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SwSh Starters Discussion

Which starter do you like?

  • Grookey

    Votes: 40 16.0%
  • Scorbunny

    Votes: 68 27.2%
  • Sobble

    Votes: 71 28.4%
  • All of them!

    Votes: 61 24.4%
  • None.

    Votes: 10 4.0%

  • Total voters
    250
I’m thinking fake. The Gmaxes we’ve gotten from the guidebook were in alphabetical order and this one wasn’t shown. I supposed it’s possible the starters got their own page for them but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Do we even know if he showed everything in order proper order and left stuff out? Cause if the starters get no G-Maxes, THAT would be truly disappointing. Nail in the coffin would be if they all have sucky stats. Then I'll just feel bad
 
Do we even know if he showed everything in order proper order and left stuff out? Cause if the starters get no G-Maxes, THAT would be truly disappointing. Nail in the coffin would be if they all have sucky stats. Then I'll just feel bad
Yes, in the images they showed you could also see parts of the other pages which is what lead us to discerning the order. The starters were not shown where they would be alphabetically. (The last one shown started with an ‘M’ so I guess Grookey’s final evo could still get one though very doubtful.)
 
Yes, in the images they showed you could also see parts of the other pages which is what lead us to discerning the order. The starters were not shown where they would be alphabetically. (The last one shown started with an ‘M’ so I guess Grookey’s final evo could still get one though very doubtful.)
Weren't pikachu, Meowth and Eevee in their own segment?
 
Yeah, they were. Had their own little boxed off zone.
Yeah but I heard from Oriden that Eevee still showed up on the list too. So that dashes that hope. I'm just trying to wrap my head around why they wouldn't get anything. They're the representatives of the freakin generation, you can't just ignore them
 
I have a question for someone that's been keeping up with leaks/datamine, cuz I wanna go unspoiled, but I wanna know one thing:

are the stats known? I just wanna know whether Sobble turns into more of a special or physical attacker, so I don't get the wrong nature at the beginning of the game.

Thanks :)
 
I have a question for someone that's been keeping up with leaks/datamine, cuz I wanna go unspoiled, but I wanna know one thing:

are the stats known? I just wanna know whether Sobble turns into more of a special or physical attacker, so I don't get the wrong nature at the beginning of the game.

Thanks :)
No stats, yet. Or at least, none that can be actually confirmed since I recall seeing stats.
 
I have a question for someone that's been keeping up with leaks/datamine, cuz I wanna go unspoiled, but I wanna know one thing:

are the stats known? I just wanna know whether Sobble turns into more of a special or physical attacker, so I don't get the wrong nature at the beginning of the game.

Thanks :)
Grookey3 turns into a bulky physical attacker. not incredibly fast, but not slow either. faster than all the Alolan starters
Cinderace3 turns into a speedy physical attacker. frail, but not as frail as Sobble3.
Sobble3 turns into a speedy special attacker. frailest of them all.
 
yw97soyogq041.jpg

Welp, I'm all aboard the Scorbunny train once more due to this wonderful fanart of Cinderace.
 
Well now that it's all settled I can say for sure that the Grookey line is my favorite of the three. Not only has it got the most fluid progression from start to finish, but I admit I am kind of tired of the "anthro trend," and ironically because gorillas are already fairly anthropomorphic to begin with, Rillaboom ends up feeling the least anthro to me because it's not too far from just an actual gorilla. Similarly, its whole drummer shtick feels less grafted on and more natural; beating sticks like a drum is something I might expect out of a monkey or gorilla because they're already pretty capable of using tools. Contrast that with Cinderace has to be humanoid in order to make the footballer idea work, or with Inteleon which I would argue doesn't need to be humanoid in order to make the spy theme work, but does it anyway (here's an example of a less-anthro Inteleon - ignore the overt suit and bowtie aesthetic, but you could picture this thing mainly walking around on all fours. It could have some kind of head protrusion that keeps the fedora resemblance, and the tail collecting water that could be used as either a magnifying glass or a scope is a fun way to take a "human" tool and work it into a more bestial context).

After Grookey, I think I would say I like Scorbunny. I don't really like how Raboot and Cinderace just look like humanoid rabbits wearing clothes (moreso in the case of Raboot, Cinderace doesn't lean on this quite as heavily), and I don't like how Raboot strays so far from the color palette of the other two stages, but still, the physical progression itself is okay and fairly smooth (and I like how Raboot looks more serious than Scorbunny, like it's really drilling down in its practice and preparing for evolution), and the animation for Pyro Ball is straight-up awesome, enough to justify the anthropomorphism to me.

And then there's Sobble which, look, is still very cute and nicely characterized. But I feel like that's sort of, in a weird way, my problem with it though - the evolutionary path feels like it's focused more on character progression rather than aesthetic transition. I get that they're going for shy and nervous > antisocial and withdrawn > self-confident and capable of using its social invisibility as a unique strength, and I both get and respect that. But visually, we seem to go from a wimpy baby lizard to a neon-accented emo teenager that throws water balloons(???) to James Bond, which just feels a lot more zigzagging than the Grookey line (which is consistently a drumming monkey) or the Scorbunny line (which is consistently a kick/soccer-focused rabbit).
 
Now that I'm done the main story of Shield and can come out of hiding, I'll give my opinion on the starters.

Now, I should start by saying I was incredibly disappointed with how the Alola starters turned out. Popplio and Litten were cool and I like Torracat, but I didn't like any other mons out of these lines. I really wanted to like the Galar starters final forms and was really nervous about them going in really weird directions.

Scorbunny, the one who was always my favorite of the trio, and who I was the most worried about not liking it's evolutions. I'm so happy to say I love this line so much, and it's literally become one of my favorite starter lines of all time! Both Raboot and Cinderace are just perfect designs and I couldn't love them more. Raboot looks like such a wannabe edgy little kid and I can't help but love it. Cinderace looks absolutely adorable as well. And the best thing off all, they're both pure fire! I've waited so long for another fire starter that remain pure fire throughout it's entire line and finally, Cinderace has come and given me that. The amazing design just makes it even better. I love this thing so much. I used it in Shield and she was just great. I love the signature Pyro Ball move, it just looks so awesome. easy 10/10 for Scorbunny's line. It couldn't be better.

Grookey, the one I liked, but didn't like as much as Scorbunny. I quite like how this line turns out as well. On one hand I find it the most consistent of the three, but on another hand I think it changes the most of the three. I mean, it goes from a medium green, to a bright yellow green, to being almost completely brown. It really confused me at first, but it doesn't bother me overall. Design wise, everything fits well. I actually feel like the evolutions were pretty predicable and I thought of similar ideas myself, but I think that's a good thing because nothing about the evolutions come out of nowhere. I really don't have much to say, because I think the progression between the three flows so nicely. 9/10, really good.

And last, Sobble, the ugliest and worst of the three. I never really cared for this thing since day one, but deep down I kind of hoped that it could pull a Froakie and have a cool middle stage after the first ugly one. Then I saw Sizzle and said wow, it got even uglier and lost all hope for a final form. But then came Intelleon and.....I be darned, it's not half bad. It actually looks okay. Sure it looks anorexic with arms that could snap off at the slightest gust of wind, but it actually didn't turn into a hideous beast like Greninja who totally ruined that line. I was surprised at how much I actually kind of like this thing after the two horrible earlier stages. 5/10. I can't rank it higher, because even though Intelleon is good, the fact that I have to go through 2 ugly stages before it just dampens the whole line.

I think the best thing about these starters and why I like them so much is that unlike with gen 7 (and kind of gen 6), the designers didn't drastically change their designs and make them too overly humanoid to fit a specific theme that wasn't there from the start. That's the biggest problem I had with the Alola starters final forms. They all started out as simple animals that ended up becoming extremely anthropomorphized, because the cat had to become a wrestler and the sea lion needed to morph into a mermaid. Here, all of them start out with these specific characteristics and keep them throughout their lines, so they didn't need to overly deviate and become overly humanoid to fit a final theme. Yes, all of them do have some level of anthropomorphism to them, but it isn't extreme like Incineroar or Primarina. All of them still resemble animals more than humans. And all of them, thankfully, look gender neutral, unlike the last three, which was another issue I had.

Overall, I think this is one of my all time favorite starter trios. Great job, Sword and Shield! :bulbaLove:
 
why I like them so much is that unlike with gen 7 (and kind of gen 6), the designers didn't drastically change their designs and make them too overly humanoid to fit a specific theme that wasn't there from the start.

What? Isn't that exactly what they did with the Galar starters though? Sobble goes from a simple chameleon with all the standard chameleon characteristics (two toes etc), to a bipedal basilisk with fully-fledged human hands and arms and legs and a pattern that resembles clothing, for example.
 
Honest? While using Inteleon, my favourite might just be Rillaboom. An absolute beast. Shame it's model does not do it as much justice as its artwork does.

Inteleon is great even though I could do without the bodysuit and huge hands.

I hate Cinderace. A better physical Fire Blast and a HA that's just Protean but specifically tailored for itself giving it privileges for no reason over the other 2.

I also don't really like its design at all. Pyro Ball has dope animation though.
 
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