Starter Discussion & Thread

[Munchy]

here's a nice image i got off neogaf
http://i.imgur.com/Db1uSgp.jpg

laid out like this, i can easily see how torracat makes the leap. Patterns line up, that tail gets a bushier end, still doesn't bother developing its legs, big doofy paws. Wonder if the final coloring will be any different.

e: Oops, kinda big, changed it to a link

Laid out like that, they all really work together, and funnily the jump from Torracat to Litten3 looks the most fitting to me haha!

 

[Relax]

Torracat doesn't really look like litten3 tbh, sure it has the stripes etc but if we look at his head, in the middle the arrow disappears in the 3th evolution and it is also on 4 legs. Either way I love all middle evolutions! Good job game freak
Edit: well never mind the description says enough!

 

[B. Thunder Tiger]

Update on Torracat's name:

For those who want to know, its possible that the name Torra may be derived from the following:

Tora - Japanese for "Tiger"
Ora - Hebrew for "Light" (its bell looks like a organic ball of light of sorts)
Ra - name of the respective Sun God, and its Egyptian for "Sun" *

(*) = The bell looks like a mini star/sun thing, and is said to generate flames. This could be akin to how the Sun emits solar flares.

Putting all of this together, the name "Torra" may literally mean "Sun Light Tiger". To note additionally, Cats were known to be highly revered in Egypt. To me, it looks like the Split Evo Forme theory could be true, and Litten evolving into a pure mono Fire-typed Sun-themed tiger for its Sun-Exclusive Evo. Now whether its bipedal or quad I don't know, and depends on your own personal thoughts. I will be honest though, I can see a bipedal Sun-themed tiger warrior working for the wrestler theme.

 

[JVLightningLover]

Update on Torracat's name:

For those who want to know, its possible that the name Torra may be derived from the following:

Tora - Japanese for "Tiger"
Ora - Hebrew for "Light" (its bell looks like a organic ball of light of sorts)
Ra - name of the respective Sun God, and its Egyptian for "Sun" *

(*) = The bell looks like a mini star/sun thing, and is said to generate flames. This could be akin to how the Sun emits solar flares.

Putting all of this together, the name "Torra" may literally mean "Sun Light Tiger". To note additionally, Cats were known to be highly revered in Egypt. To me, it looks like the Split Evo Forme theory could be true, and Litten evolving into a pure mono Fire-typed Sun-themed tiger for its Sun-Exclusive Evo. Now whether its bipedal or quad I don't know, and depends on your own personal thoughts. I will be honest though, I can see a bipedal Sun-themed tiger warrior working.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this, but it is likely that the "Tor" section of its name comes from "torch" as well. Still don't know if we can count on Version Exclusive and/or Day and Night forms, though.

 

[Nibbles4Ever]

I love brionne ^^ it is so adorable. Even though I don't like litten a whole bunch I do really like torrocat =) can't wait for the demo ^^

 

[Captain America X]

Torracat doesn't really look like litten3 tbh, sure it has the stripes etc but if we look at his head, in the middle the arrow disappears in the 3th evolution and it is also on 4 legs. Either way I love all middle evolutions! Good job game freak
Edit: well never mind the description says enough!

It also has that flame bell on it's neck which is definitely gonna become the flame belt

 

[Aromaeus]

here's a nice image i got off neogaf
http://i.imgur.com/Db1uSgp.jpg

laid out like this, i can easily see how torracat makes the leap. Patterns line up, that tail gets a bushier end, still doesn't bother developing its legs, big doofy paws. Wonder if the final coloring will be any different.

e: Oops, kinda big, changed it to a link

I was hoping someone would do this but yes this matches up for me.

 

[Cutty]

I like what I see about the second evos of the starters, except the Grass one.
The Fire cat looks very adorable & the Water one looks graceful. Hope it continues to the final evos.

 

[B. Thunder Tiger]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this, but it is likely that the "Tor" section of its name comes from "torch" as well. Still don't know if we can count on Version Exclusive and/or Day and Night forms, though.

Oh the bolded too is possible. Nice catch. Sun Light Torch Tiger.

 

[Pyrax]

Dewott's scalchops evolve into Samurott's helmet, so there's really no reason why Torracat's bell can't evolve into Litten3's belt, not the mention the similarities glacialcat mentioned. The designs are as good a confirmation as any, even with Dewott and Combusken's existence.

 

[Galvantula1992]

I absolutely LOVE Dartrix and Torracat! I never used to be too keen on Litten but I REALLY love Torracat. Popplio I thought was okay but I don't like Brionne.

Dartrix shooting sharp-bladed feathers from inside it's wings by trajectory control (therefore Dartrix as in darts), Torracat having a cat punch that can bend iron bars and knock out large men and the feminite look of Brionne all indicate to me that the leaked starter evolutions are real.

 

[yumenokage]

It also has that flame bell on it's neck which is definitely gonna become the flame belt

which makes me so sad, because the bell addition is so cute, and yet that belt monstrosity... ;_;

 

[knightwolf09]

Torracat doesn't really look like litten3 tbh, sure it has the stripes etc but if we look at his head, in the middle the arrow disappears in the 3th evolution and it is also on 4 legs. Either way I love all middle evolutions! Good job game freak
Edit: well never mind the description says enough!

Actually the the arrow stretches to the back of his head in the final.

I now wonder if the secret the starters have is that they have the Battle Bond ability.

 

[KingMinun]

Torracat is what I call a great middle evolution! I love its design, it looks so cool! Kind of reminds me of Oliver from Oliver and Company. I think Litten is definitely my starter now.
I can also see the link between it and Litten3.

The colours for Rowlet3 seems off to me. Rowlet starts off brown, then goes white, for it then to go back to a brown body. But apart from that, the rest of it adds up.


And yes, can see a link between Brionne and Popplio3.

 

[PrinceOfFacade]

Ah hell.

Dartrix looks so damn cool. I want Popplio, but... Dartrix.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

Dartrix is my favorite of the 3, just like Rowlet was before it. I'm still hoping the starters don't have split evolutions. There's no point in giving it to this set unless the previous 6 sets of starters are going to be given split evolutions as well.

The point would be to increase their uniqueness, as well as provide another way to make the game versions different (assuming the forms would be dependent on getting Sun or Moon).

We now have precedent after all for some starters getting things others don't (i.e. Ash Greninja, and at present mega evolutions for only gens 1 and 3).

 

[.Aerodactyl.]

That being said, if the whole split evos theory doesn't turn out to be true, do you think these evolutions match up with the final forms we got from the Chinese leaks, because I'm not sure if they still work

I'm still split on the split evos thing. I really think it could go either way. But as it stands now, I like the middle evolutions. Their descriptions match well, basically perfectly with the Mallow Leak stuff, but some of their designs don't link well in my personal opinion...

Brionne looks like a logical progression... A bit of a jump just in size and power, but then a lot of starters from 2nd to 3rd stage do that jump. But aesthetically I think they link nicely.

Dartrix does look like it links, but in a much more generic sense. The colour scheme and body do, but it's sort of emo and vain attitude doesn't seem to match the persona the image of the archer owl gives. But that might be the point, when you help him "overcome" his vanity he "unlocks his power" to become his more disciplined 3rd stage (the description seems to hint at this idea too). Dartrix description sounds like it was written for the anime too XD

Torracat I like the design of... it's official artwork seems off a bit in the face, but it's sprite work looks fantastic. I love that it's still a qudraped, as I think bipedal would have been too big of a leap aesthetically from litten (in my mind, Pignite and Braixen still retained a similar enough body shape despite transitioning to two legs that this was alright...but I just couldn't see twiggy cat litten going straight to man body). It's beefier appearance certainly hints towards Liften... But personally it still looks like a big jump to me from 2nd to 3rd stage. Not saying it won't happen, only that he is just so cat-like still that going to the man body is strange. Liften is just so humanoid, not just a two legged cat. I think as soon as they decided to make litten a qudraped that was always gonna be a problem though, no matter when they did the transition; it looks a bit messy. Seeing Torracat in refresh and just how perfectly it imitates cat mannerisms, no matter how you slice that, it's gonna loose those cat traits transitioning to the humanoid wrestler body. I see how the bell is probably gonna turn into his belt...but that still doesn't quite make sense to me lore wise. Cat bells have an entirely different connotation culturally then wrestler belts do, and it just further solidifies in my mind the awkwardness of going from.something that is SO cat like to a SO humanoid. Just the fact that aesthetically, he looks like a cat, has a little cat bell and everything and is then going to probably go to man-wrestler with a belt makes the jump lore-wise unmatching. He just seems to completely abandon all of his cat traits for human things...cat bell for human belt, etc. The only cat things left on Liften are the tail and his head and that's about it.

Good news is, if there is no Split evos, I think many Litten fans who hate Liften can at least eviolite their torracat and cancel the evolution everytime, as Torracat I think still has more of that tiger look that the qudraped fans were hoping for and can serve as a compromise That's what I'm gonna do if I ever use a torracat!

I think the designs of the second stage are open enough to allow a split evolution design like Rockruffs to work if they so choose, especially dartrix and torracat.

 

[Sabre_King]

I am so happy the middle forms have finally been revealed. Here are my thoughts on the three of them:
Dartrix: This evolved form just makes me want to use Rowlet first now on my first play through. The design is very neat and I like in the animation how its personality ca be shown with its eyes.
Torracat: Litten is definitely going to be used in my sun version of the game as its evolution is just quite cool to look at, plus i love the description for its "bell" on its neck.
Brionne: I have nothing against Popplio's evolved form and I honestly like the design. I would say this evolution hints the most that the supposed leaked final forms are true as you can see the evolutionary resemblance.

 

[scififan21]

I love Torracat the most though I like the two as well. Just sad that my fire starter is going bipedal 'again'.

 

[Locormus]

Locormus, I actually thought they were real since the Mallow leak... Or at least for a while now. But those details in the descriptions basically confirm it for certain.

Keep in mind lots of starters have bigger leaps from second to third stage than first to second. Charmander, Piplup, Snivy, Oshawott, Chespin, Froakie... The fact that these guys are moving towards what the leaks look like is enough to prove it in my opinion, even if it isn't perfectly in the middle.

Yeah, I was thoroughly convinced months ago. I don't think that Charmander, Piplup, Snivy or Froakie took all too big of a jump from stage 2 to stage 3. Charmeleon basically only grows larger, changes color a bit and grows a pair of wings, Serperior is just a more refined snake compared to Servine. Empoleon is a refined and larger upgrade to Prinplup, with the crest becoming a trident. I think from the ones you mentioned only Oshawott and Chespin deserve to be on that list, as Chesnaught is not chubby like Quilladin and we all know that Samurott looks nothing like Dewott aside from having whiskers.

but they don't for starters. That's more of a think for electric rodents and some legends, and also in those cases it's not that they're sticking random Japanese words in the english where they're not in the Japanese, but just keeping the japanese name. Also, pikachu is more onomonapeoia, not proper words. pika=sound effect for electrecity chuu=kiss sound effect. not sure off the top of my head what pachirisu's from.

Pachi is a sound effect iirc, but risu means squirrel. And whether it is a sound effect or not, it's still a Japanese sound effect..

Not really seeing the connection between Torracat and Tiger Mask, but the other two are plain as day. This easily the best batch of starters since Hoenn, design wise.

Now the question remains if they'll have day/night forms.

Torracat has:
- Extremely powerful cat-punches.
- A will to fight, will battle relentlessly and causes opponents to lose the will to fight (Litten3 has the "Come at me bro!"-stance in the leaked art).
- Torracat's forepaws are very big like Litten3's and its forelegs are toned with a bit more muscle.
- It fires off attacks from the flame-sack bell, much like how Litten3 fires off attacks from the flaming part of its belt. It would probably be the same organ doing the attacking.

As for day/night exclusivity, I'm beginning to doubt that. These just work so perfectly with the ones that we've gotten that I almost can't see them thematically branching into two different sets. Everything about Torracat leads to Litten3 and everything about Brionne leads to Popplio3. There's barely anything that suggests that thematically, there could be a flipside, when the groundworks for those should already be present in these forms.

Look, with Dartrix, I could see that "snobbiness/birdbrain" paragraph meaning something thematically, but other than that, it gets a lot of focus on "it's a great knife thrower, look at how everything it does with its precision projectiles is awesome!" That's the clear theme. Torracat has a small bit about having its mane being a sensatory organ.. but is that enough to warrant a split evolutionary form, it's not a thematic difference? Brionne is all about the dancing, but has a small bit about how it's always cheery and positive, which I also don't think is enough thematically to completely warrant a split evolution. But what if they are? Who knows, I don't. But I just don't see it at the moment.

- Snobby Owl vs. Archer Owl.. I don't know what Snobby Owl would be like thematic-wise.. Bland really..
- Sensative mane Litten3 vs. Wrestler Tiger.. Perhaps Sensative Mane Litten3 could be Fire/Psychic.. Would be a drastic change, but thematically it isn't there in Torracat.
- Cheery positive Popplio3 vs. Dancer/Singer/Popstar Popplio3. Perhaps Cheery/Positive Popplio3 could be a clown? But I doubt it, the theme isn't there in Brionne.