#431 - #432: Glameow & Purugly

The artist made Glameow here much cuter than it actually is.

I told you I once did an Omega Ruby playthrough with feline Pokémon, did I? Well, even if I like Delcatty more than Purugly design-wise, I ended up using the latter, anyway.

Why? Well, because it's a better battler, of course.

I had to put up with a Glameow until level 38, however, which was a pain because it wasn't very good. I even decided to pass on Play Rough at level 50, which Purugly cannot learn, because it was really too far away. While Glameow was fast, it was also relatively weak and feeble, making it an absolute pain to train, especially since the shit with Team Magma goes down when your Pokémon are a little below that level - which is kinda late into the story in the first place - and turning on the Exp. Share tends to make them just a tad bit overleveled even when they don't get boosted experience. And my feline Pokémon did, because I didn't catch them in Omega Ruby; they were obviously transferred to this game from Pokémon Bank. Maybe Game Freak wanted to tie in Glameow's snooty and fickle personality with its in-game purposes, but perhaps that's a little too farfetched since there are a ton of Pokémon who evolve at such a high level. Purugly's stats don't justify it evolving so late from Glameow, however, because it is a decent Pokémon at best.

Is this Glameow really looking at an ordinary goldfish? 

More about Purugly's competitive capabilities later, though. First, we're going to see what it and its pre-evolution are all about flavor-wise. Like I said, Glameow is a haughty and capricious Pokémon that tends to become violent when they are dissatisfied with the current course of events; it is a spiteful Pokémon that can suddenly hook its claws into its Trainer's nose if it isn't fed or when it is angry with them for some reason. When it is happy, it can also purr quite affectionately and demonstrate beautiful movements of its tail, like a dancing ribbon. The ugly side of its personality is intensified when it evolves into Purugly, becoming a Pokémon that makes itself look larger and more intimidating by cinching its waist with its forked tail. This brazen brute barges into the nests of other Pokémon and frightens them off so it can claim the nest as its own if it finds it sufficiently comfortable. Additionally, Purugly will glare at you ceaselessly if you lock eyes with it, so you'd better not start a staring contest with this thing.

Like Pokémon, like Trainer. Or is it the other way around...?

Its hypnotizing looks are probably the reason why it has access to Hypnosis in its level-up moveset, but even though sleep is a precious status condition in competitive play, the 60% accuracy of Hypnosis makes this move less viable than one should wish. Purugly is more often used as a physical attacker in the lower tiers, rocking a moveset consisting of Fake Out, Return, Sucker Punch and Knock Off, occasionally replacing either Sucker Punch or Knock Off in favor of U-Turn. That's pretty much all you need, really. My own Purugly had Return, Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw and Dig, but those moves - with the exception of Return - are absolutely terrible in a competitive setting. It is actually way too brittle to use it as a support Pokémon, and aside from that it doesn't get a whole lot of physical or support options in the first place. You could let Purugly hold either a Silk Scarf to boost its STAB normal-type moves or a Life Orb to boost all of its moves by 30% in exchange for 10% of its health each turn, but it should have a Jolly nature at all times to make maximum use of its surprisingly excellent speed stat - it may look fat and sluggish, but its base 112 speed stat makes it a helluva lot faster than most Pokémon out there. As for abilities, you are best off with Purugly's hidden ability Defiant, which boosts its attack by two stages whenever one of its stats is lowered. Own Tempo prevents it from being confused and is merely situational, while the resistances to fire- and ice-type moves due to Thick Fat sound nice but won't have much of a notable effect because Purugly's defenses aren't worth shit.

No wonder Purugly cinches its waist with its tail. It will become much slower and
less self-confident with such a high amount of fat. 

Purugly is exactly what its name suggests it is: ugly - characteristically as well as aesthetically, and that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. While I used it in my feline playthrough of Omega Ruby, I only did so because the alternative was Delcatty, and we all know Delcatty sucks. In my opinion, however, Game Freak could have done a lot better than creating a brutal, overweight domestic tabby cat. Persian is a mean bitch already, and its personality fits its design and appearance perfectly, so there was no need to depict another cat in a bad light like this. Cats already have a bad rap due to their distant, suspicious and unfriendly personalities, and I'll be the first to admit that they're not as friendly and playful as dogs are, but in my experience they can be very sweet and curious and allow you to cuddle with them all you like as long as you treat them right. Feline Pokémon with dubious personalities such as Persian and Liepard can be an asset to the Pokémon franchise when executed well, but a Pokémon like Purugly was absolutely unnecessary. If my ratings were based on design alone, this Pokémon would get 4.5 stars from me, but I'll have to lower that rating significantly after my heavy criticism of Purugly's flavor.

Rating: 3/5