My body is ready

377: Regirock

And it's officially onto Legendaries, and boy did Gen 3 introduce a ton of them. 10 may not seem like a huge step up from 6, but boy is it gonna be felt the next few days.

But first off is this generation's Legendary trio, three odd autonomous golems made of different solid materials. The Regis have been something at least somewhat shrouded in mystery for a while, with this game featuring obscure puzzles you can only figure out if you have a guide written down or can read brail, on top of being hidden behind ridiculously obscure instructions. Whether or not they're man-made used to be a mystery before the sequel confirmed a "Regigigas" made them.

But as for Regirock itself, it definitely feels like the most "vanilla" execution of the idea, being a rock golem in the vague shape of a person. It does add in some more monstrous elements, especially the row of spines on its back, but it's overall neat how uneven and naturally craggy it looks. Really makes it look like a set of animated stones more than anything else.

But one of the cooler, more alien features across the Regis is that they're one of extremely few Pokemon that have a complete lack of an obvious face. Instead, they have a pattern of seven dots in place of where a face WOULD be. They are comparable to eyes, but that seems mostly like a thing of the human brain trying to create a face where there isn't one. The dots blink and dim as the Regis make noises, which makes them more like robots than anything.

Man made entirely out of 90s platformer collectibles

378: Regice

Regice is a bit more interesting in that it's somewhat more unconventional for a golem. Not that ice constructs are a revolutionary idea, but Regice stands out by being aggressively geometric, having very diamond-like shapes and aggressive spikes. It's apparently made out of a special type of ice that never melts. Like some kind of Nevermelt Ice. Thus, it can maintain its perfect body shape. Lucky for it, given The Circumstances Lately.

MY WILL IS ONCE AGAIN BOUND TO IRON

379: Registeel

The third of the bunch is Registeel, and the thematic thru-line between the three SEEMS to be that they embody different "ages" of human history. Regirock with the Stone Age, Regice with the Ice Age, and now Registeel being the Iron Age. Something that's hard to tell if it's intentional or not, but it's a fun parallel anyway.

As a design, Registeel goes notably more curvy in shapes, with much gentler, rounder shapes that make it feel a bit more modern than the other two. And the split-open "chest"/head revealing a black-iron body inside like a big metal walnut is neat. So organic but still so artificial feeling! Easily our favorite of the three.

The Regis are an interesting bunch, though it feels like the designs could've gotten that little extra push to be REALLY weird and alien-looking. Their facelessness is a great start, especially given that's such a rarity for Pokemon, but there could've just been a bit more to them. They're neat! Just not mind-blowing.