Sinnoh Stone: Agglomerating Evolution

Recently, Pokémon Go introduced a new evolution item for allowing a select number of Pokémon from earlier generations to evolve to their fourth-generation evolved forms. The item is called the Sinnoh Stone, and it applies for a number of Pokémon that in the main series games would utilize an evolution stone or another specific evolution item. This means that the Sinnoh Stone effectively consolidates or agglomerates those specific items into a single item. This becomes something that bears some discussion, given the specifics of evolution for particular Pokémon species.

Six months ago, I wrote a post on the limits of evolution items, and it is perhaps this limit that has been realized. Most evolutionary items only really go so far, being able to only evolve a handful of Pokémon and lacking much purpose elsewhere. From a practical standpoint, it is not really feasible to add a new item when that item is only specifically related to a couple of or just one Pokémon. It is perhaps for this reason why the Clamperl family has not been seen in Go even as of this post, despite being from the previous generation. To overcome limits like in this particular case, the Sinnoh Stone is created and instituted in lieu of several different items.

This solution appears both practical and smart, even if it does seem deviant to the order of how things are supposed to proceed in regard to evolution. But then again, Go has been deviant in this regard from the very beginning. Eevee, for example, evolves to Vaporeon, Jolteon, or Flareon by a single random chance rather than being determined by the stones characteristic to each species. Most recently, Shedinja has been separated from the actual Nincada to Ninjask evolutionary process and can actually be captured on its own, albeit only via a Field Research breakthrough. It seems it may not be fair to compare Go against the main series games considering how other Pokémon games address evolution, which may be not at all. This makes the Go treatment respectable.

The Sinnoh Stone is thus a unique solution to regard how limited evolution items actually are in actual and typical (main series) usage. Even if it's not actually what would be used by certain Pokémon to evolve, by taking the place of a few other items, which may or may not make sense in Go, the solution seems fair enough in consideration of how the other items work. The agglomeration suffices for this purpose, and it simply becomes another new order of evolution specific to this game.

One year ago: Journeys and Adventures