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Ah, the first of our Pre Evos, and makes Roseila the first Poke to get two new forms in one generation.(Besides Eevee, but that’s different) Pretty basic really, it’s a bud. Could be handy for egg moves, particularly Leaf Storm. |
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I do like ol’ Rozorro. (They have to call it that.) It looks very super hero like with that mask, but the bouquet hands ruin it a bit. It needs grass swords damnit! |
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Yep, definitely going to be on my team. HP and defenses are poor, but as a basic stage, it has 125 attack. 125! More than Dodaitoise. It does look Lucario-ry and I would have probably preferred something like this to evolve in to it, but more on that later. Diamond exclusive, and found as soon as you can get in to the Underground level and find the fossil. |
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Strange red eyes, which make them hard to see on the sprite. It’s body looks awkward in the sprite, but hopefully the Sugimori art will make it look better. 165 attack now, but unfortunately with only 58 base speed, may never get to use that new Double Edged Headbutt. |
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Shield for a head! High defense on this one, but low attack. Could be a pain to take out, but a good ground type could floor it eventually. |
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Again, fossil evo = Fugly. Uber defense, but not really the moves to go with it. Protect could help waste some PP I guess. But hey, I was never good at defense anyway. Attack, attack, attack! |
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It has a tree for a beard. This Pokemon has two evolutions, both of which use a special gimmick. When Minomutchi faints, it’s color changes depending on where you were. Then, if it is female it will evolve in to another bagworm, whose types depend on the colour Minomutchi was. Males on the other hand just evolve in to a moth Pokemon. |
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This is the female. It can be Grass/Bug, Rock/Bug or Steel/Bug. Interesting idea, but I’m not sure why they chose to put it on this Pokemon, who already had a gimmick evolution. Interestingly, in real life, female bagworms remain in a similar form, where as the male turns in to a moth. |
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Looks quite nice, not very good stat wise though. Nice to see more Silver Winders. Not too sure, but is this one of the only Pokemon to get Hidden Power naturally, other than Unown? |
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Looks naff, and is quite naff. (Well, 87.5% are anyway.) It learns Sweet Scent and Gust. Mind you, it can produce honey that lures Pokemon, but you can buy that anyway. What about the other 12.5% I hear you ask? |
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I like them a lot. Great movepool, and looks good too. It has a variety of moves, and decent attack stat. Definitely one of the most useable bugs, and better than Beedrill. |
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The electric rodent of this gen, and it should have evolved. So many old Pokemon got evolutions, some of the new ones got left out. Not to mention this is another Nem Gen rip off. It could have been decent with an evolution, but it doesn’t have one, so it isn’t. |
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I liked it when we first saw it, and I still do. I was sure it was a middle form, because of the information about it’s tail splitting, but I was obviously wrong, as there is no first form. Not in this gen anyway… |
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Nice upgrade evolution for Buoysel. High attack, and it gets crunch. Makes Waterfall useable too. Again, I like it. |
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It’s a shrunken Hoppip! I don’t like this type of design, always seems very lazy to me. Hoppip pulled it off somehow, but Cherinbo, Luvdisc and to a lesser extent Chimecho and Castform look to me like something anyone could have designed. |
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Two forms, one for Sunny Day, one for without. I can’t
see how the normal sprites purple bits open up to reveal the
body, but Gamefreak says so…Rubbish grass type really,
though Trouble Seed could make a good rest counter. A better
pokemon can probably use it though. |
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Again, two forms. One for east, one for west. Nice idea. I still think it looks like a Lapras pre-evo. A split evolution could have worked. Perhaps gender, or have the blue one become Lapras, and the pink one Toritoidon. It looks cute, anyway. |
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Another Water/Ground. I do like that type combo though, so it’s ok. Appearance wise, it’s ok, and its attacks are ok. So, it’s very…ok. |
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The Aipom evolution. Or rather, Aipom with another tail. It is quite a lazy design, and rather pointless. Aipom didn’t need an evolution. I would have used the space for a brand new Pokemon myself. The first Pokemon (Dex wise) to use the Level up with Attack method, which I must say, is interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m going to take a break to talk about evolution methods. |
Methods of Evolution
We have lots of Evolution types now, mostly to counter the problem of Pokemon not being able to evolve in previous generations. Here is a run down, and my views on them...
- Level Up- The basic evolution method, and still the main one. No real explanation needed here.
- Stone Based Evolution- Again, present since Gen I. New stones are always introduced, to solve the previous generation problem. It is annoying that Stone Enduced Pokemon often learn few or no moves, but meh.
- Trading- Again, one of the first. Mainly to promote the trading function. I’ve always traded the Pokemon, then got it back, not entirely what they had in mind I think.
- Happiness Evolution-Introduced in Gen II, the Pokemon evolves when it is happy enough. Mainly baby Pokemon use this method, but not exclusively. It can be annoying to achieve if you are trying to fill the Dex, but if you are playing through the game the Pokemon usually grows to like you anyway.
- Time Based Happiness- Also in Gen II, and back in Gen IV, the evolution depends on the time of day. No real complaints here.
- Item Trading- Basically trade evolution, but the Pokemon has to have a held item. Back in GS the items were hard to get hold of, but it is much easier now.
- Gender Evolution- Strangely only introduced in Gen IV (Not including the Nidos of course.) The way it has been used in these games is good, though the low appearance rate of some females could be annoying.(Mitsuhoney) This method was also merged with stone evolution for Snorunt and Kirilia in DP.
- Item Level Up- What it says on the tin. Only used for Pokemon related to old ones so far, like Pinkpu, Glion and Weavile. (The last two also need to be leveled up at night)
- Attack Level Up- For the new evolutions (And Bonsly/Mime Jr). If the Pokemon knows a certain attack, the next time it levels up it will evolve. For most of them, DP were the first games that the attack was available in, however Likitung (I think) could get Roll Out via Move Tutor in Gen III. Oops. In my opinion, a nice new method. Makes a change from item Trading.
- Area Based Evolution- mostly introduced for the new Eeveelutions. Another nice idea, and good that it was extended to Magneton. (Nosepass too, but that thing should not evolve. =p)
- Fusion Evolution- Well, not really, but I just wanted to say it. Mantyke evolves only if you have a Remoraid in your party. Nice idea, but would have been nice if it was implemented sooner, with Slowpoke and Shellder. (You keep the Remoraid BTW)
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I like this one. Simple design, but it’s different. Nice type combo too, and makes for a good DP Fog Clearer, since few Pokemon learn that move. It also has the new Detonate ability, which acts like an auto Explosion. Nice. |
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Again, a refreshing change. The purple is a bit meh though. Also, it can now learn fly, adding to its purpose as an HM slave. It will be interesting to see this one in the anime. |
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Wow, three in a row that I quite like. It is very cute, but has the chance of having a stupid ability that means it can’t use items. (It’s called Disuse, original translation was Stupid) A few Pokemon have abilities like this, presumably just to add some balance. But hey, you can always catch them until you find one with Run Away. |
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I love the design. Like Minimoru the brown and fur just works. If/when this shows up in the anime it should be interesting, as it is already being classified by the fan base as the “Fan Service Pokemon”. Sad people, it’s only a lady rabbit. =P(Half of them are male anyway.) |
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The evolved form of Misdreavus. I do quite like this one, especially the witch’s hat. Nice Special stats, but average physical ones. I like the large TM pool, and it can get some decent egg moves via Misdreavus. |
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Now it’s Murkrow’s turn. I did want an evolution for the black birdy, but I always imagined it being a bit….thinner. A fearow like bird would have been cool, because Donkarasu just looks fat to me. It gets the nice new Blade Test attack, which works with its high attack. However, the Bad Luck ability means that critical hits from the foe are going to be more common. Shame there is no Counter for the crow… |
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Hey, I remember reporting on this one being officially released. I was indifferent about it then too. I do like the boomerang head, but I think I prefer the shiny purple version. Its type could have been different too, we have enough normal kitties. |
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Wow, fat cat. It’s no Persian, is it? Average stats, apart from speed, but I hear the ones Team Galaxy use can be a pain in the game. I want to see the Sugimori art, to see if that spiral tail goes all the way round its body. |
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So, you have a rare, almost useless Pokemon. What do you do? Make a useless basic form for it. I did think it was rather ugly, but I was mistaking the large black dots on the sprite as eyes, when really they are the ends of its mouth. (The eyes are the two slits in the middle) Treasure seems to be the only move it gains, which is only useable once all of the other moves are gone. I suppose you could move delete everything else. (It isn’t like any of the other level up moves are useful anyway) |
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Yay, a Skunk! Nice design, and type combo. I like the auto-repel ability too, could be handy. It has some nice physical attacks, amongst the usual poison moves. The shiny sprite (bright red) is way to leery though. |
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Once again, I like it. Nice attack stat this time too. Reminds me a little of Linoone for some reason, probably just the tail. It is a nice type combination, no psychic weakness. W00t. |
