>>34303143Honestly, while USUM are the first games to outright introduce new species of Pokémon mid-generation, they did it in a very unremarkable fashion.
- Blacephalon and Stakataka are post-game encounters with no impact on the storyline - they show up for one cutscene right after Necrozma appears, but they could have been replaced by any other UB in that scene and it wouldn't have changed it at all. Even their appearance in the post-game isn't very interesting, since you just go and catch a couple of them in some tall grass like nearly any other Pokémon; the only difference is that they are stronger and have that fancy aura.
- Poipole is more interesting, not only because it's the only UB that can evolve but also because it's the only "friendly" UB - the Ultra Recon Squad never came across as bad or evil imo, and they're the ones who use it. Even so, it doesn't do much itself in the storyline aside from demonstrating how terrible URS are at battles, and the single Poipole you get in the game is just handed to you at the end of the Necrozma story, no effort required. Type: Null does something similar, but at least gets some interesting lore and slight plot relevance, not to mention evolving at the end of the story; Poipole is just a shitty UB that happens to be quite common where Dulse/Soliera come from.
- Naganadel doesn't appear at all, and the only reference to its existence in-game (unless I missed something) is the empty Pokédex entry it leaves before you evolve your Poipole, and even then, you can't get it until you're right outside the Pokémon League. It gets points for its status as a "very rare Pokémon that you can only get by evolving an equally rare Pokémon through an unusual method" (sort of like Cosmoem but more complicated) but that's the extent of its relevance.
- Zeraora doesn't even officially exist yet as far as Game Freak's concerned, let alone have any role in the game. Odds are it'll just be distributed as a movie advertisement.
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