>>35469486Well, best thing you could do is make the final form's pokedex number not directly next to its previous forms number on the regional pokedex, and you don't have access to evolving it until the postgame or otherwise extremely late. That way when the 8th boss (gym leader, trial captain, whatever the fuck) or the first Elite 4 guy sends one out as his ace, you're all shocked like "Wait, the early game shitmon turns into THAT?!?" because you can still recognize by the design that it came from the Beedrill/Butterfree equivalent. Would be a hell of a moment.
Or you could have lore to link the early game shitmon and the region's Pseudo legend, and secretly there's an obscure way to make the shitmon's 3rd form evolve into the pseud-legend's final form so they're both technically part of the same line, like one is a line of Normal/Psychic type goats, and one is a line of Water type capricorns, and they converge into a Water/Psychic Capricorn.
