Pokemon Legends - Arceus - 28th Jan 2022 *Official Content Only*

[Pikachu315111]

If I had to guess I think it could be revealed on Halloween or close to it. I mean the whole reason they did the found footage thing was to be spooky so it would make sense.

It would have been a cool Halloween reveal.

I saw a rumor about a "trustable" leaker that

Hide

told legends will have:
-7 new pokemons
- 17 new regional forms
- New starters evo (Grass/Fighting, Fire/Ghost, Water/Dark)
- No DLCs

Again, just another rumor from the depths of internet that we don't know if its trustable.

One or two new Pokemon, maybe if it somehow a setup for Gen 9, but seven? Get outta here.

Rowlet's final evo goes from Grass/Ghost to Grass/Fighting is a bit of a leap, especially since the more popular choice would be Oshawott to gain a secondary Fighting-type. Cyndaquil final evo also gaining part Ghost also feels out of nowhere, what's the reasoning?

The alleged starter typings they listed have me in doubt. Two of them are already used by Chesnaught and Greninja, and Decidueye and Samurott are nothing like them, not to mention they rarely reuse type combos for starters outside of the infamous Fire/Fighting trio. Even Fire/Ghost is pushing it because that's not a type combo I see Typhlosion having and in general these type combos would make the Hisui starters way too similar to the Kalos starters, and the original final forms don't give off Chesnaught/Delphox/Greninja vibes to begin with so I have a hard time imagining them in that style.

Eh, being the Kalos Starters combinations is the popular "alt" Type Triangle I wouldn't say it's out of the question for GF to use that idea again if in a different way, namely switching one Type out for something similar. Pretty much is the shoe fits, wear it, hence the trio of Fire/Fighting Starters we got. But, as I said above, they would have to make a pretty big show to fit the Type suggestions they made for these pre-existing Starters.

If I had to guess new typings for the starters:

H-Decidueye: Grass/Flying (it's no longer extinct)
H-Samurott: Water/Fighting (this should've been its original typing)
H-Typhlosion: Fire/Ground (he's a volcano)

This would be the obvious... but GF never liked being obvious when it comes to these sort of things. Taking cue from Regional Variants, if these Starters were to get them (which I still doubt), I'd go with the following thought:

• H-Decidueye: Grass/Psychic. Decidueye's deal is that its essentially a sniper, it has gained Ghost-type powers to better hide in the shadows. However, what if instead of hiding in the shadows it could hide behind cover and just mentally control its shots to bend and turn to its intended target, making it harder to find as they would think the shot came from another direction?
• H-Typhlosion: Fire/Electric. A majority of Typhlosion's dex entries mentions two things: (1) It can make itself so how that it makes itself shimmer that helps hide its appearance and (2) it can rub its fur together to make an explosion. So, combining these together, what if Typhlosion found another way to use its heat to create both bright light and an explosion? Anyone who watched Avatar the Last Airbender would be familiar with the idea that since lightning/electricity is superheated plasma, it wouldn't be too farfetched for a Fire manipulator to maybe learn to control it. Not to mention that volcano lightning is a thing, which fits right in with Typhlosion's theme.
• H-Samurott: Water/Fighting. Now I could try to be different and say Water/Steel or maybe try to justify another thing like Water/Rock... but nah. Water/Fighting makes too much sense for normal Samurott and at the very least, if they must do Starter Regional Variants, can make up for the mistake of not making it Water/Fighting from the start. So how to justify it? Normal Samurott were mere amateurs, H-Samurott are from the land of samurai and thus trained alongside them, their species adapting to be better sword fighters. For their design this would alter where their armor is or shaped. Instead of a large horn its helmet would be look more like a men-yoroi, its foreleg shell pauldrons would be bulkier and not have the seamitars, and its hindleg shell tassets would be made holster like as that's where it'll keep its seamitars (that way it doesn't have to reach across itself to pull out its blade, instead it reaches behind itself). It'll maybe even have a shell cuirass to show its a more serious fighter, maybe make them out of the scalchops it used as a Oshawott & Dewott.

However, sticking with my idea that that they won't change, I have thought of a way they could maybe get a new form and it's via a mechanic they introduced: The Battling Styles.

So Legends will use a Battle Style mechanic where the Pokemon either hits hard with Strong Style or hits more often with Agile Style. But, whose to say those are the only two Styles? Like how Z-Moves have Signature Z-Moves and Dynamax have Gigantamax, I'm predicting that certain Pokemon are going to have signature Battle Styles that'll, of course, change their form. The idea behind these unique Styles that they'll effect certain moves differently instead of all Moves. So to give an idea:

• Decidueye: Archer Style. Its ranged attacks will go off faster & have higher critical hit chance; meanwhile the target's contact attacks will have decreased Accuracy. Design-wise, the vines that Decidueye uses as the bow string will connect to its arms, allowing it to shoot its arrows like a crossbow. It's hood will also become more like a ghillie suit.
• Typhlosion: Erupt Style: Its Fire-type and other explosive attacks hit for a wider area and likely to cause flinching and burns. Design-wise, the dark fur will spread throughout most of its body and more fire spots will be made so it can create flames all over its body, it'll have body markings which make it resemble a furnace.
• Samurott: Bushido Style: Its slashing attacks will be faster and hit harder, its new armor also may help deflect ranged attacks thus decreasing their accuracy. Design-wise, take every change I suggested for H-Samurott.

Wtf they gave exeggcutor a regional form but we didn't get anything for psyduck to match

Maybe Masuda is purposely not letting them touch anything about Psyduck (much to Golduck's dismay).

Hisuian Barbaracle

Now hold on a minute thats kinda sick

Yeah, instead of two legs & four arms, it'll be four legs & two arms (or maybe 3 legs & 3 arms)!

In other drip feeds of news, supposedly the researchers at canalave library are working on restoring the video :P

Like, now that they'd done it, I gotta ask: how? What did they do to clear up all the distortion and seemingly damaged video & audio the previous video had?

Researcher: Well, you see, it wasn't EXACTLY the video that was the problem but more the equipment.
Me: The video recording equipment?
Researcher: The video playing equipment.
Me: So it's your equipment messing up? How?
Researcher: Well, you see, we actually got the video player from Galar...
Me: It's running on Rotom power, isn't it?
Researcher: We needed to go out and get a less mischievous Rotom.
*Rotom laughter can be heard in background*

Cowards at TPCi strike once again!

Alright, YOU try to stand your ground when a snarling shadow with glowing eyes rushes towards you.

I never knew I needed to see a Snorunt eat snow until now

Well at least it won't grow hungry... you know, until climate change melts the polar ice caps.

Well, well, well, time to cross out Normal/Ghost for possible type combinations!

Done.

It is rather amusing that base Zoroark is super effective on Hisuian Zoroark

Can say the same for:

• Vulpix family
• Diglett family
• Geodude family
• Marowak
• Farfetch'd
• Darumaka family
• Articuno
• Zapdos

Then we have the Sandshrew family, Yamask family, & Stunfisk who have ways to be super effective against each other

Both of G-Weezing's STABS are resisted by normal Weezing while its STAB hits G-Weezing neutrally.

G-Slowpoke's lone STAB is resisted by normal Slowpoke who still can hit neutral with its Water-type.

And finally only H-Growlithe is super effective against its normal counterpart (though G-Meowth family resists both normal Meowth & A-Meowth families).

This is an incharacter feed from the researcher at canalave. It turns out Professor Oak helped restore the video

Oak, calling your grandson to help fix the video doesn't count as credit for you.

The best part of Normal/Ghost typing IMO is the offensive aspect of it. As stated in this video. The only pokemon that resists Hisuian Zoroarks offensive coverage is.. Other Hisuian Zoroark.

You mean completely immune. For just resisting both we have two options at the moment (though we don't know if they're in Legends):

• Dark/Rock: Tyranitar
• Dark/Steel: Pawniard family

Don't want to seem impatient, but is there any reason the official site didn't update with official artwork/information about Hisuian Zorua and Hisuian Zoroark?

GameFreak: Okay, so we promote H-Zorua & Zoroark by first posting up this Blair Witch-like video. We wait a few days to let people speculate, make another post that the video is being cleaned up to drum up hype, and then release the clean video to the shock of everyone! It'll be great, another great idea from our viral marketing department!
Main Site Staff: Alright, so what is the lore about it to put on the main site.
GameFreak: ... You know, I knew we forgot something. Working on it! Just leave the site be until we come up with a reason why they're Ghost/Normal now.

Why are we discussing the scenarios in which H-Zoro could switch into Marshadow when Ubers is totally out of its league.

Cause you never know what niche someone could find for an unsuspected Pokemon.

 

[R_N]

Alright, YOU try to stand your ground when a snarling shadow with glowing eyes rushes towards you.

You are misinterpreting what I am saying
tpci are not cowards for making the guy "cowardly" and running away

they are cowards for not making this a kill



i demand implied corpses

 

[Chadlad50]

This would be the obvious... but GF never liked being obvious when it comes to these sort of things. Taking cue from Regional Variants, if these Starters were to get them (which I still doubt), I'd go with the following thought:

• H-Decidueye: Grass/Psychic. Decidueye's deal is that its essentially a sniper, it has gained Ghost-type powers to better hide in the shadows. However, what if instead of hiding in the shadows it could hide behind cover and just mentally control its shots to bend and turn to its intended target, making it harder to find as they would think the shot came from another direction?
• H-Typhlosion: Fire/Electric. A majority of Typhlosion's dex entries mentions two things: (1) It can make itself so how that it makes itself shimmer that helps hide its appearance and (2) it can rub its fur together to make an explosion. So, combining these together, what if Typhlosion found another way to use its heat to create both bright light and an explosion? Anyone who watched Avatar the Last Airbender would be familiar with the idea that since lightning/electricity is superheated plasma, it wouldn't be too farfetched for a Fire manipulator to maybe learn to control it. Not to mention that volcano lightning is a thing, which fits right in with Typhlosion's theme.
• H-Samurott: Water/Fighting. Now I could try to be different and say Water/Steel or maybe try to justify another thing like Water/Rock... but nah. Water/Fighting makes too much sense for normal Samurott and at the very least, if they must do Starter Regional Variants, can make up for the mistake of not making it Water/Fighting from the start. So how to justify it? Normal Samurott were mere amateurs, H-Samurott are from the land of samurai and thus trained alongside them, their species adapting to be better sword fighters. For their design this would alter where their armor is or shaped. Instead of a large horn its helmet would be look more like a men-yoroi, its foreleg shell pauldrons would be bulkier and not have the seamitars, and its hindleg shell tassets would be made holster like as that's where it'll keep its seamitars (that way it doesn't have to reach across itself to pull out its blade, instead it reaches behind itself). It'll maybe even have a shell cuirass to show its a more serious fighter, maybe make them out of the scalchops it used as a Oshawott & Dewott.

However, sticking with my idea that that they won't change, I have thought of a way they could maybe get a new form and it's via a mechanic they introduced: The Battling Styles.

Come on man this is literally Typhlosion's last chance to even touch upper tiers. Even with better coverage I don't really think Typhlosion could move above NU without a good secondary typing. Let me have some hopium.

That said Fire/Electric would be awesome as hell. 4x Ground weakness makes it cry but it gets good stab against Water types (unless it's physically oriented for whatever reason and has to use *gag* Wild Charge) and a lot of cool potential for a design. You know that character from MHA that's like half Fire, half Ice? Imagine Typhlosion but it's "collar' is half Fire, half Lightning. Plus his design already kinda looks "staticky"

That said, I'd probably prefer a Fire/Ground typing. I think fully leaning into the volcano aesthetic could work well

 

[Magcargo]

Hisuian Zoroark looks sick. Normal Ghost is a type combination I've wanted forever and its finally here. Normal Ghost is one of the most complementary type combinations in the game both defensively and offensively. The normal-typing has no drawbacks since its Fighting weakness is negated and it negates the Ghost-types ghost weakness in turn. Normal STAB is also nice since it smacks Dark and Normal-types for decent damage. Only Tyranitar, Bisharp, and other Hisuian Zoroark wall its STAB combination. I guess soundproof normal types will also be a problem, but only Exploud has that and it'd rather just run Scrappy.

I think illusion will work better on Hisuian Zoroark since its defensive profile is quite a bit better than normal Zoroark. If it has a similar movepool and statline to base Zoroark, it'll be fun to pair it with similar Pokemon like Dragapult since you can bait and weaken counters like Heatran and Tyranitar with a surprise Focus Blast or Trick, while also performing the same Shadow Ball and U-Turn Shenanigan. I am hoping it stat spread gets some slight modifications though to make it less squishy (either via a BST buff or shaving off some points in its attack) as well as some cool utility moves like Will-O-Wisp and Pain Split. Looking forward to hearing more about this mon in the future.

 

[Flamestorm7]

It would have been a cool Halloween reveal.



One or two new Pokemon, maybe if it somehow a setup for Gen 9, but seven? Get outta here.

Rowlet's final evo goes from Grass/Ghost to Grass/Fighting is a bit of a leap, especially since the more popular choice would be Oshawott to gain a secondary Fighting-type. Cyndaquil final evo also gaining part Ghost also feels out of nowhere, what's the reasoning?



Eh, being the Kalos Starters combinations is the popular "alt" Type Triangle I wouldn't say it's out of the question for GF to use that idea again if in a different way, namely switching one Type out for something similar. Pretty much is the shoe fits, wear it, hence the trio of Fire/Fighting Starters we got. But, as I said above, they would have to make a pretty big show to fit the Type suggestions they made for these pre-existing Starters.



This would be the obvious... but GF never liked being obvious when it comes to these sort of things. Taking cue from Regional Variants, if these Starters were to get them (which I still doubt), I'd go with the following thought:

• H-Decidueye: Grass/Psychic. Decidueye's deal is that its essentially a sniper, it has gained Ghost-type powers to better hide in the shadows. However, what if instead of hiding in the shadows it could hide behind cover and just mentally control its shots to bend and turn to its intended target, making it harder to find as they would think the shot came from another direction?
• H-Typhlosion: Fire/Electric. A majority of Typhlosion's dex entries mentions two things: (1) It can make itself so how that it makes itself shimmer that helps hide its appearance and (2) it can rub its fur together to make an explosion. So, combining these together, what if Typhlosion found another way to use its heat to create both bright light and an explosion? Anyone who watched Avatar the Last Airbender would be familiar with the idea that since lightning/electricity is superheated plasma, it wouldn't be too farfetched for a Fire manipulator to maybe learn to control it. Not to mention that volcano lightning is a thing, which fits right in with Typhlosion's theme.
• H-Samurott: Water/Fighting. Now I could try to be different and say Water/Steel or maybe try to justify another thing like Water/Rock... but nah. Water/Fighting makes too much sense for normal Samurott and at the very least, if they must do Starter Regional Variants, can make up for the mistake of not making it Water/Fighting from the start. So how to justify it? Normal Samurott were mere amateurs, H-Samurott are from the land of samurai and thus trained alongside them, their species adapting to be better sword fighters. For their design this would alter where their armor is or shaped. Instead of a large horn its helmet would be look more like a men-yoroi, its foreleg shell pauldrons would be bulkier and not have the seamitars, and its hindleg shell tassets would be made holster like as that's where it'll keep its seamitars (that way it doesn't have to reach across itself to pull out its blade, instead it reaches behind itself). It'll maybe even have a shell cuirass to show its a more serious fighter, maybe make them out of the scalchops it used as a Oshawott & Dewott.

However, sticking with my idea that that they won't change, I have thought of a way they could maybe get a new form and it's via a mechanic they introduced: The Battling Styles.

So Legends will use a Battle Style mechanic where the Pokemon either hits hard with Strong Style or hits more often with Agile Style. But, whose to say those are the only two Styles? Like how Z-Moves have Signature Z-Moves and Dynamax have Gigantamax, I'm predicting that certain Pokemon are going to have signature Battle Styles that'll, of course, change their form. The idea behind these unique Styles that they'll effect certain moves differently instead of all Moves. So to give an idea:

• Decidueye: Archer Style. Its ranged attacks will go off faster & have higher critical hit chance; meanwhile the target's contact attacks will have decreased Accuracy. Design-wise, the vines that Decidueye uses as the bow string will connect to its arms, allowing it to shoot its arrows like a crossbow. It's hood will also become more like a ghillie suit.
• Typhlosion: Erupt Style: Its Fire-type and other explosive attacks hit for a wider area and likely to cause flinching and burns. Design-wise, the dark fur will spread throughout most of its body and more fire spots will be made so it can create flames all over its body, it'll have body markings which make it resemble a furnace.
• Samurott: Bushido Style: Its slashing attacks will be faster and hit harder, its new armor also may help deflect ranged attacks thus decreasing their accuracy. Design-wise, take every change I suggested for H-Samurott.

Maybe Masuda is purposely not letting them touch anything about Psyduck (much to Golduck's dismay).




Yeah, instead of two legs & four arms, it'll be four legs & two arms (or maybe 3 legs & 3 arms)!



Like, now that they'd done it, I gotta ask: how? What did they do to clear up all the distortion and seemingly damaged video & audio the previous video had?

Researcher: Well, you see, it wasn't EXACTLY the video that was the problem but more the equipment.
Me: The video recording equipment?
Researcher: The video playing equipment.
Me: So it's your equipment messing up? How?
Researcher: Well, you see, we actually got the video player from Galar...
Me: It's running on Rotom power, isn't it?
Researcher: We needed to go out and get a less mischievous Rotom.
*Rotom laughter can be heard in background*



Alright, YOU try to stand your ground when a snarling shadow with glowing eyes rushes towards you.



Well at least it won't grow hungry... you know, until climate change melts the polar ice caps.



Done.



Can say the same for:

• Vulpix family
• Diglett family
• Geodude family
• Marowak
• Farfetch'd
• Darumaka family
• Articuno
• Zapdos

Then we have the Sandshrew family, Yamask family, & Stunfisk who have ways to be super effective against each other

Both of G-Weezing's STABS are resisted by normal Weezing while its STAB hits G-Weezing neutrally.

G-Slowpoke's lone STAB is resisted by normal Slowpoke who still can hit neutral with its Water-type.

And finally only H-Growlithe is super effective against its normal counterpart (though G-Meowth family resists both normal Meowth & A-Meowth families).



Oak, calling your grandson to help fix the video doesn't count as credit for you.



You mean completely immune. For just resisting both we have two options at the moment (though we don't know if they're in Legends):

• Dark/Rock: Tyranitar
• Dark/Steel: Pawniard family

GameFreak: Okay, so we promote H-Zorua & Zoroark by first posting up this Blair Witch-like video. We wait a few days to let people speculate, make another post that the video is being cleaned up to drum up hype, and then release the clean video to the shock of everyone! It'll be great, another great idea from our viral marketing department!
Main Site Staff: Alright, so what is the lore about it to put on the main site.
GameFreak: ... You know, I knew we forgot something. Working on it! Just leave the site be until we come up with a reason why they're Ghost/Normal now.



Cause you never know what niche someone could find for an unsuspected Pokemon.

Well I suppose what was more amusing isn't the fact that it is hit super effectively by its base form but it's only weakness is it's base form. (Discounting Scrappy fighting types) Also Galar Meowth doesn't resist Alolan Meowth. Dark hasn't been resisted by Steel since XY

 

[Scorpio]

Hisuian Zoroark looks sick. Normal Ghost is a type combination I've wanted forever and its finally here. Normal Ghost is one of the most complementary type combinations in the game both defensively and offensively. The normal-typing has no drawbacks since its Fighting weakness is negated and it negates the Ghost-types ghost weakness in turn. Normal STAB is also nice since it smacks Dark and Normal-types for decent damage. Only Tyranitar, Bisharp, and other Hisuian Zoroark wall its STAB combination. I guess soundproof normal types will also be a problem, but only Exploud has that and it'd rather just run Scrappy.

And if it manages to learn Dazzling Gleam or some other Fairy move, nothing is safe (could also get a decent Water, Electric, or Ground move; Fairy felt like the most likely option but considering OG Zoroark gets Dig and, for w/e reason, Flamethrower, the others aren’t entirely outside the realm of possibility).

 

[Worldie]

And if it manages to learn Dazzling Gleam or some other Fairy move, nothing is safe (could also get a decent Water, Electric, or Ground move; Fairy felt like the most likely option but considering OG Zoroark gets Dig and, for w/e reason, Flamethrower, the others aren’t entirely outside the realm of possibility).

Well we're talking of a ghost type. Most ghost type have expansive movepools, expecially on the special side, due to (most) ghosts having an affinity for magic.

For what we know this guy could easily have Gengar-tier movepool so..

(I'm still convinced there's a huge potential for VGC zoroark usage: the amount of mindfuck a fast-ish pokemon with Ilusion and ghost/normal type to the omnipresence of Fake Out is absurd, expecially when it comes to formats featuring restricteds like Xerneas who can snowball out of control if they get the chance. Plus, there's a decent chance it'd get Fake Out itself...)

 

[The Crusade]

• H-Decidueye: Grass/Psychic. Decidueye's deal is that its essentially a sniper, it has gained Ghost-type powers to better hide in the shadows. However, what if instead of hiding in the shadows it could hide behind cover and just mentally control its shots to bend and turn to its intended target, making it harder to find as they would think the shot came from another direction?

GameFreak: Okay, so we promote H-Zorua & Zoroark by first posting up this Blair Witch-like video. We wait a few days to let people speculate, make another post that the video is being cleaned up to drum up hype, and then release the clean video to the shock of everyone! It'll be great, another great idea from our viral marketing department!
Main Site Staff: Alright, so what is the lore about it to put on the main site.
GameFreak: ... You know, I knew we forgot something. Working on it! Just leave the site be until we come up with a reason why they're Ghost/Normal now.

Alright, I'm going to be that guy. I'm going to say it. By all rights, H-Decidueye should be Grass/Flying.

IMO the Alola Dex greatly shook the design philosophy of the series and not in a good way. As mentioned recently in this thread, the only new Ice-type in Alola was Crabominable—everything else was a regional spin on an old favorite. Galar doubled down with additional Ice-type regional forms, even if we got Snom, Eiscue, and some fossils to compensate.

The other extremely iffy decision made in Alola was to start padding the Ghost type with what I call spooky animals. An assassin owl? Yeah, that's a ghost. Oricorio after purple drank? Also ghost. Cubone's uncle? Ghost. Big moon bat? Ghost. 5D space clown? G-h-o-s-t. And don't give me the extinct stilt owl argument; the recent wave of monsters based on incredibly specific real-life taxa is a problem of its own. The only Ghost-types of Gen 7 that actually handled the condition of being undead (you know, ghosthood) were Sandygast/Palossand and Dhelmise. Sword and Shield thankfully steered us back in the right direction by confirming Galar's spooky animals (Dragapult and Cursola) are in fact undead, but in the next breath they decided stapling a Ghost sticker onto Basculin is how we move the series forward.

So I suppose this all comes down to two points. (1) I feel like the gravitas of the ghost type is being squandered on spooky animals like Decidueye and Basculegion, and (2) the rationale for advancing those species as ghosts is conspicuously weak. Why wasn't Dartrix allowed to keep its Flying type in the first place? Why impose a curse on a common fish that cannot learn a single Ghost-type move in any generation? Why is Zorua a ghost now? I'm reserving judgment on the new foxes until we know more, but I'm betting it boils down to "spooky animal, maybe possessed."

If we are to have Hisuian starters, then give me Decidueye as he should have been—played straight and natural like the past starters whose shoes he stepped into. No more twists. No more eleventh-hour voodoo. Pass that stuff to Typhlosion and let Decidueye soar like he was made to.

 

[Bakugames]

they decided stapling a Ghost sticker onto Basculin is how we move the series forward.

It has dead souls stuck on it, dont see any other type it should have

 

[Sirya]

It has dead souls stuck on it, dont see any other type it should have

Isn't this an epithet.

 

[RocketSurgery]

The other extremely iffy decision made in Alola was to start padding the Ghost type with what I call spooky animals. An assassin owl? Yeah, that's a ghost. Oricorio after purple drank? Also ghost. Cubone's uncle? Ghost. Big moon bat? Ghost. 5D space clown? G-h-o-s-t. And don't give me the extinct stilt owl argument; the recent wave of monsters based on incredibly specific real-life taxa is a problem of its own. The only Ghost-types of Gen 7 that actually handled the condition of being undead (you know, ghosthood) were Sandygast/Palossand and Dhelmise. Sword and Shield thankfully steered us back in the right direction by confirming Galar's spooky animals (Dragapult and Cursola) are in fact undead, but in the next breath they decided stapling a Ghost sticker onto Basculin is how we move the series forward.

So I suppose this all comes down to two points. (1) I feel like the gravitas of the ghost type is being squandered on spooky animals like Decidueye and Basculegion, and (2) the rationale for advancing those species as ghosts is conspicuously weak. Why wasn't Dartrix allowed to keep its Flying type in the first place? Why impose a curse on a common fish that cannot learn a single Ghost-type move in any generation? Why is Zorua a ghost now? I'm reserving judgment on the new foxes until we know more, but I'm betting it boils down to "spooky animal, maybe possessed."

Personally I feel like the decision to open up the ghost type to more animalistic mons allows for more variety in ghost type designs. Before that they were mostly blobby-looking things, and then it kind of opened up to possessed objects, and now they're being more free with possesed animals or animals with ghostly powers. There are lots of cool cryptozoological myths or yokai with animal-like forms that they can draw on, so I think there's plenty of room for "spooky animals" that still capture the gravitas of ghost types.

If anything loses that gravitas, I'd say it's more so a lack of lore given in some cases. An in-univeese reason/dex entry on why decidueye gained ghost type and some explanation on why this wisteria (?)-looking flower gives oricoro ghostly powers would certainly be nice.

Bigger picture, I think something that GF does not seem to give much thought to but could help a lot with the lore is the distinction between primary and secondary types. We could easily have sorted ghost-ghosts into those with primary ghost types and possessed objects and spooky animals into mons with secondary ghost typing, explaining them as being more like mortals with access to ghostly powers.

Some dual types are consistent the above logic, but many aren't, and I think it's a missed lore opportunity. Why is Marshadow fighting/ghost instead of ghost/fighting? Sure looks ghost-ghosty to me.

Hopefully we'll get a new trailer shortly with some lore for Zorua/Zoroark.

 

[Bakugames]

Isn't this an epithet.

Is epithet a synonym of redundant? If so: yeah lol I'm stupid

 

[Nokocchi]

I really don't know why people are hoping for Fire/Ground and Water/Fighting regional variants of Typhlosion and Samurott. It seems more of wanting the typings people think the base versions of them should've had instead of actually having a regional variant, which can completely change the concept of the base Pokemon.

I think, if there was regional evolutions of the starters in the game, they should be something unexpected.

 

[Sirya]

Personally I feel like the decision to open up the ghost type to more animalistic mons allows for more variety in ghost type designs. Before that they were mostly blobby-looking things, and then it kind of opened up to possessed objects, and now they're being more free with possesed animals or animals with ghostly powers. There are lots of cool cryptozoological myths or yokai with animal-like forms that they can draw on, so I think there's plenty of room for "spooky animals" that still capture the gravitas of ghost types.

If anything loses that gravitas, I'd say it's more so a lack of lore given in some cases. An in-univeese reason/dex entry on why decidueye gained ghost type and some explanation on why this wisteria (?)-looking flower gives oricoro ghostly powers would certainly be nice.

Bigger picture, I think something that GF does not seem to give much thought to but could help a lot with the lore is the distinction between primary and secondary types. We could easily have sorted ghost-ghosts into those with primary ghost types and possessed objects and spooky animals into mons with secondary ghost typing, explaining them as being more like mortals with access to ghostly powers.

Some dual types are consistent the above logic, but many aren't, and I think it's a missed lore opportunity. Why is Marshadow fighting/ghost instead of ghost/fighting? Sure looks ghost-ghosty to me.

Hopefully we'll get a new trailer shortly with some lore for Zorua/Zoroark.

Ghost types are perfectly fine.

The 1 type that has been trash conceptually for years is Psychic. They use Psychic on anything whose type isn't clearly defined. It comes from space? Psychic. Looks like mystical or magical? Psychic. I'm pretty sure this mon looks like a Steel/Dragon/Fire/Electric/Dark[insert any type] but I don't know what its secondary type could be? Psychic.

To the point that anything that is [obvious type] + [either no secondary type or a secondary type that could be anything], that anything is 99.9% of the time Psychic.

 

[Bakugames]

The 1 type that has been trash conceptually for years is Psychic. They use Psychic on anything whose type isn't clearly defined. It comes from space? Psychic. Looks like mystical or magical? Psychic. I'm pretty sure this mon looks like a Steel/Dragon/Fire/Electric/Dark[insert any type] but I don't know what its secondary type could be? Psychic.

the problem about psychic is just that it's too broad in its usage. Anything supernatural, mystical, powerful, magic-leaning, etc all get lumped under psychic. Fairy alleviated some of these issues, but only barely, and we still get a bunch of fairy/psychics anyways

 

[Yung Dramps]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1452517518438977537

 

[The Crusade]

It has dead souls stuck on it, dont see any other type it should have

The operative phrase being stuck on, which is exactly how I described it.

A monster like Wyrdeer was long in the making—since the beginning almost, Stantler has been associated with hypnosis and hallucinations, but its potential was never cultivated. Conversely, Basculegion is something completely new that takes Basculin's flavor in a direction that its historical kit does not support. I would concede it's a brave move... if it weren't another case like Decidueye, and also Wishiwashi more or less did it first.

Personally I feel like the decision to open up the ghost type to more animalistic mons allows for more variety in ghost type designs. Before that they were mostly blobby-looking things, and then it kind of opened up to possessed objects, and now they're being more free with possesed animals or animals with ghostly powers. There are lots of cool cryptozoological myths or yokai with animal-like forms that they can draw on, so I think there's plenty of room for "spooky animals" that still capture the gravitas of ghost types.

If anything loses that gravitas, I'd say it's more so a lack of lore given in some cases. An in-univeese reason/dex entry on why decidueye gained ghost type and some explanation on why this wisteria (?)-looking flower gives oricoro ghostly powers would certainly be nice.

Bigger picture, I think something that GF does not seem to give much thought to but could help a lot with the lore is the distinction between primary and secondary types. We could easily have sorted ghost-ghosts into those with primary ghost types and possessed objects and spooky animals into mons with secondary ghost typing, explaining them as being more like mortals with access to ghostly powers.

Some dual types are consistent the above logic, but many aren't, and I think it's a missed lore opportunity. Why is Marshadow fighting/ghost instead of ghost/fighting? Sure looks ghost-ghosty to me.

Hopefully we'll get a new trailer shortly with some lore for Zorua/Zoroark.

I like your optimism, even if I don't completely share it. I agree that a sizable part of the "spooky animal" problem is that a modest number of them are missing even the possession/channeler flavor afforded to Basculegion. I also didn't mention Marshadow in my last post because, as you note, we're never told what it is or where it comes from. Is it undead? Is it animal? Pure shadowstuff or something? The Ghost type would be a lot more compelling if the reasons for handing it out were not so haphazard.

The Dragon type has been the butt of jokes forever because of the dragonfly and the eggplant, but it also had Charizard (or the acute absence thereof) keeping it in the public eye. The Ghost type has the same problems. They've just flown under the radar.

The 1 type that has been trash conceptually for years is Psychic. They use Psychic on anything whose type isn't clearly defined. It comes from space? Psychic. Looks like mystical or magical? Psychic. I'm pretty sure this mon looks like a Steel/Dragon/Fire/Electric/Dark[insert any type] but I don't know what its secondary type could be? Psychic.

I mean, what else do you want? Foresight, astrology, and mysticism all neatly and coherently fall under the Psychic banner. It's not a "creature type" like Bug, where common physical characteristics foster some kind of identity. There's no telling what a psychic looks like, so their identity is about finding common themes among their usually invisible powers.

 

[R_N]

For the record, Sword was 12.4 GB (or is, currently, since that would also account for the DLC)

I imagine having to exclude some aspects probably trimmed the space down a bit but I bet in general gamefreak got better at compressing assets. So that's nice.

 

[Bakugames]

nversely, Basculegion is something completely new that takes Basculin's flavor in a direction that its historical kit does not support. I would concede it's a brave move... if it weren't another case like Decidueye, and also Wishiwashi more or less did it first.

"historical kit" is a bass/piranha that was made in 2 days because the team was like "oh fuck we forgot the fish". Pretty much anything that happens to it goes against its historical kit, let's be honest.

Plus, making it a ghost-type salmon is very clever IMO. Design colors are already close to salmon (i wouldn't be surprised if it was another inspiration), and the great salmon migration and then the corpses they leave behind are prime for a ghost type.

 

[Sirya]

The operative phrase being stuck on, which is exactly how I described it.

A monster like Wyrdeer was long in the making—since the beginning almost, Stantler has been associated with hypnosis and hallucinations, but its potential was never cultivated. Conversely, Basculegion is something completely new that takes Basculin's flavor in a direction that its historical kit does not support. I would concede it's a brave move... if it weren't another case like Decidueye, and also Wishiwashi more or less did it first.



I like your optimism, even if I don't completely share it. I agree that a sizable part of the "spooky animal" problem is that a modest number of them are missing even the possession/channeler flavor afforded to Basculegion. I also didn't mention Marshadow in my last post because, as you note, we're never told what it is or where it comes from. Is it undead? Is it animal? Pure shadowstuff or something? The Ghost type would be a lot more compelling if the reasons for handing it out were not so haphazard.

The Dragon type has been the butt of jokes forever because of the dragonfly and the eggplant, but it also had Charizard (or the acute absence thereof) keeping it in the public eye. The Ghost type has the same problems. They've just flown under the radar.



I mean, what else do you want? Foresight, astrology, and mysticism all neatly and coherently fall under the Psychic banner. It's not a "creature type" like Bug, where common physical characteristics foster some kind of identity. There's no telling what a psychic looks like, so their identity is about finding common themes among their usually invisible powers.

Do you mean like Deoxys, being originally an amorphous spacial virus being Psychic, or Rayquaza, a Dragon like creature created by the pressure of the ozone layer being Dragon Flying (altho it'd have been Psychic too, like Deoxys), or Jirachi, being Psychic because it levitates and can make wishes come true, or Absol, being Dark àltho it can create disasters tied to detiny, or Celebi, Psychic because it can time travel, but not Dialga, which is time itself and can time travel, or Palkia, whose power of rendering dimensions apart and travelling through dimensions could've been enough to give him the Psychic type but nope (and Hoopa instead has it), or Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash, a Fairy pony that is Psychic too because why not, it'd have been Fairy Ice and there's no telling that i couldn't, but is psychic, or Victini, that is Fire Psychic but the Psychic part is so random that it could very well be Fire Fairy instead if Fairy type was a thing in Gen V, or Solgaleo, a Steel Psychic leon that is Psychic because I'm pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty sure, of the Fire > Sun association being conceptually weaker than the "based on a star > psychic" association. And no, it's irrelevant that the Sun isn't actually fire. Most fire types doont depict Fire but heat, lava or some other form related to high temperatures; pick a grup of 50 individuals with no prior knowledge of Pokémon, show them a pic of Solgaleo and tell them that a Pokémon named Solgaleo (literally, Sun Lion), is Steel type, and they have to tell what is its secondary typing and see how many answer Psychic intuitivelly and how many answer Fire.

And we can keep going and going. Of all the types, Psychic has been always the most "it could be psychic" of them all.

 

[Hematite]

Hey everyone! I haven't posted in Orange Islands in a while, but I've been involved with a lot of speculation on the Pet Mods Discord, and Aquatic suggested I bring this here!
I noticed some details on the official site that help to clarify a lot of misguided assumptions we've been using to speculate and make predictions, and I wanted to highlight that because it reshaped a lot of my own interpretations of the wardens.

Here is the exact text describing these Pokémon and the wardens who care for them from the official site:

There are special Pokémon in the Hisui region that have received a mysterious blessing. Some of these Pokémon, known as nobles, are particularly powerful, while others are said to willingly assist the people of the region. Your encounters with these special Pokémon will be a key part of your story.​

The people of the Hisui region hold a great respect for these special Pokémon and task wardens to look after them. The wardens protect the special Pokémon by making sure their territories remain safe and by providing offerings of food and water.​

First key clarifications: nobles (the ones that have gone into a frenzy and that we're fighting as bosses) and ride Pokémon are two distinct groups, whereas a lot of us have been assuming that Wyrdeer and Basculegion are nobles and that most nobles will be rideable!
The reason the official site lumps these together is because there are wardens dedicated to caring for both kinds, not because all of them are called nobles. In fact, Kleavor is the only Pokémon that has been confirmed as a noble so far!

Mai is in charge of caring for a special Wyrdeer that can be found in the Obsidian Fieldlands.​

Lian cares for Kleavor, the lord of the Obsidian Fieldlands.​

Iscan lives by the sea and cares for a special Basculegion that makes its home in the area.​

Arezu feels a great deal of responsibility as a warden, and because of this, she tends to try to solve problems all by herself. She is tasked with the care of a certain lady Pokémon.​

Next notable points: as can be seen here, Wyrdeer and Basculegion are simply described as "special" - the same term used to refer to all of the blessed Pokémon with wardens to care for them - while Kleavor is a "lord" (noble) and Arezu's is a "lady" (noble).
This cements that the group that includes ride Pokémon like Wyrdeer and Basculegion is distinct from the group we've been calling nobles, and it also recontextualizes the word "lady" - Arezu's "certain lady Pokémon" is just a noble that happens to be female, not a Pokémon that is necessarily "ladylike" in a human sense or a female-only Pokémon (people have been guessing Hisuian Tsareena, Delcatty and so on based mainly on this key word, but that's not what it means at all). Arezu's Pokémon is a lady in the same way that Lian's is a lord - "lady" as in "a female noble title" and "lord" as in "a male noble title" - and all noble Pokémon will probably be assigned titles like this according to their genders.
Note that Kleavor being called a lord is not just a one-time thing, either! It's even the title it uses in its battle intro - "Lord of the Woods:"

Notice that Arceus symbol behind it? That's probably important, too - our introduction to all of these special Pokémon, nobles and rides alike, is that they have "received a mysterious blessing."​

Next important point: how many special Pokémon will there be?
The straightforward answer is still "we don't know," obviously-- but with the information we have so far, we can make more of an educated guess than previously thought!
Here's a full map of Hisui to show the parts of the region that are specially marked:

We don't know the names of all of the areas (the writing on the map isn't real Japanese and can't be translated - it seems to be a fictional language heavily abstracted from Japanese, like the one used in Galar that was heavily abstracted from English, but the words and letters in that one didn't perfectly align with any real ones either!), but there appear to be six of them!

- One is just our home base in Jubilife Village, which may not have any nobles or ride Pokémon at all because it's being used exclusively by the Galaxy Expedition Team and we have yet to see any native Hisuians around; the others are
- the Obsidian Fieldlands (the area around modern-day Sandgem including Lake Verity),
- an area around modern-day Pastoria in the southeastern center,
- an area around modern-day Celestic or Mt. Coronet in the northern center,
- an area around modern-day Snowpoint in the north, and
- an area around modern-day Sunyshore in the east.​

When the first batch of wardens was revealed, I remember being struck by the fact that the Obsidian Fieldlands seemingly had two nobles, which made me dismiss any notion of a clean limit per area early on. Now, though, I'm not so sure - it just happens that the Obsidian Fieldlands have not just any two special Pokémon but one ride Pokémon and one noble.

This is all speculative and it is impossible to count on any "pattern" based on a sample size of one (1), so please take this with a grain of salt,
but my best guess at the moment is that each of these map sections will similarly account for one of each, because to me it just seems like a fairly clean and convenient way to distribute them throughout the game (and I have reason to expect five ride Pokémon independently of this, which I will explain shortly).
In addition, considering how consistently variant Pokémon and crossgens have been represented as these special Pokémon, I think it's very safe to assume all ten will be variants or crossgens (everyone already thought this I think) and would not be surprised if those ten account for all of the variants or crossgens in the game, outside of possible special cases (like, there could totally still be something new for the starter evolutions, but those probably would never have been considered for these roles in the first place for obvious reasons - let's go with ten-but-maybe-thirteen then?).
Remember - Sun and Moon also introduced ten different lines of variants, and so did Sword and Shield before the DLC! so ten is actually a really convenient number as a starting point; it's a ballpark I had given well before we knew about nobles or wardens, just as soon as the August trailer revealed Wyrdeer, Basculegion, Braviary and Growlithe in the first place.

I am sure this leak is widespread by now, but I will spoiler it--

This is a leak

Around the time of the first Legends: Arceus trailer, we got these screenshots of gameplay footage, including silhouettes of both Wyrdeer and Hisuian Braviary as ride Pokémon and a full screenshot of what we know now to be the noble Kleavor boss fight:

The reason I bring this up is because it accounts for exactly one leaked Pokémon, which is suggested here to be a ride Pokémon! It's the one in the middle of the first screenshot between Wyrdeer and Braviary; I just have the rest of the other screenshots to remind people of the context and why this one is credible (yes, I can obviously vouch this was from before Wyrdeer and Hisuian Braviary were released - people had been talking about it for months in the Pet Mods Discord P:).
People have been speculating on what this could be for a long time (in fact I've seen people trying to push it as Arezu's noble... uh... somehow), but I'm pointing it out here because it accounts for a fourth ride Pokémon we haven't seen yet.
(I also want to take this opportunity to reiterate that we know this cannot be a noble, because ride Pokémon and nobles are two different things!)

Okay, so with that in mind:

- We have seen four ride Pokémon for sure - three have been revealed officially (Wyrdeer, Basculegion and Hisuian Braviary), and one is the silhouette in the leaked image above.
This is still just speculation, but my best guess is that the evolved form of Hisuian Growlithe (Hisuian Arcanine or a counterpart) will be a ride Pokémon. Uh, this is not really for any reason, just... it's Arcanine. It's Arcanine guys. They're not going to make an Arcanine variant in a game that lets you ride half of the variants and not let you ride the Arcanine variant
Most of these are easily attributed - Wyrdeer is known explicitly to be in the Obsidian Fieldlands, Basculegion has been shown in an area that looks like the bay around Sunyshore, and Hisuian Braviary is clearly meant to be found in the Snowpoint area, which just leaves the silhouette and Arcanine to go. I would personally feel most comfortable guessing that the places Hisuian Growlithe have been seen are more like the Celestic area, so probably Arcanine will be there and that leaves the silhouette for the Pastoria area? It looks like it's used for Rock Climb, but there are mountains in that part of the map as well as everywhere else so that seems fine. P:​

+ ?​

- We have only seen one noble Pokémon, Kleavor. We also know Arezu is the warden of another noble Pokémon, but we have no idea where she lives; all we can say is that she has a green bracelet (no this does not tell us it evolves from a green Pokémon - please look at any of the other variants, guys) and her noble Pokémon is a female individual of its kind (not to be confused with "a female-only species" - Lian's Kleavor uses a male title because it happens to be a male Kleavor).
That said, I'm going to place a really really obvious bet here and say Hisuian Zoroark is the noble Pokémon in the Snowpoint area.
That leaves just three more nobles we haven't seen at all, Arezu's included.​

+ ? ? ?​

I will also take this opportunity to suggest that I am more confident in there being exactly five nobles than in there being exactly five ride Pokémon - obviously Alola had different numbers of Captains and Kahunas on each island, but... following my gut here, nobles just seem like a more intuitive thing to be one per area, while there could be as many ride Pokémon as Game Freak wants there to be field moves, and we all know that number fluctuates a ton man imagine making a version of Sinnoh without 8 different HMs and one cave with Flash for good measure... couldn't be me.

This isn't really any new information, but it is a re-framing of existing information that I found helpful - at least over on Pet Mods, we were definitely relying on wrong assumptions for a lot of our speculation until now, so I am glad to have caught this. Here's hoping this clarification can be of use here as well! C:

 

[Wishy]

Oh gosh that's really changed my way of thinking. Arcanine could be similar in purpose to Tauros or Mudsdale (charge/Rock Smash and/or traversing rocky terrain).

I always assumed the middle silhouette was a person rock climbing with a backpack. Looking closer I can see it as some kind of humanoid with a basket for a rider on its back. Interesting!

Are the other aggressive/sub-boss Pokemon tied into the same or similar phenomenon as Nobles?

​

 

[Chadlad50]

I genuinely have no idea what Pokemon that could be in the leak to be honest. The only thing it reminds me of is Gallade due to it's proportions and body shape

 

[Mad Ram]

It reminds me of Nuzleaf, but I doubt it is one because all the other ride Pokémon appear to be final evolutions. Whatever it is, it will likely be the final stage of its evolutionary line, it will likely be a Hisuian form, and it will not be a new form of a gen four Pokémon as a native to Sinnoh would likely not have a new form for what is just the past version of its native home.

 

[R_N]

It reminds me of Nuzleaf, but I doubt it is one because all the other ride Pokémon appear to be final evolutions. Whatever it is, it will likely be the final stage of its evolutionary line, it will likely be a Hisuian form, and it will not be a new form of a gen four Pokémon as a native to Sinnoh would likely not have a new form for what is just the past version of its native home.

I mean a new Nuzleaf evolution that keeps the more primary trait of Nuzleaf (the slender build, the leaf) isn't necessarily off the table.

it doesnt have to be related to that line by any means, but I wouldn't rule it out either.