Off We Go... to Alola!

Yesterday's announcement of Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! (hereinafter abbreviated as LGP/LGE) is important, because it brought back Pokémon Go into the spotlight, due to the similar play mechanics and the planned interlink. To that end, Go also did something important of its own: for the first time ever, the Alola Form of a Pokémon has been introduced into the game. This is a major forward step for a game with only three generations of Pokémon included so far.

Actually, this inclusion had been announced a couple of weeks ago, but much of the details were not divulged. I and my other raid fellows talked about this during one of our raid meetups, and we asked several questions about the inclusion: Is it to be all at once, or gradual? Will there be events, items, or whatnot alongside them? How are these forms to be included, given their Kanto counterparts? And most importantly, what is the significance of bringing in something that's light-years ahead of where Pokémon Go is now? Yesterday, much of the answers to these questions became apparent.

The first Alola Form added yesterday to Pokémon Go is Exeggutor's, and the rest will come in due time, thus answering the first question. Realistically, the addition of the form itself constitutes an event, where the form appears quite often, and this answers the second question. The form itself is treated separately from regular Exeggutor as well as its predecessor Exeggcute, answering the third. And of course, yesterday's reveal of LGP/LGE provided the answer to the fourth question. So the stage was set.

After a couple of days with this neat new addition, I have to say that it's quite entertaining. I have caught a few Alola-Exeggutor, as have the other members of my raid group; a few of the ones caught have stats that are not too shabby as well. But what's important is that we also get to play around with this form: we try to do all sorts of things while we catch it, and then afterwards we put them in Gyms to see how they fare. Of course, because of its unusually tall size, it became a laugh to see how it fits certain circumstances. It's a unique form that fortunately does allow this to happen.

This is the first of many fun times we'll have with Alola Forms in Pokémon Go. Granted, perhaps not all are as unique and fascinating as this one is, but we'll still deal with them just like we deal with all other Pokémon. And with LGP/LGE on the horizon, it gives some of us something to work towards. The prospect of this and the rest of the Alola Forms in Go promises lots of exciting things and times ahead.

So off we Go... to Alola! (and perhaps, beyond)

One year ago: I Need More Rumble World Players