I didn't notice there was already a thread for this. Good. My opinions:
(the spoiler tag is only to reduce post-size)
Other notes about the new Pokémon/Alolan forms:
- I think the biggest disappointment here are the Alolan forms. Too few, only made for Gen 1 pokémon, most of them don't really look that different. Good idea, poor execution.
- Too many single stages. Some of them don't even make sense, feel like incomplete lines as if GF forgot to create their evos: Komala, Pyukumuku and Comfey (kind of) all needed evolutions. Ribombee also feels like it could evolve a second time.
- I like that the UBs are catchable. At least, it seems so. They have entries on the National dex. There's also the new Pokéball which appears to be solely to catch them.
- I hate that Ash-Greninja is set with a bad ability.
Other stuff:
- Looking at the dex listings, Zygarde and Type: Null are in the Alola Pokédex, but not on any of the individual island dexes. I guess this confirms they are obtainable only in the Post-game.
- Why did they change Dig for Leech Life on the TM list??? Seriously, Leech Life must have got a serious buff. Dig is actually quite useful in-game. A lot of pokémon can learn it, giving them good coverage, and the 2nd turn thing is not a problem in-game compared to competitive play.
- HMs are gone! YAY!
- No bicycle sucks! Even if Tauros serves the purpose of the bike, we still have to hold B for it to go faster, that wasn't needed with the bike.
- Speaking of buttons: Is anyone else incredibly annoyed by the fact that we have to press A to enter a building? This may be nitpicking but it's a matter of time saving actually. I like to go as fast as possible through the region.
Finally, Z-Moves:
They're not that good, apparently, which only cements my opinion that it is a lame, gimmicky new mechanic and they should have stayed focused and expand on Megas instead.
You must waste an item slot for an one-time use Move that just adds 80 to the base power of the respective move you have and can be prevented/ignored by immunities, semi-invulnerable turns and the like. Just great!
Also, my prediciton is it will not improve old Pokémon like Megas did. While Megas being only available to certain pokémon may felt as unfair, they turned a lot of bad or mediocre pokémon into actually usable competitive Pokémon. Z-Moves are actually more unfair, precisely because any pokémon can use them. A good pokémon using a Z-Move will still be better than a mediocre pokémon using a Z-Move. As an example, why use a Flygon with the Ground Z-Move when you can just use a Garchomp with the Ground Z-Move?
Basically, it feels like they decided to create a new mechanic just for the sake of having something new for these games.
(the spoiler tag is only to reduce post-size)
a) About the new (regular) pokémon/Alolan Forms:
- If Grimer and Dugtrio are terrible for being lazy and unnecessary, Persian is on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to bad designs: It's probably the ugliest pokémon design ever created. That face is on the wrong body. Persian looks deformed. I feel sorry for the Alolan Meowth that end up evolving into this.
- Alolan Golem line: Not bad but at the same time, they're pretty meh. Could have a different color palette, maybe. Not to mention the whole facial-hair-made-by-iron concept was already used on Probopass. Hopefully, it's Rock/Electric and not Rock/Steel again.
- Starter Evos: Ok, I think I'll go with Rowlet. After all this time, its final evo grew a lot on me and it looks the coolest to me. This gen's Greninja, basically. Popplio's final is nice too, I just prefer coolness over cuteness. Litten's final is Fennekin all over again, except 10x worse. It was my first pick, had great expectations about it but that final is and will always be the worst final starter evolution to me. Makes the Gen V starters look like masterpieces.
- Pikipek's line: I don't like Toucans. period. Don't know why, never liked that bird. So, seeing that Pikipek's final is a generic Toucan-like Pokémon is just lame. Next gen's bird might be better: Gen 4 - Staraptor (good); Gen 5 - Unfezant (bad); Gen 6 - Talonflame (good); Gen 7 - Toucan (bad); Gen 8 - ??? (good?)...
- Crabrawler's evo: Don't know how I feel about it since we can't see its face properly. But here's hoping for Fighting/Ice.
- Starfish-like/whatever it is-line and bubble spider line: Don't look bad but I'll have to see their official art for a better judgement, specially the bubble-spider basic stage cause I can't figure out what its face looks like.
- Morellul's evo: solid design, nothing major to say about it.
- Salandit's evo: Noooo! Such a disappointment! This is nothing like what I expected. Don't like the sexy lizard route they went for at all. It's ruined for me. I guess it'll grow on me with time but still, very disappointed.
- Wimpod's evo: Now we're talking. This is, hands down, the best Gen 7 Pokémon! No doubt about it. Absolutely fantastic design. I can't wait to see its stats.
- Sea anchor: the WTF pokémon of this gen. Does it even has eyes or something? I'll have to wait for the official art.
b) Legendaries/UBs/Mythicals:
- Tapus: They all look good although Tapu Koko is definitely the coolest-one. The red one is the weirdest. The Purple one is probably the dolphin-like pokémon talked about in the leaks. It's not really a dolphin, but I can see the resemblance. Also, the pink one, which most people can't seem to figure it out, is supposed to resemble a squid (not a seed or whatever people are saying). Just like Inkay/Malamar. Hence, why it's the one with the Psychic type.
- Solgaleo/Lunala's pre-evos: Nope, don't like. For starters, I prefer my legendaries without evolutionary relatives (kinda takes away the legendary feel about them). Second, they probably can't breed, so getting a living pokédex with them will be complicated. Third, the desings themselves are kinda bad. They don't really look like an actual Pokémon, they look more like the sealed forms of Xerneas and Yveltal, for example (the tree and the cocoon), specially the second one (the galaxy sphere, as I call it). I swear, if it wasn't confirmed they had dex entries (which is a waste imo), I would think they were just that, sealed states of Solgaleo/Lunala.
- Ultra-Beasts: They all look pretty cool to me. They're absolute monsters, but in a good way. I like them. In fact, I think they look better than most of the new pokémon.
- Magearna: So, the red pokéball design is a form, not its shiny. ok. Also, the regular Magearna seems to have no shiny, but the pokéball form has. Weird.
- Marshadow: This is Marshadow? Really?? Not impressed. I thought it would be some giant monster to match Solgaleo/Lunala. Honestly, its kid-like design just feels like GF is trying too hard to surpass Yokai-Watch.
- If Grimer and Dugtrio are terrible for being lazy and unnecessary, Persian is on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to bad designs: It's probably the ugliest pokémon design ever created. That face is on the wrong body. Persian looks deformed. I feel sorry for the Alolan Meowth that end up evolving into this.
- Alolan Golem line: Not bad but at the same time, they're pretty meh. Could have a different color palette, maybe. Not to mention the whole facial-hair-made-by-iron concept was already used on Probopass. Hopefully, it's Rock/Electric and not Rock/Steel again.
- Starter Evos: Ok, I think I'll go with Rowlet. After all this time, its final evo grew a lot on me and it looks the coolest to me. This gen's Greninja, basically. Popplio's final is nice too, I just prefer coolness over cuteness. Litten's final is Fennekin all over again, except 10x worse. It was my first pick, had great expectations about it but that final is and will always be the worst final starter evolution to me. Makes the Gen V starters look like masterpieces.
- Pikipek's line: I don't like Toucans. period. Don't know why, never liked that bird. So, seeing that Pikipek's final is a generic Toucan-like Pokémon is just lame. Next gen's bird might be better: Gen 4 - Staraptor (good); Gen 5 - Unfezant (bad); Gen 6 - Talonflame (good); Gen 7 - Toucan (bad); Gen 8 - ??? (good?)...
- Crabrawler's evo: Don't know how I feel about it since we can't see its face properly. But here's hoping for Fighting/Ice.
- Starfish-like/whatever it is-line and bubble spider line: Don't look bad but I'll have to see their official art for a better judgement, specially the bubble-spider basic stage cause I can't figure out what its face looks like.
- Morellul's evo: solid design, nothing major to say about it.
- Salandit's evo: Noooo! Such a disappointment! This is nothing like what I expected. Don't like the sexy lizard route they went for at all. It's ruined for me. I guess it'll grow on me with time but still, very disappointed.
- Wimpod's evo: Now we're talking. This is, hands down, the best Gen 7 Pokémon! No doubt about it. Absolutely fantastic design. I can't wait to see its stats.
- Sea anchor: the WTF pokémon of this gen. Does it even has eyes or something? I'll have to wait for the official art.
b) Legendaries/UBs/Mythicals:
- Tapus: They all look good although Tapu Koko is definitely the coolest-one. The red one is the weirdest. The Purple one is probably the dolphin-like pokémon talked about in the leaks. It's not really a dolphin, but I can see the resemblance. Also, the pink one, which most people can't seem to figure it out, is supposed to resemble a squid (not a seed or whatever people are saying). Just like Inkay/Malamar. Hence, why it's the one with the Psychic type.
- Solgaleo/Lunala's pre-evos: Nope, don't like. For starters, I prefer my legendaries without evolutionary relatives (kinda takes away the legendary feel about them). Second, they probably can't breed, so getting a living pokédex with them will be complicated. Third, the desings themselves are kinda bad. They don't really look like an actual Pokémon, they look more like the sealed forms of Xerneas and Yveltal, for example (the tree and the cocoon), specially the second one (the galaxy sphere, as I call it). I swear, if it wasn't confirmed they had dex entries (which is a waste imo), I would think they were just that, sealed states of Solgaleo/Lunala.
- Ultra-Beasts: They all look pretty cool to me. They're absolute monsters, but in a good way. I like them. In fact, I think they look better than most of the new pokémon.
- Magearna: So, the red pokéball design is a form, not its shiny. ok. Also, the regular Magearna seems to have no shiny, but the pokéball form has. Weird.
- Marshadow: This is Marshadow? Really?? Not impressed. I thought it would be some giant monster to match Solgaleo/Lunala. Honestly, its kid-like design just feels like GF is trying too hard to surpass Yokai-Watch.
Other notes about the new Pokémon/Alolan forms:
- I think the biggest disappointment here are the Alolan forms. Too few, only made for Gen 1 pokémon, most of them don't really look that different. Good idea, poor execution.
- Too many single stages. Some of them don't even make sense, feel like incomplete lines as if GF forgot to create their evos: Komala, Pyukumuku and Comfey (kind of) all needed evolutions. Ribombee also feels like it could evolve a second time.
- I like that the UBs are catchable. At least, it seems so. They have entries on the National dex. There's also the new Pokéball which appears to be solely to catch them.
- I hate that Ash-Greninja is set with a bad ability.
Other stuff:
- Looking at the dex listings, Zygarde and Type: Null are in the Alola Pokédex, but not on any of the individual island dexes. I guess this confirms they are obtainable only in the Post-game.
- Why did they change Dig for Leech Life on the TM list??? Seriously, Leech Life must have got a serious buff. Dig is actually quite useful in-game. A lot of pokémon can learn it, giving them good coverage, and the 2nd turn thing is not a problem in-game compared to competitive play.
- HMs are gone! YAY!
- No bicycle sucks! Even if Tauros serves the purpose of the bike, we still have to hold B for it to go faster, that wasn't needed with the bike.
- Speaking of buttons: Is anyone else incredibly annoyed by the fact that we have to press A to enter a building? This may be nitpicking but it's a matter of time saving actually. I like to go as fast as possible through the region.
Finally, Z-Moves:
They're not that good, apparently, which only cements my opinion that it is a lame, gimmicky new mechanic and they should have stayed focused and expand on Megas instead.
You must waste an item slot for an one-time use Move that just adds 80 to the base power of the respective move you have and can be prevented/ignored by immunities, semi-invulnerable turns and the like. Just great!
Also, my prediciton is it will not improve old Pokémon like Megas did. While Megas being only available to certain pokémon may felt as unfair, they turned a lot of bad or mediocre pokémon into actually usable competitive Pokémon. Z-Moves are actually more unfair, precisely because any pokémon can use them. A good pokémon using a Z-Move will still be better than a mediocre pokémon using a Z-Move. As an example, why use a Flygon with the Ground Z-Move when you can just use a Garchomp with the Ground Z-Move?
Basically, it feels like they decided to create a new mechanic just for the sake of having something new for these games.
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