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Pokémon You Frequently Associate With A Region It Isn't From
- Thread starter bdt2002
- Start date
Meltan and Melmetal actually prove the point quite well, as (while it would never come up) they're still considered Alolan Pokémon despite not being obtainable in Alola by most of the fanbase. If Pokémon GO were actually set in a region of its own they would likely be considered from there, though. Shadow Lugia is considered Orre-exclusive, after all.What region do Meltan and Melmetal count as then?
Interestingly, even though Alola and Galar now have their own sections, Pokemon Go's Pokedex still categorises Meltan and Melmetal as "unknown". It's a little clunky but I suppose they want them to stand out apart from the rest.
Why, in the name of all that is holy, is Snivy not the Kalos Grass-Type starter?
At first glance, there's nothing inherently wrong with Snivy being a Unova Pokémon alongside Tepig and Oshawott. Aaaand then you take a look at Serperior's design concept, which trickles down throughout the entire family. Let me put this into perspective. We are looking at a Pokémon here who is not only based off of French royalty (the country Kalos is based on), but was released in the very region that came before Kalos and STILL didn't have any competitively viable niche until- you guessed it! Generation 6, which just so happened to be the very same generation that released the Unova starters' hidden abilities for the first time AND even buffed the Grass-Type a little bit as an added bonus with their new spore/powder move immunity.
As if all of that wasn't bad enough, with some simple switching around the Unova and Kalos starter positions, not only can Snivy's placement be resolved, but we can do that while still having two balanced starter Pokémon trios AND creating a gap in the controversial Fire/Fighting starter pattern as yet another perk of this decision! For Unova, let's go with a trio of Chespin, Fennekin, and Oshawott, and for Kalos, let's go with Snivy, Tepig, and Froakie (the latter two also fit the hidden ability point better than Oshawott, I might add).
I'm sorry, guys, I just... I will never look at a Grass-Type Pokémon with literal inspiration from the "Rose of Versailles" and the queen of the same name background and think "Oh, that's definitely a Unova Pokémon."
While Snivy isn't a Kalos starter, I think especially now that we have Legends: Arceus to look at in hindsight, that it's very possible for Snivy to become an honorary "Ancient Kalos" starter in a potential future Legends games situated in ancient Kalos due to how French-themed it is.
After all, in an unexpected twist of events, Legends: Arceus aside from its very existence being a surprise used a mixed-and-matched trio of starters from other regions to serve as its starter trio for "Ancient Sinnoh", which we now know as Hisui, and gave the final forms regional forms, but more importantly, its choices of mixed-and-matched starters were chosen specifically in a way that all three had ties to Meiji era Japan, which is more or less the location Sinnoh is situated in. Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott were chosen based especially on their final forms' design themes and how they tie into Ancient Sinnoh, with Oshawott's final form Samurott being based on a samurai, which made it effectively a given, and Decidueye being an archer, and its Hisuian form further tying it in by incorporating aspects of a ronin (a wandering samurai with no master) into the design, and Cyndaquil's final form Typhlosion gaining a Hisuian form that is based on the parade of 100 spirits, as well as Kamui-huci, the Ainu goddess of Fire.
With Legends: Arceus turning out a phenomenal success in terms of sales and reception, I am confident that more Legends styled games are being conceived as we speak now and I am certain they want to do more of those games as time goes on. Unova and Kalos are logically next in line for Legends styled games, and both regions could follow what Ancient Sinnoh did and use a mix-matched trio of starters that are themed based on the countries the respective regions are based on (America and France). With the aforementioned mindset in mind, a Legends game in Kalos could very well have Snivy serve as its Grass starter, and Serperior would end up getting an Ancient Kalosian form as well, given how French Snivy is in design. Kalos has a pretty clear set of non-native starters who could serve, aside from Snivy we could also get Piplup as the Water starter since Empoleon's name in both Japanese and English is based on Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Fire starter could be something they feel fits France/Europe's theme well, such as Charmander, Torchic, or anything among those lines. A Legends game in Unova would follow a similar theming to fit three starters who fit with Unova being based in America, and so on.
So while Snivy isn't a Kalos starter, now that we have Legends: Arceus which took an unusual direction, we could very well see it act as an "Ancient Kalos" starter someday in the scenario that a Legends game taking place in ancient Kalos happens and they do a mix-matched trio of starters once more, using the theming they've used for PLA's starter trio with respect to Hisui.
And even clunkier is they go at the bottom of the list, which gets exponentially clunkier the more pokemon that get added
the 7 LA pokemon also going into their own section? Also funny.
Chimecho. Chingling is found all over Sinnoh and a Chimecho has a prominent role in Explorers, but it was a 2% encounter in one location in Hoenn. I feel like the anime is the only reason people remember that it's a Gen 3 Pokémon, but even then, I have no childhood recollection of James'.
Also, when I was a kid, I thought Corsola was a Gen 3 Pokémon because of Pacifidlog Town, plus it fits with Hoenn being tropical.
Also, when I was a kid, I thought Corsola was a Gen 3 Pokémon because of Pacifidlog Town, plus it fits with Hoenn being tropical.
Funnily enough, Misty's Corsola made that species plenty prominent in the gen 2 anime.
I discovered Pokémon at the tail-end of Gen 3, though I have the vaguest memories of watching the episodes "Hocus Pokémon" and Heroes.
I always thought Azurill, Marill and Azumarill were hoenn pokemon. Gen3 was my first gen and marill was just about everywhere, especially that slateport city beach with the little kids looks like it was made for Azurill and Marill. I still think it kind of fits the overall aesthetic of the hoenn pokemon as well.
Maybe it's a sign of advancing age, but I find that I'm frequently mixing up regional form Pokemon. Alolan Muk? Yeah that's from Gen VIII. Galarian Rapidash? Yeah that's from Legends: Arceus, isn't it?
I think it's more that I mentally categorise these species as "regional Pokemon", thus in a class all of their own. I mean, technically they're actually of the generation of whatever the base form debuted in. But I've been getting it wrong a lot lately. Maybe it's just extremely early-onset Alzheimers.
I think it's more that I mentally categorise these species as "regional Pokemon", thus in a class all of their own. I mean, technically they're actually of the generation of whatever the base form debuted in. But I've been getting it wrong a lot lately. Maybe it's just extremely early-onset Alzheimers.
It took me way too long to find out that Ponyta is from Generation 1, probably because the only games I've played where it's both usable before the post game and I've reached the point of being able to catch it without already having my team are Diamond, Pearl and Platinum.
I’ll do you one better- I wouldn’t blame you if you associated Ponyta with Sinnoh. SwSh started it off by giving Ponyta a regional variant that’s not in Sinnoh, but 2021-22 more than made up for it with the whole “Sinnoh has two Fire-Types” thing and the inclusion of a free Shiny one in the actual Sinnoh remake.
Slugma always feels more like a Hoenn mon than a Johto one, though not to the extent of the aforementioned Skarmory. In RSE, Fiery Path is required, and 10% isn't exceptionally rare. Flannery also uses Slugma, pointing out how underutilized it was in its debut generation.
Be honest: did you know it can only be found on three Kanto routes despite being a Johto mon in GSC? I sure never care about it in the Johto games.
Let me throw one more on the pile by mentioning the manga. Where I don't remember Gen 1 having any particularly dedicated Ponyta appearances (Doduo was the "Mount transport" Mon for a while), Gen 4 made a Ponyta/Rapidash a prominent member of Platinum's team, being one of the first two Pokemon she had (taking it with her alongside the Starter Pokemon given to the other two Protags) and taking her until traveling to Lake Acuity to capture a 3rd Pokemon for herself, as she borrowed Pokemon from Dia and Pearl for Gym Battles for a while, the majority of which I remember being Gen 4 mons like their Starters or a Munchlax.
So in Gen 4's chapter, Rapidash was featured heavily among a roster that for a long while was otherwise almost all Gen 4 Pokemon or at least tied specifically to Gen 4 additions and lines.
If we were to take a look at the geographical locations of Johto and Hoenn, we can actually see a bit of a pattern here. Hoenn is the furthest west of the original four regions, and Johto is west of Kanto itself. RSE itself were the games that kicked off that franchise reset everyone always talks about, so maybe what’s really going on here is that the Gen 3/4 iteration of Slugma isn’t a “Johto” Pokémon so much as it is a “western Japan” Pokémon, further supported by Slugma’s improved availability in HGSS as opposed to GSC.
Well, the problem with Slugma was it was in the Eastern Japan, not the west, in GSC
and secondly "improved" is doing some heavy lifting because it's improved in the sense that there's a once per save file egg you have to go uto f your way to use a code generator to get that can have slugma as one of its three options. And it's in the PokeWalker....as a location you can only go to after getting the National Dex anyway.
Otherwise Slugma is available in the same place at GSC and no other additions (its not even in the Safari Zone).