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The new fossil Pokémon

Leonhart

Imagineer
I think that the new Fossil Pokemon look strange, but not necessarily in a bad way, just different from what I'd normally expect Fossil Pokemon to look like. I actually like that they can be mixed and matched, though. That's a rather clever and original idea.
 

Dicklaycia

Objectively Better Than You
Honestly, I wasn’t a fan at first glance, but these fossils have grown on me a whole lot. They’re a really unique idea, with a fun premise behind their creation. Their designs now strike me as more of a fun one, due to their obvious mismatching. Arctozolt can’t handle its own cold, Dracovish’s head is on the tail, and Arctovish’s head is on backwards! The Pokédex entries also definitely add to the humor behind these abominations. Collect all 4!
 

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
I like the ideas behind the Galarian fossils for a few reasons
  1. They look funny
  2. First non-rock Fossil Pokémon
  3. Relatively unused type-combos
  4. The idea behind them is interesting and unique, based upon the mistakes made in early paleontology when reconstructing fossils
  5. Arctovish is so derpy and I want it really bad
That said, the pictures above would have been amazing.
Holy crap! I just now realized that these Pokémon are based on the same process that gave us the Brontosaurus
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
I wonder how the fossil Pokemon will be handled in the anime. I can see this being a lot of fun in the SwSh manga, acknowledge how awkward the fossil Pokemon turned out by mis-matching the body parts, maybe see the lass absolutely adore our fish-head-on-a-dinosaur-tail but I wonder how this kind of content will be handled in the anime. Will they just gloss over the fact that they are mismatched fossil Pokemon or will the fossil Pokemon just be like, eh I'm fine with this, right from the start? Or maybe we will see a random trainer sent it out, one guy provides some exposition explaining why it looks like that and after that, the anime never speaks of it ever again.
 

Kingudora

My favourite
Honestly, I wasn’t a fan at first glance, but these fossils have grown on me a whole lot. They’re a really unique idea, with a fun premise behind their creation. Their designs now strike me as more of a fun one, due to their obvious mismatching. Arctozolt can’t handle its own cold, Dracovish’s head is on the tail, and Arctovish’s head is on backwards! The Pokédex entries also definitely add to the humor behind these abominations. Collect all 4!
Dracozolt also just looks happy to me. It may be a bit clumsy now, but otherwise it seems to enjoy its big, stompy feet.

I definitely like the mix-and-match concept, but I do feel like the mismatching for the -vish fossils went a bit too far, it didn't need to have its head on the tail or be upside down to signal that they were mismatching (or maybe it did in the case of Arctovish, since it may have looked too 'coherent' otherwise due to the parts' similar colourschemes).

The pokédex entries are hilarious as you say, and I also feel like it gives you an insight to how they are made. To me it seems like the Pokédex makes entries with some sort of analytical algorithm based on the pokémon's physical features and bio data. But with these fossils, you can really tell how the Pokédex is really struggling to make sense of the conflicting information. It doesn't have a way to tell that they have never existed (as they are) before!
 

Baggie_Saiyan

Well-Known Member
Honestly, I wasn’t a fan at first glance, but these fossils have grown on me a whole lot. They’re a really unique idea, with a fun premise behind their creation. Their designs now strike me as more of a fun one, due to their obvious mismatching. Arctozolt can’t handle its own cold, Dracovish’s head is on the tail, and Arctovish’s head is on backwards! The Pokédex entries also definitely add to the humor behind these abominations. Collect all 4!
Just frustrating that one fossil is so hard to farm!
 

ChavaWM

Well-Known Member
The only thing that bugs me is one called the Bird Fossil, none of the pieces look like birds
 

Orphalesion

Well-Known Member
So not sure whether this is old news....but the fish head actually really seems to be based on a specific real life extinct species of which we have only ever found the head so far.
In real life, we were able to reasonably reconstruct the body by comparing it to closely related, better preserved fossils, but well, still gotta give them a point for that.
 

Pokemon Fan

Knuckle Trainer
The only thing that bugs me is one called the Bird Fossil, none of the pieces look like birds
Technically dinosaurs are birds (or birds are dinosaurs), and that's presumably why they call it that. Moreover the front half that gets the name "bird fossil" seems to be inspired by small, more bird-like species of dinosaur, though wing feathers are replaced by lightning bolt-shaped flaps on the arms).
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
So not sure whether this is old news....but the fish head actually really seems to be based on a specific real life extinct species of which we have only ever found the head so far.
In real life, we were able to reasonably reconstruct the body by comparing it to closely related, better preserved fossils, but well, still gotta give them a point for that.

Technically dinosaurs are birds (or birds are dinosaurs), and that's presumably why they call it that. Moreover the front half that gets the name "bird fossil" seems to be inspired by small, more bird-like species of dinosaur, though wing feathers are replaced by lightning bolt-shaped flaps on the arms).

For me the names kinda of tie into the idea of the fossils not being correctly identified. I wouldn't say the Dino fossil seems correct as its based on a marine reptile but not a true dinosaur.
 

wolf jani

The 6th member to reach 20 000 posts
For me the names kinda of tie into the idea of the fossils not being correctly identified. I wouldn't say the Dino fossil seems correct as its based on a marine reptile but not a true dinosaur.

The fossillized Dino is called fossilized Plesiosaur in Japan. So you're right.
 

Ophie

Salingerian Phony
I also find them entertaining. We got new type combos for the fossils instead of the usual Rock and they are all rare combos. Water/Ice isn’t as common as you’d think if you look at the list of every dual type Pokémon.

You know, you're right, With the exception of the Spheal line, they've all been Generation I Pokémon. (For that matter, we got Pokémon in Generation I that were Water/Ice but didn't make sense to be icy, like Cloyster and Lapras.)

I wonder how the fossil Pokemon will be handled in the anime. I can see this being a lot of fun in the SwSh manga, acknowledge how awkward the fossil Pokemon turned out by mis-matching the body parts, maybe see the lass absolutely adore our fish-head-on-a-dinosaur-tail but I wonder how this kind of content will be handled in the anime. Will they just gloss over the fact that they are mismatched fossil Pokemon or will the fossil Pokemon just be like, eh I'm fine with this, right from the start? Or maybe we will see a random trainer sent it out, one guy provides some exposition explaining why it looks like that and after that, the anime never speaks of it ever again.

I'm curious as to how the card game will handle it. Since the beginning, to play a Fossil Pokémon, you need the card for its fossil (or, at the beginning, the Mysterious Fossil, which stood in for all fossils). These new guys need two fossils. Will they each have their own card depicting each combination, or will you have cards for the Fossilized Bird, Fossilized Drake, Fossilized Dino, and Fossilized Fish and you need two of them at the same time to play them? If it's the latter, they're going to need to make these four be quite powerful to compensate.
 

Kantonian

Member
I really don't like any of them.

And fishious rend... come on... with 1.5 strong jaw and x2 if going first it can ohko things neutrally every now and then for what it feels like no reason at all. It is just a lack of creativity added to the meta imo. Give it a scarf, spam fishious rend and then hope for the best. Like, you need to be able to counter this random move, otherwise it can basically ohko your whole team. Also the dragon typing cancels out water weaknesses and vice versa when it comes to dragon being weak to ice, so basically you have to put him to sleep or use fairy/dragon moves at it. (That would be ok if it wouldn't have got fishing rend.)
There is some pokemons now and then that I get the strong feeling of never use, my mission is to be able to break them, this is one of them (and with that being said – I see them all as the same ****, even though only one of them has this extremely stupid op fishious rend stuff going on).

Overall I like the concept and the idea of the fossils, but the execution is just not for me.

Edit; I'm starting to think that Arctozolt is kinda cute.
 
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Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
I’m more so impressed that Dracovish is winning over both casual and competitive fans alike. Don’t really have a strong opinion on them but I really like that we finally got non Rock fossils.
 

Reinhardt

You! Me! Rivals! Yes?
It's a decent enough idea, and the Gen VIII Fossil designs have grown on me. Arctozolt and Dracovish look like they're in constant pain and suffering, but Dracozolt seems happy enough. Arctovish has always been my favourite of the four because of how (relatively) normal it looks, I mean I know its head is on upside down but all it needs to do is barrel roll and it could feasibly catch something in the water. I hear Dracovish has become really popular in the competitive scene, so I'm tempted to try it out on a team. Like many though, I do hope we get the "correct" versions of all of these Fossils one day.
 

Orphalesion

Well-Known Member

Ophie

Salingerian Phony
Fun fact: Brontosaurus did exist after all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontosaurus

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/

You're thinking of stuff like early skeletons of triceratops using parts from other animals.

Technically, yes, though it's more that they reused the name "Brontosaurus" after it fell out of acceptable scientific use for decades. The animal we currently identify as a Brontosaurus is a different creature than what those in earlier times called a Brontosaurus.
 

RedJirachi

Veteran member
Arctovish is the most normal looking, but its head is on backwards
 

DaddyOak

Well-Known Member
Fossil pokemon never had any bad designs I loved the fossil pokemon in each gen.

even in the series wich lesser designs the fossil pokemon where always excellent and well above average.

Sword & shield though. these pokemon are abominations. they are so ugly in terms of pokemon they just look terrible.

Sure they wanted to make some joke pokemon this time around and that it's funny it's all messed up. I'm not amused though.

Yeah makes me hope that the completed versions (with rock typing I guess) will eventually come out in maybe Sword and Shield 2 or Giga Sword and Shield.

But seeing how Game Freak never showed the complete original dragon of Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem, I can also see the original fossil forms being never released unfortunately as well.

i disagree in the case of the gen 5 dragons. take the white kuyrem and black kuyrem and stick them together. one half is black and one half is white. and you'll have your completed dragon.

just check white and black kyurem. one part remains icy kyrem stick them together and icy kyruem is gone and is a black & white dragon. that's what it would proably look like imo

also notice that both zekrom and reshiram each take a different spot when fused with kyruem

600px-646Kyurem-Black.png


600px-646Kyurem-White.png
 
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RedJirachi

Veteran member
They're more 2/3rds the original dragon than the complete dragon. I imagine the ice is meant to fill the missing 1/3rd gap, and the complete version would blend Reshiram and Zekrom's features

Since the fossil Pokemon are Frankenstein monsters, I think that if the completed version of each fossil is released they'll be breedable
 
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