Hey guys! It’s been a while; all this news about X/Y has made it very difficult for the regular articles to be scheduled. Thankfully for this article, the news slowed down for now, and we’re able to get into actually posting some articles.
I have to say though, we haven’t learned much about these three starters, but I think I can still do some quick summaries on the three of them. This probably won’t be the best Pokéology, since I can only work off what I see now, but I think you guys will enjoy it.
Basis
[spoiler]
So let’s start out of order and get straight to Froakie.
There may be some people who would debate whether it’s a frog or a toad, but Froakie is definitely a frog. Frogs have smooth, moist skin, as well as long, often bent hind legs. They do not have ridges for their eyes, and so their eyes simply come upwards from their head. Judging by those factors, I think we can all agree it’s a frog.
But where do we start from there? There’s so many species of frog. However, tree frogs are the first thing that comes to mind when I see Froakie, and this quickly led me to an interesting creature. You can see it up there; you may argue with the color, but we can get to that. This is the Yellow-eyed tree frog, also known as the blue-sided tree frog.
This fella is one of the only species of frog with vivid yellow eyes, and it’s a distinctive feature. However, something else catches my eye, although it’s not very visible in the photo above. This frog has white pads on its feet; they’re not visible in that picture, but it’s a very vivid white much like Froakie, and only on the palms and underbelly.
Also, there’s a darkish blue that lines their sides in bands. Personally, if I were to look at Froakie, one might think the design cue for the band between its eyes came from a frog known for its blue bands? Still, on the topic of color, it’s green. However, think about this; could you really imagine a water type starter not being blue? They all have to be colors matching their types, so naturally this green frog would be changed to blue.
Honestly, it’s gonna be hard writing with this picture in my article. My golly. It’s already distracting me.
Fennekin really has no debate as to the basis, but I have to cover all the bases for this basis. Yeah; that joke was a miserable attempt to keep this section interesting.
So here’s the fennec fox. I’d say that it is one of the most popular mammals, they’re known mainly for their massive ears. However, they’re a much more interesting species– for instance, their ears are so adapted that they can hear insects crawling under the sand. This is pretty important in a desert devoid of food, however, they have some interesting methods as well.
Fennec foxes are community based, and make massive dens for individual families. This means that they can divide their food and work, while protecting themselves from predatory eagles. In some cases, dens of individual families may merge and form huge colonies of fennecs.
By the way, their ears? They dissipate heat. So I have to throw some speculation in here and say that Fennekin may very well have fire coming out of its ears in a later evolution; this would mean that it dissipates the internal fire through its large ears.
Honestly, I had to save the hardest for last. This is all up in the air, and we truly have to see from the evolutions, but I think we have some idea on it.
Chespin’s Japanese name, Harimaron, appears to be a combination of hedgehog and chestnut. Now, I would have guessed hedgehog before I saw that name, but it’s the only main factor pointing us to a species.
Frankly, judging by the spines on Chespin already, it should very well be a hedgehog. However, on the other hand, we see that Chespin has some massive rear claws, and this could mean that it is very well a different species. However, we can only really get a good idea of it from its evolutions, and I’d prefer to stay a bit reserved about it until then. Heck, maybe it’s a dinosaur? We really can’t say much for a fact at this point, but a hedgehog is my best guess.
[/spoiler]
Biology
[spoiler]
So here we have a rather happy looking creature with some interesting creature.
The first identifying feature would be the green hood-like form that covers its back and head. Second, the eye would spot the large pair of claws, and then finally the tail. Other than that, some key features include the small buck teeth, and the very small, paddle-like arms.
It seems that the arms are very underdeveloped, and lack much in the form of fingers or claws. The feet, however, are already rather developed, and have a fine set of claws. These claws clearly protect it from just about any predator that would go after it, and seem to be the key factor in its survival.
However, it also has a very strange covering over the back of it, which appears to be some kind of chestnut-like plant. This is most likely a symbiotic plant that uses Chespin to gather sunlight, while Chespin gets a rigid coat to use in its defense.
Chespin also has a small set of buck teeth, which would be good at gnawing at wood. However, we have to see where these teeth end up.
Arguable one of the cutest starters ever, here’s Fennekin.
Fennekin is a very small Pokémon, but it has plenty of space to stand its own.
It has four small legs, a bushy puff tail, two massive ears, tufts on fur across the body, a small nose, and two large eyes.
The legs, although small and undeveloped, appear to be very swift. These legs look very much like they could outrun a predator of almost any size, and appear to be flexible enough to maneuver through bushes or into the tree tops.
However, Fennekin clearly does not live in a canopy, as it has many features to protect it from the scalding heat of a desert. For a start, the large ears would easily dissipate heat. Next, the tufts of fur would help insulate the body and keep the head out, whilst the light color of its fur would reflect the heat and light away from its body.
We can see there are some parts to Fennekin which are dark reds; it’s likely that these are heat sinks which draw in heat to specific points. This may very well be related to its powers as a fire-type, and we’ll have to see how things pan out.
The eyes on Fennekin are very large and would easily spot prey from a great distance. This means, alongside its large ears, it can spot prey in a desert with very little effort.
This should be pretty simple.
The key features on Froakie would be its two flexible legs, the two long arms, the bubble coated back, the white spheres on its nose, and the massive eyes.
First of all, we can see Froakie is a very active creature in the visual world. The massive eyes would allow Froakie to see at both night and day, and to see a very large area at one time. This would really help Froakie in escape from predators, as well as tracking down prey.
Froakie’s large, spindly legs appear to have much muscle around the joint, allowing it to easily jump through the air without much effort. Combined with the large eyes, Froakie could immediately react and leap away from predators, or towards prey.
It has two large, white masses on its nasal area, which may very well be nostrils; implying a great sense of smell as well. However, the eyes outshine these nostrils, and Froakie remains a visual hunter.
The long arms, however, beg many questions. Does it grab its prey with these hands? Does it use them for swimming? Is it using them intellectually? Sadly, I can’t answer this without any knowledge of the Pokémon, as we haven’t learned anything about where and how it lives yet.
The same thing goes for the bubbles, but in my guess, the bubbles form some sort of protective barrier for Froakie, whether that be visual camouflage, or simply a bubble-like shield.
Still, many questions; which we will find hopefully find the answers to in the future.
[/spoiler]
So I know I had my own questions, but I think we got a lot of that out of the way. I’m excited to learn more about these three, as we clearly have a lot we could find out in the future. I mean, not even game-wise; think of all the biological concepts we could learn from the new generation!
Yeah, I’m the only person who would say that. Either way, I hope you enjoyed the article; it was quite different writing it about Pokémon which I have no real knowledge about.
My question for you though is what starter is your favorite? I haven’t truly decided yet; though I’m leaning towards Fennekin or Froakie. As always, I’m excited to get to talk to you guys in the comments, so don’t feel afraid to ask questions or point things out!
-Mechanos
I like to get all three but it would definitely depend on final evolution typing. I might go with Froakie because he kind of reminds me of that Warner Brothers frog that dances with the cane and top hot.
http://pastebin.com/Z2tMiaJR
“Coming soon”
Pokemon X · Y
Aienki region
Kasumaron / Chespike
Yarimaron / Chespear
Is lightly lye-type:
Honoko / Flannec
Ferunoko / Fernox
Esper-flame type:
Kerobabu / Ribbub
Juumatsu / Froabanet
Water and Fighting type:
Atorubi / Finchett
Atoruee / Finches form X
Atoruno / Fincho form Y
Legendary Pokemon
· Grass Zeruneasu? ? ?
Iberutaru flame? ? ?
Zanaruoru rock / Zanarol ·? ? ?
Private railway steel / Dereyn
Runaseki rock / Lunyrite
Sikasso flame / Stapyre
> M>
Apparently it’s a leak. Not sure if it’s real or not.
Confirmed it fake earlier today :p
For me the second types are:
Chespin: Grass/Steel (empoleon)
Fennekin: Fire/Ground (torterra)
Froakie: Water/Fighting (fire types)
nothing will cause strangeness
for me it’s impossible they will take out the fighting type after 3 generations
For the legendaries:
Xerneas: Psyquic/Water
Yveltal: Fire/Grass
If you look to the Y symbol in the logo you can see it’s a tree, with two branchs on the top and root under. If you look inside the Yveltal body it’s all a black branch, maybe he can change to green between seasons.
In the japanese logo you can see a Leaf (nature, grass type?) with four colors, green, red, pink and blue, representing their types.
Just my opinion, two strong combinations.
Chespin = Pine = Porcupine?
the pin is simply from “pin” as in a “needle” or “pin”. “Hari” (from its Japanese name) means Pin/needle. Also “Harinezumi”means hedgehog :3
I think I’ll be getting Chespin but that is very likely to change because I’m waiting for the secondary types(should they get any).
Also, first thing that came to mind when I first saw Chespin was a ferret. Not sure how likely this is, but they do have similar tails, faces(noses), bodies, (in some cases)color(the brown not the green “v”), and the back legs of a ferret are more claw like than the front legs. Only huge knock that I can see is that Ferrets are quadrupedal while Chespin is Bipedal, however Boars aren’t Bipedal either(yeah I’m looking at you Emboar >.>).
Oh… before I forget, great job as usual on the article, especially given the very limited information we have on these three. Don’t know if PJ has a sort of Poster of the Year or Author of the Year or anything like that, but if they do, I say your off to a great start.
Finally, and most importantly, WHAT VERSION SHOULD I PREORDER!?!?!?!? X OR Y !?!?!?!? I’m going to Gamestop to preorder one of the two this weekend and don’t know which one to get. I prefer Yvetal but we have no information on either of them. -_-
Oops… meant to include this in my post at the part on Chespin’s possible basis, http://goo.gl/TcvkQ
Depending on which country your in as some Gamestops charge to simply preorder, I know i work there lol minimum deposits 5euro in my store…….. you should preorder both 😉 then cross your fingers that there a free gift later on because u preordered and get double the fun lol 😉 😀
My Gamestop has you put a minimum of $5(I live in the USA) down towards it, but it doesn’t cost anymore. I preorder just about every game I know I’m going to get just for bonuses. I’m leaning towards Y right now.
Nice analysis! 😀 It’s all up in the air right now, so we’ll have to see.
Thank you so much though!
Just came across this (http://goo.gl/TwSco), despite being fake due to the incorrect Japanese(from what IGN comments have said, I don’t speak Japanese so I don’t know), can we look forward to something like that? Main problem I’d have with it would be that it was obviously Fire/Fight.
Yeah, it’s composed of too many characters to be a Pokémon name (Japanese uses up to 5 characters).
I personally don’t like the look of it. I really hope Fenekin doesn’t become bipedal.
Personally,the detailing on Fennekin suggests it will say a quadruped. See the tuffs of hair on its back legs? They seem to be one of the few extra details added to Fennekin, and when they add any detail to a starter, it’s going to be important.
Now, imagine trying to design a bipedal fox with tuffs of hair off its back legs? I can’t really see it happening. If they truly make it bipedal though, I’d moreso expect a sorta werewolf-gait at the end, with the front arms being on the ground even if they’re highly developed.
Either way I think the key details suggest a quadruped.
From what I see with the starters, is that they each usually have one main feature that continues to develop as a sorta (for lack of a better word) key feature.
-Bulbasaur – It’s bulb
-Charmander – My brother says it’s tail, but I like to say it’s the spikes/horn like thing on the lines head, going from 0 to 2 by Charizard.
-Squirtle – The cannons are obviously the key feature of Blastoise but the feature that develops mostly throughout the line that they all share is the Tail, particularly, the tail resembling the head shape/ears.
-Chikorita – This one could be argued that it’s the leaf/antenna(Meganium), but the leaf isn’t constant, the antennas, while to represent a part of a flower, I think it is the bulbs/pods around the neck that eventually develop into full grown flowers.
-Cyndaquil – The flame on it’s back that seems to develop from a blanket of sorts, into a hat-like appearance, all the way into a collar of sorts. Which given Cyndaquil’s baby-like nature, would represent it’s growth.
-Totadile – The spine-like scales on it’s back and head.
-Treeko – Similar to Squirtle, the tail grows to resemble the head/ears.
-Torchic – Torchic really has two that are hard to argue with, the head-feathers and the legs. As you go through the lines, Torchic has nothing covering it’s talons/feet, which I believe shows that it is an infant(diaper). Then, Combusken appears to have shorts on, which in the pokemon world, have usually been worn by kids. Finally, Combusken has full-blown pant-like feathers covering his talons.
-Mudkip – This one is similar to Treeko and Squirtle in that the tail(fin) resembles and almost mirrors the growth and change in the fins that are on it’s head throughout the line.
-Turtwig – This one is the most obvious(other than maybe Bulbasaur), the growth of a sapling into a bush, then into a tree on it’s head and shell.
-Chimchar – This one is probably the most difficult to actually use as a pattern, but I believe that is the growth of the tail, it continues to get longer and closer to the head before, eventually, transferring the fire from the tail to the head.
-Piplup – It’s torso continues to grow into more of a formal attire/suit-like pattern.
-Snivy – It’s tassel(?)-like yellow features on it’s shoulders eventually develop into a full-blown collar
-Tepig – It’s tail starts out looking like a little bomb, then it festers up a bit as Pignite, before finally blowing up as an Emboar.
-Oshawott – Obviously, it’s shell. No further explanation needed.
(Sorry about the length of some of those, just wanted to make sure my reasoning is clear)
On to the point I’m trying to make, I think each starter-line has a distinct feature that it develops mostly while evolving, whilst dropping other features. The features for these three, I think will be as follows:
-Chespin – It’s hood-like pins/needles.
-Fennekin – The tuffs of fur in it’s ears, their way too flamboyant(or flameboyant [yay for bad puns =) ]) to not be.
-Froakie, it’s cloak-like bubbles on it’s back.
Sorry for the length of that post but, I feel it contributes to the topic and you made me think of it by pointing out the tuffs of fur on Fennekin’s hind legs.
Awesome post. It was a fun and enlightening read 🙂
No, don’t apologize! Thank you for that! it’s a nice read.
I think you’re pretty spot on!
My favorite is froakie 😀 => I really like froakies quirky design. It makes me think it looks like a happy frog who enjoys lazing about by the waterside haha. I do however see it becoming water/fighting.
Chespin is my second favorite, a happy little face with a simplistic design but one that works amazingly well. Especially when his little spikes become slightly sharper when he attacks in the video. I picture it bulking up and becoming a bad-ass poké. With a Grass/Dark typing.
Fennekin , despite being the fan favorite according to numerous polls, is my least favorite. 🙁 It’s just a little too cute for me, that being said its evolution could be sheer crazyness and look like an epic Fox-beast 😀
So much hate on Chespin. To me Chespin looks the coolest the fox looks too girly and the frog is eh(looks too much like a digimon). I’m definitely picking Chespin if its Evos look awesome
650 – Chespin – Grass
651 – Chesprik – Grass
652 – Chespike – Grass/Fighting
653 – Fennekin – Fire
654 – Fennixen – Fire
655 – Kindlfaux – Fire/Psychic
656 – Froakie – Water
657 – Froaklin – Water/Electric
658 – Froakertz – Water/Electric
659 – Tomcait – Normal
660 – Ellicait – Normal
661 – Folfether – Dark/Flying
662 – Punkflock – Dark/Flying
663 – Monogoon – Bug
664 – Monocoon – Bug
665 – Monolark – Bug/Flying
666 – Spectie – Ghost
667 – Spectrous – Ghost
668 – Quarel – Rock
669 – Quareltine – Rock/Poison
670 – Renesea – Water/Poison
671 – Siguard – Psychic
672 – Hitontao – Fighting
673 – Bombatt – Fire/Flying
674 – Battalione – Fire/Flying
675 – Burrden – Ground
676 – Burroweld – Ground/Steel
677 – Tiberone – Ice
678 – Tiberette – Ice/Fighting
679 – Cotontale – Normal/Grass
680 – Cotonwell – Normal/Grass
681 – F-00 – Steel
682 – F-00-R2 – Steel
683 – Serportal – Rock/Bug
684 – Shacklsnak Rock/Bug
685 – Rufemup – Fighting
686 – Beatemup – Fighting
687 – Grendank – Dark
688 – Grendoul – Dark
689 – Draekling – Dragon
690 – Draeken – Dragon
691 – Draekolde – Dragon
692 – Clowdrip – Water/Flying
693 – Clowdrench – Water/Flying
694 – Fishmael – Water
695 – Mobyael – Water
696 – Gabbigon – Dragon
697 – Shelshine – Ground
698 – Shelshock – Ground/Electric
699 – Sibearia – Ice
700 – Xerneas – Normal
701 – Yveltal – Dark/Flying
702 – Zagriela – Psychic/Dragon
703 – Oblinke – Psychic/Ice
704 – ???
705 – ???
I can certainly tell you that a generation with only 50 new Pokemon is not going to happen.
The thing that was said about 700 was that there were “much more than 700 pokemon in the national dex including the new ones”, not “there are only 700 national dex pokemon” when Masuda was talking about it.
Where’s ancient genesect, and the original dragon? Where’s the source as well?
there are rumors that say that genesect could be a kabutops. looking at it’s features and comparing their pokedex entries, it may be one. and about the original dragon….well so far all we have is this…
http://jb2448.info/var/resizes/Magazine_Scans/Pokemon_Special_BW_c18.5/06.png?m=1357783020
MAaa said there would be over 700 pokemon. If your leak Is true, there is a post 6 gen dex probably they might pull of another g/s and d/p exept hide ALOT more pokemon a.k.a houndpur, murkrow, togekis, etc. Anyway, Gabbigon sound related to Druddiogon.
sorry I meant masuda
GAME FREAK, Plleeeease read this: I really want Mewthree, or X-Mew, or whatever it’s called, please use it and Pikaleaf. Ya’ll bought the rights from Pikaleaf’s creator, and I am aware Ash might be replaced, So Pikaleaf could make up for it.