Goronda. It has a bit of a Beartic vibe, with its oversized hands and grumpy expression. The twig in the mouth is still present, but the face has taken on a sort of Slaking-esque grumpiness, and it appears that Goronda now sports a fur cloak of sorts. Its design is very middle-of-the-road for me, because it doesn't introduce anything very interesting in the design, but doesn't add anything stupid, either. So, while this isn't a strike against the generation, it's not going to win it extra points, either. But like I've said before, those sorts of designs are necessary to make the great ones stand out.

Maika, however, is not a great design. It's a sort of squid-like Pokémon, except it isn't Water-type. It's Dark/Psychic. It knows the move Turn Over, which I wouldn't be surprised if it just flipped the sprite one-hundred-eighty degrees, turning the blue beard-like tuft into hair and the knight's helmet hat into a body. It's a really odd design, because I don't know what they were going for. It almost looks like a squid, but not really. And it almost looks like a mollusk, but not really. And it... it almost looks like a decent Pokémon, but not really. I don't like the little mouth, either. It's so derpy. Not a fan of this one.


Continued in next post.