argument goes both ways, I’ll admit- isn’t Sneasler just “Hisuian Weavile” at the end of the day also?
This argument goes back to SwSh with the likes of Perrserker and Runerigus. These three actually run the entire gambit of how stats between two parallels are handled: Weavile & Sneasler are the exact same, Cofagrigus & Runerigus have their Physical & Special swapped, and Persian & Perrserker are completely different. Of course there's reasons for each one, Weavile & Sneasler essentially serve the same niche, Cofagrigus & Runerigus swap because R-igus becomes more tangible gains the Ground-type, and Perrserker is a biped so would naturally fight differently than the quadruped Persian.
So until we know what kind of Pokemon the evo of P-Wooper is we can't 100% say for sure it'll be P-Quagsire or might as well be.
I still want to believe they are, indeed, just normal options available to us now. They don't get the tag like other regional stuff. The designs don't really differ from their preevolutions. There really shouldn't be any issue here.
But it's still something that would be so easy to have them go "No, these are regional evolutions just like Perrserker or Basculegion : ) They need Hisui's environment! : )"
Wyrdeer needs a Stantler with the move Psyshield Bash which they could restrict to a special Move Tutor (like the one who teaches Meloetta and Keldeo their Signature Moves). Then maybe in later gens, having Paldea reintroduce the move back in modern times, they can just have Stantlers learning the Move naturally.
Kleavor and Ursaluna need an item which they could have an antique seller sell.
It looks like they may actually have switched to PLA sleep. In the terra battle with Chansey both Farigiraf and Drifblim have the sleep icon, but are able to attack.
The more interesting thing to note is the description of Rest. It matches the main series description word for word. This is an indirect confirmation that the Drowzy status is probably not in SV since if it was, the description should match PLA's: "The user restores its own HP but also becomes drowsy."
At the same time, RocketSurgery makes a valid point that makes sense about PLA's drowzy being in. Perhaps Rest still inflicts old sleep, while other sleep moves inflict drowzy sleep?
Or Raid Battles work more like the battles in People's Liberation ArmyLegends Arceus and Sleep works more like Drowsy in it?
I was thinking the same thing as
Project_Mars, just like the Let's Go feature used in Team Star bases, they could change Sleep & Freeze to L:A's Drowsy and Frostbite in order to keep the attacks going; being Asleep or Frozen when there's a ticking timer would feel really cheap.
Really not a fan of Farigiraf. It having one double head and no tail as opposed to having a head on its tail misses the whole point of its name being a palindrome.
Ah, but you see now the "main" head in INSIDE the "auxiliary" head, like it was turned inside-out, so therefore the name was turned inside-out to match.
WHOA CALM DOWN YOU FOLKS ARE POSTING WAY TOO MUCH WAY TOO FAST!
Welcome to my world.
Me: Girafarig in LC.
Seriously, though, I don't know how many people in this thread play little cup, but depending on the available dex, Griafarig could be a total menace. Or quickly banned. That second one seems likely.
Would Girafarig being able to boost its defenses with Eviolite has any effect on its usability?
I like how Digimon, despite being seen as edgier than Pokémon, has a more kid friendly way to handle the meat situation.
But that's Digimon which takes place in a world made of data so they could have weird stuff like that. Pokemon meanwhile takes place in a "physical" world like our own. Digimon having meat is just because a human in the real world or a super powerful Digimon created code so that meat can be farmed like vegetables (and coming out looking like fully cooked meat too). Pokemon, well, the meat comes from slaughtering a Pokemon.
Did we just all forget the fillet'd Magikarp scene from the original series? We crossed the "Pokemon are eaten" bridge a long time ago lol
Also, let's not forget that the Curry mini-game introduced some meats and other food items which you'd need to slaughter a Pokemon to get: Sausages, Brittle Bones, Fried Food (looks to have fried chicken in it), Boiled Egg, & Precooked Burger. And of course we have the Slowpoke Tail.
(TBC)
