Sun and Moon legendary types - Part 2

An interesting easy to miss detail has been spotted in an alternate shorter trailer for Sun&Moon:

As you can see, even though Solgaleo has the Sun-Symbol on its forehead, Lunaala has this symbol instead of the Moon-symbol.

And it looks far too reminiscent of the Psychic-Symbol to be ignored.

In part 1 I mentioned that I could see the mascots be dual type, only if they shared the Psychic type due to the cosmic association it has had in the past (Deoxys, Lunatone/Solrock, Elgyem, Psy Gym leaders of Hoenn and especially Kalos). In that case, I expected Psychic/Fire and Psychic/Flying.

But now this info changes it. Since only Lunaalas forhead symbol resembles the Psychic eye, I'm now convinced that Psychic will be Lunaalas core type, having the same importance as Fire for Solgaleo.

Nothing changes in it most likely having a secondary Flying type.

Although I'm sad that the chances for Ghost have dropped tremendously now (while the popular Fairy speculation has no chance at all at this point), Psychic does make sense to fit a more bright aspect of this legendary (weheras Ghost, or Dark, are sort of contradictory to it), better fitting the attack it uses, as well as the Moon thematically being a light-source worthy of rivaling the sun itself. It would also further reassure that the moon-association IS NOT exclusive to the Fairy type, and that Cresselia is justified in being a pure Psychic (there is Musharna who evolves via Moon Stone as well).

Also, the mascots being Fire and Psychic? There is our first GS-homage already.

Sun and Moon legendaries

So that's it, we're not going any place near Kalos, but on the complete opposite of the planet, Hawaii (as many people have been speculating based on plenty of hints).

But I'm surely not the only one feeling like Kalos still desperately needs some form of closure, right?

That's why I've been thinking lately, perhaps it is not that Gen7 IS the sequel to Gen6, but rather Gen7 is a mirror, a counterpart to Gen6. (with them both getting a closure together after Sun&Moon?)

If that were the case, what better way to show that, than by making the Sun&Moon legends contrast the XY legends? Xerneas and Yveltal (and Zygarde..) share one colour in their designs prominently: black. I watched the trailer, and sure thing, Solgaleo and Lunaala (or whatever the english spelling will be) are both part white.

I would not be surprised if we find out that there is a third white legendary, Sun and Moons equivalent of Zygarde, but we'll go deeper into that some other time.

Meanwhile, here is a graphic I made to represent the idea of Gen6 and Gen7 mascot legends being part of one family:

The Legendary Hexagon

As for the designs of the two revealed legends themselves, I've got to say, I love them!

A truly majestic lion design with a perfectly integrated octagonal symmetric solar pattern on its face, contrasted by a huge winged bat-looking creature with several crescent-shaped details, as well as it itself shaping a big crescent for attacks.

Both have a cosmic-coloured face with the Sun and Moon symbols appearing on their forehead.

Going back to my comparison to the XYZ-legends, I see a contrast of life and death in these two as well. The animalistic and pure design of Solgaleo makes it look like full of energy, while Lunaala is a fragile design with the core bodypart looking almost skeletal.

Just perfect.

Sun & Moon Legendary types

Since everyone is speculating on what their types will be, here is my 2 cents on the topic.

#1 Solgaleo

Fire is pretty much given and no one is doubting that (orange symbol, fiery background, the sun-theme itself, etc.). Of course as every generation, everyone wants to shove at least a secondary type onto that while speculating. Whether it's Electric (the actual sun having a lot of electric features), or Psychic (it's the type with the deepest "cosmic" association, in that case, we'dexpect both legends to be part Psychic), or even Normal (because it's so fluffy and animalistic I suppose?).

Here is the thing, and I've said this numerous times when we were speculating Xerneas'/Yveltals type back in Gen6 reveal: the main legends DO NOT have more than one essential elemental type.

Notice anything?

None of the "epic" legendaries so far have had 2 "elemental"-types combined. They always have one important type that relates to their theme.

Yes, alot of them are dual-types, but EVERY TIME the other type is either Flying (because it is literally Flying) or Dragon to make it more epic and mythological.

So since Solgaleo is neither a Dragon, nor is it airborne, my bet is:

At most it might be Fire/Psychic, but only if both legendaries are /Psychic (which I doubt).

#2 Lunaala

I see speculation about combinations of everything from
- Dark ("darkness duh")
- Fairy (Moonblast, Moonlight)
- Psychic (general cosmic association)
- even Water (blue symbol, and to contrast Solgaleo perhaps),
as well as people actually saying it might be a repeat of Yveltals type combination of Dark/Flying.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen any speculation about it being primary Flying type, that could work better than most of these.

But everyone seems to be forgetting the single most obvious choice for Lunaala: Ghost.

It's the type actually associated with night-time and literal darkness (rather than Dark, which is about being mean at its core) and it's the only really creepy type in the chart (the skeletal pattern on Lunaalas body certainly gives it that feel, as well as the fact it looks like a dream-catcher in certain stances).

The simplest prediction here is

with Flying being added for the same reason as it has been for Ho-oh or Yveltal, because it actually flies.

(Radical speculation) Alternate Starter types

(This series is about imagining interesting, perhaps quite unrealistic, possibilities for certain otherwise "traditional" features/mechanics in Pokémon. In other words, "what if Gamefreak added a fresh twist to >insert feature<?")

Grass, Fire and Water.

Every generation, a new trio of Starter-Pokémon are introduced, and after the cover-legendaries, they're the closest to being the mascots of their generation.

They're the first Pokémon you obtain for your adventure in every main-series game, and because of that, Gamefreak takes more time for their designs than for most other Pokémon in an attempt to make them as balanced between friendly/cool and as appealing as possible.

It's one of the most fundamental traditions in Pokémon.

The reasoning behind their primary types is that they are meant to convey the mechanics of the type chart to new players, since Water being strong against Fire etc. are some of the most intuitive examples of type-match-ups.

Starter-fatigue?

When a generation meant ~130 or more new Pokémon designs, a new set of such traditional starters at the beginning made perfect sense. However, with the 6th generation (X&Y) being the smallest in size (~70), the newer starters make up more than 10% of the generation. And if current speculations turn out to be right (that Sun&Moon will start another short generation that acts like a second half to Generation 6), the ratio of starters is going upwards. And the fact we've seen this trio of elements/colours/themes 6 times in a row, doesn't help in keeping the concept exciting.

Of course there is still the option of simply NOT introducing a new set of starters and using the ones for Kalos a second time, but anytime a new generation is even just hinted at, the hype surrounding starters is too big and important to be confronted with that level of disappointment.

So I thought...

What if "Sequel-generations" used an alternate set of starter types?

There would still be the standard new Grass/Fire/Water starter-trio we all know and love for the "main generations", but a different set of types (perhaps even different each time?) for when there is a shorter "sequel generation" (like possibly Sun&Moon) after a shorter completely new generation (like XY).

It would be exciting and refreshing to see the "luxury" (of a guaranteed inclusion of a well-designed 3-stage Pokémon) extended to some other types for once.

The weakness/resistance-cycle

Not many groups of three types have that signature triangle of weaknesses with each other one way and resistances the other way that Grass/Fire/Water do, but that's not a surprise, considering that they were designed with that in mind.

The only 2 other suitable trios (Rock/Flying/Fighting, Fairy/Fighting/Steel) therefore feel rather arbitrary and unintentional.

That's why it would make sense to leave that aspect out for an alternate set of starters altogether (Another option however could be to make sure the types have neutral match-ups with each other).

It loses the "type-chart introduction"-part, but since that's only relevant very early in the game anyway, an obvious and convenient solution to that would be to demonstrate type-advantages with the elemental monkeys from Generation V. Anyhow...

Let's look at some examples.

(I'll use silhouettes of existing Pokémon for demonstration purposes. Think of them as silhouettes of new Pokémon with similar basis, which would act as the first of a 3-stage starter-like evolutionary lines of their respective type.)

The first possibility that comes to mind , is taking 3 just as colourful and elemental types as the traditional ones.

• Electric is a perfect replacement for Fire, being the other bright energetic type in the selection (well demonstrated as opposites with Reshiram and Zekrom). With Pikachus fame and role as a pseudo-starter, the types suitability is even more evident.
• Ice is another high priority choice, due to the type having just as much conceptual potential, while getting barely any attention in terms of basic Pokémon-designs. It would benefit extremely from being a starter-type, whereas Water is already the most common Pokémon type altogether.
• With those two acting as Yellow and Cyan, the appropriate choice for the third type would be Magenta, hence Psychic, which is not out of place, being a more direct "supernatural abilities"-type. And while it has had a handful of relevant 3-stage lines, none of them have taken on the "Psychic" palette that is supposed to be it's cliché-colour.

(and they also happen to not have any relations with each other in the type chart, which makes them even more of a favourite example).

Another set of types that could work as an "advanced starters"-type-trio, would be 3 types that are based around a strategy/approach to battling rather than clear elements.

And while the old fan-idea (that sort of got realized, as secondary types for the Kalos starters) of Fighting/Psychic/Dark as a trio is a good match, I'd personally switch out Psychic for something as gritty/grounded as the other two types: Poison (a type that's also rarely featured with an important 3-stage line, or even as the primary type in a Pokémon in general).

For the third example, the underlying theme is "creatures".

As a big contrast to the traditional starters (which tend to be based on more familiar and pet-like animals), the alternate starters could be of the types that relate to a Pokémons own biology.

by one of them being perhaps a beetle or an arachnid (Bug type), a prehistoric animal or a mineral-based lifeform (Rock type) / a metal and alloy based, perhaps artificially created lifeform (Steel), an extraordinary supernatural creature (Ghost or Fairy), or even a mythical Dragon type.

Sun and Moon

From the Presentation in the Direct, it's very clear we are dealing with Generation 7 here.

And if there is anyone actually still doubting it, there is this part on the official Pokémon site:

Even further, the direct showcased a new, easy to miss (or mistake for Fletchling&co.) glimpse of a woodpecker-inspired Pokemon design:

All that's missing now is a further connection to Zygarde and emphasis on direct connection to Kalos.

Sun&Moon Logos "leaked" ahead of Pkmn Direct

Love 'em.

They pretty much confirm generation 7, as expected. Now if only they would also somehow show a relation to the "Z-hype" to confirm that they're at the same time still tying up the plot from XY and Zygarde...

Well, they do, indirectly. The actual logos just so happen to be light blue and orange, the "other two" colours on Perfect Zygardes chest.

(also, remember that pink crystal SUNdial from Anistar seen in front of Zygarde on this poster? as well as an NPC mentioning a moondial..)

Also, what happens when the sun and moon get to close in the sky? Eclipses. Seems fitting for that giant black mecha-kaiju I'd say.

THE HYPE TRAIN IS REACHING FULL SPEED.

XY-sequels = Generation 7

I've come to the conclusion that I've limited myself to thinking based on generation 5 too much in regards to generation 6 speculation (in that Z-themed games would end generation 6 before we move on).

So let's take a few steps back.

The first Pokémon sequels we've seen, were Gold & Silver.
They took Generation I, its region, its Pokémon, its story, and expanded it all.
In other words, GS=Johto=Generation 2, did to RBY, what we've been expecting from XY-sequels to do to XY.

But there is nothing preventing Gamefreak from "finishing" generation 6 with the 7th generation. It may sound contradictory, but it would explain a lot of things.

It would explain, why we're starting to get reveals of Pokemon that are not part of the current generation with no game-announcement in sight.
It would explain why Zygarde is not the star of Movie 19, but its "story" is instead still being stretched out in the regular anime for months to come.
It would explain why they decided to develop ORAS first, instead of doing it the gen4-way.
It would explain why ORAS was made with the consideration of making all Pokemon obtainable between the games of X/Y/OR/AS (which is done for each generation as a whole).
It would explain why they're distributing ALL mythical Pokemon of all 6 generations one after another for the coming 8 months.
...

Pack your bags folks, we're going to the neighbouring region of Kalos. (I have a feeling it might be kind of industrial and german~)

A new game, in a new region (and Kalos), with a new generation (new Pokémon), that also happens to delve into the story behind Zygarde et al in the post-game and "ties up" all the loose ends of Gen6 "in a unique way".

Generation 6.5

There is a wildcard in regards to the X&Y-sequels that has been speculated about since the beginning of Generation 6 (when it became clear that we were indeed only getting ~70 new Pokémon in X&Y, lower than any generation before), that I haven't addressed in the previous posts: the possibility of NEW Pokémon being added mid-generation.

It's never been done before and it still seems unlikely (when trying to have realistic expectations, a third wave of Megas, Zygarde-formes and maybe some other form-changes would be what to expect in terms of new designs in XY-follow-up games), but the reveal of a new Pokémon today, Magiana, has very well re-ignited hope in this option, due to Magiana really being a new Pokémon that is not in the data of any generation 6 game, while the XY-follow-up has not even been announced yet.

I must mention however that there is a precedent for that, with Gen-4 Pokémon Munchlax having been revealed in May 2004, 2 months before Emerald, the final generation 3 game, was even announced for Japan (and more than 2 years before generation 4 actually started). So it could still be just a very early reveal of a Pokémon we won't see in a game for a while.

But it's too intriguing not to think about it. A bunch of new Pokémon added to the 6th generation in it's later part.. some people think of such hypothetical Pokémon as the 7th generation, but really, it would be a pseudo-generation. Undeniably intended as an expansion to what X&Y brought, it would still be the same generation, hence why I prefer to call it 6.5 in the title (it does start to beg the question, whether the concept of generations is even worth keeping around much longer after that. After all, if they plan to release Pokémon in smaller numbers, but more often, is it still necessary to group them like that?).


So, going along with that hypothetical, and the things previously speculated about the content of XY-sequels, we would perhaps explore much more than a few new places scattered throughout Kalos. I'm talking in terms of "Johto" being the expansion and sequel of Kanto. A new region directly southwards that is at least half as big as Kalos (with Kalos still being accessible in the game). Just like Johto (and Kalos itself actually), the size and diversity of the regional Pokedex is not a problem, since it would heavily rely on old Pokémon to fill most roles (encounter as well as plot-wise), with the fewer new Pokemon found only by those who look hard/long enough at each place.

There is no need for a new set of starters for this adventure, because:
-the Kalos starters were overshadowed by the Mega Kanto-starters in X&Y
-they can be made less repetitive by having Megas of their own introduced (a luxury the Unova starters didn't have for BW2, all they got was a few move-tutors)
-the amount of new pokemon is already lower than usual, and since this is still generation-6, using twice as many spots for starters would really be overkill.

An exciting and radical exception would be if they decided to spice up the "starters-concept" exclusively for the sequels, by trying something fresh, like making starters that are not of the traditional Grass/Fire/Water-formula (and then give you the Kalos starters mid-game anyway of course). Now that would be refreshing like nothing else, and it's a nice opportunity for that (since they can return to the traditional starters as soon as the actual 7th generation comes around).

There would obviously be more legendaries. People have been wondering about the absence of a traditional 580-base-stats trio for the first time in the series anyway, so if gen6.5 turned out to be the real deal, then that's one thing we could be farily certain about seeing. Along with more mythic Pokémon as the newly revealed Magiana or

...a legendary perfect stage of the Eternal Floette, as I speculated in the previous post.
And that brings me to the already revealed Zygarde formes, of which we are still unsure whether to consider the different stages, and the Zygarde cores, as separate species, or just Zygarde forms. In light of this possibility, the solution is straightforward, since Zygarde-Cores can be made a separate Pokemon, just like different stages in an evolutionary-line, or as in cases like Phione.

As for regular evolutions to old Pokémon, as much as I'd like seeing some (even if just to confirm that they haven't abandoned that idea... besides for the overdone eeveelution fanservice), I somehow doubt there would be any, as the Megas play a very similar role, while also being the gimmick of this generation, as well as part of the plot.

So in other words, the bulk would probably be Pokémon of the kind Gen-6 has started with (exotic type combinations and curious designs), but hasn't covered yet thematically, like
-desert-themed Pokemon (there is just a single Ground-type, Diggersby),
-mountains/caves (there is Noivern as the bat, but no native Fighters or Rock-monsters.. Rock is being abused for fossils too much as it is, give us more regular Rocks),
-some new faces in rivers (and while at it, make that fish a 3-stage with stats that will matter for a change again),
-more "generic Steel types" and machienry/Electrics,
-with the basic fairies done (3 pure lines and tons of retcons) maybe a few elemental ones too this turn,
-having added a big garden-Fairy that IS NOT Grass type, but no new actual plant-based Pokemon, it could use some of those (since it was just a goat and halloween-bros in that department)
-how about a bunch of proper pure Flying types to flesh the type out properly after 6 generations of avoiding it (especially with the whole Sky-battle gimmick going on somehwere far in the background...)
-perhaps a pseudo-legendary that is not part Dragon-type (Metagross and Tyranitar are lonely in this Dragonfest),
-etc...

X&Y-sequel... "suggestions"

It's almost February, still no game-reveal despite the big Zygarde-Marketing having started half a year ago and meanwhile being sort of overshadowed by 20th-anniversary nostalgia milking.

This post is basically going to be random details about what X&Y-sequels would feature if Gamefreak wanted me to oversee the development. Just for fun.

Although I'll try to keep it realistic/plausible (no "all regions"-nonsense etc.), NONE of this should be taken as a serious prediction. It's more what I'd want it to be, rather than what I actually expect it will be.

I'll start with a symbol:

In my hypothetical X&Y-sequels, this is the new Kalos Symbol. Replacing the Pentagon.

The region of Kalos gets several new places, with the initial group of them located in the implied "southern"-part of the region (which is of course where the new starting town is).

As before, the Coastal and Mountain-parts are still where they were, west and east, while the previously Central part of the region is now the North, as the center of the expanded map shifted south of Lumiose City.

The colors neatly fit the mascots, blue and red for Xerneas/Yveltal, the new part being green like Zygarde, with the capital staying a neutral white (while also representing an unexpected "white" mascot of XY).

Now that the region is made up of 4 equivalent parts, they can perfectly function as fixed "season"-areas. Starting in the fresh new southern part with a Spring-aesthetic, going into the summer-feel of the coast, then the autumn-like places of the north, and finally the wintery mountains in the east.

The Kalosdex shifts around a bit, but overall expands from 3x150=450, to a 4x150=600, with the new green-part having a vague theme of spring (lots of field, grass, river pokemon), adding things like Rattata, Wurmple, Pidove, Deerling, Growlithe, Finneon, Clefairy...

Main-game

There would be difficulty options available from the start this time (also known as Easy and Challenge mode in BW2).

The story of course takes off a few years after the events of X&Y, with new protagonists, also being given the Kalos starters (but this time, instead of being overshadowed by Mega-Kanto-starters a few towns into the game, they stay in the spotlight with their own new mega evolutions).

The order of the gyms is changed a bit, with some being replaced completely by new ones. Same with the E4.

Some previous places are expanded (Power Plants), get some relevant function (Pokeball Factory selling Pokeballs including HGSS-exclusive ones), or serve as a path to a new location behind it (Parfum palace/Glittering cave/Azure Bay...).

Completely new locations include a Rhyhorn racing track (with mini-game), a volcanic-dungeon, a more cheerful/magical forest (meanwhile Santalune forest being taken out altogether), a smaller but stunning diving-area etc.

The mascot of the Z-version is obviously Perfect Zygarde. While the mascot for the XY-version is a completely new, creature-design, most prominently white, with red and blue details. It is a, by all means legendary, new higher form of AZs Eternal Floette.

Zygarde and AZs Floette, are relevant throughout the game respectively. Both involving a quest to collect 5 colours of smaller creatures (5 Zygarde Cores with a differently coloured hexagon-core, and 5 special Flabébés with differently coloured flowers). At the same time the villains are capturing the ones from the opposite version mascot.

Nearing the climax, both X&Y mascots, Xerneas and Yveltal, are involved in the villains' plans of reaching the perfect form of the mascot (they extract some sort of essences akin to the red and blue orbs from RSE), with the climax being a battle between the perfect form mascots of XY & Z.

Post-game

Besides the starters, other Pokemon also get in on this third wave of Mega evolutions. Including Raichu, Clefable, Golem, Blissey, Milotic, Luxray, Goodra...

Legendaries that can be encountered include:
-legendary birds (all 3 in fixed locations: Frost Cavern/Power Plant/a new volcano location)
-1 of Lugia/Ho-oh
-1 of Dialga/Palkia
-1 of Tornadus/Thundurus
-1 of Reshiram/Zekrom
-1 of Xerneas/Yveltal
-mascot
(basically all the legends that are harder to get in this generation due to them being version exclusives)

The Battle Frontier project is completed and replaces the Battle Maison, with the following facilities placed in a hexagonal pattern:
-Battle Tower (Battle Maison with a new look)
-Battle Factory
-Battle Pyramid
-Battle Pike
-Battle Hall
-Battle Castle

Move-Tutors from ORAS are all in there as well, with a fifth one added (Sucker Punch, Defog, and some new additions, including Toxic Spikes, Wide Guard, Ion Deluge etc..)

And there is a Battleground, where daily re-matches against Gym Leaders and other important characters can be done. With everyone having a Mega on their final team.

Trainer customization returns with a vastly expanded wardrobe.

As does the DexNav from ORAS

At some point you get a Mysterious egg, which can hatch into one of all existing baby-Pokemon randomly, with a very high shiny-chance (similar to the special egg in Crystal).

---

I think that would be the closest to a perfect game that the final instalments of this generation could be.

XY&Z

XY-sequels title speculation... part IV?
It's amazing that we're still discussing this and no announcement has been made all year.

However there is some solid hinting towards what might be the actual titles for the sequels now. And it's not any of the guesses I've made in my previous posts.

It's not going to be a single Z-version, a single XYZ-version, a straightforward pair of X2&Y2, a stylish XZ&YZ, and of course neither will it be any Delta Emerald shenanigans.

#1 upcoming Anime season title:

#2 Gamefreak registered the trademark XY&Z

Note, specifically Gamefreak owns the trademark, not Pokémon in general or the Anime companies.

The "&" is so deliberate and curious, that I think it's a safe bet to say now that it'll be Pokémon XY and Pokémon Z as the paired sequels to XY. Simple as that.

How would this work?

Who would be the two mascots?

For Pokemon Z it's easy with the Perfect-Zygarde reveal:

But what about Pokemon XY?

Something has struck me as odd ever since XY came out and we got to know the stats of the new Pokémon:

All counterpart mascot-legendaries so far have had their stats shuffled around to make them differ (Kyogre is a special/physical-swapped Groudon, same with Reshiram/Zekrom, Dialga and Palkia are more complex etc.).

But Xerneas' and Yveltals base stats are identical.

...meanwhile 50%Zygarde does something completely unrelated to their distributions.

Perhaps Xerneas and Yveltal are much more related than we think and they will somehow merge into a single powerful monstrosity that will be equivalent to Zygardes perfect form?

In other news: Junichi Masuda appearing on "Pokénchi"

Masuda revealed via twitter that they finished recording the episode for the 15th of November. This is the new sunday-show that replaced Pokemon-Get on TokyoTV a few weeks ago. So we may find out soon what they're up to.

I expect Corocoro-leaks the week before to have the same information already, and since they've been doing reveals and everything globally, it wouldn't be surprising if they announced the games out of the blue on the official site even before Corocoro manages to leak, and then have the magazine and the show give soemthing more detailed pos-tannouncement information.

Of course the final chapter of the Mega evolution specials is coming up 29th of October (and features Zygardes new forms as its main point), so that might be the time.

Also noteworthy, the date of the special coincides with an investors meeting for Nintendo (like the one that happened a few days before ORAS were revealed).

Pseudo-evolutions?

Apart from all kinds of unique forms, whether just aesthetic variations or diverse interchangeable ones with competitive consequences, or ones activated through special triggers with backstories..

The most recent big twist we've seen are Mega evolutions. Special temporary evolutions that allow Pokémon who have (supposedly) reached the final stage in their evolutionary line, to surpass this limit and become even stronger, with the magical power of friendship or whatever~

(along with Primal Reversion, which is technically Mega evolution with a different prefix and a different "trigger/backstory") And no doubt, we will see more of these in the future.

But could there be another "evolution" concept which would catch everyone by surprise if implemented?

Well...remember the mascot of the franchise? Everyones favourite and/or most disliked Pokémon, Pikachu. What I'm getting at, is that there is one further group of Pokémon that Gamefreak might throw into the spotlight sometime in the future: NFE-Pokemon (not fully evolved).

It could very well be the case, that more fans consider some NFE Pokémon as their favourite, than one would expect.

Let's say a new evolution-twist was to be added, specifically to include (but not necessarily be limited to) NFE-Pokémon, it would then logically follow that these Pokémon would keep the design mostly identical (since the look is the whole point of keeping a Pokémon forever unevolved in the first place).

So, imagine a Pokémon, I'll pick Dragonair as my example. What if, instead of evolving regularly at Lv.55 into a Dragonite, which changes its look quite drastically, you could instead strengthen your friendship bla bla, and have Dragonair undergo a new form of permanent evolution that would make it:

• stronger (say anywhere from +80 to +180 added to their base stats depending on the Pokémon)
• while retaining most of its familiar look (some interesting detail "added", perhaps a colour altered)
• gain a unique and fitting prefix
• get the chance to learn a new signature move
• in some cases have its type changed
• in some cases gaining a different ability.

Continuing my example, a Dragonair could then pseudo-evolve (no idea what the process would actually be called) to... let's call it a "Majestic Dragonair", have the horn become a crown-like detail instead, its colouration become more intense, its stats increase from 

-61-84-65-70-70-70

to

-81-84-85-120-100-90

learn a unique new Dragon-type variation of "Quiver Dance" at Lv.55, and perhaps even become a Dragon/Water type.

The evolution would be permanent and it would never be able to evolve into a Dragonite.

But wait a second... what if they are already implementing this right now? (by now, especially for anyone who is aware of things hackers have found in XY a long time ago, it's obvious what I'll bring up)

Eternal Floette. Also known as AZs Floette, it is a special form of Floette that holds a drastically different flower. We have met it already in the final part of the main-story in XY, as AZs very old Partner-Pokémon.

From datamining, we also know that it is actually programmed into the games as a real Pokémon, and that unlike regular Floette, it has stats as high as a Florges (without being able to evolve into Florges) but distributed quite differently from it. It is also capable of learning a new move called "Light of Ruin" (which is like a special Fairy-type Volt-Tackle) which Florges also cannot learn...and so far there has been no way to actually obtain it.

So it might not be THAT unrealistic if sooner or later, we see a special stronger pseudo-evolution for all kinds of Pokémon like in this group-picture:

And of course the aforementioned Pikachu (if the design is done right, even the one in the Anime could finally cash-in on such a new twist, since it would still be a Pikachu, rather than becoming something else entirely).

While NFE Pokémon could be the focus, it would also be an opportunity for some fully-evolved ones to become a lot more viable than a simple Mega evolution would allow (since stat increase isn't fixed to +100), while at the same time not alienating its fans (since the core design stays the same), but no regular evolutions are in sight, like some examples included in the picture above.

Pokemon Z or what?

So with Perfect Zygarde revealed, does that mean we are getting just a single sequel to XY? The most obvious straightforward Z version?

I don't think so, for several reasons.

1. Perfect Zygarde does not resemble Z anymore.

Instead it now has more features that are reminiscent of Xerneas and Yveltal, particularly the X and Y-shape aspects. It has 4 spikes on it's "crown" and 4 X-symmetrical "shoulder-wings", but these wings are also flat and elongated like Yveltals, while also having a 5th one as a tail, which along with the wings coming out sideways form its shoulders combines makes a Y. The Z-shape we saw in its serpentine 50% forme is practically gone.

So this makes at least the point, that if there is to be a single version, it would much likelier be called Pokemon XYZ or even Pokemon XY2, rather than Pokemon Z.

2. Thousand Waves / Thousand Arrows

As before, there is still 2 counterpart moves that are Variations of Land's Wrath. Them being Variations implies that they would replace Land's Wrath one at a time (even moreso than Ice Burn/Freeze Shock replacing Glaciate), rather than learning them in addition to it (it would have 3 moves that are all Land's Wrath in terms of type, power, accuracy, targets, being physical, PP, just with different added effect).

Land's Wrath, an inferior version of Thousand Arrows/Waves

It could of course also be that the canine 10% Zygarde-form gets the Waves one while the perfect one gets the Arrows. But Waves is still superior to Land's Wrath, so it would be strange for the inferior form to learn it. Usually in Pokemon, inferior forms either learn the identical signature move, or lack just that in their learnset (Phione not learning Tail Glow and Heart Swap for example despite it's learnset being identical to Manaphys otherwise).

3. 6 game-origin markers for Pentagon-symbol

Long ago, while researching the game-data of XY, the guys at projectpokemon found that there is a special marker that each Pokemon can have, which is determined by the version the pokemon is encountered in and then causes the blue pentagon-symbol to show up in the status screen (also known as "Kalos-born"-symbol from before ORAS). So X uses a different value than Y, and if you look at the data of a Pokemon with the pentagon-symbol, you can tell what version it is from. They also found that there is a total of 6 different values that cause the pentagon-symbol. X and Y were the first two of course. When ORAS came out, it was confirmed that OR and AS use 2 more of those values... which leaves another 2 markers for generation 6. And that would make perfect sense if they intended to have 2 XY-sequel versions as the final games this generation.

4. 2 Versions automatically sell more than one

If Gamefreak finds even the slightest "reason" to do 2 versions, they will.

But the question remains. Given that Perfect Zygarde already embodies both Life (blue/Xerneas) and Death (red/Yveltal), what could possibly be on 2 box covers then?

Here are some possibilities:

• A second set of forms for Zygarde.

One part that seems imperfect about Perfect Zygarde to me, is that its design is dominated by black. Especially since the serpentine forme seemed to be quite equally and asymmetrically balanced between black and green. So what if there was a second set of forms? With the other perfect Zygarde also having red AND blue marks, but being a very different design and dominated by green colour?

There is even precedent for something like this happening. Mega Mewtwo. We were shown Mewtwos Mega evolution, we saw it battle Genesect in a Pokemon movie, and it was only almost a year later that we found out, that there is actually two Mega Mewtwos and the one we knew was just Mega Mewtwo Y.

Perhaps Perfect Zygarde 1 will be featured in the Mega special Act 4, but the movie will focus on the hypothetical other Perfect Zygarde we haven't seen yet.

• Even stronger than "perfect", version exclusive Zygarde forms.

A bit of a stretch considering that the one we know is already flat out called perfect.

• Intermediary "75%" stages between the 50% and the Perfect form.

This one is more realistic than the previous, because the known Perfect one would then be the ultimate one that you need an Item or other trigger from both games brought into one.

Kind of like, if instead of there not being an "original Dragon" at all in gen V, but were shown the "original Dragon" first and then got BW2 with Black/White Kyurem on the cover. Doing properly with Zygarde what they didn't with Kyurem.

• Mega/Primal Xerneas and Yveltal.

Still entirely possible that they would get some kind of new forms too, which would explain why Zygarde suddenly gets activated when it didn't the last time.

• some new form for AZ-Floette

That would cetrainly be unexpected, since it is already a special NPC-related variation of a Pokemon that is not even fully evolved, but who knows what Gamefreak could have planned for it that we would never see coming.

I would not have included this point if it wasn't for the Pokemon Marketing Director having said that "Flowers" are the near future of Pokemon.

Also, for some reason, the shiny form of Zygarde has the same colour palette as Florges. Coincidence or could this possibly somehow become relevant? Probably not..

AZs Floette is definitely going to play a role in the next game though, regardless of who makes it on the covers.

• An ORAS-sequel with a new Primal mascot.

Yeah.. I've fallen very low at this point.

But let's entertain the idea anyway. Generation 6 so far, has had 2 pairs of games. Each time red and blue. The logical completion of this set would be a pair of green games, each being a sequel to each pair.

It's also certainly not coincidence that both XY and ORAS feature mascots that threaten to cause huge imbalance to the ecosystem. And in both regions, there is a third legendary, which is green, is primarily a Dragon type, but having opposite secondary types of Flying and Ground.

Obviously if the "other green game" was a third Hoenn game centered around Rayquaza, it would not be an Emerald remake, it would have to be an actual sequel. And it also would not have Mega Rayquaza on the cover, but some new form for it instead, which would be even more powerful.

A primal Rayquaza? a Perfect Rayquaza? A Rayquaza that has Alpha and Omega symbols on it's body? A Primal Regigigas?? Yeah, told you this one was shaky.

As ridiculous as it sounds, right now is actually the only situation when it would be profitable for Gamefreak to release 2 completely different games simultaneously. Why?

Because both projects would be sequels, meaning neither had to be made from scratch (one is an altered XY-game the other an altered ORAS-game), so just a few places changed and added, and a new story thrown into the already existing regions.

But while they would be the most diverse pair of games so far, they would still both share many of the new features that would be added, so it's not like they would have to be handled like 2 completely different products.

They'd both get the Maison replaced by a full-blown long-awaited and teased at Battle Frontier. They'd both include the same third wave of new Mega evolutions. And they would both have featrues cross-over that players missed out on (Soaring and Contests in Kalos, Boutiques & Trainer customization in Hoenn). And the plots and characters could of course cross-over between the regions.

This is the least realistic possibility of all of these of course.

New forms for Zygarde!

Corocoro October issue has finally leaked, and oh boy, got us some proper art of what was being teased at since June, and what we've been speculating about for almost 2 years now.

So basically it appears that Zygarde takes on semblence of different life-forms in different stages of power.

It starts off in the core of biology, as single-cell-creatures.
At 10% it already takes on the form of a more regular animal, in this case a dog.
At 50% it is the majestic looking serpentine design we already knew the whole time.
At 100%, it becomes a shadow overlord kaiju-mecha-perfect-cell monster! Which is supposedly stronger than Xerneas and Yveltal specifically (perhaps a hint at a conflinct between them in the climax of the XY-sequel/s as I've been speculating about before?)


Furthermore, the creatures picked for the designs seem to be based on (Norse mythology of course) Lokis children:
-Fenrir, the wolf
-Jörmungandr, the serpent
-Hel

Now what is Hel you wonder?

A "humanoid" goddess of the dead.

Often described as being half human and half blank (which explains the perfect forms humanoid posture, and Zygardes half-colored-design-aspect), or as half alive and half dead!

That is perfectly captured with the blue and red hexagonal patterns on it's "wings", as they represent Xerneas (the legendary of life) and Yveltal (the legendary of death)

(interestingly, the colors in that order happen to resemble the french flag, which is especially evident on its chest)

"Hel in a reading can represent a time of simultaneous endings and beginnings, the point at which the circle is completed. She can also indicate integrity, as opposites unite to form a stronger whole."

Perfect enough so far I would say.

The beginning and the end, at the same time. Those 2 were a big theme in ORAS, the alpha and omega. As well as the character AZ in XY, and Zinnia/Aster (the first and final letters), it's really tying all the elements together it seems.


There is also an interesting detail visible in the Anime-Poster. The spectrum-line on Perfect-Zygardes chest can actually open up to reveal 5 hexagons!

Considering that we have had 4 games so far in this generation, and both times it was shades of red and blue.. maybe the hexagons represent the four legendaries that bring imbalance to the ecosystem if they awaken?

With white in the center representing Zygarde itself? (as white hexagons are generally a feature of its design). But inluding Groudon and Kyogre, while excluding Rayquaza (although that did also happen to it in ORAS, being shove aside into a post-game quest) would be strange.

A Zygarde-Cell with an inactive core

But there is something else these 5 colored hexagons could represent...

Let's get back to one of Zygardes forms. The Cells. There is 2 kinds of those, ones that look like they're in a weak state, and ones that look lively.

A Zygarde-Cell with an active core

They look almost identical, both having a hexagon in their core, with the main difference being that the lively one has a red hexagon.

Could there be 5 Zygarde-"Cores"? Red, orange, white, cyan and blue.

I can certainly imagine the climax of the plot for the upcoming game to be a big battle between Xerneas and Yveltal or something of equal importance, that brings big "imbalance to the ecosystem", threatening to destroy the world. And we as the player having to go search for Zygarde.

But with the twist that we need to collect all of the Cores scattered in the region somewhere. Zygarde would then morph into a stronger and stronger creature with each Core that is gained, and finally into the Perfect Zygarde, with the 5 chest-hexagons representing the 5 Cores. All of this is pure speculation of course.

Southern Kalos is a high possibility for the game. Assuming it follows the same structure (coast-central-mountain), the Kalos pentagon symbol might change to something like this:

If that were the case, the obvious thing to do would be to have us look for one Core in each of them.

Can't wait for a proper Sugimori art instead of Anime-art, but I love where this is going.

I'll leave you with something I couldn't resist doing.

Baby Pokémon

The concept

Many fans forget that Riolu
 is also a baby-Pokémon

When Gold&Silver introduced new evolutions for existing Pokémon, they also naturally did the opposite, introducing new pre-evolutions for existing Pokémon. Gamefreak decided to go even a step further, making baby-Pokémon even more distinct by making them all unable to breed in those stages (which means that there can also be baby-Pokémon that are not necessarily new pre-evolutions for previous Pokémon, like is the case with Togepi and Riolu, who were both introduced along with their evolutionary-line).

However, unlike the evolutions, which get mixed reactions by fans as any regular Pokémon, these "baby Pokémon" often get instant dislike and are brushed aside as "pointless Pokémon" or some similar wording.

So, I realize that I am in the minority when I don't say that "baby Pokémon suck and shouldn't exist", but I am convinced that much of this talk is undeserved, rash and often hypocritical.

The looks

One complaint is that some (and out of 18, "some" isn't many) baby Pokémon don't add anything to the evolutionary-line of a Pokémon, being just smaller cuter versions of the already cute original. The prime example is probably Cleffa.

But that's not the rule. There are baby-Pokémon who do genuinely try to do something unique and fresh that makes their evolutionary line more interesting, meaning if they would have been released alongside the rest of their stages, no one would have an issue with their existence, as with Chingling for example:

They aren't all pre-evolutions of Pokémon who are already small and cute to begin with either. Some can be very deserved and make you wonder how come they weren't made initially already, for Pokémon like Snorlax:

Usefulness

Baby-Pokémon do tend to give access to one or two egg-moves or Level-up moves that a line doesn't have access to otherwise, but often, the moves they get aren't very important ones.

Pichu learns the very important set-up move
Nasty Plot if trained to Level 18
before being evolved to a Pikachu

Azurill for example can learn 7 egg-moves
that Marill does not

The more important aspect baby-Pokémon bring to the evolutionary line besides fleshing out the family design-wise and thematically, in my opinion, is early expanding accessibility. A Pokémon like Electabuzz and Magmar cannot show up in a game too early as an option for your in-game team, due to being relatively strong already, whereas their pre-evolutions Elekid and Magby make perfect candidates, adding some elemental options early on your journey, as was already the case in Black 2 and White 2, where they were version exclusive encounters in the Virbank complex around the second gym.

Pointless?

I've often seen baby-Pokémon called a "waste of dex-spots", as if their existence somehow prevented Gamefreak from adding other standalone possibly cooler designs. "Oh damn, we need to exclude this awesome Pokémon-design because the baby pokemon are taking up all the space we limited ourselves to" said no one at Gamefreak ever. That's just ridiculous.

Besides, so far, there is only 18 baby Pokémon so far (compared to 53 legendaries, 48 mega-evolutions, 35 cross-gen evolutions, 54 starter-Pokémon... at least they aren't outnumbered by eeveelutions...yet?), so it's not like the concept has been overdone, it has barely even scratched the surface!

If pre-evolutions are pointless, whatever anyones logic might be for thinking so, it is equally applicable to ALL not fully-evolved stages of ANY Pokémon in existence. If Smoochum is pointless, that would mean that Ralts and Kirlia are too.

Two of the weakest Pokémon in existence..

..including Kirlia, who has lower stats than Bonsly, despite being a middle stage.

If they would have simply put Ralts into the No-eggs egg-group, it would make for a better typical baby-Pokémon example than half of the actual baby-Pokémon.

Potential candidates

It's not like there aren't any Pokémon with potential for pre-evolutions.

A diverse selection of interesting candidates for pre-evolutions

Don't tell me you aren't curious about what at least a few of these Pokémons pre-evolutions would look like.

Unexpected twists!

There is one specific baby-Pokémon that deserves it's own mention: Tyrogue. Not only did it connect two separate but related Pokémon, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, by being the pre-evolution of both (to this day still the most interesting evolutionary twist since Eevee), it even added a third alternate evolution to the family, Hitmontop.

There is even other counterparts that could be put into the spotlight with the same gimmick, from the popular Tauros-Miltank idea, the too obvious gen V Hitmon-homages Throh and Sawk, to other very similar counterparts like Pinsir and Heracross.

There is room for improvement.

I do have a few issues with how baby-Pokémon have been handled so far though. One thing most people are annoyed by is the fact that (9 of 18) half of them require high friendship to evolve. And while the idea makes perfect sense especially for the most baby-like ones (they need extra care to evolve), I feel like they should also make the Base friendship much higher than normal for baby-Pokémon so they don't take too long. Since the beginning of generation VI with XY, there has been an incentive added for why going through the tedious process of friendship-evolving a caught Budew might be worth doing over just catching a wild Roselia. Namely because baby-Pokémon always have 3 guaranteed perfect IVs, just like legendaries do, because they are all in the No-Eggs group.

The other thing that bothers me are all the Breeding Incenses that are required to be held by the parents to produce a newly introduced pre-evolution. I understand that this is for the sake of consistency, but it is not an elegant solution. For one thing, they prevent you from using other breeding-related held items (Everstone and Destiny Knot), and the other potential issue is that they're yet another set of extremely specific purpose Items that are piling up as the number increases... but actually, Mega stones
alone currently far overshadow any such items, and I wonder how they intend to clean that up. The solution should be viable for Incenses when they come up with one.


There is one more interesting thing worth contemplating in this topic,

Legendary pseudo-baby-Pokémon

More than likely, instantly, Phione comes to mind. It's not really clear what the reason for creating Phione was, other than for the sake of showing that pseudo-pre-evolutions are not completely out of the question for Legendary Pokémon. And it's actually neat that someone who has a Manaphy but cannot share it, has at least the gimmicky option of distributing as many weaker versions of it as they want.

Also, if the Manaphy you get happens to be complete garbage competitively, with Phione you can at least try to breed towards a better one. Although Phione really is too weak for that to be of interest.

But what if suddenly some of the Legendaries that are so powerful that they're usually banned just for their sheer stats would gain a pseudo-pre-evolution?

In those cases, weaker versions of unique and cool legendaries might actually allow them to be viable options for serious competitive battling in at least some form!

Here is some random examples:

100-120-120-150-100-90 ---> 80-100-100-130-80-70
100-120-120-150-100-90 ---> 80-100-80-130-100-70
100-120-120-150-100-90 ---> 86-70-110-70-134-90

They'd still have a stat-total higher than most regular Pokémon (560), which is 40 lower than pseudo-legendaries like Dragonite and Garchomp, and 20 lower than minor legends like Suicune and Tornadus.

I'd certainly be interested to see how that would turn out! And of course how those lesser versions of epic legendaries would look.

Closing

I'll end this post with a group picture of all baby Pokémon so far ;D