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Should regional variants become a series mainstay?

Should’ve regional variants be a mainstay of the series from now on?

  • Yes

    Votes: 106 77.9%
  • No

    Votes: 15 11.0%
  • Unsure

    Votes: 15 11.0%

  • Total voters
    136
I think they should be an Alolan thing. Alolan Pokémon could be ported over to the next games, but no new regional variants. Just give us some new Pokémon. I want to see what happens when the Pokédex reaches 1000.
Nope.

It's a lame excuse for not needing to introduce new Pokémon by just recolouring and re-typing stuff we already have.
Here's the thing though, Game Freak is being very cautious with the amount of new Pokémon lately, and they're currently trying to avoid the 1000 number like the plague. Even without regional variants or new form gimmicks, they'd probably keep the amount of new Pokémon low anyways. Regional variants aren't being used as an excuse to keep the number of new Pokémon lower; Game Freak is introducing less brand new Pokémon per generation regardless because they don't want to hit the number 1000 right now.

Regional variants are a rather interesting concept. I think it's perfectly reasonable to assume that their inclusion in Alola may open doors for other sorts of regional variants in the future, but honestly? I feel like that's going to get kinda messy, and it's purely for nomenclature reasons.

As of currently, every single Alolan variant is simply referred to as "Alolan (Pokemon here)" but what about in future regions? Depending on the region's name, I imagine it can be quite annoying to have to say that region's name in addition to the Pokemon name, and then the region after that, so on and so forth. It's one of the reasons why part of me feels like regional variants should stay an Alolan exclusive thing; it give credence to the fact that Alola's environment is uniquely on the extreme side of things, at least enough so that Pokemon there would have to change their physiological makeup in order to survive. It'd be rather overwhelming I think if this were to be a thing in every single subsequent region.
That's a unique perspective you got their, and I understand why you feel that way. However, I'm not sure Game Freak is all that worried about this aspect given they they've admitted to mostly referring to their designs by codenames more than their final names the players know.

Sooner or later regional variants will get extremely repetitive, plus that would mean so much more Pokemon will get new forms with new typings. It'll just make things much more complicated overall, if you want to complete the dex.

So no, I think regional variants for this gen is pretty nice, but if it goes on for 3-4 more gens I think that's way too overboard
it'd be sick to have more regional variants in future games or generations imo. it's the coolest idea they've had in several generations. i think it'd have to be done sparingly though. i don't want every generation to have like twenty new regional variants. that makes it a bit less novel. i'd probably introduce new variants for maybe two or three families a generation. four max.
That's why I think Game Freak should set certain parameters to determines if a region should have regional variants rather than sticking them in every generation:
  • How high is the amount of new Pokémon we're introducing into this region?
  • Is there a need for these Pokémon to adapt to the climate that would make sense?
  • Is there a significant example of real-life species that have adapted to this environment? Do we have a Pokémon that resembles such an animal for us to adapt?
  • How much sense do these designs make in this environment?
As long as Game Freak is careful and looks at similar criteria for deciding whether or not to implement regional variants, then we shouldn't have to worry as much about them overdoing the concept.
 
As far as Galar is concerned, I think that the only justification for new variants are the industrial city, medieval city, and the mushroom forest. The problem is that the routes themselves don't look very special. Then again, most of the Alolan variants weren't tied to Alola's uniqueness.

Urbanization affected the Rattata line, for the record.
 
I like it. I think it's a good way of keeping old designs fresh. That, and it's becoming increasingly impossible to catch 'em all these days.
 
Heck YES it should stay! It's too good an idea to waste in just one game. If anything it'd allow for underused/disliked pokemon to get a second chance at getting onto someone's favorites list.

Plus it just makes sense that some pokemon would develop differently in other regions. This concept was brought up at the start of the Orange Islands arc of the Anime and I had been waiting for it to be in the games ever since. And the games version is even better because they're not just recolors of old pokemon but are also different typings as well!
 
I'm 100% for more regional variants; kinda disappointed that Alola didn't have more after how hyped up they were. I think the general consensus is since Game Freak coined a separate, more universal term than just "Alolan" that they can take it and run with it, and I really hope they do. And there is a precedent from both the Orange Islands in the anime AND Delta Species from the TCG :)
 
Galarian Pidove - it has no toes for some reason.
(English people will relate.)
 
I am disappointed this vote didn't have a selection of Arceus Yes, why are we even debating this. But yeah, I've been playing pokemon since it came out when I was in high school and I like the idea of Regional Variants.
 
I hope so. It's a great way to keep the amount of new Pokémon low, while also introducing a full new dex to explore.

The Alola forms were pretty much a hit or miss for me, but I love the potential it has.
 
Im waiting for ghost/ steel golurk and let it better get a nice ability.
also a fire/bug Durrant with dazzling could come quite of handy but it would need to be slower and have better sp. stats.
 
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I see people discussing this subject as if it was a big new thing.
It was BUT...a raw form of regional variants was already seen in the anime (Pink Butterfree - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia) (Valencia Island - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia )!! I think there's two topics that need to be separated: how could regional variants be made and how they were introfuced in Gen VII.
Starting by the last, their "debut" was far from great because most of them had already been revealed before the game came out, only Kanto Pkmn got new forms and their number was high enough.
As for how regional variants could be made or remade, I think we could have some color variation, just like in the anime as well as some color, appearence and type changes (both for balancing types but mostly to give older Pkmn a new light). For example, Bellossom is fitting of Alola, but I don't think it would need a new typing like Exeggutot, but it deserved a new color (and perhaps a new move) just to feel diferent. On the other hand, I feel that some Gen V Pkmn were more fitting of Kalos and perhaps introduced earlier than what was planned, and so there should be some Kalos forms for the Swords of Justice, Serperior, Escavalier, with new types.
At the end, I'm afraid that GF will just leave this be just like Seasons, which is, to put in the shelve features that make sense as a staple but are locked to a game for it to be unique!
 
Yes. It makes lesser-known/used species come back into the spotlight again, along with acting as worldbuilding for the region. A win-win for me!

Unpopular opinion: I don't think we need more new Pokemon now that we've got 700+. Let's appreciate the ones we have - so many of them are forgotten in favour of whatever is used competitively and/or looks cute.
 
No, it just feels lazy to me for Game Freak to change the color scheme and typings of older Pokemon rather than just creating completely new Pokemon instead. Leave that Photoshop-esque Alolan form crap in Gen 7, please.
 
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No, it just feels lazy to me for Game Freak to change the color scheme and typings on older Pokemon rather than just creating completely new Pokemon instead. Leave that Photoshop-esque Alolan form crap in Gen 7, please.

I'm so happy I'm not alone on this.
 
I don't think so. It is an interesting concept, and I don't care about how many new Pokemon they add in a new generation. But my main problem is that it doesn't bring new life to old Pokemon as others say. I feel Megas did that better.

Instead, it just takes an old Pokemon and completely changes the way it plays by altering its types, and then leaves the original as is rather than adding anything to it. For instance - Alolan Ninetales existing doesn't overwrite normal Ninetales' existence. Instead, it just makes everyone forget more about the original variant and think of the shiny new one. So essentially, I feel like it overshadows older Pokemon, rather than adding anything to them. I mean, with Mega Forms, you at least had to use the older Pokemon to access them. It was a power up, not... an alternate version of them.

If they do it again, I wouldn't really object. But I just am not as attached to it as other people are.
 
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Instead, it just takes an old Pokemon and completely changes the way it plays by altering its types, and then leaves the original as is rather than adding anything to it. For instance - Alolan Ninetales existing doesn't overwrite normal Ninetales' existence. Instead, it just makes everyone forget more about the original variant and think of the shiny new one. So essentially, I feel like it overshadows older Pokemon, rather than adding anything to them. I mean, with Mega Forms, you at least had to use the older Pokemon to access them. It was a power up, not... an alternate version of them.

That's not true... Fire Vulpix got a lot of new merchandise. I'd say Alolan forms promote the original as well. Maybe not competitively but it does breathe new life into the pokemon.
 
That's not true... Fire Vulpix got a lot of new merchandise. I'd say Alolan forms promote the original as well. Maybe not competitively but it does breathe new life into the pokemon.
Vulpix and Ninetales are a sort of unique case, in my opinion. I shouldn't have mentioned them, admittedly. They were just the first I could think of off the top of my head. But the two Vulpix lines go well together because you have the elements of Fire and Ice, two opposites.

A better example is regular Exeggutor, because its Alolan form is just such a meme that it distracts. The two don't really go well together so neatly. I feel most of the Alolan forms aren't designed to be seen alongside the original variant.

I do understand your point though. I just personally don't feel it's the right way to revisit an old Pokemon.
 
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Just take Marowak. Alolan-Marowak being a thing makes everyone forget about the original Marowak actually being a thing.

Even as I type it out just now, I totally forgot Marowak existed!
 
Vulpix and Ninetales are a sort of unique case, in my opinion. I shouldn't have mentioned them, admittedly. They were just the first I could think of off the top of my head. But the two Vulpix lines go well together because you have the elements of Fire and Ice, two opposites.

A better example is regular Exeggutor, because its Alolan form is just such a meme that it distracts. The two don't really go well together so neatly. I feel most of the Alolan forms aren't designed to be seen alongside the original variant.

I do understand your point though. I just personally don't feel it's the right way to revisit an old Pokemon.

I can't know if I speak for a majority or not and honestly it's not relevant what's the opinion of most people, more so if we can please both sides but in my case, the new forms had the opposite effect, instead wanting to go train the old ones, because the new ones were getting all the hype. Despite being a Grass type trainer I always avoided to raise an Exeggutor, but after SM, I finally decided to train a regular one in AS and I love it and as for Sandslash, I love the new one, but I'm thinking of starting a new LG walkthrough just to have one in my team instead of Dugtrio or train one in AS.
I think it's a good way to revisit taking into account that in nature the same species can evolve in different ways according to their location and also to ease the pressure on GF to come up with entirely new PKMN.
 
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