What a graceful entrance...

313: Volbeat

We dunno, man. For the longest time, a firefly Pokemon has continued to be something on our wishlist because we regularly forget these two are even meant to be fireflies. Props for not doing the predictable "firefly = light bulb" thing and making it a Bug/Electric type, but we honestly would've preferred that over there being nothing here. Saying Volbeat is a nothing design isn't fair to it, but it feels like nothing to us.

Being pure Bug is just a waste. Bug/Electric and Bug/Fire would've been the predictable typings to go with, and thus maybe on its own is worth avoiding for that very reason. But both would've been new typings back then so eh. We think a Bug/Ice firefly could be an interesting spin. Firefly bioluminescence is often referred to as "cold light", not literally because it's cold, but because it produces surprisingly little heat for how bright they get.

But all of that's just what-ifs. Volbeat itself just looks a little lame if we're being honest. Just something about its face and how (stylized) humanoid it is, is off-putting in a weird way. We wouldn't necessarily call it uncanny valley, but still off. The tail light is so underplayed to the point that it never even occurred to kid-us this was meant to be a firefly.

Personal Score: 4/10

What if it was PURPLE

314: Illumise

Had Volbeat resembled its female counterpart more, we might be talking a different story. Not that Illumise is super amazing or anything, but it fixes our biggest problem, being its face. So now we can focus on elements like the fur coat-like look that's sort of neat. Though to be honest that's sort of it. Illumise isn't a giant improvement, but it's something. Though it does seem odd that they count this as a "different species" rather than this just be Volbeat's female form.