Welcome back to me reviewing every Generation 7 Pokemon! Yesterday, another 5 Pokemon were reviewed, including Gladeon’s signature Pokemon and two Pokemon that really questions whether or not Pokemon should fall under the horror genre. The 6 Pokemon I’m about the go over won’t be quite as interesting, but this will be the last blog before we hit the Pseudo-Legendary line of Generation 7. Considering the mid-stage of Gen. 6’s line was in my Bottom 100 last fall, it’s safe to say that evolutionary line will have ground to make up despite Goodra being pretty decent.
Minior – The first Pokemon of the day is this Rock-type that is actually one of the more interesting ones remaining before the Pseudo-Legendary line. With this rock, its Ability Shields Down gives it more than one dimension. It like a simple meteor before you whittle down its HP, but when it reveals itself, you learn what kind of Pokemon this truly is. There are 7 forms for you to catch, and you never know which one you’ll get until you activate the Shields Down Ability. However, this makes it god-awfully ANNOYING to catch! If it faints, you can’t catch it and the color is lost forever. This in of itself is not the main problem though. The PROBLEM is that when you encounter this thing in the wild, do you wanna know one of the moves it knows? Self-Destruct! And you know what Self-Destruct does, right? Do I even need to explain how frustrating it is to put all that work trying to catch it for it to all of a sudden go Michael Bay on us, troll us, and go boom!? No! No I don’t. When I was trying to harvest Minior, I was looking for a Yellow one because yellow is my favorite color, but all I could find and successfully catch were the green and blue ones. So do take note that while catching Minior in of itself is not hard to do, harvesting the color you want is whole new can of worms and one that is just frustrating to go through.
Komala – Like Silvally in the last blog, Komala was another Pokemon that has had many people disappointed, and to be fair, this is another case in which I have to agree. That being said, I was never really amped up about Komala in the first place, so I wasn’t as disappointed as most people. It was always just there to me. Nothing more or less. I think what people wanted was for this thing to evolve because this is the kind of Pokemon that looks like it should have an evolution, and the fact it doesn’t has left people shaking their heads. But let’s not forget that it is still a decent Pokemon statwise as it has a 115 base Attack and 95 base Special Defense, so maybe Komala looks like it could evolve, but if it didn’t, I wouldn’t cry. Now, there is one thing I will stress to those of you who try to ruin childhoods with the Pokedex entries for this specific Pokemon. Okay, yes, it spends all of its time “asleep”, but if we’re really being honest, how many of you horror fanboys know anything about koalas in real life? See, a vital detail about koalas that I remember is that they spend much of their time asleep. The rest of the time, they will eat or what have you. So the fact that its Pokedex entry states that it spends its life asleep is actually an homage to actual koalas and not something that is meant to be taken literally being the horror droolies of today’s society. To be fair, Fair is where I will put Komala because I don’t really dislike it. It’s just underwhelming and pretty middle ground.
Turtonator – Just like the previous Pokemon, this one is taken much too literally. In its Pokedex entries, well… everything is basically Michael Bay. Its shell is explosive and so is its crap. People who read too much into it called it one of the worst pets ever. However, what’s a Pokemon other than essentially our pets? Now, the typing of Fire/Dragon is actually really good. If you remember Generation 5, Reshiram had this type combination albeit switched around to make Dragon its primary type and Fire the secondary, but it’s exactly how this was typed that made it the best resister of the Tao Trio, and with the addition of Fairy-type, this made Reshiram an even more attractive choice to carry on because Fire resist Fairy. So in that sense, I was actually glad to see Turtonator. Actually, there was a thought that THIS would have been this generation’s Pseudo-Legendary, which I would have been fine with. However, I have the same problem with its stats coverage as I have had with other defensive Pokemon, and it’s that it became too defensively based for my liking. I’m not overly salty about this as it is paired with a good defensive type combination and it has a halfway decent Special Attack, but yeah. What made dragons work so well in the past was its offensive prowess! Now, what I will say is that’s really my only big complaint about it. It’s a fine Pokemon otherwise. Design is decent and it fits right in with being a Sun exclusive. Of course, I bet Alola made a killing off making a business out of Turtonator dung. Turtonator Dung Inns coming to an area near you!
Togedemaru – Oh Game Freak! You disappoint me! You had a chance to really make something fit for the 777th Pokemon in the National Pokedex. It would have been a perfect place to put a badass Fairy, like what Gardevoir became in Gen. 6 and what Xerneas has always been. But what did they choose to do? Give me the Gen. 7 Pikachu knock-off, like what Plusle/Minun were for Hoenn, Pachirisu was for Sinnoh, Emolga for Unova, and Dedenne for Kalos! Shake my fucking head in disgust. And just like hald of these Pikachu knock-offs, this one really fails. Just stop GameFreak. We don’t need these Pokemon here. Now, you might think Electric/Steel is a good type combination, and yeah, it has a lot of types it will naturally resist with the Steel-type, but herein lies another problem: It is 4x weak to the Ground-type, one of the biggest offensive types in the game. It doesn’t have that Levitate Ability like what you can get with the Magnemite line. Instead, it is stuck with that glaring weakness while being a disappointing Pokemon, and because it is placed in the 777-spot of the Pokedex, Togedemaru just lets me down even more. I cannot justify its existence at all. Hell, I can justify Pachirisu more than I can this thing, and Pachirisu was in 63rd on my Bottom 100 list!
Mimikyu – Pretty obvious name, BUT thanks to the Disguise Ability, Mimikyu is one of the most OP Non-Legendary Pokemon to be introduced in Alola. With the Ghost/Fairy type combination to aid it, you can’t just call upon the normal ghost killers to get rid of it. Actually, thanks to this Pokemon, the Ghost Trial ended up being by far the hardest Trial in the entire game! The Dragon Trial was nothing if you had a Fairy or Ghost type around, the Kahunas weren’t really hard to beat because there was always a Pokemon I could use to back myself up against them, and I didn’t have the same problems against any of the other totems like I did Mimikyu. So kudos to you Mimikyu for amping up the difficulty in a gaming franchise in desperate need for a challenge! I do think it trying to look like Pikachu is a bit of a cop-out, so I can’t say I love this Pokemon, but I will say that there is a valid reason for why it looks the way it does. In its Pokedex entries, you can die JUST by looking under the cloth it wears, revealing its true self! That in of itself makes me glad Pokemon are not real! It is also because of this that I would imagine Mimikyu remains unloved, which might explain why it tries to look like Pikachu. Pikachu is a beloved Pokemon and the flagship of the franchise, so it only makes sense. So while this wouldn’t be my most loved Pokemon in Gen. 7 by any stretch of the means (it’s not even my favorite of either typing for this Generation as Ghost has Palossand and Decidueye while Fairy has the a certain Tapu), Mimikyu is still a fine Pokemon here that I can’t really complain too much about.
Bruxish – We finish out this blog with probably the most displeasing design out of Alola’s Pokemon in Bruxish! Bruxish has an uneven bite and looks like it’s wearing lipstick. That being said, bruxism is actually a condition that deals with the unevenness of your jaw, so it might actually be a lowkey smart design. Therefore, I see what GameFreak was trying to do when creating this. Also, this can grind its prey after biting out of it according to its Pokedex entry. You know what else can grind its prey? A Mosasaur! Mosasaurs have a second row of teeth inside its mouth it can use as a meat grinder to help it swallow its prey, so for those of you who watched Jurassic World, there is no way anything can survive getting eaten by a Mosasaur because they would be grinded down to a pulp! So in a sense, Bruxish is basically a Mosasaur who has an issue with bruxism if you really think about it. When I do think about it, Bruxish makes a lot more sense to exist. However, finding one in the wild was something I didn’t even bother trying to do, and from what I remember, it’s somewhat rare, so it might not be remembered by a lot of people unless you look at its design. So I’m gonna be fair and put Bruxish in Fair.
Love (in order of review):
Rowlet
Decidueye
Litten
Incineroar
Rockruff (Borderline with Really Like)
Lycanroc (Both Forms)
Mudsdale
Salazzle
Tsareena
Palossand
Really Like (in order of review):
Dartrix
Torracat
Pikipek
Toucannon
Mudbray
Bounsweet
Sandygast
Silvally
Like (in order of review):
Popplio
Vikavolt
Sensu Oricorio
Wishiwashi (Borderline with Really Like)
Toxapex
Lurantis
Steenee
Oranguru
Type: Null
Minior
Turtonator
Mimikyu
Fair (in order of review):
Primarina (borderline with Like)
Grubbin
Charjabug
Crabawler
Crabominable
Pom-Pom Oricorio
P’au Oricorio
Baile Oricorio (not too far from Like)
Cutiefly (not too far from Dislike)
Ribombee
Mareanie (not too far from Like)
Dewpider
Araquanid
Fomantis
Morelull (close to Dislike)
Stufful
Bewear (not too far from Like)
Comfey (also in Dislike)
Passimian
Wimpod
Golisopod
Komala
Bruxish
Dislike (in order of review):
Brionne
Trumbeak
Yungoos
Shiinotic (close to Fair)
Salandit
Comfey (also in Fair)
Pyukumuku
