First look at a new Pokémon starters - Henry Lockyer, Heathside school

Sprigatito is our grass starter and is the Grass Cat Pokémon. Sprigatito has that cuteness a starter needs, with a large head and tail just to add to the cuteness of a grass cat. While Sprigatito isn’t our first starter Pokémon to be a cat it will certainly be interesting to see what they do with it. They have a few routes they could go down, but personally I want to see them to go down the big cat route. I think a grass tiger would look really good as it subverts the fiery ideas of the big cat, it’s also a contrast to Litten and Incineroar, the gen 7 starter. I also hope with this generation Game Freak deviates off the anthropomorphic route for their starters, as the last few generation have turned from cute animals into people in animal costumes - hopefully in this generation we see a change back to four-legged Pokémon.

Fuecoco is the fire starter and is the Fire Croc Pokémon. Fuecoco has a very cute hyperbolised designed - he’s not supposed to look like a crocodile, he’s more like a cute T-rex. However like most fire starters and ‘crocodile’ Pokémon he will go from cute to intimidating; if we take a look at Totodile, he’s simply a cute little croc, but then you look at Feraligatr and he’s an imposing figure. These more animalistic starters appeal to Pokémon’s older fans - where the cute anthropomorphic starters are great for toys and merchandising for children, the games older fans want something that looks detailed, like an animal - they want to easier suspend their disbelief at a crocodile that shoots fire. The contrast of a crocodile - something that lives in water - being a fire Pokémon gives us a fun contrast, it changes the dynamic, it subverts the natural environment with the fiery nature of the animal.

Quaxly is the water starter and is the Duckling Pokémon. He’s a self-explanatory Pokémon - he’s a duck with a quiff, he’s the obligatory cute figurehead for the title, the merchandising figure. Quaxly has a narrow scope for evolution, because of his innate cuteness the transition from this younger stage to the fully evolved Pokémon can feel stunted and blocked off, the middle evolution either ends up looking nothing like the starter and nothing like the final evolution. We saw this with Grookey where the middle evolution looked like an older version of Grookey - but then the final evolution looked nothing like either of them. The worry I have with these starter Pokémon being so cute is that we may get disjointed evolution paths. We may have two sets of starters the first evolutions and the last evolutions.

Overall I love these new starters they add a much needed fresh eye to the concept of starters - in recent generations I feel like starters have been themed too much when really what they are is the selling point of the new game. They’re there to look cute and give the players a nice choice at the start of the game.