Topic: Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet

So which of the Chinese zodiac animals is Fuecoco meant to represent?

@Buizel unless it evolves into a dragon, it completely breaks the zodiac theory.

Imagine Fuecoco final evolution will be like Bahamut FF X.

@VoidofLight we already have a dragon in Charizard.

The only way it would fit is if it became a snake. But considering Typhlosion and Delphox supposedly fit into mouse and dog respectively, I wouldn't be surprised if someone argued that a crocodile fills in for snake.

@Anti-Matter I don't think they were necessarily 'hackers', moreso rom hack creators.

@Buizel 'It reptile therefore snake. My logic is infallible'

I agree. This cat is basic and will have a predictable evolution line—an anthropomorphic skinny cat. Furry bait. Maybe GF can surprise me, but I doubt it.

@MsJubilee I love the idea of it being catnip and having a mentally deranged final evo, that would be awesome.

A laid back hippy cat.

The best thing I can say about these starters is that it's hard to imagine them becoming too anthropomorphic...but you never know with these things (who would have expected it from, e.g. Litten?)

Tbh I'm underwhelmed with each successive starter reveal. When you've seen over half a dozen of these before they stop having the same impact. I kinda wish they at least tried different types for once.

I like the fire apple dinosaur thing, the other two designs are fairly meh for me. I sorta see that as a weird side positive though, as I often find the initial forms so adorable I never want to evolve them, even if evolving them actually might result in better type combinations or sweet new moves. But I'd have no regrets evolving either that duck or that cat.

I'll probably never evolve my Fuecoco, unless it's evolution is really cool.

I've noticed something about the protagonists designs.... they look as though they're in a uniform (you can really see it with the comparison shots of the different outfits between both games).

This, along with the protags looking significantly younger than previous ones, leads me to believe the whole premise is that your a student at a school for Pokemon and the professor this time round will be your teacher, teaching you how to catch and battle with Pokemon.
This could also be a cool recontexualisation of PLA's premise where, instead of catching Pokemon to fill out the first ever dex, you're catching them to fill out assignments/homework at your school. Maybe you go on field trips to access new areas? All I can say is, if I call this, I will be the most smug person you have ever seen.

Show and tell and you drop a Weezing in the middle of your classroom. Haha.

I can't fully justify this, but releasing a 3rd Pokemon game in one year, regardless of quality, genuinely makes me more disinterested in these games as a whole.

These color coded costumes remind me so much of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

I won't say I am less interested in Gen 9 as a result, but I am just sorta baffled. It just sorta feels like they done Arceus dirty, here. I am sure there is some sort of greater business logic I am missing, but I just find this decision so odd.

There was a theory going around that Legends was originally meant to be a 2021 game, but got delayed for 2022, and hence why we have it releasing within the same year as Violet and Scarlet.

To be fair, that would make a lot of sense of a lot of things. I always thought Arceus felt sorta unfinished and was confused as to why they didn't leave it in the oven longer. However, if Arceus was made by a different sub team than the Gen 9 team, and Gen 9 felt confident in their game that they'd meet their deadline, they probably weren't willing to push that game and that limited how far Arceus could also be pushed (as it sorta wouldn't make sense to come out after, if Gen 9 takes it further) and so they just went ahead and released what they had.

That would make a lot more sense @VoidofLight

Ok who else wants them to get rid of trade evos or is it just me? Don’t mind trading for version exclusive Pokémon, but trade only evos are annoying.