#361 - #362, #478: Snorunt, Glalie & Froslass

So only now we've bumped into the first true Gen. III ice types - and no, I do not count Castform's Snowy Forme as such. Hoenn is a tropical region with too much water and it is hard to implement ice types into such a region in the first place, so they were put away in a remote salt cave at the northeastern edge of the region, which - with a little bit of bad luck - would be completely overlooked by the player if they were in a rush to complete the game. Route 125 and Shoal Cave are just north of Mossdeep City, but there is nothing else to find beyond these places, so they're not mandatory for the player to visit. And even though the Snorunt and Spheal lines are the only ice types you can find in the games (not counting Regice as of yet because it is tricky to obtain, and definitely not counting Castform), by the time the player arrives in Mossdeep City they will probably have a full team of six already.

Snorunt plushies, the middle of which is that of a shiny Snorunt. 

Another drawback for players to put a Snorunt on their team is the fact that this little critter evolves at level 42, which is way too damn high for a Pokémon that isn't worth the hassle. Don't get me wrong; Glalie is great and all, but base 80 stats across the board isn't worth waiting until level 42. And with base 50 stats Snorunt can't do an awful lot by itself, either. Instead, I think we should admire what Snorunt is supposed to represent: a small, child-sized Pokémon based on a couple of different yōkai. The zashiki-warashi, or "guestroom child", is a mischievous Japanese spirit in the form of a five- or six-year-old child that is often sighted in Iwate Prefecture, somewhere in northern Japan. Those who see it are said to be visisted with good fortune, which is the exact same thing the Pokédex says about Snorunt, too. Another inspiration for Snorunt might be the yukinko, a childlike spirit said to emerge when it snows, often depicted as elf-like and wearing a yuki mino - the latter being a traditional type of winter wear from the snowy parts of Japan that consists of a conical snow cloak made of straw. Snorunt seems to be stylized version of a yuki mino, which is probably why it can stand temperatures of -150°F. From Pokémon Platinum on, Snorunt's Pokédex description of gathering under giant leaves and living together in harmony with others of its species is a reference to the Koro-pok-guru, a race of small people in the folklore of the Ainu people. They are said to live under the leaves of plants in harmony, and their name seems to support that: Koro-pok-guru literally means "people under the butterbur plant". The only problem is that Snorunt doesn't look the part and that it doesn't fit its design and typing, either.

Official Sugimori art of Glalie.

Nor does Glalie look like a logical evolution of Snorunt, for that matter. It's like the head of a goblin with nothing else attached to it, but basically Glalie consists of a black rock core covered by ice that will not even melt under a direct flame. If that is the case, why wasn't it made part rock type? Glalie would have benefited from that if it hadn't been for these two bad weaknesses to fighting and steel it otherwise would've had, but the latter type wasn't as prevalent in competitive play as it is now with all those fairy types around. Instead, we just got a Pokémon based on a hockey mask whose name is a combination of 'glacier' and 'goalie'. Indeed, 'goalie'; how fucking obvious do you want to make it, anyway? Even its Japanese name Onigohri (オニゴーリ) bears a phonetic similarity to 'goalie', while the word Torwart in Glalie's German name Firnontor means 'goalkeeper'. It doesn't even remotely resemble anything from Japanese culture anymore, aside from maybe a standard type of oni (an ogre- or troll-like creature) with horns. And what about that flavor? It can freeze moisture in the atmosphere... - yeah, no shit; it's a fucking ice type - ...into any shape it desires.

Okay, that's actually pretty cool.

And as if Glalie didn't look ugly enough, it has an ugly personality as well: it actually enjoys putting its prey in a frozen state with its icy-cold breath and gobbling it up afterwards. What's more, Glalie got a Mega evolution that no one saw coming, and it can now temporarily float around with a dislocated jaw. I can almost hear it scream in agony. It's tragic, really, as Mega Glalie can instantly freeze its prey but cannot eat said prey because its jaw is destroyed.

Some pretty cool (get it?) fan art of Froslass.

Glalie's Korean name Urumkisin (얼음귀신) - from eol'eum ('ice') and gwishin ('ghost'), so literally 'ice ghost' - would have fit Snorunt's alternative evolution Froslass a whole lot better. Froslass, evolved from a female Snorunt by use of a Dawn Stone, is the franchise's only ice/ghost type, and for a good reason, too: it is based on the yuki-onna, a ghostly woman in Japanese folklore often associated with winter and snowstorms. I already mentioned these spirits in Jynx's review, but as Froslass is a ghost type and the yuki-onna is supposed to represent a female ghost (which is also the reason why only female Snorunt can evolve into Froslass), it makes much more sense that the latter was the inspiration for Froslass rather than Jynx. However, none of the legends about the yuki-onna are as lurid as Froslass's Pokédex descriptions. It's all very interesting to read that it has cold breath (so does Glalie), that it has a hollow body (so does Dusclops) and that legends in snowy regions say that a woman who got lost on an icy mountains was reborn as a Froslass, but let's take a look at the entries it got in Pokémon Sun and Moon recently.

Pokédex entry Sun:
"When it finds humans or Pokémon it likes, it freezes them and takes them to its chilly den, where they become decorations."

Pokémon entry Moon:
"The soul of a woman lost on a snowy mountain possessed an icicle, becoming this Pokémon. The food it most relishes is the souls of men."

Why, excuse the living hell out of me? So, in the hypothetical case that I'm roaming about in the snowy mountains and just by happenstance encounter a Froslass, I'm pretty much screwed? I don't know about you guys, but I am 100% certain I'm never going on a skiing holiday.

A Froslass image with yuki-onna elements in the forefront. The
red band it's wearing is reminiscent of an obi, a sash worn with a
kimono or with the uniforms used by practitioners of Japanese
martial arts.

Trainers should be cautious when being around this thing, but on the off chance you decide to use Froslass in competitive play, you'll have yourself a speedy special att... wait, what? Its special attack is only 80? Damn, I always thought it had amazing speed and special attack and terribe everything else, but I guess I was wrong. Well, it's no use making it defensive, because it won't live a hit, so be clever and go with the specially offensive approach anyway. I was going to recommend a Timid nature, but I guess it can use the special power boost from a Modest nature. And a Life Orb, for that matter, which will make moves like Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Signal Beam, Psychic and Thunderbolt hit foes just this little bit harder. As it's fast to begin with, a utility moveset might not be bad; Taunt is to prevent foes from setting up with stat-boosting moves, Spikes lays a layer of - you guessed it - spikes that hurt incoming Pokémon on the opponent's side of the battlefield, Will-O-Wisp burns foes and thus inflicts residual damage every turn, and a fast Destiny Bond might be beneficial if a certain Pokémon proves to be an issue. Of course, a utility moveset calls for a Focus Sash rather than a Life Orb. The only thing left to discuss is its ability, but it has only two. Its regular ability Snow Cloak boosts Froslass's evasion when it's hailing, which it almost never does, so ignore that one. Its hidden ability is Cursed Body and has the power to disable certain moves when Froslass is hit by one, which could definitely come in handy.

It's pretty hot in the Netherlands right now, but this image
spontaneously gives me the chills.

So, we've discussed Froslass, but what about Glalie? Well... my advice is to not use it unless you go Mega. Regular Glalie is just not good enough and can't get anything done, so you'd be wise to Mega-evolve it. Mega Glalie has Refrigerate for its ability, which turns all normal-type moves into ice-type moves, effectively making them STAB. This means a decent 102-power phsyical-based ice-type move in Return, as well as an ice-type Explosion. It's what most people use Mega Glalie for, anyway: doing some moderate damage to opponents with moves like Return and Earthquake, only to cause a gigantic and unexpected climax and blow it up for a whopping 250 power. That's one almost guaranteed OHKO right there, so Explosion is perfect to remove a specific threat from the game. Sure, you'll lose your own Mega Glalie in the process, but sometimes you gotta make sacrifices in order to advance the match. If blowing Mega Glalie up is unfavorable, you could also run a moveset consisting of Return, Ice Shard, Earthquake and Iron Head, of course supported by a Jolly or Adamant nature - or a Naive, Hasty, Lonely or Naughty nature if you decide to use Freeze-Dry instead of Iron Head in order for you to super-effectively hit water types as well. Nonetheless, Mega Glalie is pretty much one-dimensional and therefore very predictable.

I wish I could like these Pokémon more than I currently do, but Mega Glalie is a little too weird - even to my taste - and Froslass is unimpressive when it's not about its flavor. That doesn't stop me from giving both Pokémon a good rating - the same one at that, too - and to be quite honest, 4 stars are nothing to sneeze at. I don't know exactly what it is that could make them sneeze, because I doubt these Pokémon can catch a cold, but that is not the point.

P.S.: What's with Froslass's classification as the 'Snow Land Pokémon'? I really don't understand the 'land' part...?

Rating: 4/5

#359: Absol

With Absol being a clear fan favorite, there's bound to be plenty
of cool fan art to be found on the web.

Has anybody ever had the feeling your intentions were completely misinterpreted? Poor Absol must feel that way all the fucking time. Using the horn on its head, Absol is able to sense even the most subtle changes in the sky and land to predict when a natural disaster will occur, and it will try to warn people of impending danger. However, people often misinterpret his warnings and think Absol is in fact the bringer of doom, which fed a hatred of it. No wonder Absol lives its 100-year life in seclusion in the mountains, far from civilization, and rarely ventures down from its alpine home; I guess it's sick and tired of humanity blaming unfavorable natural occurrences on its species when it's only trying to alert people of earthquakes or tidal waves. The rage among those people must have been big when they found out Absol can actually change into a stronger being, if only temporarily: Absol can Mega-evolve, and the energy that courses through its body from the transition makes it fur bristle and makes Mega Absol look as if it has a pair of wings on its back. This does give it an angelic appearance, but Mega Absol can't actually fly, nor does it get the flying typing on top of its dark typing.

The angelic-looking Mega Absol. The pair of wings is actually its fur; the increased
energy coursing through its body upon Mega-evolving is what makes the fur at the
back of its mane stand on end.

This time I do have to commend Game Freak on their consistency here: in the main series games, Absol can often be found in places where disasters occur or occurred, supporting its description as a doomsayer. Let's ignore the fact that not all of these disasters are natural occurrences, because that is damn near impossible in Pokémon games.

- In Diamond and Pearl, Absol appears on Route 213. This route is close to Lake Valor, which was drained by Team Galactic in order to illegitimately capture Azelf. Also, the route number contains the number 13, which is universally considered to be an unlucky number.

- In Platinum, Absol can be found on Mt. Coronet in places that one can first access when heading to Spear Pillar, before Giratina is summoned by Team Galactic's Cyrus.

- In Black and White, after the player finished the main game, Absol appears at the Giant Chasm - the home of Kyurem and said to be a place where disasters befall Trainers - and Route 13. In the sequels to Black and White, unoriginally named Black 2 and White 2, Giant Chasm is where the 'new' Team Plasma makes their stand.

- In X and Y, Route 8 is Absol's home base. While the route number isn't even close to 13, Absol is found on the higher side of the route, right on the cliffs. You also encounter this Pokémon right before the player character meets Team Flare for the first time.

- In Sun and Moon, Absol is found in Tapu Village, which was destroyed years earlier by Tapu Bulu because it took offense to the grocery store that was built on Route 14. Plus, have you noticed how Tapu Village connects Routes 13, 14 and 15? Nifty.

It isn't found in disaster areas in every game, though. Being an alpine Pokémon by nature, it would have made no frickin' sense for Game Freak to make Seafloor Cavern - an underwater area where, depending on which version you're playing, Groudon and Kyogre are summoned by Team Magma or Team Aqua, respectively - Absol's natural habitat, so in Ruby and Sapphire it is found on Route 120 instead. Hoenn really does have too much water, goddamn. However, it was a missed opportunity not to put Absol on Route 10 in Pokémon X and Y, because this route is actually found beneath Geosenge Town, the town where AZ's ultimate weapon is excavated by Team Flare and intended to be used by Lysandre in order for him to destroy Kalos.

A pair of Absol parents with their shiny child. 

But what makes Absol so connected to such catastrophes in the first place? I mean, what are its origins? Well, aside from the obvious black cat superstition - Absol does in fact look somewhat feline - there are a whole lot of creatures it may have been based on, whether they be mythical or not. The first are sphinxes, winged monsters with a woman's head and a lion's body, noted for killing anyone being unable to answer its riddle. Whereas sphinxes are often associated with ancient Egypt, they're actually from Greek mythology, and the 'wings' on Mega Absol are actually more reminiscent of Greek portrayals of these creatures, which are more often depicted with wings than not. The Chinese legend of the Baí Zé, generally described as a white beast with extraordinary intelligence, might be another inspiration for Absol's design and flavor. This Baí Zé creature was gifted with the ability to understand human speech, as well as the knowledge on the forms and habits of exactly 11,520 types of supernatural creatures in the world and how to overcome their hauntings and attacks. While the Baí Zé is known as the hakutaku in Japan, a related legend speaks of an almost identical creature called the kutabe, which predicted that a deadly plague would sweep through the Japanese population in the next few years and prescribed that its own image be used as a talisman to ward off the disease. While known as a bovine creature, it is also commonly depicted as a creature with a lion's body, one horn on its head and an extra eye in the center of its forehead. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

This way - and not entirely coincidentally - Absol's head looks like a tàijítú or yīnyáng symbol, which is usually a representation of how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another (e.g. light and dark, fire and water, expansion and contraction, matter and antimatter). This concept would be expanded upon in Gen. V with Reshiram and Zekrom, but at least it makes for some interesting speculations and discussions about Absol's origins, especially since it's a favorite among long-time Pokémon fans. With its ability to sense oncoming natural disasters Absol is, after all, a creature close to nature, and the concept of yin and yang fits its flavor and white-and-blue design perfectly.

Official art of Mega Absol. Drawn by Ken Sugimori,
courtesy of Nintendo and everything. 

One big question remains, though: how well does Absol do in the competitive scene? Uhm... not great. Absol sports some amazing attack, but it is quite frail and not very fast, which they fixed with its Mega. Well, at least the speed part; Mega Absol is as frail as ever, but it got a boost of 40 base points in both its speed and special attack - both ending up at a solid 115 - and an increase in its attack by 20 base points. While at 150 its attack is still superior to any of its other stats, it is able to dish out some special damage as well, and quite frankly it has such a large movepool that you don't even know where to start with this thing. Mega Absol is a pure dark type and has access to some nice utility moves that it receives STAB from, such as Pursuit, Sucker Punch and Knock Off. Type coverage can be found in moves like Zen Headbutt, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, X-Scissor, Dark Pulse, Megahorn, Play Rough, Iron Tail and Superpower. If you want to run a physical moveset and boost its attack, Swords Dance is right there for you. This even allows you to run a Jolly nature (lowers special attack, increases speed), although a Naive nature (lowers special defense, increases speed) is required if you want to run a mixed Mega Absol. As far as abilities go, Magic Bounce is a great ability that reflects the effects of all stat-lowering and status condition-inducing status moves - as well as entry hazard moves and moves like Torment and Taunt - back to the user, effectively making it immune to moves like Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave. That makes it very hard to weaken it or slow it down, which is exactly what you want.

When it comes to regular Absol's ability before you Mega-evolve it, Justified is the way to go: if you get hit by a dark-type move when you switch Absol in, you might as well get an attack boost from it first, making Mega Absol a little bit more dangerous for your opponent. Super Luck increases the chance of getting a critical hit, while Pressure drains some extra PP from the moves your opponent's Pokémon is attacking Absol with, but both are more viable for the long run and fit more on a regular Absol's Life Orb set or something.

Fan art of Mega Absol being fabulous.

This article is becoming a little bit too long for just a single Pokémon, but I guess I'm willing to spend a lot of my time writing about Absol (seriously though, I've spent at least five hours doing research and thinking about how to formulate my sentences). It's such a fascinating Pokémon for a dark type, which normally tend to be more evil and malicious, and it's definitely one of the most unique Gen. III Pokémon introduced. I never realized how much I actually love Absol, and I certainly did not expect to give it a perfect rating. Yet here I am, gushing about a Pokémon I didn't know I love.

Good job on this one, Game Freak.

Rating: 5/5

#433, #358: Chingling & Chimecho

I am so sick and tired of these useless baby Pokémon. Luckily, this is the last one...

I still don't know what baby Pokémon are good for. Honestly,
Chimecho didn't even need a pre-evolution; if anything, it's
desperately in need of an evolution. 

There's nothing much to say about Chingling, either. It's a bell Pokémon based on the suzu bells used at shrines visited by followers of the Japanese Shintō religion, and it has a red orb in the back of its throat used to emit high-frequency and long-lasting cries that deafen its opponents but can be too high for people to hear. Or it just makes ringing sounds whenever it is hopping around, going about its business. Whatever, I don't care about Chingling. Nor do I care an awful lot about Chimecho, to be honest, but maybe that's because I haven't ever paid it much attention. The Japanese bell aspect is retained (or rather, Game Freak elaborated on this aspect with Chingling), but Chimecho is based on a fūrin rather than a suzu bell. Fūrin are particularly beautiful wind chimes made of glass that have been produced since the Edo period (c. 1603 - 1868 AD) of Japanese history, as glassblowing techniques from the Netherlands were introduced to the Japanese people in the seaport of Nagasaki during the 18th century. It was the first time the Japanese ever saw glass. After the glass objects were shipped to more affluent areas, the Japanese were prompted to learn glassblowing for themselves and create their own distinct glass paraphernalia, which resulted in the creation of Edo fūrin in the 19th century. At first these were used to ward off evil and epidemics, like their bronze predecessors called fūtaku, but nowadays they're used to enjoy their cooling and soothing sounds during hot summer days. One technique the Japanese have mastered is painting the glass on the interior of the chime so that the colors won't fade easily.

Chimecho. Don't you think its tail looks like a blood-soaked tissue paper?

But as beautiful and fascinating fūrin are, so bland is Chimecho. Such an interesting concept could have been the basis for an awesome Pokémon design, but Chimecho actually suffers from being a tad bit underdesigned: its bluish white body is partially covered by red marks that make it look as if someone has just tried to stop their nosebleed with a facial tissue. The vast majority of its flavor is directly derived from the way fūrin are used, too, as it comes flying on air currents when the hot season arrives and hangs from tree branches or the eaves of a building using the weird yellow suction cup on its head. (Wait a minute, that thing is a suction cup? It certainly doesn't look the part.) However, it is a whole lot louder than a regular wind chime. Chimecho utters cries that reverberate from deep within its body, and if it becomes enraged or upset enough, its cries result in ultrasonic waves that have the power to knock foes flying.

Chimecho using either Hyper Voice or Uproar. Both fit its flavor
perfectly, but neither actually provide it STAB: both Uproar and
Hyper Voice are normal-type moves, while Chimecho is pure
psychic.

Not that Chimecho is anywhere near as strong as its flavor suggests: its stats are no more than decent, but if your best stat is your base 95 special attack, you're gonna have a hard time keeping up with other Pokémon with better offensive or defensive stats - or both. Chimecho did get a buff in its defensive stats in Gen. VII, but ten extra base points in HP, defense and special defense won't make that much of a difference. Using it competitively is out of the question, so I'd recommend using it solely in playthroughs - if you want to, obviously. It learns just enough attacking moves - Psychic, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball and Dazzling Gleam - to fill up a moveset, and you could even ditch one (not Psychic, though) to give it Calm Mind. It's just a shame Chimecho isn't of much use. Smogon mentions a Leftovers set with a couple of moves such as Healing Wish (causes the user to faint and recovers the incoming Pokémon's HP and cures it of any status conditions it may have), Recover, Heal Bell, Thunder Wave and Taunt. Recover and Heal Bell are good moves indeed, but Chimecho is slow and it won't be able to effectively use Taunt very often because of that. It's not bulky enough to take hits either, so instead you could opt to go for a Light Clay set with Reflect and Light Screen, which - once set up - make Chimecho somewhat harder to take down. I'd just set up screens and switch out to some offensive tank or something, that will be more effective.

While Chimecho has an interesting concept behind its design, it is actually poorly executed. I don't hate Chimecho's guts, and it narrowly escapes a bad rating from me, but it does make you long for something that could have been.

You know what would be an amazing evolution for Chimecho? A carillon.

Rating: 3/5

#357: Tropius

Tropius in company of Brendan and May. 

For a region that's considered tropical, Hoenn introduced suprisingly few tropical Pokémon. Tropius is basically the only one, and it's... why, what is it? It's obviously based on a sauropod, which were big-ass herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and thick, pillar-like legs. But Tropius has big leafy wings growing on its back, as well as banana-like fruits beneath its chin. Apparently, Tropius continuously eats only its favorite fruit; it loves it so much, in fact, that it resulted in its own outgrowth of fruit, which is considered a deliciously sweet tropical snack that is especially popular with children. The large wings are used for flight - despite its bulky appearance, it is suprisingly maneuverable in the air - and for sugar production via photosynthesis. Whether the latter is to be 'blamed' for the sweet flavor of its own fruits is unclear and debatable, but I can't think of any other reason why its fruits are so incredibly sweet.

Pansage (on top of Tropius's head), Panpour (left) and Pansear
(right) enjoying Tropius's delicious fruits.

In short, Tropius's banana tree design is hilarious, although most people tend to forget it's there in the first place. At any rate, I haven't seen anyone using this Pokémon in a playthrough. That's not surprising, as its stats aren't anything to write home about. It has some very good HP and defenses, making it pretty bulky, but its attacking stats are lacking and its speed is just downright terrible. Even Dragon Dance, which is an egg move, won't give it a sufficiently significant speed boost - or attack boost, for that matter, as its base 68 attack is really mediocre. That doesn't make it a reliable counter to all these bulky water and rock types out there. The fact that it has weaknesses to rock and ice - the latter is even a quadruple weakness - doesn't help either, as rock types counter it right back and almost all water types can learn Ice Beam and Blizzard. It's a shame, really, because Tropius's physical movepool allows you to create a pretty neat moveset consisting of Dragon Dance, Leaf Blade, Earthquake and Aerial Ace. It also has Steel Wing, Outrage and Body Slam for type coverage (well, coverage... Body Slam isn't super effective on anything, but it's a moderately strong normal-type move that has a higher chance to paralyze the foe) and a decent ability in Chlorophyll, provided you set up the sunlight first. Thing is, it makes it even more vulnarable to fire-type moves, which it already has a weakness to, and its speed and mediocre attacking stats won't allow it to take a hit first very often or hit very hard in the first place. A Life Orb set with the ability Solar Power - which increases its special attack by 50% in harsh sunlight but makes Tropius lose ⅛ of its maximum HP at the end of each turn - will only wear it down, which only takes away from its moderate bulk.

A more realistic approach of Tropius.

As far as grass-type sauropods go, Meganium beats Tropius by a very large margin. Tropius is more versatile offensively, though only slightly, and competitively and design-wise Meganium kicks Tropius right outta the sky. It sucks Tropius doesn't have a better support movepool, because the only good combo I can find right now is Substitute/Leech Seed - Roost and Air Slash nicely rounding out its moveset - with the Harvest ability and a Sitrus Berry to hold. Neither is Tropius a good Pokémon to use for in-game purposes, for that matter, because its moveset is pretty lacking: Air Slash is amazing to have, but the best grass-type moves it gets are Solar Beam and Leaf Storm. The former requires a turn to charge up and the latter harshly lowers its special attack, which at a base 72 is already less than average. As the Energy Ball TM is only available late- or post-game and Leaf Blade is an egg move, it'll have to make do with the 65-power Leaf Tornado, which is... bad for a relatively weak Pokémon like Tropius. Rather, Tropius is one of the few Pokémon that is terrible to use in any context but should be appreciated for its uniqueness: it's an interesting and pleasantly designed Pokémon and just a nice addition to any collection. Moreover, it's the only Pokémon that really fits Hoenn's tropical theme, so I'll let this one slide.

Rating: 4/5

#355 - #356, #477: Duskull, Dusclops & Dusknoir

Official art of Duskull by Ken Sugimori, courtesy of Nintendo
and Game Freak, blah blah blah, yada yada yada... 

While Shuppet's appearance is reminiscent of common depictions of ghosts, especially those that are basically floating white sheets, Duskull is a stylized personification of the Grim Reaper, the embodiment of death: its body is a black robe with two bones on its back, its mask is basically a skull, and it has a single eye that floats between its eye sockets. The only thing that's missing is the scythe, but that's a minor detail. The question is whether Duskull behaves even remotely like the Grim Reaper. I'd say no, as it chooses a target in the dead of night and doggedly pursues its intended victim until it abandons the chase at the break of dawn, which the Grim Reaper doesn't. It's just an alternative name for the Angel of Death and has come into use as to allow us to embody the concept of death into a tangible creature. The truth is that death is imminent, and when it's your time to go, the Angel of Death - or Grim Reaper - will come and get you. It's not supposed to be a mean-spirited being; rather, the Angel of Death is impartial and just guides you to the hereafter when you pass away, whether this is at dawn, day, dusk or night. Personally, I don't believe in this spiritual/religious bullshit, but I think I understand the concept of the Grim Reaper and I doubt it spirits away disobedient or misbehaving children, let alone enjoys the crying of children. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Duskull can pass through walls no matter how thick they are, but I've seen other ghost-type Pokémon doing that, so I'm not impressed. I mean, I'm sure everyone here remembers the Gastly, Haunter and Gengar from the "The Tower Of Terror", the 23rd episode of the very first season. Right?

Dusclops in the anime. When you compare it to its official art, it is
actually much creepier: these hands actually look more human,
which is unsettling, but they're also in a much paler shade of gray,
making them stand out more than those of its official art. 

As for Dusclops... well, let's say Hoenn really likes the subject of black holes, as Gardevoir is known to create them and Dusclops pretty much acts like one: its body is said to be hollow and can absorb anything, no matter how large an object may be. Dayum. Also, Dusclops hypnotizes its foes and makes them do its biddig by moving its hands about in a macabre manner and bringing its single eye to bear. Dayum. It also likes being weird, as it seeks drifting will-o'-the-wisps and sucks them into its empty body. (Wait, does that mean it's consuming its kin? Duskull's German name is Zwirrlicht, which is a combination of Zwielicht and Irrlicht, meaning 'twilight' and 'will-o'-the-wisp', respectively.) Up till today, it remains a mystery what happens inside its body, but it is speculated that a spectral ball of fire is burning inside it. Not that anyone who has found out the truth can tell it through, as peering into Dusclops's body to see whether there actually is a mysterious fire burning inside its hollow body will only result in your spirit to be sucked into the void. Dayum. Contrary to Duskull, however, Dusclops is based on something much more uncommon than the universally recognized Grim Reaper: the chōchin-obake - literally a 'paper lantern ghost' - is a one-eyed haunted paper lantern, as its name implies. Dusclops even has some similarities to mummies, although this concept would be executed much better later on in the franchise in the form of Cofagrigus (have fun pronouncing that name). It has to be said, though, that Cofagrigus is in fact a sarcophagus rather than a mummy, but I cannot deny its cool design. And I don't want to know (yet) what houses inside it.

Brrrrrr, the realistic aesthetics make this Duskulll art very creepy. 

The weirdness doesn't end with Dusclops, however. It evolves into Dusknoir by trading it while letting it hold a Reaper Cloth, and if that ain't a reference to the Grim Reaper then I don't know what is. The cyclops aspect in Dusclops's design is retained, but Dusknoir's flavor is much weirder than its pre-evolution's: its antenna allows it to receive electrical waves from the spirit world that tell it to bring people there, although the anime has demonstrated it protecting people from being taken to the spirit world as well. These transmissions are a clear reference to electronic voice phenomena (EVP), which within ghost hunting and parapsychology are static noises found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices. Protecting people from the spirit world doesn't stop Dusknoir from opening the yellow band around its waist and take the lost spirits from people into its pliant body, however, just so to carry them home or as it travels to unknown places.

Dayum. Duskull and its evolutions are some of the scariest Pokémon out there.

This artist managed to make Dusclops look more mummy-like.
Pretty cool.

The most surprising thing is that both Dusclops and Dusknoir are very bulky Pokémon, sporting some amazing defenses. Their HP is trash, but by investing some EVs in this stat Dusclops and Dusknoir will be able to take plenty of hits. At least they'll survive long enough to do whatever they deem necessary before going down. As Dusclops doesn't have good attacking stats, it is better to use an Eviolite support set: the Eviolite buffs up both of its defensive stats by 50%, making it more bulky than it already is, while a Bold or Calm nature increases either its defense or special defense a little, depending on which one you want, really. Dusclops has access to some nifty status moves, too: Will-O-Wisp burns foes and especially cripples physical attackers, Destiny Bond makes it take an opponent with it when it gets knocked out, Night Shade lets it deal a fixed amount of damage depending on its level (in online battles its level is usually 50), and Rest lets it heal up fully but puts it asleep. Alternatively, Pain Split shares the remaining amount of HP between it and the opposing Pokémon, so if the foe has 151 HP left and Dusclops 21, both will end up at 86 HP... or at least that's how I think it works. It's a pretty good moveset and I'd actually recommend Pain Split over Rest, but both allow Dusclops to last on the battlefield longer than your opponent would wish. While aforementioned moveset works phenomenally, there's also moves like Curse, Substitute, Memento and Taunt to consider. However, Curse and Memento only make it harm itself to inflict some kind of status condition that fades away when the opposing Pokémon is switched out anyway, so they're hardly worth the hassle, while Substitute works better with the Leftovers, which Dusclops is not going to hold because it needs the Eviolite. The only good option is Taunt, which prevents Dusclops from being set-up bait. Smogon mentions a Calm Mind set, but that's just... bad. Dusclops's base 60 special attack is just really mediocre and even after one or two boosts it doesn't hit very hard. It's not supposed to, either, so just stick with the moveset I mentioned.

Dusknoir opening its hollow body in order to throw a Shadow Ball in its opponent's
face.

Dusknoir needs another approach. Not only does it have a higher base attack stat (100, as opposed to Dusclops's base 70 attack), it also has a good physical movepool. It can pull of a STAB Shadow Punch or Shadow Sneak and hit relatively hard or just with priority, while sporting some type coverage in moves like Earthquake, the elemental punches, Brick Break, Sucker Punch and Rock Slide. Give it an Adamant nature and the Leftovers as a held item - the Eviolite only works on Pokémon that are yet to evolve, so it's useless on Dusknoir - and you'll be sure it lasts long enough to cause some significant damage to the opposing team. Alternatively, a Life Orb or Choice Band can be used for some more oomph behind its attacking moves. Both Dusclops and Dusknoir are best off with the ability Pressure, which takes an extra PP point from the move it is attacked with (I'm pretty sure it only works on damaging moves), so ignore its hidden ability Frisk.

One big happy family... I guess?

While I love the Duskull line's flavor texts, their designs don't really appeal to me all that much. Duskull and Dusclops are alright, but the more rotund shape of Dusknoir just seems really off to me. I'm not a fan of fat-looking Pokémon in the first place, anyway. For example, I'm not as big a fan of Snorlax as I probably should be; it's a fan favorite and I just don't get why. And you'd better remember my review of Lickilicky, who is my least favorite Pokémon in existence and will be my least favorite Pokémon until the day I die - which, hopefully, won't be for another 70 years at least. Of all the 'fatty' Pokémon thus far, Dusknoir is still the one I like the most - not in the least because of its flavor - so I reckon a 4-star rating will suffice here.

Rating: 4/5

#353 - #354: Shuppet & Banette

In comparison to Gastly (left) and Duskull (middle), Shuppet is
kinda cute. 

Oh, you thought the Alola Pokédex was scary? Trust me, I'm sure Shuppet and Banette's Pokédex entries from Ruby and Sapphire will send shivers down your spine.

Granted, Shuppet isn't that terrifying. It's basically harmless, aside from the fact that it is attracted by and feeds on feelings of envy, vindictiveness, malice and sadness. According to its Ruby Pokédex entry, Shuppet will appear in a swarm and line up beneath the eaves of a vengeful person's home, which means they're basically the ghost equivalent of a wasp nest hanging under your roof. Shuppet actively roam the city streets in search of negative emotions and catch them with their upright horns. The biggest stumbling block here is Shuppet's origin. While its shape is more reminiscent of a teru teru bōzu than Castform's, it has absolutely nothing to do with the weather whatsoever. It seems to be based on a hand puppet; more specifically, a puppet used in shadow play, an ancient form of puppetry using flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) that are held between a source of light and a translucent screen of some sort.

Imagine Banette scratching at your window... A child who has
junked their doll in the Pokémon world must be having a hard
time, knowing Banette could come for them any moment.
Damn, this here image could have been a scene straight out of
a horror movie (or game). 

In short, Shuppet is based on some kind of toy, and this aspect blends perfectly with its evolution Banette, who is a whole lot scarier than Shuppet is. Banette is a doll-like Pokémon with a zipper that acts as its mouth and makes sure its life force is safely kept within its body. Whereas Shuppet mainly feeds on feelings of hatred, it becomes maliciously vengeful itself when it evolves into Banette: it lives on landfill sites and in dark alleys, where it seeks for the child that disowned it before it became a Pokémon (although it used to be a Shuppet first; great consistency there, Game Freak!). It even lays curses on people and other Pokémon by using its body as a voodoo doll and sticking pins into itself. My guess is that Banette is universally feared in the Pokémon world. I love this franchise, but even I wouldn't want to live in a world inabited by such capricious creatures, although I'd imagine a Luxray by my side to protect me if ever I were to live in the Pokémon world. Banette is almost realistically eerie - heck, its Gen. III sprites actually make it look like a possessed doll, before its sprites became more animated in later generations - and that makes me think it wouldn't feel out of place in one of those Five Nights at Freddy's games, which are undoubtedly to blame for a sudden increase in phobias about dolls and teddy bears. Inanimate objects coming to life is not a new thing, either: tools that have required a spirit are called tsukumogami in Japanese folklore.

For a discarded doll, Banette is actually pretty strong. Unfortunately it has inherited the trait of dolls being relatively fragile, although in terms of Pokémon stats it is actually very fragile. Banette can hit hard with its base 115 attack stat, but it can barely take a hit in return, nor can it take a hit first due to its equally low speed. Luckily, there's an answer: Mega Banette. Now, Mega Banette may not be that much faster than regular Banette, but the extra base points in speed help, as do the base points in its defenses. Of course, the biggest boost goes to its attack, which is now a base 165. However, Mega Banette has the ability Prankster by default, which means it'll always hit first with whatever status move you're throwing at your opponent. Almost all ghost types learn Will-O-Wisp, so burning the foe to whittle it down is a ridiculously viable tactic, especially since the 50% attack reduction heavily cripples physical attackers. And if a certain Pokémon poses a real threat to you, you can just click Destiny Bond and be done with it - obviously you'll lose Mega Banette as well, but you'll just have to strategize from there. That leaves two spots for attacking moves, and as one of them has to be STAB, I recommend Shadow Claw. The other could be Knock Off, which doubles in power when you manage to knock off the opposing Pokémon's held item, but ghost- and dark-type moves cover the same types anyway, so you might as well go for a priority STAB move in Shadow Sneak.

It's not as if you have any other choice, because the rest of its physical moves are ghost- and dark-type moves that are not worth mentioning and... Gunk Shot. It's not a terrible idea, don't get me wrong, but Gunk Shot doesn't have much PP and isn't very accurate, so it's nothing to get excited about. Banette's special movepool is much better, but if you're smart - and you probably are - you're running an Adamant nature to make use of that crazy attack stat. I mean, Banette didn't Mega-evolve just for you to make use of its base 93 special attack, right? And should you want to use regular Banette - make sure you have one with the ability Insomnia, which prevents it from falling asleep - I guess a mixed Life Orb set could do the job.

Mega Banette - obviously the one with zippers all over its body - and Shuppet.

I always forgot about Banette until it got a Mega evolution in the first place, which indicates that it's not really a memorable Pokémon. It's a shame, really. I mean, how creepier can you get than with a discarded doll possessed by a vindictive spirit, dedicating its life to finding the child that left it behind? This should be a bedtime story, period. Teach your kids to play with their toys in a respectful way, or let them think about whether they really need anything before it's bought and ultimately abandoned, or else their toys will come alive to take revenge on them.

Some lesson that would be, innit?

Rating: 4.5/5

#352: Kecleon

3D art of a regular Kecleon. 

So... I'm back, I guess? I can't promise I'll post as frequently as I used to, but at least I've got a little bit more time on my hands now, so let's dive into the next review.

Kecleon is one of those one-off Pokémon that is... not interesting by any means. It is common knowledge that most species of chameleons have the ability to change their skin color to blend in with its surroundings, and Kecleon is no different. It works as follows: chameleon skin has a superficial layer that contains pigments, and by changing the space between the guanine crystals (guanine is one of the four nucleobases found in DNA and RNA) found in the cells under that layer, a chameleon can easily change its skin color. It's a matter of light reflection: if the space between the guanine crystals is altered, the wavelength of light reflected off the crystals is altered as well, causing the chameleon to take on a different color. The only flaw Kecleon has is that it is unable to change the color of the red zigzag pattern on its belly, making it somewhat visible even if the rest of its body can't be seen. Its 95% invisibility suffices for sneaking up on prey unnoticed and ensnaring it with its long pink tongue, though, so Kecleon has nothing to complain about.

Reddy and Greeny in "The Kecleon Caper", under the ownership of Madison and
Alexa. I wonder how Madison came up with the name 'Reddy', because the purple
Kecleon is obviously... well, purple. 

The only thing that confuses me is the purple Kecleon seen in the anime and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. Kecleon is usually green, and shiny Kecleon only has its stripe color changed to blue rather than its whole body to a completely different color scheme. It's a bland shiny and I had rather we got an official purple shiny Kecleon than the current shiny, but alas... purple Kecleon is only observable in the anime, and not even in the Hoenn saga. Kecleon was introduced in "The Kecleon Caper", which is the 48th episode of the fourth season and still takes place in Johto rather than Hoenn, making Kecleon the first Gen. III Pokémon to be seen in the anime. Despite introducing a brand new Pokémon at the time, the episode seems to be one of the most generic ones now that I'm reading through the summary: there's nothing more to it than Ash, Brock and Misty showing off their Pokémon to two strangers and rescuing their Kecleon from Team Rocket. One other way to admire a purple Kecleon is in the Nintendo DS games of the Mystery Dungeon installment, where an old purple Kecleon is seen running the Kecleon Shop with a younger green one. They don't do anything other than selling you shit or buying shit from you, so I guess the purple Kecleon serves no other purpose than being a small aesthetic shake-up.

Kecleon as seen in the Nintendo DS games of the
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon installment. Instead of
beige nails and a beige pettern running across its face,
these features are now mint green.  

And it's not as if Kecleon is a highly competitively viable Pokémon, either. It currently resides in the NU tier, one of the lowest tiers for fully evolved Pokémon on Smogon, and it genuinely takes a genius to make its moveset work. A base stat total of 440 seems decent to work with, but Kecleon's base 120 special defense takes up most of it. I think Kecleon has no business being so specially defensive - it doesn't look defensive by any means; on the contrary, it looks a little like a pushover. Aside from that, though, its special defense is hardly backed up by its HP, which is mediocre at best. Kecleon is also really slow and therefore it has to rely on priority moves like Sucker Punch, which got a nerf in Sun and Moon and only has 5 PP - 8 when you use a PP Max or three PP Ups on it. Its base 90 attack stat means that all of the EVs you have to invest in this Pokémon go to its HP and attack, leaving practically no room for boosting any other stat. The only thing you can do is to run a Brave nature (lowers speed, increases attack) over an Adamant one (lowers special attack, increases attack), just so you can use special moves if necessary. Kecleon has a wide movepool, sporting Sucker Punch, Brick Break, Rock Slide, Return, Drain Punch, Aqua Tail, Iron Tail, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Fake Out and Knock Off on the physical side of the spectrum. For special moves, it has access to popular ones like Ice Beam, Blizzard. Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Grass Knot, Shadow Ball and even Psybeam and Ancient Power. You can even throw Magic Coat into the mix in order for you to reflect certain status moves back to the opponent. The good thing is that Kecleon can get STAB from all of its attacking moves, no matter which ones you choose, because its hidden ability Protean makes it change into the type of the move it's about to use (e.g. if it uses Flamethrower, it becomes a fire type). That combined with a Life Orb allows Kecleon to hit fairly hard, although there are genuinely much better options for you to choose from.

Is it bad that I think the purple Kecleon is so much more interesting than regular
Kecleon?

Here's the thing, though... while I was pretty negative about Kecleon throughout this article, I don't hate it at all. The problem here is that there's nothing about its flavor or in-game utility that makes it stand out to me, although I have to say I really like its design. It's not as colorful as I hoped it would have been, but Game Freak made that up to some extent by giving us that purple Kecleon, if only sporadically. In fact, I haven't seen it since the Mystery Dungeon games, and I low-key feel kinda sad about that. I always thought Kecleon was weaker than it actually is, being mediocre in almost everything, so I was kind of taken aback when I saw its decent base attack stat. Okay, maybe 'being taken aback' is too strong a term to describe what happened, but at least you can say I frowned.

Long story short, I do like Kecleon, but I wish Game Freak had done a little bit more to make it at least more viable. Now it seems like everyone is forgetting about Kecleon, while it definitely doesn't deserve such a fate.

Rating: 3.5/5