The expanded descriptions for the starters have only strengthened my decision to go with Fuecoco for my main version (I’m going for Scarlet but that could change depending on other factors like version exclusives), Quaxly for my side/foreign version, and Sprigatito will probably be obtained via a trade.
The Legendaries look interesting and their designs, along with the designs for the version-exclusive professors, seems to exude a "past-and-future" aesthetic. I can see where some people are coming from when they say that they don't look like Pokemon but you could say the same for several other Legendaries from past games. I also see that some people are comparing their designs to Digimon and monsters from Monster Hunter but they remind me of Toothless's design from Dreamworks's
How to Train Your Dragon film series to me, especially when you get a good look at their faces.
And yeah, Koraidon's tire-like throat looked a bit weird to me until I remembered that some lizards and amphibians that can puff up/fan out their throats when displaying.
Lechonk definitely feels like the name is just a few weeks away from feeling dated, but I'll be an optimist here and assume that it's just coincidental. The design is fairly basic (it's basically a
truffle hog) so I hope that any potential evolutions fixes that, my personal wish is that it ends up looking more boar-like since the fuckers are well-known throughout Europe. It's too early to see any possible gameplay potential but it's worth noting that this is the first Pokemon to have Aroma Veil as a regular Ability and the first non-Fairy type to have it.
Pawmi is just another Pikaclone so there's not much to about it until more info is released. Like Lechonk it also comes packing a curveball Ability in the form of Natural Cure, which is usually seen on more "serene" Pokemon and Pokemon that can heal themselves. As far as design is concerned I had a bit of difficulty pinning it down but the whole cold climate bit makes me think of
alpine marmots.
Smoliv is another Lechonk situation: it's a Pokemon that has a name that feels like it's a minute away from being dated and it's fairly basic as far as designs go (the latter of which sadly has been done with other early-game Grass types before).
As far as typing goes Grass/Normal feels mediocre but it’s not common, as far as functionality is concerned that type combination has only been done once before with the Sawsbuck line. The same is true for Early Bird, it’s a mediocre Ability but only a couple of Grass-type evolution lines have it (the Sunflora and Shiftry lines). But like all the others, we need to
see more info if it’s worth putting these Pokemon into a team.
