Generation 6 Speculation: The Starters

jan_8_announcement Unown-Question

We don’t know what the January 8th announcement will be, but it’s a pretty sure bet that no matter what Generation 6 will be launching this year or the next. All of us here at PokeJungle are pumped for the newest set of Pokemon games and we’re sure you are too! Before we get any hard facts, let’s take a look at what we think might happen, both in this article and through your comments!

Today, let’s look at the starters that we’ll have to choose from in Gen VI!

Grass Starter

[spoiler]As the grass starter always seems to be number one in the trio, it seems pertinent to tackle it first. The first five generations it’s had two sub-types; Poison in Generation 1 and Ground in Generation 4. Poison was an advantage for the most part as it eliminated some of Grass-type’s weaknesses, but the Ground pairing ended up giving Torterra a 4x weakness to Ice-type attacks. Ouch.

For the next generation, there are two type combinations that I’d love to see for the Grass-type starter that I’ll inevitably use: Grass/Rock or Grass/Electric. Both of these combinations reduce Grass-type’s weaknesses and also grant it some offensive OOMPH.  Unfortunately, Rock is strong against Fire and designers may feel that it would give the starter too much of an edge. The electric sub-typing is good against Water, but so is Grass, so there’s not that much difference there.  I think it could be a very interesting type combination that’s currently only held by Mow Rotom.

As far as the design goes… Grass-type starters have all shared a dinosaur-derived/reptilian look. Following my very hopeful Grass/Electric typing, I think an Apatosaurus may be a good design cue. It’s name was even originally derived from ‘Thunder Lizard’, it goes perfectly! Meganium does share a somewhat similar look, but there’s a lot of room to incorporate different plant species which could totally change the design from Generation II’s Grass-type starter.[/spoiler]

Fire Starter

[spoiler]The Fire-type starters have had a 3 generation run of Fire/Fighting typing.  That needs to change. Although it really isn’t all that bad, it’s gotten really really stale. Charizard also had the interesting Fire/Flying typing, but it did get a painful 4x Rock-type weakness.

What would be best going forward?  I think if it has a sub-type (plain ‘ol Fire would be fine with me) the best options would be Fire/Steel or Fire/Dark. The first does have a disadvantage, a 4x Ground-type weakness, but does get a lot of resistances.  A nice trade-off in my opinion.  The second typing would give the starter no double weaknesses and a pretty decent spread for coverage.

So what may the design be based off of…? Fire-type starters actually have a running theme of the Chinese Zodiac.  We’ve seen a Dragon (Charizard), Rat (Typhlosion), Rooster (Blaziken), Monkey (Infernape), and Pig (Emboar), but what we don’t have are an ox, tiger, rabbit, snake, horse, ram, or dog. I would have to assume that one of these animals will be featured in Generation 6. A steel sub-type could be added in to fit almost any animal, as could dark.  I see a tiger as being the most logical choice as it fits the aggressive look of most of the fiery starters.[/spoiler]

Water Starter

[spoiler]Water has had two very interesting sub-types; Ground and Steel. Otherwise it, out of the three types, has remained without a sub-type the most (3 out of 5 Generations). Ground was beneficial as it left it with only one weakness, but it was a rather painful 4x weakness to Grass-types. Steel was even better, leaving it with only 3 weaknesses and a host of resisted types.

In Generation 6 I think that there definitely needs to be an interesting sub-type combination to keep things fresh. Water has a host of types it works well with and I think the three best would be Water/BugWater/Dark, and Water/Poison. None have more than 4 weaknesses and all could help the type in certain situations. Out of these I think the Poison sub-type would be most interesting.

Why do I think that? Because it’s a perfect opportunity! It’d be a great excuse to use the only venomous mammal, the platypus, as design inspiration for the line. Water starters have been a varied bag in their designs and I couldn’t come up with any solid line that connects them all (feel free to show me otherwise though!) so something like a platypus could fit in with relative ease. Their beaks also offer an interesting design element that goes very well with an aquatic theme.[/spoiler]

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the subject… so please leave a comment!

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