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Alola Variant Pokemon: Thoughts and Predictions

Favourite Alolan form so far?


  • Total voters
    38
The Alola variants they debuted first seemed pretty clever and relatively natural, but I gotta say Dark Meowth and Fire/Ghost Marowak seem like a bit of a step-down---hopefully the extended explanation on the official site will help me warm up to them.
 
I think Electric/Psychic Raichu is awesome. I have no idea what it's ability does but it has a great design.

This looks amazing.
 
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Psychic typing for
Alola Raichu
is pretty random.
 
Psychic typing for
Alola Raichu
is pretty random.

Is it though? It probably goes hand in hand with it's new ability.

And this is random but the others aren't? lol
 
alolan raichu is AMAZING and it SURFS ON IT'S TAIL
 
Finally have the time to make a comment about this:

I'm honestly surprised by how many people don't like the new variants of Vulpix, Sandshrew and Alolan forms of Pokemon overall. I think adding geographically diverse species variants is one of the most realistic additions to the game in a long while and I completely embrace it. In fact, Hawaii is known for its many diverse variants of animals found in the North American and Asian regions. It's also a unique device for GF to breathe new life into previous generation Pokemon (especially the not so popular ones like the Sandshrew line).

As of now, the Vulpix line and Exeggutor are personal favorites. The Meowth and Marowak designs looks like palette swaps, so that was disappointing ( I appreciate the new types though). And the new Raichu also looks pretty sweet-but its Psychic typing curses it with a set of additional weaknesses and few resistances (maybe its new ability may mitigate that to some extent).

I also want to see Alolan forms of non-Kanto Pokemon. Please and Thank You.
 
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Really? People are saying that
Psychic on Raichu
is random, and Fire/Ghost Marowak, and sudden Dragon Type on Exeggutor isn't? Ice on Ninetales and Snowslash makes sense, they adapted to the cold environment. But what possible evolutionary pressure could have been applied for Marowak to decide that being dead was the best, Exeggutor to think that it should be a dragon, and
Raichu to suddenly develop psychic powers
?
 
I have always seen fanart of this kind of stuff, but I never thought that Game Freak would do it. This makes the games so much more exciting and interesting. I'm glad Game Freak is doing it.

I don't like all the designs for the Alolan forms but I still appreciate them. I don't like Alolan Exeggutor but I get the reference (to the Pokedex entries way back when) and I think it's a neat idea. The only thing I don't like are the seamingly random types on some of the forms (Ice/Fairy for Ninetales... really?)

I really hope Persian gets an Alolan form and it's a black panther. That would be sweet as heck. The only thing I don't like is that all my good ideas won't ever be real!

My top three in terms of Alolan forms are:

1) a Grass/Ground Onix that had to adapt to the hot jungles of Alola and started growing plants on its body.
2) a Grass/Poison Arbok or Seviper based on bush vipers (basically, they are snakes that have scales that look like leaves)
3) a Fire/Ghost Rapidash based on the Headless Horsemen (could go well with the Ghost island). I admit this is the least likely to happen, since we already have Marowak, who is Fire/Ghost (I would have preferred pure Fire for Marowak, but oh well).

I've seen a lot of other really cool ideas from others as well that I hope are real. I really wonder if it's only Gen 1 Pokemon getting Alolan forms... it seems that way.
 
According to Exeggutor's page on Bulbapedia, there's an old Japanese TCG boxart that shows an elongated Exeggutor. It only shows its upper body, but it's kinda cool to see. I doubt it was any kind of intentional foreshadow, but it's possible that it could have been inspiration for Alolan Exeggutor's design.
 
I think Electric/Psychic Raichu is awesome. I have no idea what it's ability does but it has a great design.

This looks amazing.

Personally I hate the design, worst one yet, but to each their own. Glad some people like it. The Electric/Psychic typing is awesome though.
 
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I personally love that they finally are doing more with variants. I remember thinking that Shellos was cool because of the mechanics, and this is taking it to a whole new level. It makes the world seem so much more natural and authentic.

As for why they're doing it, I'm willing to bet that it's at least partially due to the conversion to 3d. Not that 3d makes new models easier (the opposite, actually), but they surely had to expand their 3d modeling staff in order to convert all 650+ existing pokemon/forms to 3d. So now, they've got a bunch of 3d modelers who have worked with the engine and the modeling environment, and only 1 generation's worth of pokemon to put them to work on.

Sure, they could (and probably did) let many of them go after Gen VI, but they still have a bunch of people who have experience working for them. And believe me, 3d modeling is not something you can just plug someone into for a new company and have them at full productivity. It can take a significant amount of time and resources to bring someone up to speed, so it would make sense that GF would want to get their money's worth out of at least some of them.

So basically, I say thank the conversion to 3d for Alola forms. I hope they continue past Alola (and if my reasoning is correct, they will).
 
My prediction for the newly revealed
Alolan Riachu
I think it will focus more on its SPA and speed, although with SUrge Surfer I don't see its speed getting higher than regular Raichus.
I'm thinkin something like this:
A-Raichu (Electric/Psychic)
60
60
55
120
80
110

Do you think it will have another ability/ hidden ability like Marowak and Meowth?
 
Alola Raichu is pretty cute, Psychic is an odd addition for me, but I think the typing is still pretty neat considering it hasn't been done before and it does fit with it flying around on a levitating surfboard tail plus, finally some Raichu love.

The other two Alola forms we got this week were not as impressive to me though. While I do appreciate the tidbit with Meowth being spoiled, it doesn't really change much between its original design and Alola one, it's a bit too plain of an adaptation. Hopefully Persian will differentiate the forms a lot more between the two. Marowak's design is just... boring, there's not much too it then there was with Marowak aside from the fire on its bone, and considering some of the other ideas I've seen kicked around for it, it's pretty disappointing that they don't do much with it when Fire/Ghost lends itself greatly to a lot of different ideas and concepts to play around with.
 
I wish they started this regional form in Unova. But better late than never I guess.
I hope they'll reveal Alolan forms for Pokemons other than Gen I. I guess Water and Grass type would make more sense to have Alolan forms.
My short wish list of Pokemons to get Alolan forms are:
Tropius, Vivillon/Butterfree/Beedrill, Lumineon, Roselia/Roserade, Sunflora
 
I really like Alolan Marowak. The design is slightly lackluster, but not bad at all imo. Honestly, idk what I would do differently. The Fire/Ghost typing is awesome, especially since it gets to keep Lightning Rod as an ability. This means it'll have two immunities through its Ghost typing (Fighting and Normal) plus another immunity to Electric through Lightning Rod. It's so awesome. And even though the design is basically a palette swap with flame, I still like it. It's cool. Probably gonna use one at some point :3

I also really love Alolan Ninetales. Amazing typing, amazing design, and pretty decent ability, too. Definitely gotta use one.

Alolan Raichu though.... Blegh. I hate it. Great typing, probably has a great movepool and decent stats, but I loathe its design.
 
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