Tragic Pokémon descriptions are not new. Ever since we found out that Cubone wears the skull of its dead mother as a hat, we've been plenty prepared for Pokémon that rip our hearts out and stamp on them. Never mind that it's a game made for kids! Game Freak really want us to know that Bewears accidentally crush their loved ones to death, and that Lapras has almost been hunted to extinction! Fun!
The latest Pokémon to be confirmed for 2022's Pokemon Legends: Arceus, a prequel to the Pokémon worlds we know and love set in the distant past, is Hisuian Zorua. This is a regional version of a Pokémon that was introduced in 2010, as the first of the new generation for Pokémon Black and White, and now it's coming to Pokémon Legends, too... with a couple of changes.
Here's Zorua's description from Black and White:
BLACK:
It changes into the forms of others to surprise them. Apparently, it often transforms into a silent child.
WHITE:
To protect themselves from danger, they hide their true identities by transforming into people and Pokémon.
A little spooky, but understandable — it's a Dark-type Pokémon, and they usually have weird descriptions.
Here's the description from X & Y:
X:
It changes so it looks like its foe, tricks it, and then uses that opportunity to flee.
Y:
To protect themselves from danger, they hide their true identities by transforming into people and Pokémon.
The descriptions from Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Sword and Shield are similar: Zorua can turn into other things, and it's pretty shy. Sometimes it transforms into a child, but that's about as creepy as it gets!
But here's the description of Hisuian Zorua, whose face is quite a lot sadder than the basic form:
Right, so, Zorua was treated badly by humans, so it tried to go somewhere new where it might be appreciated, but it was too cold and it died, and now it just floats around the place being angry and sad about it all. That's heartbreaking!
But it gets worse, because Hisuian Zoroark — Zorua's evolution, and therefore big brother — appears to straight up murder a guy in order to protect its adorable little sibling:
Honestly, this whole story seems more like something out of a Telltale Walking Dead game than a Pokémon game. We can't wait to find out more about the tragic tales of old-timey Pokémon when Legends comes out on the 28th January, 2022.
What's your favourite sad Pokémon fact? Let us know in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 32
Wait, doesn't it WANT to be shunned by humans? I mean it's always changing form to hide its identity. Now it's going to be all dead about being shunned? A bit high maintenance if you ask me.
Cause of death: Broken Heart.
(And hypothermia)
First Corsola died and became Galarian-Corsola, then Basculins had to die in order to evolve another Basculin and now Zorua died in order to get Hisui-Zorua. I think TPC is trying to tell us something
Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby an organism becomes better able to live in its habitat or habitats
It adapted by straight up dying.
NGL, I'd play an official Pokemon horror spinoff, even if it is low-key like the Luigi's Mansion series.
What is it with Game Freak and revealing everything about its new monsters before release? The best part of the original games was being surprised, discovering, meeting new monster friends. Now it feels like we have to know every detail several months before. I'd have loved to have been surprised by this little cutie in-game.
Removed - inappropriate; user is banned
AAAAw thats so sad, Raising pokeball
@Balladeer Tbf when SwSh released only like 20% of all new Pokemon were revealed before unlike Sun/Moon where like 95% of all new Pokemon were revealed before release
What a fun game for all ages! 👻
TBF, regular Zoroark also would kill strangers to protect their kids or siblings. They're very protective of them no matter the version.
We're getting closer to the Pokémon Adventures original canon of Pokémon actually dying and being chopped.
@RupeeClock if you can come back as a ghost…death is merely an “evolutionary”option. And ghost types can procreate so some of them are born incorporeal.
Ok, but how does Normal/Ghost even work? It sounds like something between life and death. Also a Ghost immune to Ghost attacks and a Normal immune to Fighting, fun times!
I originally looked at the original Japanese video (broken ver) title of ???????????, which is what interested me. Seeing the description of the video being of a straight up MURDER... Man. This is Pokémon.
I ain’t crying 😭
@Eel so padme is hisuian zorua?
Dang, that is pretty sad. I kinda like it though.
@Eel
Dem Froslass are deadly
Is it just me or is this game majorly graphically underwhelming? There’s barely any textures, character models appear to float above the ground, there’s no footsteps in the snow, Pokémon body parts are clipping through rocks and snow and leaves… and it’s so barren?
@alasdair91 Cut them some slack. They've only been at it for 25 years and it's not like it's the highest grossing media franchise of all time.
@SmaggTheSmug Earthbound spirits
Zoroark as Normal/Ghost is really interesting. Three immunities and only one weakness, with that ability? Assuming it keeps Illusion, anyway.
I'm happy at the fact there's a new ghost type. 👻
Not really sad, but one Pokédex entry that's stuck in my head is Darumaka's from Pokémon white.
"Darumaka's droppings are hot, so people used to put them in their clothes to keep themselves warm."
@NoxAeturnus @alasdair91 And to make matters worse, they said it won't even be a full open-world game:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/10/pokemon-legends-arceus-wont-actually-be-an-open-world-game
Cue the fan backlash any moment (AGAIN).
@mariomaster96
The Pokemon company does not intervene in the development of history, places and characters, not even Nintendo intervenes, here it is only Game Freak the only ones (perhaps with the support of Creatures) that tell the history of Pokémon
All of the ‘Dex entries for the Mega forms from S/M/US/UM are pretty horrifying/depressing to think about. Most of them were about how the energy either leaves them acting purely on the instinct to destroy everything around them or causes their bodies to melt and leaves them in constant pain.
Actually, even the regular entries got kind of like that... one of them said that Primape can get so angry that it just dies and that that’s the only time it looks peaceful.
@mariomaster96 Dartrix and many female Snorunt also die when they evolve.
@Balladeer No, you're supposed to learn about the new Pokémon before you play the games so that you can learn how they evolve and get a head start on planning out your desired movesets. Discovering them for yourself in-game isn't that exciting compared to other facets of the games, anyway.
Even Game Freak has been leaning in this direction in more recent generations, otherwise how are you supposed to figure out the more complicated evolutionary methods on your own, most notable Inkay to Malamar?
@alasdair91 You do realize that the game is still several months away from release, don't you? Of course the graphics aren't yet in a finished state.
The barren aspect is likely just the nature of these releases, though. They're in a mostly wild land area before much of the Sinnoh region was developed, after all.
I just want to give the poor thing a hug.
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