906: Sprigatito

It feels weird now to hit up a new region and have the Starter Pokemon come so early. This game doesn't even have a gimmicky superform thing going on! Either way though, we have Sprigatito, which is unfortunately probably the least interesting of the three starter's base forms. It's a decent cartoon cat, but as a grass starter specifically it's so. Vapid? A load of nothing? Like before, the Grass Starter that was the least overtly Grass type was Rowlet, but at least it had its leaf bowtie!

Sprigatito just has the leaf pattern in its fur, which might've been passable for an early-game Grass/Normal Pokemon, but a wholeass Grass starter?! We'd be demanding a refund! Even thematically it has little to do with plants. At best it has a thing where when it kneads with its paws, it releases a therapeutic aroma but that's it. It's a green cat that smells nice like a flower does. That's what constitutes a Grass starter now!

We don't mean to sound... mean, but Grass Starters are historically completely our bag. But then Chespin happened and ever since, the Grass Starters have been more misses than hits, at least for their base forms. So we must have another generation where we are not experiencing the nice familiarity of a new Bulbasaur to play with. Sigh.

Personal Score: 4/10

Domo Arigato Mr.

907: Floragato

Remember when people said they were gonna be upset if Sprigatito stood up on two legs, but now that it's revealed to be adequate fursona material, most people are okay with it being bipedal suddenly?

Floragato is at least a nice step-up from Sprigatito. It's still missing a solid visual grass motif to REALLY sell it, but it at least has a yo-yo made of a budding flower and a thin vine, which is just silly enough to enjoy. And that even comes in the added danger in the form of a mini-buzzsaw on the yo-yo too.

Apparently, it also has needle-y fur, which becomes spikier when it's on edge like an actual cat. Again though we wish this got to be shown off on the model in some way rather than it merely exist as Pokedex flavor text. Not bad for a starter's middle-stage.

Meowscarada sweep

908: Meowscarada

Y'know what? Saying this in a post-Gen 8 world, for a bipedal starter Pokemon, Meowscarada could've turned out a lot worse. It FINALLY has some Grass-type theming going on, with a cloak made of various plant matter. Could be a BIT more overtly leaf-like but at this point we're happy it's something.

It's now also a magician, with it using magic to keep a floating little flower next to it that also drops pollen bombs. Except hang on, it's Grass/Dark, not Grass/Psychic? Like, magic is not that outrageous of a thing in Pokemon. The Psychic and Fairy type together are almost essentially two parts of a "Magic" type. Meowscarada SHOULD be Psychic type, right?

Well, Meowscarada is a magician in so far as it's a performer of magic tricks. Emphasis on the "trick" part. Its bulb isn't ACTUALLY floating, but rather it's allegedly using a trick of the eye to make its stem appear invisible. It uses distractions and misdirection to sneak its pollen bombs into places they shouldn't be before they explode. It's a Dark type magician Pokemon because it uses sneaky sleight of hand rather than actually casting magic of any kind. Clever!

...What's a little less clever is its floating flower thing. Like yeah, the lore says it's not actually floating, you just can't see the stem, but shouldn't there like. Still be a stem there? What definitely would've shot this design up to be at least on par with some of the greats of the Grass starter lineage is that it doesn't actually go through the effort of having its trick be visible if you look closely enough. Mayhaps if it had a funny popped "collar" that the vine hid behind.

There also feels like there's a missed opportunity in having its flower stick into its chest like on Floragato and it sprays some special attacks or pollen. It HAS a bit of a jester thing going on too, with the fur on its head looking like a jester's hat. Having a bit of clown DNA in there wouldn't be too weird!

The biggest thing remis about this line is that it appears the prehistoric/extinct animal theme of the Grass starters is gone? Maybe? Felines existed in prehistoric times, obviously, but it's not overtly something like a saber-tooth tiger or a smilodon, at most it just seems to be a type of modern-day lynx. And this seems fairly universal with these starters, but we'll get to those in a bit, just so the starter talk isn't front-loaded into Meowscarada's review here.

Anyways, Meowscarada is far from the best fully-evolved Grass starter, but it's still pretty solid.