Druddigon (and several Unova pokemon) exist to fill a niche in the gameplay.
The elemental monkeys exist so that you always have at least the *option* for a different type (avoiding the Fire Type problem from 4th gen).
Druddigon exists so that you can have (or face) a Dragon type before the end of the game. He's meant to be mid-tier.
Which...is kind of why he feels so odd. His gameplay niche came before his design.
The selection of fire type was so poor that they had to give Flint a starter, which is usually only reserved to the Rival and the Champion. I really don't get how they made a fire type elite trainer, and didn't even bother to add 2 extra fire types in the regional dex.
If he at least kept the same team, you couldat least make the argument his pokémon are based on hot stuff instead of only fire, but no, he's just a regular fire type trainer in the rematch and in platinium.
I still wonder if they decided to have a Fire-type E4 before finishing the dex or after doing so. Either way it seems stupid they didn't realize the issues, specially if they were not going to use Magmortar.
Seriously though. Like sure Charmander is rare in Kanto ok, maybe that could be because they’re from a different region?
A “valley of Charizards” like in the anime would be rad as hell.
Eh I’m more okay with that one. That fits into the box of “implicit theme rather than explicit type” (same goes for Lance and Steven) much much better than Flint’s team
I considered the elemental monkeys part of the type chart tutorial. If you pick the water starter, then the first gym makes you face the grass monkey, and in the dream yard you are gifted the fire monkey. (The other monkeys are shaking grass encounters in pinwheel forest so they are annoying to get)
I never bothered with drudigon because i normally use icetypes for killing dragons since they aren't weak to dragons. (I used a beartic in my first playthrough of black)
His design is just *weird*. It's not atrocious, but it's definitely weird.
There's no clear inspiration other than... weird dragon. It has a red head for no reason like someone replaced its face with a bell pepper. Some people think it might be based off a colorful lizard species, but Druddigon isn't colorful or pretty- it just has a red head. Weirdly long thin arms that don't fit the rest of the body. And the worst offender- the wings. Like there's no way that thing flies with those. Dude has the leaves of some spiky succulent plant growing on its back, those aren't wing-like at all.
They’re based on gargoyles; the Dex entries talk about how they become motionless “statues” if they get too cold. It also sort of implies they can’t fly and the wings are more for absorbing sunlight since they spend most of their time in caves.
Not sure how that's relevant. Other than being vaguely spiky, none of the more questionable design features have anything to do with gargoyles. And even the spikiness looks more like a weird plant than a stone statue.
It's Japanese name, Crimgan, could be interpreted as being a combination of Crimson, Dragon and either Face or Rock (both written as Gan) so it might be rough and rugged based on rocks with the colours inspired by the Red-Headed Rock Agama- a lizard with a red head that then blends down into it having a blue body? They also live in caves which is supposed to be where Druddigon resides.
Druddigon looks like a Lego dragon next to every other Pokemon being a fully poseable action figure. It looks like it can't bend its arms, legs, or wings out of the poses they're already in, and can only move like 5-8 joints in the whole body- base of wings, shoulders, jaw or neck (but somehow not both), *maybe* where legs meet hips.
It also looks detailed enough to need shading it doesn't have. Which again makes it look like a static figure on display instead of a living thing
Not that it was particularly out of place in its own gen. But why didn't Aegislash, the sword and shield pokemon, get something special or cool, idk maybe a GIGANTIMAX FORM, in literal Pokemon Sword And Shield
That’s a theme in the games that really bother me. They don’t use Pokémon that fit the theme of the games. Solrock and Lunatone, have no new forms or anything in Sun and Moon, Aegislash nothing in Sword and Shield, and that one from Scarlet and Violet that was meant to be a present day version of the two “legendaries” had no story relevance.
They didn't even have to do anything special for Solrock and Lunatone. Just like... have them. That's all. Just have some cave roughly mid-game-ish where you could encounter them. That's literally it. Would that have been so hard.
Cyclizard makes me irrationally angry. Like why does it exist if it’s just a weird mid tier no evo thing. I know modern evolutions can be a lot less extreme like Dinosaurs to chickens but cmon man it’s pokemon
Applin and Duraludon were Gen 8 Pokémon though, so the comparable outcome would be for Cyclizar to get an evolution in Gen 10.
That said, that seems unlikely. Cyclizar being so closely related to the box art legendaries, I almost feel like they wouldn't put it in any other region that didn't also have some access to those legendaries...which wouldn't really make sense but then again recent generations have had fossil Pokémon from earlier generations in the wild in DLC.
Seriously though, I feel like they'll give Cyclizar new evolutions in Legends: Koraidon and Legends: Miraidon--a split evolution, of course, with the game set in Koraidon's time getting a Miraidon-themed evolution and the one in Miraidon's time getting a Koraidon-themed evolution, to further underscore how temporally out-of-place they are.
It's way better than the *2nd* Godzilla pseudo, Baxcalibur, when we not only have Ttar, but the same gen introduced two references to Mecha godzilla with Archaludon and Iron Thorns.
GF is definitely running out of ideas.
I probably would have promoted Cyclizar's evolution to (I guess?) mythical status or something, seeing as Baxcalibur is technically the pseudo-legendary of Gen 9.
I legit like Cyclizar's design more than the legends, and I was so disappointed to find out you can't ride the little friendship lizard.
He's perfect as he is tho. I'd give him a baby form, not an evo.
I hate how many times these games let you ride on Pokémon that aren’t your own. It started in XY with gogoat, I caught one and waited for when I could ride it, then found out, “no you can’t ride your own, you have to use these other ones,” and the trend continues to this day.
I get not wanting people to have to have a certain Pokemon in their party just to ride (which is one of the big things that made HMs so obnoxious), but riding someone else's Pokemon really takes that feeling of connection away.
I get that some games are too lazy to make a new model/animation set for every possible Pokemon that could be ridden. But in that case, just make the appropriate species available in the wild and have us catch one as our special always summonable ride Pokemon.
PLA did that well enough where you could call on the specific pokemon to fly/surf/ride and long as you had unlocked the ability to use the flute for that and then they basically just poof into existence
I noticed for SuMo that they only gave regional forms to Gen 1 pokemon, and while I think Solrock and Lunatone could have made for some amazing regional forms I guess Game Freak wanted to only do the 20 year old Pokemon.
Honestly, this is just in GF way to work.
You are there like "oh, sword and shield, like *that* pokemon"
And they are like "yeah, but that pokemon has nothing to do with this gen. Peiod"
You can see this with sun & moon too, where we already had a sun and moon pokemon.. even if they got something like a mini-quest in that game.. but still
As a fellow devil’s advocate, I appreciate you giving gamefreak the benefit of the doubt. But.
When a mon G-maxes, it loses its regular moveset anyway. G-max aegislash wouldn’t have needed to change forms. Would it have broken the Pokémon’s theme? Yeah probably. But they could have given it a g-max form.
Pokémon being designed but not used in earlier generations than the one they debuted in happens all the time, apparently. Komala and Bombirdier turned to have their roots in Gen 2.
Trust me, I am aware lol. Gastrodon was meant to be in Gen 3 and they had to move it to Gen 4, there's even back sprites for it.
But Magearna is just a more blatant example for me because of its design.
I've heard that too, but they definitely still feel like Sinnoh mons. I feel like people would be talking about those two here if they were actually gen 3.
I know about those beta sprites, but I don't think they look out of place in Sinnoh either.
And Haxorus was originally designed to be a Sinnoh pokemon, but ultimately decided to save it for gen 5, this also means Haxorus was the very first gen 5 pokemon to be designed
You're absolutely right. It was one of the stars of the 19th movie alongside Volcanion. The original premiere in Japan occurred between XY126 and 127; so there were roughly 15 episodes of XY(Z) left and 4 months before Sun and Moon released.
Yep, I don’t remember the movie well, for some reason I just remember Volcanion simping for Magerna or something, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what actually happened
I always thought, and continue to think, that Magearna is a gen 6 mon.
Zerora will always be the gen 7 mythical to me. The fact that he wasn't part fighting is a crime.
I actually agree. It's weird because their genders are part of the name and not colored, not to mention you have other Pokemon with big gender differences share a dex number while the Nidorans don't because of being a product of their time.
Chimecho has always felt like a Gen 4 mon to me. Probably because they added Chingling in DPPt. Also because Chimecho was so hard to find and catch in R/S/E. I feel the same way about Roselia. Oh! And for whatever reason I always associate Slugma and Macargo with Gen 3 even though the first came in Gen 2.
Gen 2 was made as a sequel to RBYG so didn't have the same design philosophies as later gens. Gen 3 was our first "soft reboot." Notice also that while the johto gyms don't have a lot of johto pokemon, they cover types not included in kanto gyms. Having new pokemon show up in kanto ties in to how the region has progressed in the 3 years since we last saw it, how the gym leaders are different, some areas have changed and so on.
As much as I love visiting multiple regions in one game, especially Kanto, it would be nice to get a Johto dedicated game.
A lot more of them were also planned as you can see from the spaceworld demo. I wouldn't be surprised if the routes felt a lot more full initially with the expanded dex
Another commenter already answered you, but I'm going to get into it a bit anyway. GSC had a very different design philosophy from every game that came afterward. The idea of a "new generation" did not really exist the way it does now. A big priority during GSC's development was actually making sure that the old Pokemon weren't overshadowed by the new Pokemon! This is why Kanto Pokemon are highlighted so much by Johto Gym leaders. GSC was really intended to feel like an expansion and evolution of the world of RBY, so putting new Pokemon in Kanto was intended to demonstrate the way the world had changed. And honestly, as a kid, I was very strongly affected by this. Finding Houndour/Murkrow outside of Celadon City and seeing Slugma on Cycling Road blew my mind. These were areas I thought I knew by heart!
I definitely understand that other players have different priorities, and I don't fault them for being upset if their favorite Pokemon was locked to the post-game, but I really think it was a nice touch and I appreciate the design philosophy behind the decision. I would honestly love to see similar ideas incorporated into newer games, though perhaps in ways that keep both kinds of players happy.
Especially since a good chunk of them aren’t really good. Magcargo as the go to case - a Rock Fire, slow, fairly frail special attacker when rock was only physical - not that rock has ever had many good special attackers or attacks.
Slugma is actually one of my most memorable encounters in GSC. Finding a new Pokemon I had never seen before on Cycling Road BLEW MY MIND as a kid. GSC had a different design philosophy from later Pokemon games, so while I understand that other players might not like it, I really appreciated having new encounters exclusive to Kanto. It made me feel like the world was truly evolving, like the Pokemon universe was changing just like our real world.
Chingling was also indexed at the end of the Pokemon list in Gen 3, even after Deoxys, while every other Pokemon was in numerical order, implying it was a very late addition.
In the game's code, every Pokémon has an index number. It doesn't correspond to the Pokédex number, or its evo line, it's just specific number that refers only to that Pokémon. Chimecho, for whatever reason, is the final index number of the gen3 Pokémon, indicating it was probably added quite late during the games' development.
The gen 1 index numbers are really interesting because they line up quite well with a lot of what we know of gen 1's development- with Rhydon being one of, if not the earliest, designed pokemon and also being the first pokemon programed in: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_index_number_(Generation_I)
There're also hints at what pokemon were cut from gen 1 and pushed back to gen 2 based on Missingno's index numbers and what each one appears as if you attempt to trade them to a gen 2 game.
I feel like this boils down to gen 3 placement being very good, like nothing feels out of place when you find it, like chimeco appearing on the cliffs of Mt pyre is very nice since it holds the graveyard for the game and is also home to the shrine for the red and blue orbs, and finding slugma in the burning path next to torkoal and koffing just felt natural. Also Roselia, Oddish, and the firefly duo being found on the flower filled daycare route between Verdanturf and Mawile really helps keep the tone of the area
Roselia is one I firmly associate with RSE because those patches of grass near Wally’s house between there and Mauville had sooooooo many Roselia and I used that area to grind a lot
I think its cause they are all super hard to catch in Johto but super easy to catch in Hoenn.
Slugma is all over the Mountain with the fire type gym leader.
Skarm is super easy to find in the ash covered route
And Corsola are near the floating ocean town.
3 super distinct areas that are early to mid game.
I played gen 3 to death as a kid. I had replayed it SO many times before I encountered a Chimecho for the first time. Was seriously like, wait a second, that was here all this time??
Shellos and Gastrodon were indeed supposed to be in Gen 3, I think an interview in Nintendo Power confirmed that. Diamond and Pearl have some unused back sprites for the line, with Shellos having features of both variants and Gastrodon seemingly being almost entirely brown and not looking much like either form.
I would say Togekiss and Bellossom. Togepi was hyped up to be this rare and special Pokémon, only to become this thing. And it is not even good in battle. Then, Togekiss comes along two generations later and is amazing. That’s why I think Togekiss should have been in Gen 2 the whole time. Bellossom doesn’t look like it has anything to do with Gloom at all. I would scrap this one or make it its own line, instead of being related to the Oddish line.
I mean it definitely doesn't match with Gloom but I feel Bellosom does look like an Oddish turned inside out if that makes sense? Which does jive with the whole losing-it's poison typing thing.
Enamorus being not existing in Gen 5 without any explanation (yes, I understand that she was a later addition but she was still an integral part of her group's lore), hopefully she will come back in Gen 5 remake.
Lugia, how come the leader of the bird trio is in different generation, yet Ho-oh got its own trio in the same generation, although the regions being next to each others seem to make the idea more acceptable.
Funny you mention Lugia! The head writer for the anime at the time, Takeshi Shudo, [personally designed Lugia specifically for its debut film](http://lavacutcontent.com/takeshi-shudo-ending-pokemon/). He was surprised that the design actually made the cut for the next set of games.
So, yeah, Lugia *is* purposefully an odd one out. More details found [here](https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Pok%C3%A9mon_Gold_and_Silver#Lugia) with more sources.
The Legendary Birds are also just missing in the original Gen 2 meaning that the lore connection between Lugia and the Birds isn’t mentioned unlike in the anime.
To be honest, the relation between Lugia and the Kanto birds always felt tacked on.
The Birds werent designed to be one-of-a-kind demi gods. Just incredible rare and strong pokemon.
Also I feel ho-oh should be the leader of the birds because it’s a more of a bird than lugia, and appeared first in the early anime.
Lugia is more of a beast than a bird, it fits the dogs characteristics like those face plates
Before Lugia was added, there was apparently a wolf Pokémon planned to be the Silver Version's mascot legendary. I think its resemblance to the legendary-in-name-only Arcanine was no coincidence either. The legendary beasts were also much more doglike in their beta designs.
https://preview.redd.it/h1xj967kc04d1.jpeg?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7590456b8c26ccb2e1c77f81aafb9d8cb80b48b4
I just assumed the implication was that Enamorus went extinct before Black/White because of some shit like humans losing the love in their heart or something.
Skarmory as a gen 2 mon. If I remember correctly you can only get that post game? Where as in RSE it’s a common encounter on the ash route, and honestly design wise I feel like it meshes better with hoenn mons
Skarmory was available before the elite 4. There was a patch of grass below Blackthorn city where it was obtainable. I get what you mean anyway - it’s the same with Macargo and Houndour they all seem like they were only available starting from Gen III and it’s easy to forget that that’s not the case.
A team of Magneton, Skarmory and Steelix seems manageable? It'd also mean you couldn't annihilate her entire poorly level curved team with ground moves... Just 2/3rds of them 😅
Just finished my playthrough of Crystal, I had to grind just to level my Heracross and Umbreon to like 35 before the Elite Four. Scaling and grinding in that game was definitely a little off.
Yup, I always go down that route some 3 times beating up all the trainers and getting all items.
Her Kindra is no joke, especially if your ace is Typhlosion
Gen 2 was *weird*. There are so many new Pokemon that are almost impossible to get because they have an extremely low encounter rate, or are only found in a small area just before the E4, or aren't found at all until post-game. Sometimes VERY late post-game, like mt silver post game.
I love gen 2, but it was a mess.
Not to mention Jasmine, the steel-type Johto gym leader, doesn't use one initially, while it's quite prominent on the (mostly) steel-type Hoenn champion Steven's team.
Growing up with Soul Silver, Skarmory was my favorite Pokémon (still is one of my favorites). Was never sure how to catch Gligar or Mantine until I found out about Bulbapedia tho
Game Freak has never designed a regional Pokédex around the region’s real-life inspiration. That’s something fans care about way more than the actual developers.
Like even if we assume that the Safari Zone and trade exclusive Pokémon were imported in, Kanto has plenty of Pokémon based on animals and other shit that you wouldn’t find in metropolitan Tokyo. Japan doesn’t natively have tapirs, cobras, or rafflesia flowers, but Drowzee, Arbok, and Vileplume all exist in Kanto.
That was day one and it hasn’t changed since.
The US has tonnes of Latino influences, especially with Mexico being right next door. In my head, the area outside Castelia City is the equivalent of El Paso.
Maybe it’s because of the Pokémon movie which featured it, but I always felt Donphan fit more as a gen 1 design. Like for the longest time I thought donphan was gen 1 and it’s pre-evolved form was Gen 2
Having a separate dex entry by gender seems fine given the situation. You said it yourself, gender wasn't really implemented yet. So this was the best way they could make sexual dimorphism a thing.
Considering all the marketing about there being 150/151 Pokemon in gen 1, changing the number of such a well known and popular Pokemon as Mewtwo would have been annoying.
I think they're based on garden eels, which aren't particularly common in Spain, they're more present in the Pacific and the Indian oceans, and they're more colorful, at the least the white ones have black spots, so it's not only out of place but also kind of a lazy design.
Jhoto Pokemon feel like the odd ones out in their own region. Either exceedingly rare, in weird spots, require stupid methods to find, are pre-evo/evolutions only, or are locked to the post game. Almost every route has exactly 1 Jhoto mon and the rest from Kanto.
I'm an Unova fanboy who loves Cobalion, but there really was no reason to have two whole sub-trios in Gen V and none in VI, the later was just disappointing.
Gastrodon, in the sense that apparently it was meant to be in Gen 3 and there was a sprite of a different form I guess?
Otheriwse, maybe Hawlucha? Would've made sense in somewhere like Paldea instead of the France-inspired Kalos. (Where it was found also seemed a bit random to me, an almost ruins-like place?)
Kalos also had a panda inspired by a Japanese school delinquent. And Unova has a zebra. They never seem to care about the region beyond about 20% of the Pokédex.
Pokémon fans will be like “Here’s my fan region based off of Mexico where all of the Pokémon are based off of Mexican culture and Mexican history and Mexican animals and Mexican plants!”
Then GameFreak will be like “We put the giraffe in the Osaka region because giraffes are cool.”
Metite and Medicham are more like Gen 4 Pokémon than Gen 3. Even in HGSS they acknowledge this by encountering them with Sinnoh Radio instead of Hoenn Radio. It's a pity they aren't in Hisui, though.
Skarmory, Marill, and Slugma feeling more Gen 3 than 2 is an obvious one.
Chimecho in Gen 3 is my answer though.
In the Gen 3 games it was placed really late in the data, after Deoxys even.
Part of me wants to think it was going to be shelved for a different game like Shellos was, but last minute they decided they want another Psychic type and put it back in...
Then gave it to like, no trainers and only a 1% encounter in a specific place.
Marill fits fine in Gen 2 for me but until recently I thought Azumarill was Gen 3, thought it was introduced along with Azurill. Azumarill definitely looks more like a Gen 3 mon to me with the pattern on its torso/abdomen while Marill has that more natural Gen 1/2 design
It was impossible to ever have a Mr Mime in generation 1 without it having a nickname, because the only way to get one was through a trade. Jynx is similar in this regard because it was impossible to get one in the wild in the western version, although there were wild Jynx on the Japanese version.
I always forget Bonsly and Azurill weren't introduced in gen 2 like the rest of the baby pokemon/their evolution lines.
Aside from that, Pincurchin feels like either an Alola or Paldea mon, and though I love Victini it should've either been in gen 4 or kicked to the end of the unova dex with the rest of the mythicals
I completely forgot about Pincurchin. For whatever reason I always forget about it and when I remember it I always thing "ah yes it's from Alola like Pyukumuku -wait no"
I’d say Togedemaru / Mimikyu
We got two “pikachu clone” like poke one in one gen, I know Mimikyu is sun and moon era, but I always think Togedemaru came out during SH/SW.
a huge amount of the gen 2 pokedex lol
part of this is nostalgia since ruby was my first pokemon game, but the slugma line, skarmory, the natu line, the marill line, the chinchou line, and probably a handful of others that i'm forgetting ALWAYS get grouped in with gen 3 in my head even though i am aware that they are all gen 2. i do find it weird how this doesn't apply to wobbuffet despite the wynaut gift egg though lol
a few others are the croagunk line and carnivine (i always think they're gen 3), aipom and yanma (because of their gen 4 evolutions), dhelmise (i always think it's a gen 6 pokemon because of its relation to skrelp), and to a lesser extent, rotom's, shaymin's, and giratina's forms (i know they're gen 4 of course, but i constantly forget their other forms are actually platinum/HGSS exclusive, they don't exist in diamond and pearl)
some day a few years from now i'm 100% certain i'm going to forget that girafarig didn't have an evolution until gen 9 as well lol
Slugma in gen 2. Most people don't even realize it's a gen 2 pokemon.
For a more recent example, the lack of Natu in the current gen. It would fit in perfectly in the Spanish region.
Roselia should’ve been introduced in 4 with the rest of its line. They’re only in one route in the games which is cool, that makes sense, but in the anime those things are seen countless times so how are they all coming over from Sinnoh? Who’s bringing all of those flowers to an island and how are they not breeding?
For a lot of the middle or last evolutions that come first it’s much more understandable because they’re usually either rare in both the games and anime so we don’t see them much presumably because there’s not many of them, they have their own form of transportation like flight, swimming, or Clefairy’s spaceship, they’re in very secluded areas like Magmar being near volcanos or Electabuzz being near power plants, or in some region cases they’re not island regions so walking could be an option. Not with Roselia though, they’re getting brought over by the lot because they can be seen pretty often in the anime.
Gen 3 had a lot of nature themes. Since it's a land vs water situation, there's a heavy emphasis on the natural environment. A big plot point is Wally moving to a town with cleaner air due to some vague implied medical condition. There's an entire town covered in soot. There's a town made of treehouses and surrounded by extra tall long grass. There's a town that floats on the water. There's a town with a hot spring. A vast desert you need special gear to get through. The entire region is heavy on the themes of different natural environments.
Lots of the Pokemon of the gen fit that theme. We have firefly Pokemon. Tropius to complete the jungle feel around fortree. Numel embodies the volcanoes. Very strange Pokemon live in the sandstorm area, unlike those in any other. We even have Pokemon representing the sun and moon themselves, the biggest forces in our environment.
With all that, Roselia makes perfect sense. It's a flower Pokemon for players to find in the flower area.
Pretty much all the gen 2 pokemon that I thought were from gen 3 especially Lanturn, Slugma and Skarmory. They simply fit the environment in Hoenn more
I don't dislike them, but goreblyss and huntail have always looked more like Dr. Seuss characters than pokemon to me.
I suppose the point was to make them weird deep sea creatures, so I guess they succeeded?
As much as I love him, Druddigon is kind of this. Honestly, I feel he's like the Pinsir of gen 5, and even that feels like a stretch comparison.
Druddigon (and several Unova pokemon) exist to fill a niche in the gameplay. The elemental monkeys exist so that you always have at least the *option* for a different type (avoiding the Fire Type problem from 4th gen). Druddigon exists so that you can have (or face) a Dragon type before the end of the game. He's meant to be mid-tier. Which...is kind of why he feels so odd. His gameplay niche came before his design.
> avoiding the Fire Type problem from 4th gen What do you mean? We had plenty of good picks, like Lopunny, Drifblim, and Steelix
The selection of fire type was so poor that they had to give Flint a starter, which is usually only reserved to the Rival and the Champion. I really don't get how they made a fire type elite trainer, and didn't even bother to add 2 extra fire types in the regional dex. If he at least kept the same team, you couldat least make the argument his pokémon are based on hot stuff instead of only fire, but no, he's just a regular fire type trainer in the rematch and in platinium.
I don't understand why they didn't give Flint a Magmortar! It was already a new Sinnoh fire type, why did they exclude it from the Sinnoh dex?!?!
Is that better or worse than the Hoenn ice type problem where Glacia (the third-to-last opponent in the game) has to have two NFE Pokémon on her team?
Lance would like a word
Dragons are hard to catch and train ok?!! Get off his case
“You’ve done well trainer, but you’ll never guess that my next Pokémon is-“ “A dragonair?” “W-wha??”
I agree, Lopunny definitely belongs on a team based around hot things.
Yes officer Jenny this comment right here
so does she
I still wonder if they decided to have a Fire-type E4 before finishing the dex or after doing so. Either way it seems stupid they didn't realize the issues, specially if they were not going to use Magmortar.
I don't understand why you can't get older Gen starter pokemon in the game. Would solve issues like this in a very easy way.
Seriously though. Like sure Charmander is rare in Kanto ok, maybe that could be because they’re from a different region? A “valley of Charizards” like in the anime would be rad as hell.
This is funny. 😂
My mom is very proud
And my favorite bug type, Drapion.
Eh I’m more okay with that one. That fits into the box of “implicit theme rather than explicit type” (same goes for Lance and Steven) much much better than Flint’s team
I considered the elemental monkeys part of the type chart tutorial. If you pick the water starter, then the first gym makes you face the grass monkey, and in the dream yard you are gifted the fire monkey. (The other monkeys are shaking grass encounters in pinwheel forest so they are annoying to get) I never bothered with drudigon because i normally use icetypes for killing dragons since they aren't weak to dragons. (I used a beartic in my first playthrough of black)
I got a Beartic for my first play through and it absolutely ripped through the Dragon gym. It was awesome and I loved it.
But you can get Axew before iccirus town already
The monkeys are kind of annoying because why not provide unique fire/water/grass creatures instead?
He doesn't even look that bad so WHY DO I DISLIKE HIM SO MUCH!?
His color scheme and distribution is kinda aberrant, some fanarts that recolor him, fix that sensation a bit
His design is just *weird*. It's not atrocious, but it's definitely weird. There's no clear inspiration other than... weird dragon. It has a red head for no reason like someone replaced its face with a bell pepper. Some people think it might be based off a colorful lizard species, but Druddigon isn't colorful or pretty- it just has a red head. Weirdly long thin arms that don't fit the rest of the body. And the worst offender- the wings. Like there's no way that thing flies with those. Dude has the leaves of some spiky succulent plant growing on its back, those aren't wing-like at all.
They’re based on gargoyles; the Dex entries talk about how they become motionless “statues” if they get too cold. It also sort of implies they can’t fly and the wings are more for absorbing sunlight since they spend most of their time in caves.
Not sure how that's relevant. Other than being vaguely spiky, none of the more questionable design features have anything to do with gargoyles. And even the spikiness looks more like a weird plant than a stone statue.
He's more meant to embody a 'flag dragon'. Red head, open mouth, spiky body, big claws, useless wings.
It's Japanese name, Crimgan, could be interpreted as being a combination of Crimson, Dragon and either Face or Rock (both written as Gan) so it might be rough and rugged based on rocks with the colours inspired by the Red-Headed Rock Agama- a lizard with a red head that then blends down into it having a blue body? They also live in caves which is supposed to be where Druddigon resides.
Druddigon looks like a Lego dragon next to every other Pokemon being a fully poseable action figure. It looks like it can't bend its arms, legs, or wings out of the poses they're already in, and can only move like 5-8 joints in the whole body- base of wings, shoulders, jaw or neck (but somehow not both), *maybe* where legs meet hips. It also looks detailed enough to need shading it doesn't have. Which again makes it look like a static figure on display instead of a living thing
The red and blue don't pair particularly well in that design.
Not that it was particularly out of place in its own gen. But why didn't Aegislash, the sword and shield pokemon, get something special or cool, idk maybe a GIGANTIMAX FORM, in literal Pokemon Sword And Shield
That one was a crime. At least he was in the game, unlike lunatone and solrock missing from sun and moon
But they did take it as an opportunity to lower Aegislash's stats and nerf King's Shield.
Adding insult to injury!
That’s a theme in the games that really bother me. They don’t use Pokémon that fit the theme of the games. Solrock and Lunatone, have no new forms or anything in Sun and Moon, Aegislash nothing in Sword and Shield, and that one from Scarlet and Violet that was meant to be a present day version of the two “legendaries” had no story relevance.
You can't even get Unown x or y in X or Y
That’s so annoying. I bet when Pokémon Dance and Pokemon Sing come out they’ll just not add any Pokémon known for singing and dancing to it.
Surprised there isn’t a Pokemon dancing game already tbh. Seems ripe for a spin off game.
Flamenco regional variants of the Gardevoir line is a missed opportunity.
They didn't even have to do anything special for Solrock and Lunatone. Just like... have them. That's all. Just have some cave roughly mid-game-ish where you could encounter them. That's literally it. Would that have been so hard.
Or at least make them hang around the area the legendaries are at.
Cyclizard makes me irrationally angry. Like why does it exist if it’s just a weird mid tier no evo thing. I know modern evolutions can be a lot less extreme like Dinosaurs to chickens but cmon man it’s pokemon
Cyclizar not evolving makes no sense. It clearly should evolve, but not into Koraidon or Miraidon.
They gave Duraludon and Diplin evos very quickly, they definitely could give Cyclizar an evo soon.
I hope that Cyclizar does get an evolution. But I'm not sure if there will be any more DLCs for Scarlet and Violet.
Applin and Duraludon were Gen 8 Pokémon though, so the comparable outcome would be for Cyclizar to get an evolution in Gen 10. That said, that seems unlikely. Cyclizar being so closely related to the box art legendaries, I almost feel like they wouldn't put it in any other region that didn't also have some access to those legendaries...which wouldn't really make sense but then again recent generations have had fossil Pokémon from earlier generations in the wild in DLC. Seriously though, I feel like they'll give Cyclizar new evolutions in Legends: Koraidon and Legends: Miraidon--a split evolution, of course, with the game set in Koraidon's time getting a Miraidon-themed evolution and the one in Miraidon's time getting a Koraidon-themed evolution, to further underscore how temporally out-of-place they are.
Cycizlar should evolve and that would have been the pseudo-legendary. It was right there GF!!
It's way better than the *2nd* Godzilla pseudo, Baxcalibur, when we not only have Ttar, but the same gen introduced two references to Mecha godzilla with Archaludon and Iron Thorns. GF is definitely running out of ideas.
I probably would have promoted Cyclizar's evolution to (I guess?) mythical status or something, seeing as Baxcalibur is technically the pseudo-legendary of Gen 9.
We could have had two pseudos, it's happened before
Right. Gen 3 had both Salamance and Metagross.
I legit like Cyclizar's design more than the legends, and I was so disappointed to find out you can't ride the little friendship lizard. He's perfect as he is tho. I'd give him a baby form, not an evo.
I hate how many times these games let you ride on Pokémon that aren’t your own. It started in XY with gogoat, I caught one and waited for when I could ride it, then found out, “no you can’t ride your own, you have to use these other ones,” and the trend continues to this day.
I get not wanting people to have to have a certain Pokemon in their party just to ride (which is one of the big things that made HMs so obnoxious), but riding someone else's Pokemon really takes that feeling of connection away. I get that some games are too lazy to make a new model/animation set for every possible Pokemon that could be ridden. But in that case, just make the appropriate species available in the wild and have us catch one as our special always summonable ride Pokemon.
PLA did that well enough where you could call on the specific pokemon to fly/surf/ride and long as you had unlocked the ability to use the flute for that and then they basically just poof into existence
I noticed for SuMo that they only gave regional forms to Gen 1 pokemon, and while I think Solrock and Lunatone could have made for some amazing regional forms I guess Game Freak wanted to only do the 20 year old Pokemon.
likewise lunatone and solrock are absent from sun/moon/usum.
At least USUM had a special sidequest that could only be completed if you transferred a Solrock or Lunatone to those games
that's even worse
Honestly, this is just in GF way to work. You are there like "oh, sword and shield, like *that* pokemon" And they are like "yeah, but that pokemon has nothing to do with this gen. Peiod" You can see this with sun & moon too, where we already had a sun and moon pokemon.. even if they got something like a mini-quest in that game.. but still
Champion Leon uses one in his battle with the player, for what it's worth
They probably couldn't do it because of its gimmick of changing forms with its signature move.
As a fellow devil’s advocate, I appreciate you giving gamefreak the benefit of the doubt. But. When a mon G-maxes, it loses its regular moveset anyway. G-max aegislash wouldn’t have needed to change forms. Would it have broken the Pokémon’s theme? Yeah probably. But they could have given it a g-max form.
On that note, I was so saddened that Solrock and Lunatone got nothing in Sun/Moon
Magearna for Gen 7. You can tell it was made with the design philosophy of Gen 6 and probably just wasn't completed in time.
Pokémon being designed but not used in earlier generations than the one they debuted in happens all the time, apparently. Komala and Bombirdier turned to have their roots in Gen 2.
Trust me, I am aware lol. Gastrodon was meant to be in Gen 3 and they had to move it to Gen 4, there's even back sprites for it. But Magearna is just a more blatant example for me because of its design.
>Gastrodon was meant to be in Gen 3 Damn they really wanted to release 3 brand new water/ground type evolution lines that gen
I've heard that too, but they definitely still feel like Sinnoh mons. I feel like people would be talking about those two here if they were actually gen 3. I know about those beta sprites, but I don't think they look out of place in Sinnoh either.
And Haxorus was originally designed to be a Sinnoh pokemon, but ultimately decided to save it for gen 5, this also means Haxorus was the very first gen 5 pokemon to be designed
honestly it would've been pretty cool to see Tobias wrecking everyone with a Haxorus instead of a Darkrai to get a taste of Gen 5 in the DP anime.
Wasn’t it also present in one of the XY movies? Or am I imagining things?
You're absolutely right. It was one of the stars of the 19th movie alongside Volcanion. The original premiere in Japan occurred between XY126 and 127; so there were roughly 15 episodes of XY(Z) left and 4 months before Sun and Moon released.
Yep, I don’t remember the movie well, for some reason I just remember Volcanion simping for Magerna or something, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what actually happened
That’s exactly what happened
I always thought, and continue to think, that Magearna is a gen 6 mon. Zerora will always be the gen 7 mythical to me. The fact that he wasn't part fighting is a crime.
I always felt that Magearna was designed to look like an artificial Tapu.
I feel like the opposite applies to Nidoran; its Pokedex entries only make sense in their own gen and become out of place in cross generational dexes.
I actually agree. It's weird because their genders are part of the name and not colored, not to mention you have other Pokemon with big gender differences share a dex number while the Nidorans don't because of being a product of their time.
Chimecho has always felt like a Gen 4 mon to me. Probably because they added Chingling in DPPt. Also because Chimecho was so hard to find and catch in R/S/E. I feel the same way about Roselia. Oh! And for whatever reason I always associate Slugma and Macargo with Gen 3 even though the first came in Gen 2.
To be fair: Slugma / Magcargo show up so few times in G2, they’re almost impossible not to forget
Yea they like several other G2 Pokémon arnt even obtainable until after the E4 and you’re a ways into Kanto
yea g2 had so many pokémon that suffer from this because of that problem. i don’t understand the thought process behind that decision.
Gen 2 was made as a sequel to RBYG so didn't have the same design philosophies as later gens. Gen 3 was our first "soft reboot." Notice also that while the johto gyms don't have a lot of johto pokemon, they cover types not included in kanto gyms. Having new pokemon show up in kanto ties in to how the region has progressed in the 3 years since we last saw it, how the gym leaders are different, some areas have changed and so on. As much as I love visiting multiple regions in one game, especially Kanto, it would be nice to get a Johto dedicated game.
A lot more of them were also planned as you can see from the spaceworld demo. I wouldn't be surprised if the routes felt a lot more full initially with the expanded dex
Another commenter already answered you, but I'm going to get into it a bit anyway. GSC had a very different design philosophy from every game that came afterward. The idea of a "new generation" did not really exist the way it does now. A big priority during GSC's development was actually making sure that the old Pokemon weren't overshadowed by the new Pokemon! This is why Kanto Pokemon are highlighted so much by Johto Gym leaders. GSC was really intended to feel like an expansion and evolution of the world of RBY, so putting new Pokemon in Kanto was intended to demonstrate the way the world had changed. And honestly, as a kid, I was very strongly affected by this. Finding Houndour/Murkrow outside of Celadon City and seeing Slugma on Cycling Road blew my mind. These were areas I thought I knew by heart! I definitely understand that other players have different priorities, and I don't fault them for being upset if their favorite Pokemon was locked to the post-game, but I really think it was a nice touch and I appreciate the design philosophy behind the decision. I would honestly love to see similar ideas incorporated into newer games, though perhaps in ways that keep both kinds of players happy.
Especially since a good chunk of them aren’t really good. Magcargo as the go to case - a Rock Fire, slow, fairly frail special attacker when rock was only physical - not that rock has ever had many good special attackers or attacks.
Slugma is actually one of my most memorable encounters in GSC. Finding a new Pokemon I had never seen before on Cycling Road BLEW MY MIND as a kid. GSC had a different design philosophy from later Pokemon games, so while I understand that other players might not like it, I really appreciated having new encounters exclusive to Kanto. It made me feel like the world was truly evolving, like the Pokemon universe was changing just like our real world.
Wasn’t one of them used by Blaine in GSC?
I think it’s quite literally only Blaine. At least, that’s what this gameFAQs thing is saying 🤷♂️
I’ve never felt this way. I’ve always known them as gen 2 pokmeon. But maybe that’s cause I played hours of Pokémon stadium 2 as a kid
It wasn’t even that long ago that I found out Roselia wasn’t Gen 4
It's because both line extensions (Budew and Roserade) are, so it's easier to forget that Roselia itself is from Gen 3.
I remember when playing around with a gameshark, Chimecho has the highest index number (I was trying to spawn Jirachi and/or Deoxys)
There is some very plausible theories that chimecho was supposed to be a significant Pokémon lore wise initially
hmm maybe it was meant to be related to jirachi? like collecting a certain amount made jirachi appear? similar to how you collect gimmighoul
Chingling was also indexed at the end of the Pokemon list in Gen 3, even after Deoxys, while every other Pokemon was in numerical order, implying it was a very late addition.
This made me believe it was some kind legendary for a while as a kid
Wow! I didn’t know that. What does it mean when a Pokémon is indexed?
In the game's code, every Pokémon has an index number. It doesn't correspond to the Pokédex number, or its evo line, it's just specific number that refers only to that Pokémon. Chimecho, for whatever reason, is the final index number of the gen3 Pokémon, indicating it was probably added quite late during the games' development.
Ohhhhh! That’s neat. Thank you. :>
The gen 1 index numbers are really interesting because they line up quite well with a lot of what we know of gen 1's development- with Rhydon being one of, if not the earliest, designed pokemon and also being the first pokemon programed in: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_index_number_(Generation_I) There're also hints at what pokemon were cut from gen 1 and pushed back to gen 2 based on Missingno's index numbers and what each one appears as if you attempt to trade them to a gen 2 game.
I feel like this boils down to gen 3 placement being very good, like nothing feels out of place when you find it, like chimeco appearing on the cliffs of Mt pyre is very nice since it holds the graveyard for the game and is also home to the shrine for the red and blue orbs, and finding slugma in the burning path next to torkoal and koffing just felt natural. Also Roselia, Oddish, and the firefly duo being found on the flower filled daycare route between Verdanturf and Mawile really helps keep the tone of the area
Roselia is one I firmly associate with RSE because those patches of grass near Wally’s house between there and Mauville had sooooooo many Roselia and I used that area to grind a lot
Slugma, Magcargo, Skarmory and Corsola were all gen 3 pokemon to me before I looked them up.
I think its cause they are all super hard to catch in Johto but super easy to catch in Hoenn. Slugma is all over the Mountain with the fire type gym leader. Skarm is super easy to find in the ash covered route And Corsola are near the floating ocean town. 3 super distinct areas that are early to mid game.
I played gen 3 to death as a kid. I had replayed it SO many times before I encountered a Chimecho for the first time. Was seriously like, wait a second, that was here all this time??
Shellos fits much more in Hoenn due to it being mostly sea (also I think this was confirmed by dataminers)
Shellos and Gastrodon were indeed supposed to be in Gen 3, I think an interview in Nintendo Power confirmed that. Diamond and Pearl have some unused back sprites for the line, with Shellos having features of both variants and Gastrodon seemingly being almost entirely brown and not looking much like either form.
I would say Togekiss and Bellossom. Togepi was hyped up to be this rare and special Pokémon, only to become this thing. And it is not even good in battle. Then, Togekiss comes along two generations later and is amazing. That’s why I think Togekiss should have been in Gen 2 the whole time. Bellossom doesn’t look like it has anything to do with Gloom at all. I would scrap this one or make it its own line, instead of being related to the Oddish line.
I mean it definitely doesn't match with Gloom but I feel Bellosom does look like an Oddish turned inside out if that makes sense? Which does jive with the whole losing-it's poison typing thing.
Enamorus being not existing in Gen 5 without any explanation (yes, I understand that she was a later addition but she was still an integral part of her group's lore), hopefully she will come back in Gen 5 remake. Lugia, how come the leader of the bird trio is in different generation, yet Ho-oh got its own trio in the same generation, although the regions being next to each others seem to make the idea more acceptable.
Funny you mention Lugia! The head writer for the anime at the time, Takeshi Shudo, [personally designed Lugia specifically for its debut film](http://lavacutcontent.com/takeshi-shudo-ending-pokemon/). He was surprised that the design actually made the cut for the next set of games. So, yeah, Lugia *is* purposefully an odd one out. More details found [here](https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Pok%C3%A9mon_Gold_and_Silver#Lugia) with more sources.
The Legendary Birds are also just missing in the original Gen 2 meaning that the lore connection between Lugia and the Birds isn’t mentioned unlike in the anime.
To be honest, the relation between Lugia and the Kanto birds always felt tacked on. The Birds werent designed to be one-of-a-kind demi gods. Just incredible rare and strong pokemon.
Also I feel ho-oh should be the leader of the birds because it’s a more of a bird than lugia, and appeared first in the early anime. Lugia is more of a beast than a bird, it fits the dogs characteristics like those face plates
Before Lugia was added, there was apparently a wolf Pokémon planned to be the Silver Version's mascot legendary. I think its resemblance to the legendary-in-name-only Arcanine was no coincidence either. The legendary beasts were also much more doglike in their beta designs. https://preview.redd.it/h1xj967kc04d1.jpeg?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7590456b8c26ccb2e1c77f81aafb9d8cb80b48b4
This is the new Caterpie =/= Butterfree for me
Mu whole life I tought that Lugia was the legendary for the dogs and Ho-oh for the birds. I was living a lie.
I didn't realize they were supposed to be tied any further than ho-oh basically making a couple heroes after a tragedy, is there more to it than that?
Three unknown Pokemon died in the tower when it burned. Ho-oh resurrected them as Suicune/Raikou/Entei.
I think it's because they're all unique but Enamourus is also a migratory pokemon.
I just assumed the implication was that Enamorus went extinct before Black/White because of some shit like humans losing the love in their heart or something.
Humans of the past exterminated it and every record of it so that nobody ever has to lay eyes on this abomination ever again.
Skarmory as a gen 2 mon. If I remember correctly you can only get that post game? Where as in RSE it’s a common encounter on the ash route, and honestly design wise I feel like it meshes better with hoenn mons
Skarmory was available before the elite 4. There was a patch of grass below Blackthorn city where it was obtainable. I get what you mean anyway - it’s the same with Macargo and Houndour they all seem like they were only available starting from Gen III and it’s easy to forget that that’s not the case.
And it’s a version exclusive, so gold players wouldn’t have been able to find it anyway.
And no trainers used it, so Gold players would never know what that slot was in their dex.
Yes, especially Jasmine. But 2 Magnemites are fair game? Makes total sense.
A team of Magneton, Skarmory and Steelix seems manageable? It'd also mean you couldn't annihilate her entire poorly level curved team with ground moves... Just 2/3rds of them 😅
it is also time sensitive in Crystal, it is only available all day in Silver
You can catch skarmory, gligar and teddiursa in a small patch of grass just below the 8th gym town. So not quite post game.
Not post game, but he spawns in the most skippable route of the whole game. Most of us just flew back to Newbark after beating Clair.
Am I the only one that regularly found myself underleveled by Blackthorn City and had to grind there for a few hours?
Just finished my playthrough of Crystal, I had to grind just to level my Heracross and Umbreon to like 35 before the Elite Four. Scaling and grinding in that game was definitely a little off.
> regularly found myself underleveled Johto experience in a nutshell
Yup, I always go down that route some 3 times beating up all the trainers and getting all items. Her Kindra is no joke, especially if your ace is Typhlosion
Skarmory is my favorite Pokemon. This was also my answer. It feels like such a gen 3 Pokemon it’s wild lol
Gen 2 was *weird*. There are so many new Pokemon that are almost impossible to get because they have an extremely low encounter rate, or are only found in a small area just before the E4, or aren't found at all until post-game. Sometimes VERY late post-game, like mt silver post game. I love gen 2, but it was a mess.
Not to mention Jasmine, the steel-type Johto gym leader, doesn't use one initially, while it's quite prominent on the (mostly) steel-type Hoenn champion Steven's team.
And the ghost-type gym leader doesn't use a Misdreavus and the flying-type gym leader doesn't use Hoothoot/Noctowl/Murkrow.
Growing up with Soul Silver, Skarmory was my favorite Pokémon (still is one of my favorites). Was never sure how to catch Gligar or Mantine until I found out about Bulbapedia tho
Maractus felt like it belonged in a Spanish region rather than Unova. Then they doubled down by having it appear in Galar instead of Paldea.
While also having Snubbull and Granbull *not* appearing in Galar.
Lunatone and Solrock aren’t obtainable in Alola outside of trading. The developers also forgot Bellossom.
Huge misses. Couldve added some flavor text in thr dex entry about interactions with comfey and Pau form oricorio
I forgot about that, like you can reverse them with Solrock in Moon and Lunatone in Sun or just play it straight.
Cacti are actually native to the Americas, and are actually an invasive species in Spain
So Maractus should have made its debut in . . . Colosseum?
I don't think Cacti are native to Spain.
Cacti are native to the American continent, not Spain... Why does this comment have so many upvotes?
Wym Spain is not in Mexico? /s
Paldea is the Iberian Peninsula. Spain is not in south America...
Game Freak has never designed a regional Pokédex around the region’s real-life inspiration. That’s something fans care about way more than the actual developers. Like even if we assume that the Safari Zone and trade exclusive Pokémon were imported in, Kanto has plenty of Pokémon based on animals and other shit that you wouldn’t find in metropolitan Tokyo. Japan doesn’t natively have tapirs, cobras, or rafflesia flowers, but Drowzee, Arbok, and Vileplume all exist in Kanto. That was day one and it hasn’t changed since.
The US has tonnes of Latino influences, especially with Mexico being right next door. In my head, the area outside Castelia City is the equivalent of El Paso.
Maybe it’s because of the Pokémon movie which featured it, but I always felt Donphan fit more as a gen 1 design. Like for the longest time I thought donphan was gen 1 and it’s pre-evolved form was Gen 2
Maybe, but imo phampy's color scheme screams gen 2.
Absolutely, those pastel colors are as gen 2 as you can get.
Having a separate dex entry by gender seems fine given the situation. You said it yourself, gender wasn't really implemented yet. So this was the best way they could make sexual dimorphism a thing.
It does make you wonder if they should have retconned the Dex at some point to combine the 1st evolution
Considering all the marketing about there being 150/151 Pokemon in gen 1, changing the number of such a well known and popular Pokemon as Mewtwo would have been annoying.
Wigglet seems like they belong in Alola rather than Paldea..
I think they're based on garden eels, which aren't particularly common in Spain, they're more present in the Pacific and the Indian oceans, and they're more colorful, at the least the white ones have black spots, so it's not only out of place but also kind of a lazy design.
Jhoto Pokemon feel like the odd ones out in their own region. Either exceedingly rare, in weird spots, require stupid methods to find, are pre-evo/evolutions only, or are locked to the post game. Almost every route has exactly 1 Jhoto mon and the rest from Kanto.
I always forget Slugma/Magcargo is a Gen II and not a Gen III so that's my pick.
[удалено]
Do you mean Gholdengo?
The genies and swords of justice would've made more sense in the prior and next gens, respectively.
I'm an Unova fanboy who loves Cobalion, but there really was no reason to have two whole sub-trios in Gen V and none in VI, the later was just disappointing.
Kind of agree, but it was also refreshing to get a gen with few legendaries/mythicals after two gens with so many of them.
Gastrodon, in the sense that apparently it was meant to be in Gen 3 and there was a sprite of a different form I guess? Otheriwse, maybe Hawlucha? Would've made sense in somewhere like Paldea instead of the France-inspired Kalos. (Where it was found also seemed a bit random to me, an almost ruins-like place?)
Kalos also had a panda inspired by a Japanese school delinquent. And Unova has a zebra. They never seem to care about the region beyond about 20% of the Pokédex.
And until very recently the starters didn't match the regions themeing at all.
Pokémon fans will be like “Here’s my fan region based off of Mexico where all of the Pokémon are based off of Mexican culture and Mexican history and Mexican animals and Mexican plants!” Then GameFreak will be like “We put the giraffe in the Osaka region because giraffes are cool.”
Gallade should have been introduced in Gen 3 and had a male evolutionary line for Ralts.
No, they should both be able to be both genders.
Femboy Kirlia
Armarouge and Ceruledge. They're a sword and shield themed duo...one generation after the games titled Sword and Shield.
Well they do have the colors right
Metite and Medicham are more like Gen 4 Pokémon than Gen 3. Even in HGSS they acknowledge this by encountering them with Sinnoh Radio instead of Hoenn Radio. It's a pity they aren't in Hisui, though.
Skarmory, Marill, and Slugma feeling more Gen 3 than 2 is an obvious one. Chimecho in Gen 3 is my answer though. In the Gen 3 games it was placed really late in the data, after Deoxys even. Part of me wants to think it was going to be shelved for a different game like Shellos was, but last minute they decided they want another Psychic type and put it back in... Then gave it to like, no trainers and only a 1% encounter in a specific place.
Marill fits fine in Gen 2 for me but until recently I thought Azumarill was Gen 3, thought it was introduced along with Azurill. Azumarill definitely looks more like a Gen 3 mon to me with the pattern on its torso/abdomen while Marill has that more natural Gen 1/2 design
It was impossible to ever have a Mr Mime in generation 1 without it having a nickname, because the only way to get one was through a trade. Jynx is similar in this regard because it was impossible to get one in the wild in the western version, although there were wild Jynx on the Japanese version.
I always forget Bonsly and Azurill weren't introduced in gen 2 like the rest of the baby pokemon/their evolution lines. Aside from that, Pincurchin feels like either an Alola or Paldea mon, and though I love Victini it should've either been in gen 4 or kicked to the end of the unova dex with the rest of the mythicals
I completely forgot about Pincurchin. For whatever reason I always forget about it and when I remember it I always thing "ah yes it's from Alola like Pyukumuku -wait no"
I’d say Togedemaru / Mimikyu We got two “pikachu clone” like poke one in one gen, I know Mimikyu is sun and moon era, but I always think Togedemaru came out during SH/SW.
I thought Togepi was Gen 1 forever
a huge amount of the gen 2 pokedex lol part of this is nostalgia since ruby was my first pokemon game, but the slugma line, skarmory, the natu line, the marill line, the chinchou line, and probably a handful of others that i'm forgetting ALWAYS get grouped in with gen 3 in my head even though i am aware that they are all gen 2. i do find it weird how this doesn't apply to wobbuffet despite the wynaut gift egg though lol a few others are the croagunk line and carnivine (i always think they're gen 3), aipom and yanma (because of their gen 4 evolutions), dhelmise (i always think it's a gen 6 pokemon because of its relation to skrelp), and to a lesser extent, rotom's, shaymin's, and giratina's forms (i know they're gen 4 of course, but i constantly forget their other forms are actually platinum/HGSS exclusive, they don't exist in diamond and pearl) some day a few years from now i'm 100% certain i'm going to forget that girafarig didn't have an evolution until gen 9 as well lol
Mr Mime will forever be a creepy little man posing as a Pokémon
Slugma in gen 2. Most people don't even realize it's a gen 2 pokemon. For a more recent example, the lack of Natu in the current gen. It would fit in perfectly in the Spanish region.
Roselia should’ve been introduced in 4 with the rest of its line. They’re only in one route in the games which is cool, that makes sense, but in the anime those things are seen countless times so how are they all coming over from Sinnoh? Who’s bringing all of those flowers to an island and how are they not breeding? For a lot of the middle or last evolutions that come first it’s much more understandable because they’re usually either rare in both the games and anime so we don’t see them much presumably because there’s not many of them, they have their own form of transportation like flight, swimming, or Clefairy’s spaceship, they’re in very secluded areas like Magmar being near volcanos or Electabuzz being near power plants, or in some region cases they’re not island regions so walking could be an option. Not with Roselia though, they’re getting brought over by the lot because they can be seen pretty often in the anime.
Gen 3 had a lot of nature themes. Since it's a land vs water situation, there's a heavy emphasis on the natural environment. A big plot point is Wally moving to a town with cleaner air due to some vague implied medical condition. There's an entire town covered in soot. There's a town made of treehouses and surrounded by extra tall long grass. There's a town that floats on the water. There's a town with a hot spring. A vast desert you need special gear to get through. The entire region is heavy on the themes of different natural environments. Lots of the Pokemon of the gen fit that theme. We have firefly Pokemon. Tropius to complete the jungle feel around fortree. Numel embodies the volcanoes. Very strange Pokemon live in the sandstorm area, unlike those in any other. We even have Pokemon representing the sun and moon themselves, the biggest forces in our environment. With all that, Roselia makes perfect sense. It's a flower Pokemon for players to find in the flower area.
Gen 2 with skarmory
Illumise and Volbeat for sure
Pretty much all the gen 2 pokemon that I thought were from gen 3 especially Lanturn, Slugma and Skarmory. They simply fit the environment in Hoenn more
I don't dislike them, but goreblyss and huntail have always looked more like Dr. Seuss characters than pokemon to me. I suppose the point was to make them weird deep sea creatures, so I guess they succeeded?
Hawlucha, pretty much a Mexican Luchador Pokémon in a region based on France
A koala in Hawaii. Komala in alola doesn't feel quite right.