Galar – Pinkie's Paradise

Steampowerd Pokéballs : Creating my own Steampunk Pokémon Game

Fancy meeting you her lads and ladies, it is Steampunk month and Pokémon.. is not something you can immediately connect to that sort of thing. While there may be a steampunk Romhack out there that I am not familiar with.. I have found nothing of the sorts just set.. so I decided to create a concept of my own. Including a few new regional variants.. and if I decide to make Steampunk Pokémon from scratch this will be the game they will be featured in! So let’s take a look at my Steampunk game.

NOT a Mainline game

To determine how my game will look like I first needed to decide what type of game it would be! Would it be a mainline RPG adventure or would it be something of a spin off game. Like Pokémon Conquest or Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. I have decided against creating an entire new mainline game! Why?! Because I would need a new region.. and we have a perfectly good region to create a Steampunk game. Galar already has a fair few Steampunk elements in it..it just got modernised. Steampunk games tend to have a more dystopian vibe as well. So I decided to combine the Galar region with the game series that already has this vibe..albeit in a more cyberpunk like setting. The Pokémon Colosseum series. In this series you get equipped with an artificial arm…. (that’s a big thing) and go capture Shadow Pokémon… by just making a few tweaks to the formula we can adapt this into a new game.

The artificial arm that is so important to this series is called the snag machine. Playing a character with a mechanical arm is very steampunk.. so it fits like a glove. A snag machine allows you to steal Pokémon from other trainers, which the main heroes need to steal so called Shadow Pokémon, a Pokémon that an evil organisation has tried to power up by closing their hearts and making them all about battles.. turning them into weapons. Again this is a trope that works pretty well in a Steampunk setting, but technology has come to far. So instead of being a sequel to Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness it will be a prequel to Pokémon Coliseum. But there is a problem.. in those early days the technology to make Shadow Pokémon did not exist. After all, Cipher did not exist yet. So we are going to need a new evil team.

The Evil Team

Like the Colosseum games, this game will be all about fighting the evil team and the big villains would be Team Tesla. What makes this organisation different from the others ..but remarkably close to team Cipher is that they HATE weak Pokémon. A weak Pokémon is a useless Pokémon in their eyes so if a Pokémon loses.. it is weak and they try to modify it it. Which leaves us with a counterpart to shadow Pokémon. This Pokémon Steampunk game will feature “Augmented” Pokémon. These are Pokémon that have been captured by Team Tesla for being weak and given augmentations. Like metal parts, exoskeletons, weapons and different things. However these Pokémon are too weak to just flat out remove it. You have to make sure these Pokémon can be strong enough to undo the augmentations. In more ways than one mirroring how Shadow pokemon work. They will get augmented secondary typing.. and all augmented pokémon moves are super effective against other pokémon.. and they work just like shadow pokémon work.. however instead of rampaging causing damage these devices overheat damaging the pokémon if you use augment attacks too much. You can cool them down by having them rest for a turn or vent steam.

**Tesla Grunt with an Augmented Snorlax**

Team Tesla would have also been the ones who “actually” discovered the snag technology, using it to steal Pokémon from trainers they have defeated. You in this game start off as a member of Team Tesla.

In a tutorial you are given a rental pokémon and forced to steal a Pokémon of a person. A young boy with two Eevee. You steal one of them and then are forced to hand it over to Team Tesla for augmentation. Let’s say the leader of the team is your father.. Thaddeus Tesla. You are his daughter (because the last two games you played a male) while Eevee is undergoing augmentations you get regrets and decide to rescue it. However it turns out your eevee is special and it evolved into a steel type eeveelution. A new Pokémon in the game. You find yourself overwhelmed but the young boy shows up again with a Flareon and helps you escape.

The boy tells you he saw you weren’t all that evil and knew you would do the right thing. He shows you how to properly catch normal Pokémon and allows you to keep the Eevee as he believes the bond you had with Eevee allowed it to achieve this special Eeveelution.. but in return you have to help him stop Team Tesla. He then introduces himself as Samuel Magnolia. What follows is a plot where Team Tesla.. who has their claws deep inside the Pokémon Foundation and the Galar government is trying to organise lots of tournaments.. to steal all the weak Pokémon and make them stronger. With these stronger Pokémon they wish to engage with the Kalos region in a new war.. so Pokémon and humanity will fight forever more and grow infinitely stronger. With their elites somewhat based on the four horsemen.. but of course being pokéfied. Your father of course represents War and is their leader, but there would also be an elite trying to infect creatures of a certain arena with the original form of Pokérus.. to cause pokémon to grow faster..but make them sick as well. One town would be ruled by a leader who creates food shortage in his village.. giving food only to the strongest and since death does not exist.. one leader.. who wishes everything to turn into ghost pokémon…because that is totally fine!

**Team Tesla Logo and it’s boss.. your Father Thaddeus Tesla**

The Pokémon

**Samuel Magnolia , the aspiring Pokémon Professor**

You will join Samuel Magnolia, in the resistance and fight against Team Tesla. Equipped with their own Snag device you can steal their augmented Pokémon and bring them to Pokémon technicians James and Thomas. James can use his machines to use steam to “sweat” off the parts the pokémon have put on them… because all those parts are just “glued” on of course. We have to make this child friendly..but they have to be strong enough to resist the heat.. or the moisture. So you have to train them up. With all the parts that fall off, Thomas will build you machines to progress through the game. A motor for your bike.. a Balloon so you for your bike so you can float across those mountains and more. It would be similar to how your bike got upgraded in XD Gale of Darkness.. or how you earn HM’s in the regular games. It would also force you to at least use Augmented Pokémon a bit. If that is too tedious we can always make the ones you need storywise already strong enough to proceed.

Besides from the steel type Eevee there would not be that much Pokémon.. but it will introduce a few “ancient” Galarian forms. All the pokémon found will serve the Double Battle Format that is iconic to this series. For example we would get a Galarian Drifblim (and Drifloon). While in the original Drifloon is a Balloon, Drifblim.. is still a Balloon.. so now we can actually make it a blimp! Since once again that is very iconic in Steampunk settings.
So we would get a Flying Fire Type Pokémon that instead of an ability like Aftermath would get an ability like “Carry” which is an ability I just made up.. that makes its partner Immune to Ground type moves. This would already be great since the Steel Eevee is weak to ground.

I would also give Klink an Ancient Galarian Form, one that reveals this form might be the ancestor of current day Klink and Magnemite. Being a steel electric type it looks a bit more like old timey gears and rather than growing to a big one it becomes more gears as it evolves. Possibly I would add some clock elements to it as well, this way it can feasibly learn abilities like “me first” or give it an ability that can speed boost it’s partner pokémon by accelerating it in time… or the counterpart slowing down the opponent. More Pokémon would be steampunk ified that way.. with abilities that focus on helping an ally! To make the double format more prevalent in the world. Pokémon like Toxicity who resemble an electric guitarist would not be found in this game, neither would Ditto , Porygon and of course Metwo. For Legendaries, we would mostly stick to the Regi’s.. but there is a special spotlight for Volcanion and Magearna.

I will save coming up with more unique Pokémon for a later post, but the trouble with Steampunk is mostly type diversity it is a world where there will be plenty of Steel and Fire types which means ground Pokémon will be a big problem.. which is why I will make Ancient Galarian Ludicolo an Electric Ground type. Why?! Because it is a Pokémon Colosseum game.. in it you face a man named Mirror B.. who constantly shows up and uses his Ludicolo to battle you! It is quite annoying! Of Course Mirror B would make his return.. but well since games plays out in ancient times.. we get his ancestor! Mirror A! Ludicolo always had a tricky typing to deal with and this time it will not be different.. especially since it has drought. Back in these times.. the Wildlands had a junkyard settlement where Mirror A and his gang used to live.. they are the second evil team.. the one that is more played for jokes.. so this Ludicolo starts as a Lotad that Mirror A finds from his Lombre and Stunfisk.
You beat his two Pokémon and they flee and all he is left with is an egg and he swears revenge on you!

The Characters

**Sonia the** ***Decedent of Samuel and the Player Character***

Which brings me to the final part of this game set up for now.. as mechanically the game would almost be exactly like it’s older counterparts.. just with more modern Pokémon references it will still be a Pokémon Battle Double battle game with purification mechanics, tournaments and limited exploratory gameplay! This one is much more about battle tactics than the main series and would be quite a bit harder. The main character is a nameable female with orange hair. She would look a lot like Sonia from Pokémon Sword and Shield.
You will play a slightly older trainer than in the main line games, around the age of 15/16. The young boy you encounter, Samuel Magnolia, is clearly an ancient ancestor of professor Magnolia we encounter in the Gen VIII games?! “But wait?! Pinkie you just said we looked like Sonia.. isn’t she the granddaughter of Professor Magnolia?!” That’s right.. and this game is gonna show you where that side of the genepool comes from.

**Pierce and Marnie, future offspring of the Motostoke Spy!**

Like I said this game is about double battles, but where it is different is that you will quite regularly battle alongside other members of the resistance. While you fight alone in tournaments, during a raid on a Tesla base you fight with partners. Every partner has a specific team preference. Samuel for example likes to use Grass and Fire pokémon and likes to set up the weather with Sunny Day. So if you bring Hail Pokémon.. your team work will suffer. Meanwhile other people might prefer the rain, or even the hail.. one might bring a Galarian Weezing that ignores abilities.. so it is up to you to balance your teams to fit your partners as well. So you can train up several Pokémon. The resistances members will resemble the gym leader families. For example one will be this almost alpine like.. large woman, who prefers to use Wooloo and other normal types along with grass types.. with her battle style relying on putting leech seed up and lower stats so you can focus on damage. She is connected to Milo. We also meet Marnie and Pierce’s ancestor who likes using the dark types.. whose battle strategy focuses on Confusion/Flinces and single target damage. Then there is Raihan’s ancestor.. a fellow resistance member who desperately wants to be the hero himself.. his strategy is to knock you out along with his opponents so he can say he did all the work.

**Raihan , part of the family line of the Solo Aviator**

Of course all would follow some steampunk archetypes as well. With Pierce and Marnie’s ancestor being the spy type, Raihan’s ancestor being a hotheaded aviator and Milo’s ancestor being a tradesperson. All having their own little quirk. Battling with Samuel a lot.. who battles using Eeveelutions.. Being a professor researching these strange events makes a little romance bloom.. that while only implied you can tell will have a good ending.. because you know how the Magnolia name descendants.. look a lot like that Tesla girl. I think it is a nice way to include a romance without including a romance.. and with everyone being both an archetype as well as an ancestor it can be quite neat to link everyone in this world to their modern day counterpart.. adding some fun to an already delightful format! Puzzles you would do reflect the characters as well. With the aviator you’ll infiltrate a skyfort having to deal with winds, with Samuel you’ll do sciency stuff, like align electric pokemon to power doors and with the Motostoke Spy you will find yourself sneaking past search lights and finding hidden entrances and such.

**The Team Tesla Sky Fortress one of the Final Dungeons in the Game**

And that would be my blueprint for a Steampunk pokemon game. I’ll be honest… I would LOVE to play a game like that. It might be a bit hard to imagine if you haven’t played XD Gale of Darkness but there is so much that would work for a SteamPunk scenario. These wind puzzles, the sneak puzzles we have seen before in Pokémon games so making them an actual part of the plot could do so much. Forcing you to battle with a partner might not be something people look forward to but given how bringing extra tech by cleaning pokémon from their steampunky augmentations will allow you to power level.. it will give you a chance to learn some more advanced battle strategies. it could be so fun! So how would you do a steampunk Pokémon game? What Pokémon would you want to have an ancient Galarian form? Let me know and let’s talk Pokémon!

Top 5: Galar Pokémon

Pokémon Sword and Shield has been out now for a while, but I needed quite a bit longer to finally complete my pokedex. Now that, that is done it is time to rank them. Which ones do I love the most. To keep the feelings of as many pokémon possible safe, we are only going to use pokémon (currently) exclusive to the Galar region, so tyrogue doesn’t have to worry how I feel about it or feel bad that it did not make the cut. That being said I love waaaaay more pokémon than just these five. Gen VIII did a great job in coming up with new pokémon. My method of selecting my favorites is not based on anything in particular, just my general love for them. One can enter the list because it’s adorable or because I really want to use it in competitive play all the same. So let’s get started with my number 5.

Number 5: Dracovish

Galar has THE best fossil pokémon in the entire series. Conceptually at the very least. Of course this not include lord helix, praise be to lord helix, father of all. Archeops had always been my favorite fossil pokémon and that had a very bad ability but now there is an amazing pokémon, with an even more amazing ability. Dracovish is such a derpy looking pokémon that endears me to it. It looks .. and basically is .. a fish head on a dragon’s body, and while it probably suffers just from existing.. man do I just want to give it a hug and yell out that wonderfully pun-like attack of his. First let me explain it’s existence a bit. Normally fossil resurrectors are respected scientists who revive your fossil with the respect it deserves. In Galar all fossils are in bad quality and have broken in half. The fossil scientist rather than letting you find two matching pieces to resurrect lets you created 4 sets of mis matches from the dinosaur fossil, the dragon fossil, the bird fossil and the fish fossil. You can not combine two fish fossils, no sir.. you can only make a fish combo with the dinosaur and the dragon. if you choose the dragon and the fish…we get Dracovish.

On first glance he seems a bit mediocre with a 505 base stat jack of all trade. However he actually has a solid enough speed stat which makes him a viable target for a choice scarf. This makes Dracovish completely broken and OP. You see it gets the move Fishious Rend (I love that name) a Water Type bite attack that has an 85 base power that doubles if you strike first. Now a 170 base power move is already impressive for a physical attack but this little fishy also gets access to the ability Strong Jaw, which increases the the power of biting type moves by 50% .. this effect applies after doubling. So now the move is a crazy 255 base power. I think I have not mentioned yet that Dracovish is a Water-Dragon type yet. even though it might have seemed obvious. This means Dracovish gets the Same Type Attack Bonus on Fishious Rend increasing it with another 50% occuring after Strong Jaw. Meaning this move.. when outspeeding a pokémon is 380 (I think there is no 2 option) THis already makes it one of the strongest moves in the game..but it gets even better. In Galar setting the weather to rain is extremely easy due to Dynamax Water pokémon setting up on default, the wild area featuring a lot of rain and the fact that there is plenty of rain users. Inside the rain.. the power of water moves is increased by another 50% making the base-power of Dracovish in competitive a terrifying 570. The strongest move we ever saw in a pokémon game. Set your EV’s to attack and speed, equip it with a Sash and it can even oneshot plenty of pokémon that resist the attack. What can I say.. I really love when powerhouses look this derpy.

Number 4: Wooloo

Luckily this pokémon needs a lot less explanation why I like it so much, it’s just cute as a button and I wish it was real. Wooloo has been done to death in memes, which is a sign that is generally well liked. While I am not the biggest fan of it’s evolution I really like how gamefreak made Wooloo such a staple of the Galar region. Up until the first gym, which is about two hours into the game they are everywhere. They play a big role in Galar and they are just too adorable to ignore. Wooloo are able to walk but their preferred method of traveling is rolling up as a fluffy ball and tumbling into objects they want out of their way or rolling around to their destination of choice. It is just so cute. To an extend Hop (your main rival) even gets a bit of a story arc. We see it from being his beloved pokémon, to being outcast because Hop needs power, when Bede makes him lose his way. We see Wooloo being swapped of Hop’s team and feel the painful decision he had to make. As a pokémon player at one point or another you could make the choice between power and friendship with your pokemon.. and most of us will at least at one point have chosen power instead.

Wooloo is that one pokemon we all actually really love but still cast aside to have a better team. Luckily eventually Hop gets him back and will after that always use Dubwool (the evolution) as the first pokémon he sends out. (Protip..it rarely has non normal moves.. so when fighting Hop lead a set-up/buffing ghost and you will always win) showing he chose his love for pokemon over his desire to wield the strongest. This little arc made me so happy for that little pokémon that I loved it even more. I am currently in the process of Shiny Hunting a Wooloo, because it’s shiny looks amazing. Wooloo is great.
Grookey is Green, Sobble is Blue. Wooloo I love… Woolooloo and now you love it too!

Number 3 : Galarian Rapidash

I thought this would become my favorite pokémon ever when I saw Galarian Ponyta and while it really loved it, it did not resonate with me as much as it could have had. It’s face is just a bit to smug and it just isn’t as lovable as i would have wanted. That being said it’s still an amazing pokémon. It can learn such a wide moveset that it is completely customisable. During my run I ran with a very unbalanced team, (lots of fairies, heavy poison weakness , few steel counters) but my Galarian Rapidash covered for that. It ran with a psychic type, ground type, electric type and dark type move. Covering all it’s own weaknesses plus electricity for fun. A solid physical attack that looks pretty and elegant and best of all is a unicorn! I mean I can tell you about it’s abilities , how it’s a great scout when you run it with anticipation, or how pastel veil which protects all your pokemon from poison, makes it great for double battle. Yet thats not why it is on my list. It is here because it is a unicorn. I could tell you that it can also run, fire, bug grass, fairy and normal moves and has plenty of set-up utility as well so it’s a very versatile to use pokémon. Yet it is on this list for no other reason than that it is a unicorn. I could tell you about it’s pale white shiny which kind of makes it look like the pale horse, the horseman death rides upon at the time of the apocalypse. Yet .. unicorn. I could tell you that it’s a unicorn but …. oh.. I guess I am finished with this bit.

Truth be told Galarian Rapidash is something you either love or hate. It not a high tier pokemon for competitive but it’s a wonderfully customisable pokemon that you can truly make it your own. I love this in a pokémon but at the same time Galarian Rapidash falls into that same trap hole all those others do. It doesn’t have a lot of flavoring on its own thus I will always end up really liking these kind of pokemon but they can never be my number one. But hey it’s design goes a long way for me, I can have my rainbow unicorn.. and that rainbow also applies to it’s typings.

Number 2: Polteageist

Half of my team I used for the last chunk of the game , came from Glimwood Tangle. A mysterious fairy tale forest that holds some incredibly powerful and useful pokémon. Honourable mention goes to Hattrem and Hatterene who are incredibly powerful pokémon. Yet these two I will save for another post on Galar coming up in the near future. Another Glimwood Tangle pokemon I liked was Sinistea. A cute little teacup pokemon that can evolve into a teapot when you pour it’s tea into .. a teapot. When it evolves into said teapot it becomes my favorite ghost type ever and to boot my favorite teapot ever. Polteageist is a beast of a pokémon very much suited for competitive play. I named my Polteageist Earl Grave…after the tea..but dead. I ran it with a simple said, Willow Wisp to cause burns and harm their physical damage , which Polteageist can be vulerable too. Shell Smash to boost my offensive and speed stats in trade for lowering my defence, Giga Drain for recovery and Shadow Ball for STAB raw attack power. However I did not realise Polteageist’s true potential yet.

You see if you take it to the move reminder it can learn the move Stored Power. A psychuc type move that upgrades for each stat boost you get. Since this pokemon has the ability weak armor, which buff’s it speed but lowers it defence for each hit it takes, it is quite easy to buff out already. Shell Smash however raises 3 stats. So in a single turn you can already power this move up by A LOT. Willow Wisp helps it survive some hits, and give you even more boosts. It can sweep entire teams if you manage to swap it into a sleeping pokemon or just be a bt creative with t. While it doesn’t have the best shiny in the game, it does have a PINK shiny which makes shiny hunting well worth it ..for me at least. Wether you are a competitive battler o collector of cute pokémon, this mon definitely will be your cup of tea.

Number 1: Allcreamie

It isn’t that competitively it doesn’t have a vey wide moveset, it doesn’t even have a very nice shiny it doesn’t fit it’s theme very well. It’s also NOT a unicorn. Yet for reasons I can not fully explain I adore this little whipped cream pokémon. I just love it’s design, it’s cry, it’s mannerisms it’s flavoring.My love for the pokémon started early when it was announced. A desert pokémon that is a fairy type that you can decorate and give a sort of custom look .. seemed quite amazing. Since then my love only deepened. I encountered my Whippy.. my beloved Allcreamie on Route 4 near the first gym..still a Milcery back then. The cutest little cream pokémon. Reading up about it I immediately fell in love with it’s evolution method. You give it sweet to decorate it with.. then while it is dancing with joy, you spin around…to whip that blob of cream. Depending on how long you spin , when you spin , what direction you spin and more you can give it different types of flavors and colourings. It’s amazing, it’s fairly european, it’s cute and completely unique to allcreamie.

This most likely will also mean that this might be the only game it will be in, unless you transfer it. Galar is all about dramatic poses and the spin will allow your character to do that.. Jojo Style. If you can not spin in the next game… maybe we can not get 28 different varieties of Allcreamie. I already fear this saying something about how much I like this pokemon. It has been my most trusty companion on my pokémon journey and has a nice enough moveset. If I could take any pokemon from the game and make it real, I would choose Whippy. I would choose it over wooloo or over my unicorn. When I choose a bowl of whipped cream over a unicorn or a floofy ball off love, that whipped Cream is something truly scrumptious, even if I can not fully explain why. I guess that’s just how love works sometimes.

My first day in Galar

Hello Island-guests. Today it is time for a new blog, and of course we will be talking about Pokémon. A diary of my characters journeys across Galar. This will mean some spoilers for the Sword and Shield games, although most of what is revealed in this first installment will be part of the common knowledge.It should come to no one’s surprise that I am really enjoying this game. The issues people have with these game either come from rushing or holding expectations based on different IP’s from different developers and I think both are unfair. Sure these games are not technical master pieces, but no pokemon game ever was. Sure the story mode CAN be resolved kind of quick, but that’s not even the point of playing a pokemon game. Yes not everything is in the game , some pokemon and some moves did not make it. People say that gotta catch em all is no longer applicable.. but it NEVER was , those others you just transfer from other games, this changes nothing of Galar’s collections aspect, we can start over again at an equal playing field. It only changes what pokemon we can use in competitive, and most of those who complain aren’t even in that scene. So quit nagging people and enjoy a really solid game the way it’s meant to be played. Slowly.

Pinkie’s journey begins

Dear Diary, today my pokemon journey began, it all started out like a normal day and I was watching Chairman Rose introduce us to the wonderful world of pokemon, he showed the cutest elephant pokemon and I want it! Can you believe that in other regions the professors do this speech. The old hag Magnolia barely gave me any time of day! Her assistant is kinda cute though. I was watching someone challenge our champion Leon, who kinda has a weird sense of fashion. I wouldn’t call it bad.. but it kinda is. Like a cape and a weird hat and I could swear he is wearing pants under his shorts. I mean we girls wear leggings and it kinda looks like those, but why would a manly man like Leon wear them and why add a pattern to those leggings … I mean ewwwww. He just doesn’t really look nice face down… he can pose though but hey I can pose too!

Anyway Hop came in.. I think he has ADD and went hyperactive that we had to go to his house to meet his brother. He ran ahead.. I swear he is like a combination of that Barry guy from the Sinnoh region that was like a rival to the hero of space and time and Hau .. the freeloading Malasada guzzling lovable goof who was like best friends with the first Champion of Alola. He kinda looks like a combination of those two too.
Gaaargh…..Leon wasn’t at his house and we had to go all the way to the next town to pick him up from the station and then run back. I do NOT like using my running shoes. In the end it was great though Leon gave us some starters so we could participate in the Gym challenges. Since Hop already had a Wooloo I could choose first I chose Sobble , because it cried when a berry fell in it’s pond. I decided to name it Neno. Hop picked a Scorbunny and when we had to battle he already used two pokemon! Kinda unfair if you ask me…but his Wooloo went down so easily that my Sobble leveled up and allowed me to hit Scorbunny super effectively. Yay!

A mysterious encounter

After that a wooloo entered the forbidden forest and we had to go in and save it. Of course Hop just ran ahead so I had to deal with a bunch of Skwovet, Squirrels with a weird name and tendency to eat my berries. I also encountered a bird named Rookidee, it looked angry so I had Neno knock them all out for me. Then I encountered a wolf in the mist. I thought it ate Wooloo and that it would kill me as I could not hit it at all. It was very strong and super mysterious. So everything went white . Leon came and saved us as Hop did nothing but comment. Leon never saw what we saw and he told us to get our pokedex from Professor Magnolia.. and Hop ran off. I had to go the long way around and captured a few pokemon. Cool huh! I feel like I am the only person ever in existance in this world who can capture pokemon before getting this weird expositional talk while clearly everyone in this world knows how pokeballs work. I managed to catch a woolooi I named BeepBeep, one of those squirrels I named Nutella and even some others. I only planned on using BeepBeep though, and I would take this little fox pokemon along. I decided to name it Barrelroll. I mostly like BeepBeep though.

So I tried to train up BeepBeep and I noticed how in the Galar region pokemon grow very differently from that in other regions, it turns out they have an item called EXP share, our pokemon do that naturally. But where the the item distrubutes a small portion of EXP our party gets like half the xp they would have gotten had they actively been in that battle. If they are in that battle they get full experience. This means we can easily bring full teams along from the earliest parts of the game and check out all sorts of cute evolutions. The final Pokemon I caught in route one was called a Blipbug I named Freddt. I went home to kiss Mum, yes we call her Mum here in Galar and we also watch the Telly and not TV, and went to the old bags lab with Freddt in tow. Turns out she wasn’t even there! I had to move ANOTHER route. Like these shoes were not made for walking! So of course I had to shop first.

Shopping and Hopping

So I decided to go and shop and I picked some super cute pink clothes rather than the grey and green Mum picked for me.. I mean my name is pinkie after all , you gotta live up to the reputation. Shopping in Galar is quite expensive though so perhaps I should fight some trainers with Neno , Beepbeep and Freddt . So that’s what I did. While fighting other trainers I also managed to catch a snapping turtle which I send to my box early, and a cute dog named Yamper. Which I added to my squad under his new name of Buttermutt. It’s funny because it has a heart shaped bright yellow butt. It’s moves are super nice to capture new pokemon as well so as some plumber from some country just south of the Kalos Region just said “let’s go” .. ……. back to the shop to get my pink shoes and pink hat as well. All pinked up I was ready to move to Professors place. Doing some more battles along the way. I noticed how I enjoyed the music and the rich saturated colours in the landscape. Sure I have seen like cards from like the Hyrule region that looks a bit more beautiful, but I think we should be glad with the beautiful landscapes we have gotten. Compared to like Unova or Sinnoh this place is absolutely stunning and our pokemon also feel somewhat less stiff than those of Alolan ones.

Professor Magnolia gave me an app… for my phone… jeez… thanks I guess.. no way I could download a pokedex in the appstore myself in a world where everyone has pokemon?! Yet something good came from the visit anyway. I got to battle Hop again, if we proved our worth as trainers to Leon he might endorse us to take part in the pokémon league competition. Like that’s kinda cool right? How the strong look for young talent to find someone who will eventually surpass them and push their skill with pokemon to the next level. Like a metaphor how the pocket monsters we know and love can grow into Kaiju, so can our trainers from young ones grow up to be a poorly dressed champion. Or like how the pokemon franchise started out as simply professor Oak’s research with him believing there were only 150 pokemon to knowing there is almost 1000 now. From being just his research to being like puns on teacups and with tv shows and movies. But I am getting off topic again. I could battle Hop again, I could see how much he train…..he ran over here again and barely bothered to train didn’t he…. yep… BeepBeep trashed his sheep, Neno washed his bunny and Freddt evolved into a Dottler. It’s like a bug night light with LEDS. Two meteors struck like a meter from our battle field revealing stones about the size of a wristwatch. I think the impact should have killed us all, but hey we didn’t so good for me. So we spend the night at the old woman’s place and Sonia showed up and told us more about HER research or her work for the professor at least. She told us about dynamaxing and how the phenomena is only possible in the Galar region and more stuff. The professor just made Leon gave us our endorsements so now we had to go to Motostoke. Luckily we could go by train. It will save me a big walk! Yay!

So far along I really enjoy this new pokémon adventure, the galarian pokemon are cute and overall well designed by Arceus, I visited some cute towns got some cute clothes and heard some cute music… though I am not sure if that plays in my head or is actually there. No other trainer ever mentions it .. but it always changes when I battle. I really like the tracks so far. I like the new experience system because it makes pokemon battling available to so many of us and the story I embark on seem to have just a bit more invested in making me seem special and relevant, making it more credible that I am heading into some great adventures. Of course the pretending to be me already made it a lot further into the game and but she decided that this was enough content for one day. So apparently soon the next part will follow where I explore the wild area and face the first three gyms. In that part we will discuss the quality of puzzles , and the wild area feature among other things so stay tuned for that… Wait why did i write this weird stuff in my diary?

Norse Mythology in Pokémon

Jolly good, an avid reader has arrived to assist me in this matter. Let me first do you the courtesy of a formal introduction, even though the keenest and eager of minds might have already spotted me on the ABOUT page of this blogging endeavour.
My name is detective: Pinkelett Wellington-Oxley-Birminghamshire-Diggersby-Pinkerton-Cherrlyblossom. Feel free to call me Detective Pinkie though! Together with my trusted Ditto called Evidence we solve mysteries, deduce theories and analyse enigma’s.
Unlike the former crudely called ‘Theory-Thursdays’ I shall not only discuss theories but rumors as well. Today however we for an hypothesis about the identity of the final legendary in Pokémon Sword and Shield and for that we will look at Norse mythology. Are you ready little Watsons? Let us take a trip across the bifrost.

Kalos and Galar

My utmost apologies, before we can depart I must relay some factoids about Pokémon topography. For the sake of logical deduction one should know that different Pokémon regions are based on different countries. Their geographical location in the Pokémon world oftenly mirrors the once in the real world. Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh (as well as the islands from minor games like pokémon snap) are all based on Japan and thusly are described as being close to one another. Unova was our first trip to another country! Mimicking the american east coast. New York and New Jersey are referenced in this region and the region is to be described as very far away from the original four. Alola was based on Hawaii and is assumed to be relatively close to Unova though the island theming and vastly different culture makes his hard to deduce. The Alola region in fact was so different and secluded from the rest of the world it felt like it’s very own world. Kalos was, not so subtle based on france. This games legendaries featured a lot of nordic elements which seem to return in Sword and Shield. Galar which is even more obviously being based on Britain by process of extrapolation of the trend should be very close to Kalos, in fact their maps do seem to be connectable.

Fan theories state we might venture into the 6th generation region, last time two railways connected we could travel across the lands as well after all! Safe to say if the player can cross the border, it would not be that hard for it’s mythos to do the same.
Most legendaries have an important role in shaping their respective regions as well, so it could be possible that Arceus created these legendaries together, but over time these lands segregated. With that being said let’s take a peek at some mythology. We will start in Kalos first. Where all legendaries seem to be inspired by this picture! But also have a much deeper connection. Keep this pictue in your mind Watsons you will need it.

Yggdrasil and Xerneas

At first glance you would not directly connect this:

and this:

However truth lies a layer deeper within my Watsons! If we look we can certainly see a mimicking in the colour pattern from Yggdrasill towards Xerneas but that is not the only evidence. Yggdrasil is the life tree. Xerneas pokédex entry calls it the Life Pokémon. Which in it’s dormant state in fact is a tree. Although not as massive and world connecting. Xerneas is described as a small blue true connected to the very essence of life. A life tree if you will.

Now before you yell out that this still is poppycock let us move a bit further into the northern mythology itself. Yggdrasil is not just a tree it also has some animal friends living inside and around it. Four of these magnificent creatures are called Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór These creatures are all deer that feed of the branches of Yggdrasil. Much like Xerneas all these deers are stags and they all wear gems in their antlers. Much like Xerneas. These colours are Red, blue, yellow, and purple, all these are represented in Xerneas design. While Xerneas uses his gems he has to power to grant things everlasting life.

Hræsvelgr and Yveltal

Though it is not too hard to see, the eagle sitting in the world tree in Yveltal it’s connections go quit a bit deeper then it just being an eagle.

First of all the eagle in the life tree as depicted in the image shared above is rumored to be blind. It is not hard so see an aspect of blindness in Yveltal. It’s eyes are a completely evil blue, while design trends really focussed at that time of bringing eyes to live a lot more. Pokémon almost always had pupils, with only extreme rare exceptions. and those usually just being hidden. Yveltal’s empty eyes could easily hint at it being blind. Yet Hræsvelg is not that eagle in the tree so why bring it up? This giant in the form of an Eagle, is known as the corpse eater. Yveltal is the Pokémon of death. Some people even claim that Hræsvelgr actually IS the eagle in the life tree, but this is up for debate. The Eagle in the life tree has the ability to peer into ones soul and this ability is never found in mentions of Hræsvelgr nor is something like this hinted at in Yveltal’s pokédex lore.
However since there isn’t much officially know about these two it makes sense to combine them. The Corpse Eater is is sit to dwell at the end of the world. The player in Pokémon Y encounters Yveltal when it is about to end the world as they know it, when Lysandre uses it to empower his doomsday weapon to destroy all life.

Níðhǫggr Jörmungandr and Zygarde

At the bottom of the tree we see a snake in its roots. This snake is Níðhǫggr, who is more accurately described as a dragon who lives under ground in the roots of the life tree. Zygarde’s typing is a ground dragon type, so that makes sense. Yet Zygarde has many forms and these aren’t just tacked on.. these are also very much rooted in Nordic mythology. Lets begin with the serpentine form.

This seems to be based on Jörmungandr. This snake was thrown into earth ocean by Odin, and apparently it was very good at playing snake because there it grew tall enough to loop the world and bite its own tail. This apparently brought good tidings to Midgar or in other words earth where staying like that keeps our world safe. Should the snake however ever let o Midgar will fall to disarray and be destroyed Zygarde is the order Pokémon, it’s tasked is to prevent our ecosystem from collapsing and maintain balance. Thus the Midgard-snake and the Order Pokémon share a purpose in life.
The fact that Zygarde kan grow is also a reference to this origin. However to his other two forms we need to look at his father first. No it’s not Tom Hiddleston.. it’s the actual Loki… who did some very weird things.

Angrboða and Loki must have been at the daycare together at one point, because it was said that they liked to play together. Three new lives where bred. Jormungandr, Hel and Fenrir. A snake.. a half undead giant woman.. and a dog/wolf. 10% Zygarde being a doglike creature is fairly obvious and there isn’t much of a deeper connection to the wolf there anyway.
With Hel it gets a bit more interesting in the design department. Too human pokémon have oftenly be met with dislike or even hate and controversy. I am looking at you Jynx! So they had to be a bit creative. Hel is mostly know for three things. Being the giantess that rules over norse hell is one. Zygarde does not rule over any afterlife ..but it took snakes role anyway.

So let’s see if our target looks like a giant. Check on that. 100% For Zygarde is definitely a giant. The second is her spiky crown. marvel kind of exaggerated it..but we can definitely see a spiky crown on zygarde as well. Finally one half of Hel is living, the other is dead. Though we don’t see a half rotting earth giant in Zygarde 100% on one half of it’s “cloak” it dons the main colour of Xerneas.. being life.. the other half of features Yveltal’s colour .. being death. I would say these are all strong enough connections to be more than just a coincidence. But how about Galar. We do not know a lot about those yet.. what is your theory? Well it is my believe Zamazenta and Zacian are based on Freki and Geri.

The Wolves and the Raven.

Zamazenta the shield wolf and Zacian the sword wielding lobo were announced to be the legendaries of Pokémon Sword and Shield. With some people immediately comparing them to Skoll and Hati, the wolves who chase the sun and the moon, I feel other then thematically following after Pokémon Sun and Moon there is not a lot to this reference, They might be used to deduced secondary typings, as we have clearly seen Nintendo crossing figures before to deduce typings and lore alike. Geri and Freki are Odin’s pet wolves.

Where X and Y used the icon of Yggdrasil to base legendaries around, when reusing mythos again you’d need an equally strong icon. One like Odin himself. In the art shared we see the wolves sitting at both sides of his throne. One sits by his sword, the other by his shield Their names roughly translating to something insatiable, always hungry, ever eager to satisfy themselves. With a bit of good will from us, and some free interpretation of their names we get a unstoppable force and an unmovable object. A perfect theming that seems to work excellent for the route Nintendo and Game Freak chose. Though Hati and Skoll are not out of the running yet, a pretty much confirmed leak has revealed there will be a third, and evil legendary. Based on this imagine and the accompanying lore we could assume the third legendary, will be a two headed raven, wielding a spear. Huginn and Muninn were Odin’s messengers and scouts relaying him all sorts of information thusly being sometimes being connected to the virtues of knowledge and wisdom, even omniscience. This could make Huginn and Muninn the inspiration for a pokémon representing the all knowing mind. Giving us a nice trinity: the unstoppable, the unmovable and the all knowing. This may just be speculation, but if we remember Sword and Shields first trailer when Zacian and Zamazenta where facing off suddenly something else approached…from the sky!

We may have not gathered enough evidence yet for a conviction..but at least we have a suspect. A good detective always has a theory. Haven examined the evidence yourself my dear Watsons, what do you think will be the third legendary? What are you hoping for?
Maybe you even have some more evidence! Be sure to let me know and like always remember!
I am not weird, I am just very pink!
Until we read again.

Breaking News: Sword and Shield Update! 7th August

This is a special broadcast of the Pink-Poké-News, we advise you all to stay calm!Do not fan-girl.. or boy..until this post is over. These revelations may blow your mind! Do not read this post unsupervised if you are prone to over excitement! At the 7th of August Nintendo revealed a new trailer for Pokémon Sword and Shield.
This is that trailer!

Galarian Forms: Weezing and the Zigzagoon line

This reporter is excited to report that regional forms are back! Galarian forms are a thing, with only two revealed so far there is no doubt there is more. Galarian Weezing will be a Poison Fairy type and will get the levitate ability as well as a ability that has yet to be revealed. It’s design features a large chimney as well as a smog beard or moustache. The chimney is shaped out like a top hat giving it the look of a british , industrial capitalist. Given the galar region is based classic england this design is extremely pleasing and humorous! The chimney itself can grow up to 3 meters or 9 foot .

Even more pleasing is the announcement of a new zigzagoon! Being a very cherished pokémon by this reporter not only did we find out that Zigzagoon and Linoone are getting an galarian form. .. Galarian Linoone can evolve! As one of my favorite normal types it is extremely exciting to see it does indeed keep it’s normal typing but takes on a dark typing as well. The old stages both get access to the abilities Gluttony and Pickup, the new stage, Obstagoon will have Reckless or Guts available to it. Guts allows moves to grow stronger when statussed, while Reckless allows for more damage from recoiling moves. Should Galarian Linoone have Belly Drum in it’s moveset like it’s regular cousin, this pokémon is a potential beast in the competitive metagame. Their design features a black and white like motive to mimic that of a badger.

The Transforming Pikaclone

Each generation we get a so called Pikaclone, a pokémon closely resembling pikachu and more often than not being the electric type unless we count Pikablu. The new pokémon to follow this trend is called Morpeko, the always hungry hamster. Who carries Berry-seeds as its prized possession they count as it snacks!

Having a cute very pika-like appearance that can change when it moves its use Aura Wheel The move allows it to switch type from electric to dark mode by triggering his ability hunger switch. In Full Belly mode Aura Wheel will look like an electric hamster wheel that is launched at it’s opponent. After that workout the creature will get a bad case of the munchies though and will switch into hangry move. The energy in its cheek changes to dark type.Not only does this Pokémon look adorable, it feels like a very unique pikaclone too. With only castform having somewhat similar ability this reporter is curious to see how usable this pokémon will be.

Two more rivals

We already knew we were gonna see multiple rivals in the Galar region. The first rival was to sweet according to some, they wanted to have a mean rival. Though we haven’t seen much of their persona yet, there are two candidates for the mean rival. Bede seems the most likely candidate. Having received his nomination from chairman Rose, the head honcho of the galar region he seems to have that arrogant posture, and elitist background hop so sorely needed. Hop is the brother of the champion Leon and thus will most likely follow a “out of his brothers shadow ‘ arc and seems closer akin to trainers like Hau and Trace where many fans want a new Gary or Silver. Bede’s poses and looks do fit the brief so hopefully we will have our Gary here.

The second rival we see is Marnie. I absolutely love her, adore her, this design makes me a huge fan! Turns out I am not the only one! Marnie is quite the popular girl having her own fanbase. She is revealed to have a Morpeko and plans to win the Galar Championship for her own goals. What those are remains to be seen. She is described as calm and calculating who is very dedicated to achieving results! Her leather jacket with pink dress make her the perfect mix of cute and though and she is already the rival i respect most, no matter how she may turn out! Also her shoes are absolutely adorable! This character I wanna cosplay real bad.

Hooligans

The “evil” team was also revealed and since we are in Galar and thus england what better way to express evil brits as trough hooligans. It remains to be scene if these are actually evil , this reporter suspects not, but they do support Marnie and want her to win, even if they have to play unfair tactics to prevent other trainers from progressing. All in all, this makes me lead to believe that we might not see a traditional elite four but a tournament much closer to the ones depicted in the anime. Of course this might change over time. Back to team yell as they are called. Donned in Marnie’s colours their goal is just to make Marnie champion. They will occupy a hotel lobby, be loud and obnoxious and hinder her opponents. Just like real hooligans. Whenever Marnie battles these crazy guys show up in the background to support her. If Marnie actual cares for her supporters or even leads them as a team remains to be seen. This reporter predicts she simply does not care, she wants to win and if someone is weak enough to be stopped by her fans they aren’t worth facing anway. That or a sort like mentality. She also predicts that the true evil will come in the form of Chairman Rose or Oleana where they wish to abuse the power of Dynamaxing for evil things ,collecting it from the stadiums and such. Anyway the hooligans will make a welcome addition to the game as the concept is quite unique rather than yet another megalomaniac we have seen so many times before.

Poké jobs

Lacking from the international trailer, but featuring in the japanese trailer, are Pokémon Jobs. This new feature is most likely go replace the leveling feature of a daycare center, allowing that to become more of a breeding center (hopefully) Poké Jobs based on their core description are also gonna help with EV training. Pokémon in the Galar region are described to oftenly work, as in labour, with their partners. This means you can basically send your Skitty to work in a factory or let Machoke help out at the docs. These jobs will feature a mobile-game like deployment system. You can send any pokémon from your box to work and when they come back you can gain items but more importantly experience to your pokémon! Depending on your Pokémon’s typing it will qualify for certain jobs, that can make both you and your pokémon better!. Best thing is that the website also briefly mentions that it helps increase your pokémon’s base stats. So this might be the easiest EV training we have ever gotten. However.. this reporter does have some moral issues to send her freshly hatched pokémon straight into a factory.

This special news report was made possible by Nintendo, Game Freak and the offcial Pokémon Company.
This is reporter Pinkie Cherryblossom, signing out for Pink-Poké-News
We hope you have a beautiful day and do not forget to check out today’s regular post!
What if Jessie and James turned good!
How do you feel about these new updates? Let us know in the comments!
Remember I am not weird, I am just very pink!
Until we read again!