#Paldea Starters | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

doubleddenden · 3 months ago

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Paldea is finally up to bat, and with that, I'll be caught up until ZA reveals what's going on with its starters

The Paldean starters have it pretty rough, coming from a game that Game Freak decided to rush out the door a year or two before it was finished, all to meet made up deadlines. Despite the awful performance and look of the game, the glitches, the map flickering, the slow downs, the game crashing, etc etc etfc, the region had so much more soul than Galar and was just infinitely more fun. Weird how that works.

The starters are no exception, being a decent improvement from a gorilla and 2 badly designed furry ocs someone slipped in. They still suffer from some shortcomings that I dislike about modern starters, but any island in a storm, as they say.

The theming for this group seems to be places that have been explored, colonized, or had political dealings with Spain and Portugal- honestly it's a fun idea for starter designs, and they all come out in unique ways that unite to a sort of party theme.

The base forms- lighter color palettes with less dark at the moment. Kind of generic, but it does get the job done. I think one or two are great designs down the road for Pokemon, but not necessarily for starters imo. Still, fun designs. I'll give it an 8/10 with room for improvement

More under the cut

Weed cat- er, Sprigatito. Kinda generic marketing slop- big head, little body, cute and fluffy cat. Colors are a nice and light green, and you can actually see texture and dimension to the face. Although the eye placement is slightly off, it's a fine starter. As someone that cares for cats, this is definitely a little friend I'd feed and give scratches to. The pattern on the face is also a nice indicator of what's to come. 7/10, I like it but it could be better imo

Floragato and it's evolution are great designs, but I do feel that they'd be better suited for a sort of Riolu and Lucario vibe of the region, and not necessarily what I'd think of as a starter. I think I'd just prefer Sprigatito staying on all 4s.

Well, what we have is fine, personally what I'd say is my favorite of the line. I love its scarf thing, and I like its yoyo. The colors are a nice blend of light green to a darker green, and the pink is a nice pop off point. 9/10

Again with the humanizing and the furry ocs. Sigh. Well at least it's a nice looking one, although definitely furry bait imo. Again, I think I'd just prefer it as a Lucario pokemon you could catch separately, and Sprigatito becoming a cool sabertooth on 4 legs or something. It'd at least be a break from constantly humanizing.

Well, I guess I did pick it for my starter- there are no bad grass starters by design, and Meowscarada is no exception. It's a Pokemon you can tell is fast and nimble and cuts like a knife, but it breaks like tissue paper at Niagara falls. The design takes inspiration from French mascarade masks, but also from a magician angle, which I think is executed decently, but could be done a little better to not look so artificial. I think my favorite thing is how it naruto runs and it's cape dangles behind it. Furry lovers and pokefuckers will probably love the thighs- even though that scene doesn't really do it for me when they're this feline, it does give femboy energy in a good way. I do appreciate that even with the extreme humanization, the legs and arms are at least a good and even proportion and the legs and paws in particular do appear feline and developed. It is cute and cool, anyway. 8/10

The Sprigatito line definitely surprised and upset many by becoming yet another bipedal humanoid cat, but even though they basically just made it Incineroar's femboy boyfriend, I think it is still a decent family- again, I think Floragato and Meowscarada would be better suited as a Riolu and Lucario adjacent pokemon family akin to Zorua and Zoroark, but as we've seen from previous gens, it could be worse. What we have now is pretty fun to play with and meshes well into most teams if you give it a chance- but it is rather frail. A solid 8/10, grass can do no wrong

Now we just need a water cat- maybe a cool QUADRUPED sea panther or something

The boy. THE BOY. That's not just my friend, that's my little buddy, my nephew, my son. Only a truly heartless bastard could look at this guy and not love his dumb and vacant expression. It is certainly an unorthodox fire starter, but Fuecoco I think is peak friend and a fun starter.

Color wise, it gives energy of apples and peppers with a couple of slices of cheese- the red, off white, and yellow gives off a rather foodie vibe, fitting for a little croc and perfect for the food obsessed Paldea region imo. He's just a wonderful little boy imo, and I wish I had picked him in my first playthrough. 9/10

Awkward teenage years for Crocalor I fuess. I think it's not the worst you can get for a middle evolution, and I quite like the egg and nest on its head making a sombrero of some kind. It's kind of an uglier Fuecoco otherwise, but that's kind of expected. 7/10

A lot of people dislike Skeledirge, claiming it to look like a bald clown or something. I think some people are just too used to bipedal, humanoid starters, because guys- we finally have a quadruped starter! And imo he looks amazing! Probably the best non variant starter we've had since Infernape, design wise. It's actually an animal! It's actually a monster! It's actually scary! It is FINALLY a Pokemon again! And the cry is really cool imo. The ghost type is totally unexpected, but it works very well, as does the weird bird companion and microphone it can make.

Skeledirge is sort of a neat solution to GF's insistent need to humanize starters: instead of making the animals human like, you instead can give them a humanoid characteristic wjile maintaining the beast itself, and that works much better imo.

The colors are a very neat blend of red, white, black, and purple- the face gives the visage of a skull and possibly stained glass, perfect for a Mexican Dia De Los Muertos vibe. The bird might come from nowhere to some, but actually in real life, crocs and gators will often let birds pick their teeth clean or pick parasites off of their bodies, so there's an interesting relationship there- not to mention the creative irony of a baby bird birthed from Crocalor's egg, helping a ghost to battle. It's signature move, Torch Song, is not only very strong, it also is a reference to a love song written for someone departed- putting the DIRGE in Skeledirge. Overall, just a fantastic fire type starter and the breath of fresh air we have needed since 2006, imo. 9/10

The Fuecoco line is an amazing starter line that is intricately designed and well thought out, embracing the natural with an actual animal inspiration through and through, while also embracing the supernatural with demonic and ghostly influences. I think that a lot of people think you need an art history degree to truly appreciate a Pokemon- while I tend to disagree and firmly believe that a bad design is a bad design no matter how much thought goes into it, I think Skeledirge is the perfect example of a good design with thought provoking influences. This is the perfect way to make a walking cultural lesson, I feel, and more than makes up for the shit show from the last few gens of fire starters. Battle wise they are fun to use and very powerful, and can quickly sweep a team with little set up needed. The only reason I regrettably didn't pick it first was because i wanted to use Ceruledge, another fire/ghost type instead, which i regret in hindsight. Overall a 9/10 for sure, and I'd happily recommend it.

Now, we need a grass croc, perhaps a jungle adjacent gator

Quaxly is uh... a duck I guess. It's probably the most forgettable and average starter pokemon I've ever seen- that's better than being ugly, I suppose. I do like the blue feet, anyway, and the hair is a funny gag for a bit. 6/10. Friend I guess, but a distant one.

Yuck. Remember when I said Prinplup was a better water bird than Quaxwell? It's kind of hard not to beat that. They try to go for a male dancer vibe- I don't really think that's good starter material, and personally I was hoping they'd go for a sailor vibe instead if anything. But oh well. The colors are neat, but I am just not a fan of the design, from the ugly hair to the weird shoe feet, and the arrogant attitude on its face. Looking awfully rude for a 4 looking ass like you.

Quaquaval is a complicated pokemon that I've grown to appreciate, but like Floragato and Meowscarada, I think Quaxwell and it are better suited to being non starter pokemon. But as I've said, I've come to appreciate it, and have even used it as a secondary starter along with Skeledirge on an Ash inspired team. Now that I think about it, I think it and Ludicolo would get along great, and I'd like an excuse to use both together.

I think Quaquaval's design is much better appreciated when it's being still in a 2d image, but I still think it's a much needed improvement from Inteleon and Primarina both as a design and inspiration. The phrase "water type blaziken" gets thrown around often- I don't quite agree with that statement, as Blaziken is way cooler, but Quaquaval's still pretty neat in using dance as a fighting method. The deep blues mesh very, very well with the lighter blues, reds, whites, and yellows, and although not visible in the artwork, its peacock-like tail is just a fantastic addition. This guy draws inspiration from carnaval dancers of Brazil, evident from its dress and over the top flashy decorations. From that angle, I really appreciate just how excessive it can be, but I do wish there was an off switch sometimes. As far as design nitpicks, I'd say I'd wish the romp wasn't so prominent, the legs were more bird like (the pants are fine, just not the human bend), the toes weren't weird, and the arms were more wing like. As I said, I think it's better suited as a non starter, as I think a better final evolution for Quaxly would have been a naval albatross or something. Still, I enjoy it for what it is. 8/10

The Quaxly line is definitely one of the weirder lines. Some might be put off by how flamboyant it becomes, but honestly it's a fun Pokemon idea for those that don't want to take their starter too seriously. It's one that definitely gets a few laughs when it obsesses over its hair, runs, or does that little shimmy it does in battle. A 7/10 in terms of water starter designs.

And we're caught up. See you guys for ZA.

Let me know if you'd like me to review other Pokemon

#pokemon #dd reviews pokemon #pokemon gen 9 #paldea starters #sprigatito #fuecoco #quaxly #Floragato #crocalor #quaxwell #Meowscarada #skeledirge #quaquaval

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