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

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

This is really minor but why is a Gible hanging out in a frozen landscape? A single snowflake lands on its head and the poor thing dies!

The irony of Gible being in a frozen place is not just because Gible is 4x weak to Ice in-game and how it instantly falls to an Ice move. It's also even more ironic because Gible canonically hates the cold and cannot stand being in cold climates. Many of Gible's Pokedex entries literally emphasize this:

Pearl: "It once lived in the tropics. To avoid the cold, it lives in caves warmed by geothermal heat."

HGSS: "It nests in horizontal holes warmed by geothermal heat. Foes who get too close can expect to be pounced on and bitten."

Sun: "It lives in caves warmed by geothermal heat. Even so, when the weather gets cold, it will huddle close to others of its kind."

Ultra Moon: "Its original home is an area much hotter than Alola. If you're planning to live with one, your heating bill will soar."

Sword: "Gible prefer to stay in warm holes in the sides of caves heated by geothermal energy. This way, Gible can stay warm even during a blizzard."

There's a prevailing theme here: Gible doesn't like the cold, and really needs to be in warm, warm places, literally needing tons of heat to be comfortable. It is evidently extremely uncomfortable in cold climates and does what it can to remain in exceptionally warm places. So to see Gible hanging out in a cold and frozen place is ultimately incredibly ironic (yes, I know it's in the Crown Tundra in Galar, but it's in a cave there and for all we know that place is probably much warmer inside than outside).

 

[Imperial Magala]

There could be a nearby cave offscreen in the snow area. Alternately, hot springs could also let normally Ice-weak Pokemon thrive in snowy areas. It reminds me of Monster Hunter where Rajang, Zinogre, and Fulgar Anjanath, three Ice-weak monsters, all live in snowy areas, presumably by being an apex predator.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Page 8

If this is game shows a time before humans start catching pokemon, maybe those forms are before pokemon adjusting to humans. It's like seeing a Sabertooth instead of a Lion/Tiger/Jaguar/etc.

So Raikou?

PLA looking very exciting so far. Hopefully blacking out doesn't happen nearly as often as getting one-shot in Breath of the Wild.

TBF your trainer isn't directly fighting the Pokemon unlike in BOTW where Link is going toe-to-toe with monsters. All Pokemon look to have a tell when they're about to attack so as long as you pay attention and dodge you shouldn't black out very often.

Wyrdeer is Normal/Psychic (not Ice oddly)

Well you see Stantler isn't a Fire, Ground, or another type that's super effective against Ice.

Legends Arceus will be used to test the waters and check if the Pokémon main series can change from a traditional turn based combat system to something more similar too modern FF, like the ATB system used in FF VII and others (altho a better example would be FF X). Which is something I don't like, not gonna lie, but it's a small price to pay in order to see future games with the budget and creativity of Legends Arceus.

I don't think the core series will ever step too far away from turn-based, if Legends is a proof of anything its to see if future side games could use this mechanic so that they can directly reuse Pokemon moves from the core series without needing to adjust/translate them into a new system.

I've been meming about this ever since the SWSH DLC rollout where I begged for Galarian Stantler to no avail, but this is a fat step-up.

So question is, is Wyrdeer an evo of Normal Stantler or a regional evolution of Hisuian Stantler?

apan wins again with this Garchomp outfit gift if you order from Amazon JP.

I mean, we still have time to get it overseas in some shape and form, right GF?... Right? I SAID RIGHT?!

Page 9

It's a little alarming that they've apparently gone extinct since the Hisui period but agreed, very cool!

Maybe if they keep the storyteller narrative they have in the trailers, like the reader is one of Rowan's assistants who finds these old reports and decides to investigate them, and upon discovering the these alt evolutions & forms sets to work to trigger them again, find where they went, or reverse engineer them (I'm sure if you breed a female Growlithe/Arcanine with Rockruff/Lycanroc enough times one of their children will be a Hisuian Growlithe, that's just science!),

Don't tempt fate like that, otherwise the reveal of Bug/Flying Hisuian Mandibuzz is practically guaranteed

Joke is on you cause it'll be normal flying

Well if we go by tradition of Regional Variants trying to flip a Pokemon's concept on its head, I'd say a Hisuian Mandibuzz would be Fairy/Flying and instead of decorating its nest with bones & skulls it uses colorful feathers (or it's naturally colorful so it uses white feathers taken from Hisuian Braviary to better disguise itself and Hisuian Vullaby).

I look at Wyrdeer and Basculegion and i do not see "traditional cross-gen evolutions" I see "it's regional evolutions, again"
They underlined the connection to the Hisui region specifically in how they evolve and were shown alongside the two more "traditional" regional variants.

Wouldn't surprise me if there's specifically Hisui Stantler and Hisui Basculin like how Sirfetch'd comes from Galarian Farfetch'd

But as counterpoint, Galarian Weezing evolves from regular Weezing (same as how A-marowak and A-raichu evolve from regular Kanto forms), so I think both options are possible

Honestly, I more see there being a Hisuian Stantler since we don't have a regional evo that evolves from a normal form. And while they can certainly do one, I think GF hasn't because they're afraid of upsetting some fans you like the normal Pokemon ending where it did. So they make a regional variant of the Pokemon and give it a regional evo to solve that problem. In addition Wyrdeer sounds like its a Special Attacker now so would likely flip Hisuian Stantler's Attack with its Special Attack (going from 73/95/62/85/65/85//465 to 73/85/62/95/65/85//465).

However, we do have a regional form which kept its original form's prevo, so I'm going out on a limb to say that we'll have normal Rufflet evolve into Hisuian Braviary. It's also mentioned Hisuian Braviary is still a Physical Attacker so there's no need to change Rufflet's stats.

While we're at it, I think we'll get a Husuian Basculin which is a singular Pokemon that shares traits from the two other Basculin and purple/magenta colored (and no doubt they'll say that it's the true form of Basculin and the ones in Unova are distant relatives who inner fought and thus diverged).

And another risky bet, I think Hisuian Growlithe is NOT going to evolve into Hisuian Arcanine but rather a new regional evo. With Hisuian Growlithe looking even MORE like a Shishi statue, I think the direction is an even more extravagant statue beast something like a Qilin or Pixiu (maybe even change from Stone/Fire to Stone/Dragon).

Hypothetical Basculin-H could easily just have some slightly different markings on it, or have an entirely different back end that's replaced by the ghostly cloud-like shape upon evolution.

Basculegion only has the ghostly wisps because the spirit of its lost kin are now possessing it. Basculin-H would likely just be pure Water-type and resemble a combination of both Basculin, once again probably because they'll try selling us its the original Basculin species.

Also now that we have regional variants/evolutions confirmed I'm like 99.9% sure that there are either going to be Hisuian forms of Decidueye, Typhlosion, and Samurott or Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott will get new branched evolutions. Just seems to line up too perfectly IMO

Hmm... I'm going to say no. Why? Because they're not native to Hisui. Remember, the Oshawott, Cyndaquil, and Rowlet were brought over from their region or origin from Professor Laventon's world travels.

Is it just me, or do the two new battle styles seem to be inspired by Urshifu's two forms? We have a Strong style that focuses on defeating opponents in a single hit (Single Strike style) and an Agile style that makes your moves rapid-fire (Rapid Strike style). Maybe Kubfu and Urshifu have something to do with Hisui? Kubfu's bio on the SWSH site does say that it is not native to Galar and was originally from a "mountanious region"...

When I heard of the two forms I did think of Urshifu. I was wondering if maybe they would make some kind of connection, but then I thought having Kubfu in Legends would kind of downplay its importance in the Isle of Armor DLC so shrugged it off. But, then remembering that the Crown Tundra have the new Regi forms which could link them to BDSP, maybe it WAS intentional and they planned for both DLCs to gave a connection to a different Sinnoh game: Isle of Armor to Legends & Crown Tundra to BDSP.

Page 10

Hisuian Braviary doesn't have the most unique typing ever but if they differentiate it by making it more physically-biased that would be nice. A shame that Psychic has poor physical moves and Flying has poor special moves so unless they gave it a signature to remedy this it might struggle to specialize.

Braviary has always been Physical. Its Attack is 123 and Special Attack is 57. As for Psychic Physical moves, well we do have Zen Headbutt and I can see it getting Psycho Cut. Though it could also get a new Signature Move or, since it's no longer Normal-type, maybe a Psychic-type version of Aerilate/Galvanize (Mentalize?); it would get a nice boon turning the following Physical Normal-type moves to Psychic: Slash, Crush Claw, Thrash, Giga Impact, Facade, Retaliate, & Return if that move ever comes back.

Also, this is completely unrelated to the game itself, but a main character in a game that was announced in early 2021 in a region based off medieval Japan who has that very specific name totally isn't a sneak reference to a certain popular trend right now. Nope, totally not at all. You might as well have a Gardevoir hiding away in some wooden box while you're at it...

???

Page 11

Hopefully Stantler and Wyrdeer will receive a new Fighting type coverage move after the loss of Jump Kick, since I assume that it won't return in PL:A. Close Combat is a plausible candidate, considering its wider distribution in SwSh and how Xerneas is able to learn it.

It sounds to be a Special Attacker now, so maybe Aura Sphere?

Probably ultra-basic but it would be awesome to see new forms for Dialga and Palkia since this game is based on a past version of Sinnoh.

If Dialga & Palkia had new forms I'd rather that be in BDSP. For Legends: Arceus, well, I think Arceus would be the one who would be getting a new form.

I am really interested to see if the Galaxy exploration team has any ties to Team Galactic/has a more sinister plot behind a friendly facade à la Aether Foundation.

I feel like there's going to be a lot of uh...what's the term I'm looking for....Irony? Maybe?
That is, Galaxy Exploration is entirely on the up & up, but there's going to be dialog and events that imply they hope to continue this work for years to come when we all know

I mean their logo are very similar so I expect them to be proto-Galactic.

I mostly agree. With Rowan's ancestor being the boss of the Galaxy Exploration Group I feel more comfortable saying they're good guys. If there's an antagonist, considering the time period, I would say maybe it would be a foreign power/business who sees Hisui prime for exploitation instead of creating it into its own region. But outside of that I would imagine there may not be a bad guy but rather the main driving force of the game would be exploring Hisui, completing missions, meeting with native people throughout and helping them (and they could have there be a clash between native people & foreign settlers if they want to go that direction), and discovering the legends of the Legendary Pokemon and how Hisui (and the rest of the Pokemon world) was created.

However, considering in the original DPPt it felt like Team Galactic was a relatively new group and obviously Rowan is not part of them or seemingly heard of them, I have a feeling the Galaxy Exploration Team doesn't last far into the founding of Sinnoh. For one reason or another, possibly because what they set out to do was done, the Galaxy Team disbands. Many years later, a young Cyrus discovers old records of the Legendary findings by Galaxy Team which was kept by his ancestor and, likely already driven mad at that points, decides to use the knowledge to reset the universe under the guise of a new Galaxy Team, Team Galactic.

On a serious note one thing I didn't think about is that dive isn't really realistic given that there's no magic "breathe underwater" item like there is in the anime / games. This makes encountering deep sea pokemon kind of difficult so the only way you could find sea pokemon is at the water's surface or, at best, in short underwater dives? idk

Hear me out, what about a REALLY long bamboo snorkel?

Though if you want a more serious answer, there was diving suits similar to how we think of them in the late 1800s/early 1900s which is around the time of these games, they would just need someone like the Professor to make sure air keeps pumping into it.

Page 12

I'm also curious on whether the Porygon line will be implemented.

You're just exploring Hisui when suddenly a flash of light shines in the sky. You watch as three lights streak across the sky like a comet, a bluish-red one landing nearby. You go to where the light landed and, in a small crater is a Porygon... and it has a note around its neck. "Hello! If you're reading this that means we've successfully teleported this PORYGON through time! However, we don't have a way to get it back to our time period. Luckily Porygon is ageless so just hang onto it for a hundred years or so. We've also attached two square objects called discs with it that'll make it evolve if you so wish it to". Those other two lights, a yellow streak and purple streak, were likely those two discs that flew off somewhere in Hisui. Congratulations, you got a Porygon! You're not sure what this will do with paradoxes and the timespace continuum, but that's a problem for people 100 years in the future.

I've discussed before how I dislike many of Galar's new evolution names for being based on the names of other Pokemon. They're not like Golett / Golurk or Charmander / Charmeleon / Charizard where they're all based on a common word like "golem" or "char", I mean they're puns and portmanteaus based off of "Corsola" and "Cofagrigus" as if those root words are not themselves puns and portmanteaus. Even Perrserker, by far the best name of the lot, has elements of "Persian" in its name.

But Wyrdeer? That's just weird + deer. That's just a completely normal Pokemon name that doesn't rely on the existence of the word "Stantler" to make sense.

Basculegion is pretty alright, as well. It relies on "Basculin", which is suboptimal, but it combines Basculin + legion in a satisfying way.

BASCULIN
LEGION
BASCULEGION

It's probably the third best of these names, above Obstagoon but below Perrserker and Wyrdeer.

Hmm, you're right those names are pretty different from how they did the Galar region evos. Let me check their Japanese names:

• Stantler: Odoshishi (from "shishi-odoshi", which translates to "scare deer" as its a device which is made to scare away animals such as deer).
• Wyrdeer: Ayashishi (from "ayashii" (Japanese for "strange") and "shishi-doshi")

Alright, I think I see what happened. Since Stantler's Japanese name was directly named after a Japanese animal scaring device, they didn't really have a way to properly translate it into English without coming out strange (Scaredeer?) so instead went with their own name: Stantler (Stag/Star(ing) Antler). Now with Wyrdeer, its Japanese name continues the name theme of its prevo but adding the word Japanese word "strange" in front of it, it's name essentially meaning "strange deer". Since the translators already broke the naming convention, they just made a name that was closer in translation to Ayashishi, Wyrdeer (but instead of using "weird" they went with the more fancier "wyrd" likely because of the word's Norse origin since Wyrdeer is adapt to colder climates (and is rocking a Odin-like beard)).

• Basculin: Bassrao (from "bass", "masurao" (Japanese for "warrior"), and "bakarao" (Japanese name for the bacalhau species of fish))
• Basculegion: Idaitou (from "idai" (Japanese for "great") and itou (Japanese name for the Sakhalin taimen species of fish))

So, another strange case, we have the OPPOSITE going on here. The Japanese name is the one that went with a completely different name (though following a similar name scheme) while the English name kept with how they named regional evos. Just when you think you got things figured out they put the rug from under you by breaking their own rules.

Ok, so I got a crazy prediction to share with everyone. It involves leaked material, so be warned!

Ooooh leeakks spoooky~

View attachment 365945
I'm sure you all remember these leaked images from when BDSP/Legends were first revealed. As of today, we've been able to confirm the identities of 2/3 of those shadowy creatures, the leftmost being Wyrdeer and the right being Hisuian Braviary. This, of course, leaves the middle being as the odd one out; what could that possibly be? It gets stranger the more you look at it: It kinda looks like a really lanky Nuzleaf, except it doesn't even seem to be carrying the player character like the other two? What gives?

This isn't gonna be me predicting what Pokemon this is, but rather its potential inspiration. Before I elaborate, we first gotta discuss an INCREDIBLY cool detail about one of the other reveals my buddy ol' chum Hematite discovered.
View attachment 365946
So we're all familiar with Basculegion's background, right? The whole "absorbing the souls of other dead Basculin" shtick? Well, keeping that in mind, I want you to take a look at this folktale from one of the books in Canalave Library in DPPt and see if it sounds familiar.

"Sinnoh Folk Story 1"
Pick clean the bones of Pokémon caught in the sea or stream.
Thank them for the meals they provide, and pick their bones clean.
When the bones are as clean as can be, set them free in the water from which they came.
The Pokémon will return, fully fleshed, and it begins anew.

Oh yeah baby, Basculegion isn't just your average badass evolution for an old mon. It's a badass evolution for an old mon directly based on an obscure lore tidbit in the original Sinnoh titles! I could gush over how this propels an already great design and displays inhuman attention to detail but honestly it kinda speaks for itself.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at another story from the very same book the above comes from...

"Sinnoh Folk Story 2"
There lived a Pokémon in a forest.
In the forest, the Pokémon shed its hide to sleep as a human.
Awakened, the human dons the Pokémon hide to roam villages.

The first and third lines are the most notable here. Earlier I mentioned how the mystery mon is like Nuzleaf in that it seems to have some sort of leaf tuft on its head, and if I'm correct then that sure sounds like something you'd find in a forest. Line 3 is even crazier, for it explains why the player isn't visible - they're wearing the mystery mon's skin as a suit of armor!

Once again I have no theories on what Pokemon the remaining shadowy figure is related to, I just wanted to share this cuz it makes me admire these games even more somehow, and is also just a generally fun discussion point

Leaks & Stretching

Hm, I think you're stretching a bit with the Sinnoh Folk Story. The first one is about the Pokemon bones put in the river reforming back into the Pokemon it was, not really has anything to do with Basculegion being possessed by its dead comrades who died during their yearly swim upstream (assumingly to breed). Not really related. The second one is about a human(?) who wears a Pokemon hide to roam villages but takes it off when going to sleep. Note that the 2nd story also sort of goes along with a 3rd folk tale where there was a time Pokemon and human were indistinguishable and even married one another. These two folktales are common within shapeshifter myths, especially a few Japanese ones (the kitsune, yuki-onna, Tsaru no Ongaeshi, etc.).

As for the unknown Ride Pokemon, I agree we don't see the player, but I also want to note an element about the silhouette you didn't mention: it's carrying a box on its back. If I were to guess, that box is likely a litter/sedan chair and the player character is sitting inside it comfortably as the Ride Pokemon scales the mountain.

Don't really have anything more to say than that.

 

[misterdarvus]

As I said before, this game is basically third-person shooter but with throwing Pokeball instead. With other shooter games on switch. I hope it will have gyro control. Aim with ZL to activate gyro and throw the balls with ZR.

 

[Lucky-Luke]

I didn't understand if Wyrdeer and Basculegion are normal evolutions like Magmortar etc... or if there are Hisuian Stantler and Hisuian Basculin.

 

[Nickeljorn]

I didn't understand if Wyrdeer and Basculegion are normal evolutions like Magmortar etc... or if there are Hisuian Stantler and Hisuian Basculin.

I think they're normal evolutions, but there could be a small chance of the latter happening instead.

 

[Chadlad50]

I haven't seen anything about there being a Hiusian Basulin or Stantler, the info for Basculegion and Wyrdeer only mentions "Basculin" and "Stantler." Obviously there could be Hisuian variants that haven't been revealed but to me it just looks like a cross gen evolution similar to Electivire

 

[Worldie]

I haven't seen anything about there being a Hiusian Basulin or Stantler, the info for Basculegion and Wyrdeer only mentions "Basculin" and "Stantler." Obviously there could be Hisuian variants that haven't been revealed but to me it just looks like a cross gen evolution similar to Electivire

I agree, to me it seems just a case like Pikachu, Cubone and Koffing receiving regional evos.

Which *to be fair* is a pretty bad practice as it creates problems for futureproofing, I honestly would much more prefer if there are regional "base forms" as well.

 

[Yung Dramps]

My theory: Being in this time period is their final failsafe in case the new evos were to go over poorly for whatever reason, in which case they can just say "oh dw these are ancient forms that are dead now!" and move on. Seeing as all that's been seen so far is universal praise, I'm convinced they'll be grandfathered into future gens.

That sounds a little strange but apparently the original batch of Gen 4 evos were actually quite controversial in their time so I guess they're exercising caution with bringing the idea back

 

[R_N]

I haven't seen anything about there being a Hiusian Basulin or Stantler, the info for Basculegion and Wyrdeer only mentions "Basculin" and "Stantler." Obviously there could be Hisuian variants that haven't been revealed but to me it just looks like a cross gen evolution similar to Electivire

Farfetch'd was referred to in the same exact manner when Sirfetch'd was revealed.
Like, exactly. We even had discussions about if there was going to be a Galarian Farfetch'd because of it.



The situation Alolan Raichu, Marowak, Exeggutor, Weezing etc is completely different. That's just a pokemon evolving into its normal evolution, but in a new form.

 

[Lucky-Luke]

I agree, to me it seems just a case like Pikachu, Cubone and Koffing receiving regional evos.

Which *to be fair* is a pretty bad practice as it creates problems for futureproofing, I honestly would much more prefer if there are regional "base forms" as well.

I prefer to be regional evolutions of the normal forms. In this way Stantler and Basculin are now useful and not as happened with Farfetch'd.
But yes in future games to get it will be boring.

 

[AmbientDinosaur]

Farfetch'd was referred to in the same exact manner when Sirfetch'd was revealed.
Like, exactly. We even had discussions about if there was going to be a Galarian Farfetch'd because of it.



The situation Alolan Raichu, Marowak, Exeggutor, Weezing etc is completely different. That's just a pokemon evolving into its normal evolution, but in a new form.

Yep, the wording used on the official site for Wyrdeer and Basculegion is very similar to the wording that was used on Sirfetch'd's page for SwSh.

The Farfetch’d of the Galar region can evolve into Sirfetch'd after experiencing many battles.

In the Hisui region, Stantler can evolve into Wyrdeer.

Basculin in the Hisui region can evolve into this Pokémon.

It is intentionally vague, but since Sirfetch'd's page didn't explicitly mention it evolving from Galarian Farfetch’d, Game Freak may have done the same with Wyrdeer and Basculegion.

 

[Dece1t]

Hot take:

I don't know if its been mentioned in any of the previous pages, but it feels weird to me that GameFreak hasn't put the final evolutions for the starters into any promotion. It makes me wonder about the possibility of them giving the starters Hisuian forms too. Am I crazy? lol

 

[AquaticPanic]

I'm sure they would find a way to put these into future games. They've changed Feebas' evolution method before, they could just do the same here.

Now, on an unrelated note, I want to bring your attention to this Wurm:

Wurmple has a tiny re-design in this game: The spike on the back of its head is now Yellow, as opposed to Red. But this isn't just a new update - the Red Spike Wurmple is still in the game, as it shows up on Hisui's Map

So I wonder what's up with that. Some people have been guessing it has to do with which of Silcoon or Cascoon it will evolve into, since there's never been a previous way to tell that.


And on that note...

Here we see Beautifly, but at no point in either the trailer or the presentation we see Dustox. I wonder if there's any specific reason why they're somewhat focusing on Wurmple of it just happens to be a coincidence

Maybe even...

 

[Yung Dramps]

Farfetch'd was referred to in the same exact manner when Sirfetch'd was revealed.
Like, exactly. We even had discussions about if there was going to be a Galarian Farfetch'd because of it.

Here's the thing: Sirfetch'd was revealed off the bat to be pure Fighting, which is already a pretty major discrepancy with the OG for obvious reasons. Wyrdeer is Normal/Psychic and Basculegion is Water/Ghost. Aside from sharing types with their original forms, aspects of their lore also reduces the idea of Hisuian pre-evos existing.

-Wyrdeer being Normal/Psychic is significant because vanilla Stantler is already a pure Normal type with heavy Psychic motifs. Its dex entries talk about its antlers being able to distort reality and it learns a menagerie of Psychic staples from Calm Mind to Psychic/Psyshock to Trick Room and Magic Room. A Normal/Psychic Hisuian Stantler would be the equivalent of a Psychic/Dark Girafarig or a Rock/Grass Sudowoodo: It's such a banal, redundant extension of the original concept far below the remixes other regional forms have offered in terms of creativity. Besides, Wyrdeer already has so many physical similarities with Stantler that one questions what a unique pre-evo would even look like, would it literally just be Blue Stantler?
-As for Basculegion, just take a look at its description: "This Evolution occurs when a Basculin is possessed by the souls of other Basculin from its school that could not withstand the harsh journey upstream." This is not a fusion of souls, this is pretty clearly suggesting that there has to be at least one living Basculin that can serve as the host for the spirits of its dead comrades. An evolution from a Water/Ghost Hisuian Basculin would contradict this way too hard to not be noticeable.

Either way, Sirfetch'd is the sole example of this style of reveal. Obstagoon was clearly established to come from Galarian Linoone, and the other 3 Galarian evos were not shown pre-release. I'd like to think that Game Freak realized that the way Sirfetch'd was presented mislead quite a few people into thinking it was branching off from the original and they wouldn't want to repeat it, certainly not double down.

It is intentionally vague, but since Sirfetch'd's page didn't explicitly mention it evolving from Galarian Farfetch’d, Game Freak may have done the same with Wyrdeer and Basculegion.

If you wanna dive deep into it, the wording for SWSH's regional evos actually is different from that of Wyrdeer and Basculegion. Both Obstagoon and Sirfetch'd were described as evolving from Linoone/Farfetch'd of the Galar region. Meanwhile for Basculegion they describe it as evolving from Basculin in the Hisui region, similar thing with Wyrdeer.

There's also a difference in presentation order for the two. Obstagoon was shown in tandem with Galarian Weezing as an example of "regional variants are back, and some have their own exclusive evolutions!". Meanwhile in the overview after the trailer both of the evolutions were explicitly shown off before Hisuian Braviary and Growlithe, with the narrator specifying "there are also some Pokemon that can be found living in [Hisui] that have adapted to the natural environment".

So yeah, with all that considered I'd be pretty confident in saying that the knowledge of Hisuian Basculin/Stantler suddenly being dropped on us would make all this more than qualify as deceptive marketing

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Hot take:

I don't know if its been mentioned in any of the previous pages, but it feels weird to me that GameFreak hasn't put the final evolutions for the starters into any promotion. It makes me wonder about the possibility of them giving the starters Hisuian forms too. Am I crazy? lol

No, you're not. It is indeed weird that they've been concealing the starter evos and not even showing them in the trailer. Especially when you consider their final evolutions should be common knowledge by now to many: Typhlosion, Decidueye, and Samurott are well known at this point.

Some people in the OI Discord have considered it weird themselves and some of us have talked about the possibility of them getting either Hisuian forms, or Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott becoming totally new Pokemon altogether. There's no guarantee that will be the case, of course, but it'll be interesting to see if it turns out to be the case later on down the line when we get close to the game's release.

 

[Samtendo09]

-As for Basculegion, just take a look at its description: "This Evolution occurs when a Basculin is possessed by the souls of other Basculin from its school that could not withstand the harsh journey upstream." This is not a fusion of souls, this is pretty clearly suggesting that there has to be at least one living Basculin that can serve as the host for the spirits of its dead comrades. An evolution from a Water/Ghost Hisuian Basculin would contradict this way too hard to not be noticeable.

Another thing to note is how the color scheme of Basculegion is strikingly similar to Basculin, with the red stripe being a little more magenta, but not even close enough to be purple. If it were to be a regional evolution, it would have a more ghost-like color like a deep dark blue / red or a significantly faded green. Time will tell if there will be a Blue-Striped Basculegion, though if it is a fully fledged evolution and not regional form exclusive, chances that it might be the case.

Same goes with Wyrdeer; the design is so similar to Stantler, but with some extra details, that it’s even mistaken for a reginoal variant of Stantler before its name is revealed during the overview. Normal / Psychic is more of a recipe for a long overdue evolution than regional variant due to the fact that, as you said, there is already a lot of Psychic-esque movepool and lore Stantler already have.

I wouldn’t mind if either turns out to have reginoal pre-evo, but either way, I’m still excited for Legends: Arceus’ release, if only to see what more regional variants and new evolutions they stored. The fact that, in the middle of a generation, we have entirely new non-special (special which means Legendary, Mythical or Ultra Beast) Pokémon that aren’t regional forms is a pleasant surprise; I expected at least some Sinnohian / “Ancient” variants and that’s it.

 

[Hugin]

It's worth noting that all 3 of the starter final evos are ones which people could reasonably expect to change.
Typhlosion has always been a redheaded stepchild of the starters, a Charizard clone with few unique options of it's own. Changing it in some way could breathe much-needed life into it.
Decidueye, of course, goes from Grass/Flying to Grass/Ghost because the animal it's based on is extinct in modern times. In the past? There's no reason to keep it Ghost.
Samurott isn't as bad off as Typhlosion, of course, but it's not Water/Steel or Water/Ice when either would seem obvious for it, and it's another starter that's mostly forgotten.
New final evos aren't guaranteed, but they're not impossible either.

 

[Chadlad50]

Farfetch'd was referred to in the same exact manner when Sirfetch'd was revealed.
Like, exactly. We even had discussions about if there was going to be a Galarian Farfetch'd because of it.



The situation Alolan Raichu, Marowak, Exeggutor, Weezing etc is completely different. That's just a pokemon evolving into its normal evolution, but in a new form.

Makes a lot of sense, but one thing I think is important is that both new Evos share a type that the original Basculin and Stantler have, unlike Sirfetch'd which is a completely different typing than Kantonian Farfetch'd (although I wasn't around during the SwSh hype so my guess is the typing for Sirfetch'd wasn't revealed at the time)

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

It's worth noting that all 3 of the starter final evos are ones which people could reasonably expect to change.
Typhlosion has always been a redheaded stepchild of the starters, a Charizard clone with few unique options of it's own. Changing it in some way could breathe much-needed life into it.
Decidueye, of course, goes from Grass/Flying to Grass/Ghost because the animal it's based on is extinct in modern times. In the past? There's no reason to keep it Ghost.
Samurott isn't as bad off as Typhlosion, of course, but it's not Water/Steel or Water/Ice when either would seem obvious for it, and it's another starter that's mostly forgotten.
New final evos aren't guaranteed, but they're not impossible either.

From a battle standpoint, Decidueye also could use buffs much like Typhlosion and Samurott are in dire need of. Decidueye, while not as severely outclassed as the other two currently, is still one of the weaker starters competitively and is the worst of the Alola starters from a competitive standpoint, whereas Incineroar and Primarina have had much stronger competitive track records in both Smogon and VGC metagames. The former is virtually the face of VGC and has been since USUM, and Primarina has also has great track records in Gen 7 and Gen 8 UU, was very good in IoA OU, and was a prominent force in Isle of Armor VGC. Meanwhile Decidueye has never made it past NU and is more or less nonexistent in VGC metagames.

So Decidueye could also benefit from having some buffs since it's not exactly great competitively, unlike Incineroar and Primarina. Of course, the other two are more in need of new forms or changes because they are too direly outclassed as it stands.

 

[AmbientDinosaur]

No, you're not. It is indeed weird that they've been concealing the starter evos and not even showing them in the trailer. Especially when you consider their final evolutions should be common knowledge by now to many: Typhlosion, Decidueye, and Samurott are well known at this point.

Some people in the OI Discord have considered it weird themselves and some of us have talked about the possibility of them getting either Hisuian forms, or Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott becoming totally new Pokemon altogether. There's no guarantee that will be the case, of course, but it'll be interesting to see if it turns out to be the case later on down the line when we get close to the game's release.

I'm mostly wondering in what direction GF would take a Hisuian Decidueye. Typhlosion I can see several potential new design directions. Fire/Electric with a spark/plasma theme, Fire/Ground to lean more into its volcanic theme, or perhaps Fire/Dark for a more brutal, "shogun" inspired design. A regional Samurott that actually is Water/Fighting feels like low-hanging fruit.

But with Decidueye I am less sure what new typing GF could give it that still fits its archer theme (other than keeping the Grass/Flying combo I guess).

 

[Lightchao42]

Personally, when Wyrdeer was first shown, I thought it was just Hisuian Stantler...

I don't expect Hisuian forms for the starters because I don't think GF would want to change them significantly without also changing the other starters from their respective generations. Granted Charizard got two Megas while Venusaur and Blastoise didn't, but Charizard gets special treatment. Anyhow, the trailer states that Laventon brought them to Hisui from other regions, so from an in-universe standpoint it wouldn't make sense for them to have "Hisuian" forms. Samurott is already a samurai, Decidueye is already an archer, and Typhlosion is already a volcano, so they fit into the ancient Japan aesthetic well enough as they are.

Of course, GF doesn't need a good reason to make Hisuian starters and I'm probably just completely wrong, though the fact that we haven't seen the fully evolved starters yet doesn't mean anything on its own.

 

[R_N]

ohhh this probably got mentioned earlier in the thread and I missed it, but I just saw the Arceus V card you get if you buy the physical game in Japan

It's gorgeous!

 

[MrHands]

ohhh this probably got mentioned earlier in the thread and I missed it, but I just saw the Arceus V card you get if you buy the physical game in Japan

It's gorgeous!

Translation!

Arceus V – Colorless – HP220
Basic Pokemon

[C][C] Trinity Charge: Search your deck for up to 3 basic Energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon V in any way you like. Then, shuffle your deck.

[C][C][C] Power Edge: 130 damage.

When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2

 

[Count Bleck]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1429400791320780808

Joe Serebii made an interesting observation: seems like trainers emote and react to the ongoing battle, even moreso than the older console games. We see Rei trip and fall and also flinch when strong attacks hit, makes me wonder if the trainer can lose hp if they are too close to attacks?