It’s official, the January 8th announcement is a global announcement… not unlike the one which ultimately revealed Zekrom and Reshiram to fans across the world. Our speculation continues today, this time considering what new Pokémon we might expect in “Gen VI”.
Design Inspirations
[spoiler]» So, what real world animal hasn’t already been used as some sort of inspiration for a Pokémon? Although there are already over 650 of the latter there are still a lot of untapped real world creatures that haven’t been drawn from. Included in these are a lot of unique insects, plants, and mammals which can be found all over the globe. For example, why not a ‘sea sponge‘ Pokémon? Couldn’t be worse than Luvdisc, right? While on the subject of marine life, how about a Yeti Crab inspired pocket monster? I’d also like to see another snail, Macargo is awesome and all, but its typing left a lot to be desired.
» Of course, we don’t just want real life animals re-purposed into Pokémon, there needs to be some original ideas in there as well. Drawing inspiration from some Japanese folklore would be a treat (ala Golduck as a take on the Japanese Kappa). As was mentioned in some rumors long ago, I am still waiting for my haunted umbrella monster! Another good example of a folklore-inspired Pokémon is the oft-forgotten Dunsparce and its snake-monster origins.
» As to what else could come, that remains to be seen. Many of these ideas will simply come from the minds of Game Freak employees and there’s no predicting what they’ll come up with. I certainly didn’t expect to see anything based on an ice-cream cone.[/spoiler]
Typing
[spoiler]» One of the key parts of the Pokémon franchise has always been the various types, such as Grass, Fire, and Water. Part of the series’ strategy is solely derived from the combination of a Pokémon’s typing and the moves which it uses against its opponent which can take advantages of strengths and weaknesses. There are some unused type combos at this time which would be great to see in a new generation of Pokémon games.
» Although polar opposites, Fire/Water and Fire/Grass could both make for interesting pocket monsters. An oil spill on fire and a burning tree? Fire/Poison is another combo that hasn’t been used either; lots of missed potential. Another type pair that hasn’t gotten any love is Electric/Psychic, a pretty fearsome set that might have lightning rods shooting between twistedspoons. Wouldn’t want to meet that beast in a dark alley. Others include Rock/Dragon, Poison/Dragon, Grass/Ghost, the list goes on… so many ideas left!
» Finally, what about a brand new type? Because I run this website, I’ve seen a lot of commenters express wishes for and against the idea of adding something new into the mix. While I think a ‘Light’-type may be a hard sell, I’d love to see a ‘Cosmic’-type which takes more design inspirations from stellar sources. Deoxys could also be retroactively added into this new type. Yes, no? We already have moves such as Cosmic Power and Meteor Mash, it’s conceivable that the creators have their minds in intergalactic places already.[/spoiler]
New Ideas
[spoiler]» Another important aspect of the series is evolution. It will be interesting to see if any new features get added into this part of the game and how it would change the way we play. Generation II introduced new evolution-stone based lines and also happiness evolutions. Generation V also added an interesting evolution which required two specific Pokémon to be traded wirelessly. There have also been many evolutions which could only be triggered if the target was holding a very specific item. What’s next? Could we see Pokémon fusions?
» We’ve also had downloadable Pokémon which are only available at retail locations, but what if there were location-based evolutions that made you travel to a real world store just so your beloved Pokémon could reach the next stage?! Sounds farfetch’d, but anything’s possible…[/spoiler]
Hope that the discussion keeps going! Your ideas for starters had me intrigued and many of them were better than my own 😉 Perhaps Nintendo will ‘borrow’ a few for Gen VII? We can only hope…1
<3 Jungle
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