#379: Registeel

This is one way to make Registeel look alien. Nice job.

You'd probably think that I, as a huge fan of steel types, would consider Registeel the best and most interesting Regi, but nothing could be further from the truth: I actually think Registeel is quite bland and boring. However, it has to be said that it has a relatively smooth design compared to the other Regi things, and that has everything to do with the fact that Registeel's body has been tempered by underground pressure for thousands of years. It was made of a material that is sturdier than any metal known to mankind, is able to stretch and shrink despite its hardness, cannot be scratched or damaged in any way, and is thought to be a curious substance that is nowhere to be found on Earth. On top of that, Registeel apparently has a hollow body and it has never been seen eating, so it's a mystery to modern scientists what this Pokémon consumes exactly. Unlike with Regirock and Regice, Game Freak are keeping us in the dark about the source material of Registeel's body; the thing is just that I love Regirock's imperfectly craggy design and Regice's badass flavor, so I don't see why Registeel should get more love than its... siblings, I guess? Can you even call them siblings? Does that make Regigigas their Daddy?

Hell, who cares?

What's more, in the non-English European versions of Diamond and Pearl, Reisteel's sprite was edited due to the position of its arm resembling a Nazi salute. The sprite was changed for all regions from Pokémon Platinum onwards, but it had already caused quite the controversy by then.

Registeel doing... something with magnetism, even though
there's nothing in its flavor that indicates it is capable of messing
around with that? Then again, it's a steel-type legendary, so it's
probably capable of doing stuff we had no idea it could do in the
first place.

In Registeel's defense, though, it is probably a lot better competitively. While its base 80 HP stat and base 150 defenses provide it incredible bulk, its very mediocre offensive presence means it may have to rely on Seismic Toss for dealing damage, which can only be learned via a Move Tutor in FireRed, LeafGreen and Emerald. If you are not willing to go out of your way to transfer your Registeel from Ruby or Sapphire to FireRed or LeafGreen, teach it Seismic Toss there and let it travel through three different generations (excluding Gen. VI, because the Poké Transporter just stores your Pokémon from Black and White in a box in Pokémon Bank, which is compatibe with Sun and Moon), a STAB move like Iron Head or Flash Cannon is probably a much better option. In any case, Registeel is most commonly used for Toxic stalling and setting up Stealth Rock, so those moves along with Protect ensure a solid but uninspired moveset. It's proved to be an effective moveset as any, and Registeel is probably better at it than certain other Pokémon, so there is absolutely no reason to sulk over that. You could even stir things up with Thunder Wave instead. Nonetheless, there are other sets to try out, including a Curse set that powers up its STAB Iron Head. You could round it out with a Rest/Sleep Talk combo or just all-out offensive moves like Hammer Arm, Superpower, Earthquake, Shadow Claw, Rock Slide, Ice Punch and Thunder Punch, but the drawback of the latter option is that Registeel doesn't have much offensive presence in the first place, like I said earlier - although at a base 75, neither its attack nor its special attack is terrible. Regardless, it's better to go with a support moveset backed up by Levitate and a defensive nature (Careful, Calm, Impish, Bold, Sassy and Relaxed are all excellent options, depending on whether you want to run Iron Head or Flash Cannon - or simply both), so that it at least has something useful to do; something it's good at.

Regice (left), Registeel (middle) and Regirock (right) going wild, by the look of it.
They even don't look as stiff as they always do. 

And that's pretty much the end of the Regi thingsies for now. I won't be discussing Regigigas after this, because I'm reviewing all Pokémon in National Dex order and Regigigas wasn't introduced until Gen. IV. It's not an evolution of any of the three, either, so you won't be seeing it here until I've finished Gen. III and the largest part of Gen. IV. For now, I'll have to rate Registeel, and I think I'll go with a more-than-average 4-star rating.

Rating: 4/5