Judge-a-Pokémon Express: Origin Dialga and Origin Palkia
| « Previous Article | Next Article » |
heritage
With a new game come new formes for our beloved Generation 4 box Legendaries. They've stolen power from our mighty Lord Arceus, but are their new forms as godlike as they wished them to be, or are they simply false prophets? Join our panelists in the critiques of our new overlords!
| Origin Dialga | Origin Palkia |
Pikachu315111
Of the two new Origin formes, I feel Dialga came out looking the "best"; probably because it was already a quadruped. That said, with them removing Origin Palkia's arms I guess they had to do something silly for Dialga, so moved its chest crest to its neck. I don't know why else it would be there; these forms are supposed to look like Arceus, but Arceus doesn't have something jammed into its throat. I also don't like how most of it is dark blue; getting rid of the cyan and silver parts makes it look like an unpainted figurine.
A slight stat change of moving 20 points from Attack over to Special Defense, I feel they could have gone further to more separate it from Palkia: less Attack and Speed, and more to Defense, Special Defense, and Special Attack. I'm hoping next game also gives them different abilities, if possibly signature abilities, or at the very least Levitate to match Giratina-O.
Speaking of which, I don't how they got from Giratina-O looking unique to Origin Dialga and Palkia looking like Arceus. Two different trains of thoughts there, and Giratina-O is the one on the right track. I could see Dialga changing into a clockwork amalgamation resembling a biblical Ophanim angel or something equally unfathomable. Or, if they wanted to stick with the dinosaur theme, maybe a Stegosaurus or Spinosaurus with gears on their back.
Plague von Karma
When Dialga and Palkia's new formes were leaked, I remember people getting really mad about them. I suppose they wanted Primal Reversions akin to Dialga's Mystery Dungeon appearance, but what they forget is that it was called "Dark" Dialga in the Japanese games, so it's unrelated.
I wish this design leaned into the weird fan Dialga has on its back as I never really understood what that was meant to be. I think they made it into a tail here, and I just...don't like that. There is a bright side though: the wheel on Dialga's torso seemingly represents clock hands, which is a nice subtlety I can get behind. Plus, I think it's charming to see these designs have the "goat shoved through a fence" aesthetic Arceus was going for... I always found that pretty funny. I like that Dialga's head has been made into a helmet of sorts, making it look like a medieval knight, but I think Palkia does this much more effectively given its centaur design.
What really does this forme in for me is that I don't think there's going to be much competitive merit from its existence. It takes away Attack for Special Defense, at what will likely be the cost of an item. Are they going to be making the Adamant Orb change formes or will it still use the new Adamant Crystal? If it's the former, then I would see this entire debacle as a nerf more than anything. I suppose if you aim to not use a physical Dialga like a normal human being then you would use this forme to reduce Foul Play damage, although it'll likely be worse than a Choice Specs set.
I think the Dialga design here is much weaker than the original, it's seemingly incomplete. And if that's what they were actually going for, I don't think it should have been made in the first place.
churine
We cannot talk about Dialga-O without talking about the absurd diamond-shaped log that got lodged in its throat. Game Freak must have thought that players would laugh so uncontrollably upon seeing Dialga's new forme and the neck thing it has that they would black out during the actual boss fight against it and have to start the cutscenes all over. Players even made memes that they added this neck cannon to Dialga-O to make Game Freak's job of animating attacks easier because this is the same company that hasn't made Blastoise shoot out of its cannons yet, despite the fact that HAL Laboratory did it for them two decades ago. To be fair though, Dialga-O looks better in the game, especially when the neck and diamond glow during an attack. I guess Dialga shifted the diamond that was around its chest area all the way to the neck, while looking more horse like and having a mantle-like thing with four spokes on it; I suppose they wanted it to more look similar to Arceus, fitting considering that Arceus made this Pokémon. It's pretty clear that Dialga-O was not designed in the same manner as Giratina-O, though that is to be expected considering the four-generation and decade-and-a-half gap between the two, but even then, this new forme to match Giratina-O is very appreciated; however, the stat trade is quite lame admittedly, only swapping Attack with Special Defense, potentially at the cost of Leftovers should the forme change require a held item like Giratina-O.
Shadowshocker
I think the designers decided that, for whatever reason, the end boss before the credits needed some jacking up to raise the stakes because the battle mechanics themselves weren't already challenging enough, so we got... this. I don't know whether to feel angry or sad we didn't get Primal Dialga because Origin Dialga makes me feel concerned. In trying to kiss up to Arceus, you're telling me that Dialga decided to squish its back the way women used to do footbinding in China, deform its back legs while making its front legs impossible to walk with, jam its honestly cool-looking chest gem into its vocal cords of all places, while removing the two-toned color scheme on its body and restrict it to the Arceus ring and kneecap antennae, creating an appearance that is somehow both overly and underwhelmingly detailed all at the same time. And then you realize that someone along the design hierarchy okayed this, and it makes me realize I barely have the motivation to roll my eyes across the room. It's not as though we haven't already had Arceus-Dialga either; the anime already gave us Arceus-ringed Dialga across several seasons. They could've upgraded Dialga's gem into an Arceus-motif cannon or expanded its chest armor to accommodate it, but instead we got... this mishmash of anatomy that comes from the fever dreams of a museum curator for abstract art.
The Origin formes for both Dialga and Palkia don't make sense from a statistical perspective. It made sense for Giratina because of its presence across two dimensions, and they serve different niches in offense and defense. Primal Groudon and Kyogre made sense as concepts, harkening to their original niches as the stars of weather warfare and taking it a step further, while also having the significant stat boost of the Mega Evolution equivalent. Why was Origin Dialga made? Is it meant to be an allusion to the passage of time with how imbalanced its legs are? Is it supposed to be based on the concept of biblical angels having horrific features beyond human comprehension? Seriously, this is the company that gave us Mega Evolutions and Gigantamax forms that still look like some design principles were put in. Origin Dialga looks like at that point in development they didn't care, and it's a huge shame considering how refreshing Legends: Arceus was for the series as a whole.
Kaiju Bunny
Yeah, as I'm writing this and thinking what to put here, there's... there's no saving this thing. I'm trying to come up with something nice to say about Origin Dialga, but I literally cannot think of anything. It looks like a five-year-old tried to draw it, for some reason its tail was chopped off, it genuinely looks like it has a watermelon lodged in its throat, it's just a mess. If you look close enough at its eyes, you can almost see just how miserable it is. Unlike Origin Palkia, I genuinely have difficulty trying to find this Pokémon's connection to Arceus. I see the waist... and that's it. I'd daresay this just looks like regular Dialga's pre evolution, but I don't want to be too mean to the poor thing. Not even its animations in battle can save it. Sad to see how good its design was in Diamond and then GF just decided to butcher it so terribly for whatever reason :c
JustoonSmitts
So we finally have Origin Dialga and Palkia after Giratina got this forme in Platinum. Almost immediately as they were revealed, these were some of the most reviled new forms I can remember in a long time. To be honest, I kind of get why but I also want to kind of defend them as well.
With Giratina-O, it keeps a lot of the base Pokémon's design aspects. The new form, for lack of a better term, appears more satanic than before. You can owe this with a lot of parallels with the angel Lucifer and Giratina's origin stories and how they were both cast away by thier creator. I have absolutely NO idea what these two Origin formes are supposed to convey. On one hand, I admire just how out there and alien these look. They kind of remind me of the Ultra Beasts from Sun and Moon: alien-looking, but that was the point. But on the other hand, these two are so jumbled with features that looking at them is overwhelming. The originals were also a tad overdesigned, but at least they were easier to read than these newer ones.
Insert "Old Man Yells at Cloud" meme here.
{Pokémon_Vigilante}
As one of the few Dragon-type Pokémon that walk on all four legs, Dialga honestly looks awesome to me in its basic state. I actually could find myself fearing Dialga in real life if I saw it in that state. Now when I see Origin Dialga, I am asking myself who left their Mega Blocks laying around for Dialga to play with?!? I mean, heck, Dialga even swallowed one based on that shape of its neck!! Nothing about Origin Dialga is intimidating for me. As a whole concept, Legendary/Mythical variations to this point have made things better. By comparison, I can almost guarantee that very few people are standing around speaking about how cool Origin Dialga looks like they did with Primal Kyogre and Groudon by comparison. No stat changes were made, and shifts in typing didn't take place. Its typing leaves it fairly easy to battle in either case, and there's no new wrinkle to worry about in the overall stats makeup. In fact, no changes were made to Dialga's appearance, except that it's much more block-ish in shape. Watch out for those pesky edges, especially in the dark!!
Pikachu315111
And the winner of "How Not To Make A Biped Into A Quadruped" goes to Origin Palkia! Seriously, what am I looking at? It's like they wanted to make Palkia into a centaur, but last moment decided they wanted to stick to Arceus's body shape so chopped off Palkia's arms. Then to further compound the error they decided to keep the shoulder discs instead of moving them a bit down. Also the horse-like lower body just doesn't match with Palkia's upper body (nor Arceus's, thinking about it). What were they thinking? Worst of the new Origin formes, not that Origin Dialga got it any better but it still at least looks like Dialga (admittedly now choking on a reactor core).
Though I guess the one good thing about removing your arms and growing horse legs is that you become faster! A slight stat change of moving 20 points from Attack over to Speed, its one aspect where I think Origin Palkia got a better deal than Origin Dialga. Though I think they could have made them even more different: less Attack, Defense, and Special Defense; more to Speed and Special Attack. Wish their abilities also changed like they did with Giratina-O, even if it's just Levitate; maybe there's still hope for Gen IX giving them something else, if not a signature ability?
Speaking of the devil, gotta compare Origin Palkia to Giratina-O. So, if the lore is that these are their original formes, why doesn't Giratina-O also look like Arceus? Or is that what its Altered Forme supposed to be doing? Whatever the case, they should have taken notes from Giratina and just done something unique. Sticking with the dinosaur theme I could see it becoming a shell-armored pterodactyl or plesiosaur. Personally I would have gone for something mind-bending or even eldritch, like a batch of star polyhedrons orbiting one another like a solar system or atom.
Plague von Karma
According its Pokédex entry, Palkia (and presumably Dialga) is trying to "gain" the power of Arceus, and I love that concept. While these designs are generally disliked, this fact has the formes make sense: they're not meant to be pretty, they're meant to be...failed attempts at doing so, I guess?
I think the wings should have been emphasized more, although you do see them in their full glory when you fight its Origin forme, where it looks fantastic. Regardless, I think making them unfurl more by default would have made the lack of arms look less jarring, which is a common critique of this design. Outside of that, I think this design is actually quite nice; I really like the hooves, which have this slight azure tinge coming up. I think the tail could have used with this, but the shaders in-game make it look more than fine, and it synergizes with the wings perfectly. One underrated part of this design is that, like Dialga, its head is meant to be a helmet, which really helps tie the centaur aesthetic together. It gets cooler when you see that the forme actually makes Palkia faster, which leans into the equine idea even more. Palkia is meant to be a warrior that aggressively defends its dimension, and this seems to symbolize that well. I like that this design went for something significantly different from the original, which is something that I think Dialga missed the mark on due to being quadrupedal in the first place. I'm excited to see this make an appearance in Scarlet and Violet and hope it sees competitive success.
churine
Here it is, the centaur Pokémon that you've all been wanting for years if not decades, except instead of being half-man, it is half-dragon. I know Dialga-O is centaur-like too, but this is far more apparent with Palkia-O, as it has clearly defined hooves instead of weird claw things. Palkia-O is not as absurd as its counterpart designwise besides the fact its arms moved down to be legs, but it also does not feel as interesting in its battle animations, though I suppose the pearls on its arms glowing a more vivid magenta is cool. The most interesting thing about Palkia-O to me is that it swaps its Attack for Speed, meaning it's as fast as Arceus at base 120, which further drives that horse appearance Palkia is going for and is cooler than Dialga-O's stat trade. Palkia was already considerably faster than most box art Legendaries, as many of them sit at 90 or 95, so bolstering that Speed further, presumably at the cost of a held item in the same vein as Giratina-O if I hazard a guess, is like a Muscle Band for Speed, which is so cool, and I want to see more of this Pokémon in a game with actual battling mechanics.
Shadowshocker
Origin Palkia looks like a better design in my opinion, but that's really mostly because it was stacked up against Origin Dialga. The armored equine anatomy of the lower half does make it appear more imposing than either of Calyrex's steeds, frankly, and I could see Origin Palkia thunder on as Arceus's messenger of the impending space-time apocalypse. That's not to say I think the disturbing treatment of its upper body gets a pass. Crystalline shoulder pads? Sure, those are pretty cool, but on top of Palkia's armless torso, I can't shake the idea they look like the nubs of what happened after Arceus decided "Welp, I guess you're an amputee now!" You could argue that arms on top of the centaur legs would have been overcomplicated, but again—this is a series where Mega Evolution and Gigantamax forms exist. I think it's fair to say that Game Freak is no longer a stranger to complex designs. Were arms seriously not an option? Maybe give Palkia stronger claws for tearing spatial rifts—you know, the entire point of what Palkia is supposed to do?
What stands out to me more is how the Arceus "ring" feels more subtle compared to the jagged, metallic-looking version that Origin Dialga got. Consider that Origin Palkia's dex entry explicitly suggests that its modified appearance is an attempt to gain Arceus's powers while Dialga's is merely alluded to as a form it took on after being exposed to radiant light. So Palkia, the entity who sought to resemble Arceus more... ended up with less of what made Arceus, Arceus? Is this supposed to be a prodigal son parable? At this point I don't even know anymore. I'm clearly putting far too much thought into these things compared to what they probably received.
Aaronboyer
Not sure if this is a shared opinion, but I prefer quadrupedal Pokémon designs, and Palkia-O is no exception. It gives an armored Pegasus sort of vibe, free-flowing yet regal; even its knobs for arms I think make the most sense to borrow from Palkia's original design. My biggest letdown with Palkia-O's design is how safe it is and the missed opportunity to better incorporate its Water typing into its design. I'm not convinced that Palkia-O had to mirror Dialga-O's quadrupedal design, especially when comparing Giratina and Giratina-O's formes. There are plenty of unused real-life aquatic creatures that Game Freak could have decided to borrow ideas from; even a more space-tailored design I think would work more in its favor. Competitively, I think Palkia-O's higher Speed stat will make it a standout force in the Ubers metagame due to its above-average Speed stat and fantastic coverage, so long as a teammate can slow pivot it in. I hope we'll be seeing Palkia-O beyond just Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Kaiju Bunny
So, of course, when I first saw this thing, I thought it was a joke. This poor creature had its arms ripped clean off and had a muzzle put on it like it was some rabid animal. However, now that I've had time to be accustomed to it, I have to say, I actually kinda like it! While I still feel like it's missing something, I'm diggin' the centaur theme they were going for here. It gives Origin Palkia a bit more of a regal and imposing air to it. Given its connection to Arceus, all things considered, I think GF pulled this off very well! Something that helps Palkia's case is its animations, which I think blend the whole concept of it resembling a horse to a certain degree almost seamlessly. It makes you forget that... Well, it's missing its arms. It's so strange to me that as a kid playing Diamond and Pearl, I thought Dialga was the coolest of the two, but now that I have Legends Arceus, I gotta say... Origin Palkia is definitely the coolest of the two.
| « Previous Article | Next Article » |