The games have always had this ability. In Gen 1 and 2 it was done by using the Select button in-battle. The Select button was also used to reorganize your item inventory.
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Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
Apparently Game Freak did a Snorlax-themed marketing campaign semi-recently, and part of it was this artwork:
My dad's favorite Pokemon and the Pokemon he would pretend was absolutely terrifying, napping together.
My dad's favorite Pokemon and the Pokemon he would pretend was absolutely terrifying, napping together.
Mimikyu getting more votes than Pikachu in the 2020 Pokemon Of The Year poll was the perfect IRL culmination of its "arc"
I still can't quite get over the awesomeness of cross-generational evolution and will use every opportunity to fawn over it.
Some Pokémon are just screwed out of luck in terms of viability. Whether they were designed to be weak to begin with, lack any distinguishing features, or were left behind by power creep, we tend to overlook them when picking our teams. Sometimes, one may even think "yeah, I think this Pokémon looks sort of neat, but why would I use it when I could use this instead?"
And then ... cross-generational evolution comes to the rescue.
It gives many Pokémon an entirely new lease on life. I love it when my perception of the evolutionary family's first stage changes from "this evolves into some dex fodder, I'll skip it" to "this could legitimately become a really good Pokémon eventually, I have to catch it!". Even if the final evolution is tedious to obtain or arrives very late (here's looking at you, Hydrapple!), I'll still happily catch and use the first (or the first two) stages, due to the potential they now exhibit. Sure, Pokémon like Primeape, Piloswine, or Pawniard didn't get any stronger on their own by gaining an evolution, but the promise of future Annihilape, Mamoswine, and Kingambit make that middle phase a lot less awkward.
It's fun to look back at old Pokémon and see what wonders were worked through cross-generational evolution. Relative weaklings like Golbat, Yanma, and Togetic gained powerful new forms. The likes of Electabuzz, Ursaring, and Piloswine were no slouches originally, but their evolutions are beastly. Pokémon like Porygon and Roselia were saved from an obscure existence as single-stage dex fodder, and now serve well as steps on the road to greatness (granted, they had their fans who dislike seeing them being bypassed as mere transitional stages on the way to better Pokémon). And some Pokémon even received pre-evolutions to great effect: it's easier for trainers to fit a Magmar on their team when they catch it early on as a Magby, when their team of Pokémon is not locked in with a full set of six yet. And branched evolution can make a Pokémon more interesting too, look no further than Eevee or Poliwhirl.
Likewise, it's fun to look forward and try to imagine which Pokémon we currently consider boring and underwhelming, but will become great first and middle stages on the way to more powerful evolutions in the future. Many fans keep their "Pokémon that need an evolution" lists, and cross their fingers every time a new game is on its way: will this be the game that redeems my favourite, underwhelming Pokémon? I know I applauded wildly for Girafarig and Stantler in recent games.
I also like it when cross-generational evolution gets to span an evolutionary family of three, because this allows for the first and final stages to differ a lot more than two-stage evolutions do. That means cuter first stages and more badass final stages (both looks-wise and mechanics-wise), because the middle stage can serve as a transition between two extremes. In turn, the cross-generational evolutions tend toward the badass side, because there's already a second stage to build further upon. For instance, the cute Teddiursa already evolved into the big bear Ursaring, which gave Ursaluna the opportunity to be a great hulking brute of a bear. Swinub is a cute little piglet that evolves into the hairy boar Piloswine, then Mamoswine could be a freaking mammoth. And they could go all out with cuteness when they added an evolutionary stage before the elegant Roselia.
So I'm pretty stoked for Legends Z-A, if it does anything like Legends Arceus did. I really look forward to see if we get an equivalent of Ursaluna this generation too. I just hope they don't overdo it with "regional evolutions", because while I really like Pokémon like Sirfetch'd, Overqwil, or Obstagoon, they did nothing to improve the base form of the Pokémon they evolved from.
Some Pokémon are just screwed out of luck in terms of viability. Whether they were designed to be weak to begin with, lack any distinguishing features, or were left behind by power creep, we tend to overlook them when picking our teams. Sometimes, one may even think "yeah, I think this Pokémon looks sort of neat, but why would I use it when I could use this instead?"
And then ... cross-generational evolution comes to the rescue.
It gives many Pokémon an entirely new lease on life. I love it when my perception of the evolutionary family's first stage changes from "this evolves into some dex fodder, I'll skip it" to "this could legitimately become a really good Pokémon eventually, I have to catch it!". Even if the final evolution is tedious to obtain or arrives very late (here's looking at you, Hydrapple!), I'll still happily catch and use the first (or the first two) stages, due to the potential they now exhibit. Sure, Pokémon like Primeape, Piloswine, or Pawniard didn't get any stronger on their own by gaining an evolution, but the promise of future Annihilape, Mamoswine, and Kingambit make that middle phase a lot less awkward.
It's fun to look back at old Pokémon and see what wonders were worked through cross-generational evolution. Relative weaklings like Golbat, Yanma, and Togetic gained powerful new forms. The likes of Electabuzz, Ursaring, and Piloswine were no slouches originally, but their evolutions are beastly. Pokémon like Porygon and Roselia were saved from an obscure existence as single-stage dex fodder, and now serve well as steps on the road to greatness (granted, they had their fans who dislike seeing them being bypassed as mere transitional stages on the way to better Pokémon). And some Pokémon even received pre-evolutions to great effect: it's easier for trainers to fit a Magmar on their team when they catch it early on as a Magby, when their team of Pokémon is not locked in with a full set of six yet. And branched evolution can make a Pokémon more interesting too, look no further than Eevee or Poliwhirl.
Likewise, it's fun to look forward and try to imagine which Pokémon we currently consider boring and underwhelming, but will become great first and middle stages on the way to more powerful evolutions in the future. Many fans keep their "Pokémon that need an evolution" lists, and cross their fingers every time a new game is on its way: will this be the game that redeems my favourite, underwhelming Pokémon? I know I applauded wildly for Girafarig and Stantler in recent games.
I also like it when cross-generational evolution gets to span an evolutionary family of three, because this allows for the first and final stages to differ a lot more than two-stage evolutions do. That means cuter first stages and more badass final stages (both looks-wise and mechanics-wise), because the middle stage can serve as a transition between two extremes. In turn, the cross-generational evolutions tend toward the badass side, because there's already a second stage to build further upon. For instance, the cute Teddiursa already evolved into the big bear Ursaring, which gave Ursaluna the opportunity to be a great hulking brute of a bear. Swinub is a cute little piglet that evolves into the hairy boar Piloswine, then Mamoswine could be a freaking mammoth. And they could go all out with cuteness when they added an evolutionary stage before the elegant Roselia.
So I'm pretty stoked for Legends Z-A, if it does anything like Legends Arceus did. I really look forward to see if we get an equivalent of Ursaluna this generation too. I just hope they don't overdo it with "regional evolutions", because while I really like Pokémon like Sirfetch'd, Overqwil, or Obstagoon, they did nothing to improve the base form of the Pokémon they evolved from.
Great post, but I think it's helpful to remember that Legends Z-A's new Pokemon design makeup is likely to be pretty different from Arceus for two key reasons:
1) The big obvious one, new Mega Evolutions now being in the mix. The most optimistic outlook is that much like how Arceus "relaunched" cross-gen evos, this game will do the same for Megas to where followup main series titles will maintain the feature and introduce 3-5 new ones each but that's entirely speculation so who knows
2) SV seems to indicate that Game Freak has gotten their mileage out of the regional form concept and is moving on to other ways of remixing old designs. The base game got us the gimmicky Paldean Tauros alongside Clodsire while the DLCs had nothing. There's convergents or whatever you wanna call them, but those are a whole different concept despite the superficial similarities. This makes sense when you identify the progression between Alola, Galar and Hisui: From "what if Kanto Pokemon gained new forms by adapting to a new environment" to "what if this idea was expanded to other regions' Pokemon with some even getting unique evolutions" to "what if starters and legendaries got these forms".
With all this said I think a realistic call for the Lumiose City dex would be, say, 25% convergents, 25% cross-gen evos and 50% Megas. Sounds fine by me, but again this is speculation, Game Freak can throw us for a loop as they tend to do.
Ah, I see. Bit of a brainfart there.
Yeah, I think the main focus of the "new Pokémon" of Legends Z-A will be more Mega Evolutions, certainly to a greater degree than new Pokémon with dex numbers and everything. Still, one could always hope.
Hey, my pipe dream for Z-A is 5-10 brand new Pokemon with no relation to any pre-existing families in order to fill out underrepresented types from the original Kalos dex, namely Bug, Ground and Poison. I'm huffing that hopium right alongside you!
Piloswine and primeape Did in fact get better by having an evolution
I know this is a more controversial take on what you say, but make them legendaries while you are at it. I love most of the Kalos dex (well, their designs) but half of the legendaries of a normal playthrough being from Kanto was so stupid. They went way too hard on the Kanto fanservice , and not in a good way imho
Give us more nordic legends!
I doubt the birds will be back again but the Mega Mewtwos and Kanto starters are almost certainly baked in. On the other hand, there's the presumed A mascot at minimum. You win some you lose some I suppose
Gamble responsibly
In Let's Go, Master Balls can occasionally be found lying on the ground in Cerulean Cave.
Environmental storytelling. Cave's dangerous.
Environmental storytelling. Cave's dangerous.
We can always hope we can get non-regional evolutions in future games
and perhaps get some old evolution items to trigger new evolutions (give the Electririzer to Qwilfish! Let's unlock its lost beta-evolution!)
I'm willing to say it's just coincidental, same with Delta Species concept, though I do think that the Stellar Tera Cards took a little inspiration from them since the TCG always likes to reference itself in various ways (see also: various Tera Cards referencing iconic Delta Species cards)
And then Duraludon can now evolve into Archaludon, so it goes from already fierce into something that can truly match the likes of Hydreigon and Dragapult, solidifying Duraludon as a true lategame addition.
Back then, I was bewildered but amused, as even I didn’t think a Duraludon evolution is necesssary. The Ability changes would do enough to give Duraludon to be somewhat more usable. I do think the design makes a lot of sense though, going from skyscraper to bridge, with Unova, where Blueberry Academy take place, being known for lots of bridges.
My perception changes once I saw that Archaludon will have 600 BST instead of the predicted 535 (akin to Skyther evos) or 550 (highest until now given Ursaluna and Kingambit), allowing Duraludon to truly rivalize Tyranitar in power and bulk upon evolving, and make up for loss of it’s somewhat decent G-Max form. It does have an unfortunate side-effect of being immediately more efficient than the actual pseudo-legendaries due to first stage with high stats and only needing an item to reach maximum potential.
While I doubt we will get a new cross-gen evo akin to Archaludon in Legends: Z-A, there is a good chance we will see one in Gen 10.
Speaking of things making a comeback, Duraludon is more than a good candidate for a pre-evolution
Tinaludon, based on a storage shed
Ghost/Fire is the best dual type and it's not even close. 6 fully evolved Pokemon and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is at the pinnacle of their respective regional rosters while having absurd conceptual variety, from a ghostly chandelier to an exploding alien clown to a phantom swordsman. Usually when a dual type is used this much it quickly loses its luster and churns out some clunkers (see Psychic/Fairy), but not Ghost/Fire
THEY'RE JUST SO PEAK
I think it helps a lot that the Will-o-Wisp concept means Fires and Ghosts have thematic overlaps without being as rigid as "Dragons = Reptilian" for another sort of idea overlap. Because with the exception of MAYBE Blacephelon (which shows in animation but less its static design), all of these designs also make both the Fire and Ethereal elements very visible in their aesthetic.
Ghost/Fire is the best dual type and it's not even close. 6 fully evolved Pokemon and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is at the pinnacle of their respective regional rosters while having absurd conceptual variety, from a ghostly chandelier to an exploding alien clown to a phantom swordsman. Usually when a dual type is used this much it quickly loses its luster and churns out some clunkers (see Psychic/Fairy), but not Ghost/Fire
THEY'RE JUST SO PEAK
Dark/Water is another great dual type. You have Samurai (Hisuiian Samurott), Frog Ninja (Greninja), Dragon (Mega Gyarados), Shark (Sharpedo), and Crab (Crawdaunt). All of them are top-tier pokemon, including Sharpedo (it's consistently in the UU tier from Gen 3 to Gen 7).
Ghost/Fire is the best dual type and it's not even close. 6 fully evolved Pokemon and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is at the pinnacle of their respective regional rosters while having absurd conceptual variety, from a ghostly chandelier to an exploding alien clown to a phantom swordsman. Usually when a dual type is used this much it quickly loses its luster and churns out some clunkers (see Psychic/Fairy), but not Ghost/Fire
THEY'RE JUST SO PEAK
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Ghost/Fire is the best dual type and it's not even close. 6 fully evolved Pokemon and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is at the pinnacle of their respective regional rosters while having absurd conceptual variety, from a ghostly chandelier to an exploding alien clown to a phantom swordsman. Usually when a dual type is used this much it quickly loses its luster and churns out some clunkers (see Psychic/Fairy), but not Ghost/Fire
THEY'RE JUST SO PEAK
Contrast this with Bug / Flying, which is just a Pokémon based on a bug that flies and most of them are clunkers, hurting the perception of the type more than it would with just the poor defensive type. It is no wonder we didn’t see that type since Gen 6, with Vivillon and it’s army of nice-looking cosmetic forms.
Or with pure Fighting, which is a ton of bipedal human-like Pokémon with similar proportions except the Mankey line and Mienfoo line, making Fighting-type look very poor in diversity even back in the first three generations. At least we have Falinks and, to a lesser extent, Grapploct for the pure Fighting department.
But Fighting / Electric, a type combination not available until Generation 9 despite the potential of earlier Electric-type ones like Electivire and Zeraora, did managed to have two distinct Pokémon within same generation in Pawmi line and Iron Hands. Normally, a type combination shared by two Pokémon within the same generation tend to be a recipe for disaster, but here, both managed to be distinct.
- The Pawmi line, while themselves having issue of looking too similar to each other, at least got Pawmot to have workable stats in-game like Togedemaru and better ones than Gen 3-6 + Gen 8 Pikaclones, avoiding the same fate that Morpeko condemned Electric / Dark being currently locked behind a Pikaclone that is inconsistent at best (it is great when put to use againsf Leon’s Charizard and other Electric or Dark weak foes) or unpleasant to use at worst.
- Iron Hands, with the Electric-type unfitting for the Hariyama line, not only have an obscene physical bulk and very high Attack even among Fighting-type peers, but is a robotic humanoid that is theorized to be from the future, a nice contrast with the Pawmi line being hybrid of marmot and defilibrators.