Regional Forms and Evolutions
The idea of certain Pokémon having different forms in different regions was an idea that’s been around since Sun and Moon, and I always thought it was one of the coolest ideas introduced to the games since it’s based on the real world phenomenon of certain animals developing different traits to adapt to their environment. I hadn’t expected Hisui to have its own regional forms of certain Pokémon, and the fact that there were Hisuian Form Pokémon took the concept to another level. More on that later though. Legends: Arceus also gave a few older Pokémon brand new evolved forms, which is a concept that’s been around since at least Gen. 4. The caveat here though is that these evolved forms only existed in Hisui.
In general, I really liked all of the regional forms and evolutions introduced in Legends: Arceus. I especially liked them giving a regional form to Typhlosion, as Cyndaquil has always been my favorite Johto Starters. The introduction of Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark has also made me entertain the idea of completely rebooting my series of Pokémon fanfics, as one of my major characters uses a Zorark as her ace. I could go on and on about all of these regional forms and evolutions, but that would make for way too long a post. I’ve actually been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on each Hisuian form and evolution, though I’m not sure if I’ll actually follow through with it.
I mentioned before though that Legends: Arceus takes the concept of regional forms to another level, and it’s something I don’t think many people appreciate. The thing to bare in mind is in the world of the games, Hisui only exists in the past. At some point between the events of Legends: Arceus and the modern era when Hisui became Sinnoh, the region when through some sort of transformation. Maybe this change was caused by the construction of the other towns and cities of Sinnoh or something else entirely, but whatever happened caused the environmental factors that produced these regional forms and evolutions to vanish. As a result, these Hisuian breeds of Pokémon have gone extinct…or have they?!
The DLC for Scarlet and Violet revealed that some Hisuian forms and Hisuian evolutions still exist in the modern day Pokémon world. Unfortunately it’s not really explained how these lost breeds have survived. This is yet another topic I’d cover in that possible series of posts I mentioned before. In any case, the existence of these lost regional forms and evolutions in Legends: Arceus really adds a lot to the Hisui Region. They make the region seem more like this lost mythical land.
