Welcome back to me reviewing the Gen. 7 Pokemon! Last time, I went through the Pikipek evolutionary line as well as the Yungoos evolutionary line. I disliked 3 of those 5 Pokemon, but I liked 2 more, so last review was a mixed bag of sorts. This time, we will be looking at 2 more evolutionary lines, and then the next review will be focused solely on Oricorio as there are 4 forms to go over. Also, I made categories on where I put each Pokemon based on how much I liked them. They are only in the order I reviewed them, so if I for example put Rowlet ahead of say Decidueye, that does NOT mean I like Rowlet more than I do Decidueye as long as they are in the same category.
So without further, let’s get into our next Pokemon!
Grubbin – We kick things off with Grubbin. Now is this supposed to be Gen. 7’s Caterpie? Regardless, if you started off with Litten or even Rowlet, then maybe catching a Grubbin will be for you as that Electric-type will come in handy once it evolves. It’s also very passable design-wise considering it’s a bug. That being said, I never really got to encounter this evolutionary line outside of Trainer battles unless I was facing this line in the Electric trial, so it just didn’t get enough experience from me to really say what it could be. And the fact that Alolan Raichu can be found just by getting a Pikachu in the wild (or is Pichu?) much easier than Grubbin can, this Pokemon will sadly be one of those Pokemon that unfairly gets forgotten. Because I don’t know a whole lot about Grubbin, I am going to give it a Fair.
Charjabug – Here is what Grubbin evolves into at Level 20. Now, I’m all for this looking like sentient rectangle as long as it doesn’t take 15 years for this thing to evolve… oh wait, it does! In order to evolve it, you have to go through the same procedure you would for a Magneton or Nosepass (not that I want to talk about what the latter evolves into), but in order to GET THERE, you have to go ALL the way to Poni Island, which is the LAST ISLAND IN THE GAME! That means that by the time this thing gets to evolve, most of the other members of your team will likely have already evolved ages ago. And even when you GET to Poni Island, that still isn’t enough. You have to go to Vast Poni Canyon and level it up there. So basically, you are taking a Bug Pokemon you evolved at Level 20 and can catch towards the beginning of the game, and you’re not getting this thing to evolve again until it’s basically on par with the levels Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon evolve. How fucking dumb is THAT!? But that’s really my only complaint about the Pokemon, yet because it is a major one, I also have to put this in Fair.
Vikavolt – Now this is a well-worth it final evolution! Although it is slow, it really gets the job done if you need a Special Attacker, and it’s really rewarding design-wise! It does have more Physical moves than Special, but there are enough Special Attacking moves for it to take advantage of its 145 base Special Attack. The Pokemon’s even more pleasing to the eye in its Shiny colors, which is a nice touch indeed. I do hate that you have to wait until you get to pretty much the end of the game if you really want to use a Vikavolt in your team. I would have much preferred it if, had you a Grubbin at the beginning of the game, it would allow you to evolve it into a Vikavolt near the Observatory so you can match Vikavolts when you face its Totem form. That would really have been epic and I think GameFreak really wasted an opportunity by making Charjabug evolving so late. Also because of this, Vikavolt is left in the dust a lot because, like stated with Charjabug, by the time you get one, you will have already evolved the rest of your team to their final forms (unless you’re carrying around say the Bagon you can somehow get on Route 3). But I do like Vikavolt although I can’t exactly say I love it.
Crabrawler – Okay, we’ve had crabs before with Krabby and Kingler, but a Fighting-type crab is definitely something I haven’t seen befor, so I will give due props there. However, it runs into the same problem Charjabug ran into. You cannot evolve Crabrawler UNTIL you are in Mount Lanakila, so you have to wait EVEN LONGER! In fact, you have to wait until after you beat Lusamine to even get this boxing crab to evolve. That being said, I did get the chance to carry one around, so I have more experience with it than I did with the Grubbin line. But therein lies another problem: it faints too quickly! Sure, if you can land an attack with this crab, it’ll score you some KO’s in the early part of the mid-game, but it is the definition of a glass cannon if you also count the fact that said cannon is also rather slow. It’s alright design-wise. All-in-all, it’s nothing to write home about, but there are definitely Pokemon I’ve hated a lot worse.
Crabominable – As the first Fighting/Ice Pokemon, I had mixed feelings about this once I first found out this even existed. While it might not be appealing to the eye, there actually is a hidden treasure in its design. Have you noticed that its claws or whatever now look like footprints of a woolly mammal? Granted, I can’t think off the top of my head what animal I’m thinking of, but I think that’s a really nice indicator that it is an Ice-type. If we want to be honest, this is actually a good fit for its typing, so it all makes sense, except for maybe how it would go about changing into the Abominable Crabman. But the glass cannon problem I had with Crabrawler is also prominent in its evolution. Considering it is Fighting and Ice, It gained weaknesses to fatal types such as Fighting and Fire, no longer resists Steel or Rock, and still has the same weaknesses it had before it gained the Ice-type. If your type coverage is going to flop like that, you need the stats to back that up, and Crabominable just doesn’t have that. This makes the fact it can kill dragons moot when dragons can easily take it out too, either by sheer force or a secondary typing it either had already been weak to or has become weak to. Safe to say this evolutionary line had glaring disappointments, but also showed some potential.
Love (in order of review):
Rowlet
Decidueye
Litten
Incineroar
Really Like (in order of review):
Dartrix
Torracat
Pikipek
Toucannon
Like (in order of review):
Popplio
Vikavolt
Fair (in order of review):
Primarina (borderline with Like)
Grubbin
Charjabug
Crabawler
Crabominable
Dislike (in order of review):
Brionne
Trumbeak
Yungoos
