
We've been checking our Pokémon Legends: Arceus bingo cards, and not a single one of us had "Basculin gets a new evolution". Basculin? The fish guy? We have to say, we weren't completely on board — at least, until we found out how GOSH DARN METAL he was.
Everyone loves a Pokémon with a horrible back story, like Drifloon stealing children and Bewear crushing people to death, and Basculegion, the new evolution, is the newest member of the "wtf, Pokémon" ranks.

Basculegion (Water/Ghost) is powered by the souls of restless, dead Basculin that failed to make the perilous journey upstream. That's it. That's the whole thing. It's a Pokémon made up of angry fish ghosts. Imagine if salmon turned into large, mean salmon if a bunch of them died!
You'll be able to ride Basculegion around the waters of Hisui, though we can't imagine why you'd want to.

There's also Wyrdeer (Normal/Psychic), the final evolution of Stantler, a deer with a large booty that was introduced in Gold and Silver. Wyrdeer is tall and fluffy, looking pretty much exactly the same as Stantler, but with fur. Also, its antlers are more angular, and look a bit like TV aerials.
We also have (at least) two new regional variants in the Hisui area: Hisuian Growlithe, and Hisuian Braviary.

Hisuian Braviary (Psychic/Flying) changes the Pokémon's colouring from that of an eagle to a more dignified grey/white palette, also altering the Normal/Flying type to Psychic/Flying with the use of some glowing plumage. All Rufflet that evolve in Hisui will become Hisuian Braviary.
As seen in the Pokémon Presents footage, players will be able to use Braviary as a sort of hang-glider, with the ability to steer the bird instead of just flying from A to B automatically.

Hisuian Growlithe (Fire/Rock), on the other hand, has no apparent abilities other than being extremely fluffy and cute. He's a darker shade of orange, with voluminous hair that mimics the style of Chinese stone lions, which could hint at Hisuian Arcanine's appearance, too. Hisuian Growlithe are known to watch over their territory in pairs (like guardian lions!) and are "hyper-vigilant".
Those are all the new and semi-new Pokémon we were introduced to in today's Pokémon Presents, and they'll all be part of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, coming to the Nintendo Switch on January 28th, 2022.
Which Pokémon would you like to see get a regional variant or new evolution? Let us know in the comments!
Comments 50
Still not sure if the game will end up being really good or too rough around the edges due to being rushed but either way it’s at the very least nice to see them try to take the series in a bit of a different and interesting direction for a change.
HOLY SH*T, this game is a dream come true. Sure, the resolution may not be perfect but the game runs a lot smoother and the gameplay looks actually awesome. And the new Hisuian forms are cool
Hisuian Growlithe is all I care about.
I liked the look of the art style on the reveal trailer, and the game is looking a lot smoother now, may be a real shake up for the franchise.
It's so exciting to see some new ideas in this series, and I hope this sets a new standard.
Also fluffy Growlithe.
Considering Game Freak's track record in recent years, I'm still not entirely sure if I'll get this immediately, but it's definitely going the right way for now. I'm excited, but not sold quite yet. There's still a lot that can go wrong.
Hisuian Growlite looks like Daigoro Yojimbo FF X.
My excitement remains the same if not more! I'm really excited to see new regional forms and evolutions. This is a good move from GameFreak over the past couple of generations. And here we get some in a game that is a side-game!
The gameplay has taken more aspects from BOTW, like crafting. I can dig that. As long as things don't break. Lol. But even if they do, the game still looks fantastic. I was worried when I saw catching Pokemon without battling, but that isn't the default, it's just a method that can be used on certain Pokemon. So we get variety. I also love how we get to study the Pokemon.
This game looks excellent! Looking forward to it. =D
@CharlieGirl I hope not. Core Pokémon games should remain the same, maybe more enhanced, but the core should remain.
Legends can be it's own spinoff. For instance Legends Mew next?
Growlithe looks so CUTE!!
Can't wait for a spinoff game where you play as Basculegion getting revenge for his dead brethren
Arceus still needs a visual shot in the arm sadly. Those textures and cliff edges look like they’re from the Wii, not the Switch. Nintendo maybe needs to lend Game Freak a hand. At least the frame rate has been vastly improved so far, however.
@Harmonie
The only thing I can see breaking are PokeBalls....
Finally a Stantler evolution. And a half sheep Growlithe?
@sanderev I've been playing Pokemon since 1998. The formula staying largely the same for decades has caused the series to rest on its laurels for way too long.
Progress must be made.
@Ttim3r Perhaps. But there are other tools in the Pokemon world that could be made to break, like fishing rods. D:
I think they should have committed more to the ancient style, or just made a new region that's wild and untamed. The professor still looks like a professor, and that throws me off. Definitely seems to pull a lot from monster hunter
@CharlieGirl I agree, there’s always going to be the earlier games for people to play. I would very much like to see progress being made.
First Pokémon game I will play in more than 10 years. Glad they finally dropped the 25 year old regurgitated formula.
Could very well be the game ive been most excited for since forever
I'm glad to see that Arceus can be the BOTW moment for the franchise we have all been waiting for. The graphics still look a bit rough but I don't expect from Game Freak, knowing their difficult understanding of 3D game dev, to achieve the beauty of Zelda with this, it just needs a bit more polish
Graphics are still kinda rough in places, but overworld Pokemon no longer animate at 10 FPS, which was by far the biggest issue with the February reveal trailer.
BTW the new Growlithe looks adorable.
@Yosher
Here, At this point, I feel more like a "deep contempt" for Game Greak than a disagreement with the attitude of many about what happened.
I do not eliminate the fact that it is true that the franchise has not improved, but seeing even those results, I see the games "complete", not polished, but competent, and right now looking at Legend Arceus, it is seen that they really have a "commitment" to it. how incompetent they are not.
In addition, if you want to find more culprits, it would be Nintendo and the Pokemon company, since they set the delivery and sales dates of the games, that for me puts pressure on Game Freak and therefore, their games somewhat or quite hasty...
@Bentendo1609
" Nintendo maybe needs to lend Game Freak a hand."
That should the most correct and competent for improve the games, seriously.
@westman98 I think this is what we get for stable framerate.
Graphics have improved since the initial trailer but in some areas where it is rough, that is the price we have to pay. Also we are still gonna get more information so a lot can change still
I don’t care about graphical fidelity, all I want I a stable frame rate and for the game to be fun.
This might have been my favourite bit of the whole trailer. I love new evolutions for older Pokemon and Regional Variants.
@SakuraHaruka Regardless of reason, regardless of who the culprit is, they didn't do a good job of the last couple of generations in my opinion, and others forcing them to rush it out the door doesn't suddenly make it a better game for the consumer. What we get is the end product put out into store shelves, regardless of the routes taken. And their end products just haven't been up to par lately.
And it's just why I'm being careful with this one. There was a bunch of dumb stuff that wasn't known about Sword/Shield either until shortly before their release, and I could see the same holding true for Legends: Arceus. I just hope I'm wrong and it turns out amazing like I'm used to from Pokémon games, and what we were shown today does look very promising.
I'm wondering which game to buy two of so that my daughter and I can do battles against each other (she has her own Switch). Will this or new D/P or still Sword/Shield be the main tournament game?
I really hope there are more than these 4! I never much cared for this generation which was the main issue on this entry for me, more of the Pokémon I care least about. But seeing Pokémon get new forms and evolutions, especially ones that previously didn't evolve, is always exciting!
Plus the new mechanics actually look really promising.
@Ogbert There may be. This was giving us a taste, not the whole package, I feel. For example, we have no concept of what those red-eyed Pokemon are all about.
Graphically speaking, this game looks awful. Mechanically speaking, it sure looks fun.
I have hope on this game, it seems to be going in the right direction.
This game looks promising. Nice to see something new and different from the Pokemon series.
The biggest issue here is The Pokemon Company get a free pass from its fan base over and over again. If Nintendo had made a game that looked like this for Mario or Zelda, there would be immense backlash. And Pokemon makes more money than either of those franchises for them. But people just put up with it and use cute emojis over the Pokemon themselves.
This game looks like complete mud. Its textures are utterly shocking, and are more compressed than a game needing to fit on a GameCube disc. Game Freak have more money than sense, and could do far far better. Even if it meant outsourcing parts of the visuals to external companies or even Nintendo EDP... who I'm sure wouldn't say no to helping the biggest franchise in the world that lives on their hardware.
They just get away with it all the time. Games can be simplistic, and use particular art styles, and still look crisp on the hardware they're designed for. Indie devs manage it all the time.
Arceus deserves better.
@MegaVel91 they looked to be just ones that were aggressive due to some plot point that you will probably resolve and doing so will teach people Pokemon are actually not scary like they all kept saying.
But I did notice on the Pokédex entry for Shinx it had a “form 1 of 2” underneath. That might just be male and female variants but I remain hopeful!
I love regional variants and that Hisuian Growlithe is probably my favorite so far in terms of looks
loving the darker aesthetics and primitive looking poke balls, excited for this!
Can't wait to catch a Hisuian Growlithe.
I can't wait to plug 100+ hours to it while feeling mildly disappointed at the graphics and complaining about it here in 8 months
@Bentendo1609 The switch has limited horsepower. I don't know what you can really expect for them to bump up the graphics. I'm sure in testing they tried adding more foliage into the landscapes but that would likely cost resolution or frame rate. They are trying something new, if they have something good on their hands they can iterate and improve upon the games in the future when better hardware will be available. Also it's a game, and it's your choice whether to buy it or not.
@Boldfoxrd : I'm still yearning for the alternate forms that were cut from Gen II. The concept for Girafarig's first form "Twinz" is just wild, and it's a travesty that it got the chop.
In any case, I love these new forms, and I hope that there are more to come.
@riChchestM IMO, Sword/Shield makes you feel tired very soon. Those remakes are not meant for competitions, but in family battles will work just fine, and the fact that they are not worried about balancing the pvp aspect of the game now is a good thing, they can go crazy with the movesets for example. I believe that your daughter either lives with you or communicate a lot with you, so you will have no problems creating rules to make your battles fun.
For battle people who you don't know on internet Sword/Shield probably will be better, but I believe that is not your focus.
I needs me a fluffy growlithe
That growlithe 🥺
Now it turns out that everything is graphics ...
We see an improved Pokemon game, something that many fans asked for and that the franchise itself needed it, and now the complaints are because it has "poor" graphics, is it serious?, SERIOUSLY?!!!
since when are we that graphics> gameplay?...
If Hisui is ancient (or at least first-settled) Sinnoh we're talking about, I'm expecting to see Pokémon based on many Hokkaido species and Ainu myths.
That new Growlithe variant looks more like something from a Chinese-based region, while Basculegion and Wyrdeer... I need to find connections.
I'm expecting to see new creatures based on Wolves, Bears and folklore, like the Koropukuru and Kamui. I wonder if there are regional pre-evolutions too. Because if not, then I'd love to see new plans for the starters
yeah, those attack animations still look awful. we're not in the 90s anymore, there's no more excuses
Thought it looked underwhelming
@Carck
Well tell me blind, but seriously I do not see a huge difference in graphics of this title with others that, as you say, are better developed graphically, the truth is I do not see the grace for that, if it were something that affects the gameplay, I very much agree , but I don't see the case in this.
And I thought that the graphic concern was only for the, well ..., those who are very interested in them ...
Pokemon is primarily a kids franchise. Hence its simplistic visual style
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