While Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s new Pokemon designs are among the best we’ve seen in years, the game surprisingly doesn’t do much with its newly introduced convergent evolution gimmick. Since Pokemon Sun and Moon, The Pokemon Company has played around with its rules on Pokemon design and evolutions. First were the regional forms, which were initially seen in the Alolan region and then appeared in Galar (Pokemon Sword and Shield), Hisui (Pokemon Legends: Arceus), and now to a lesser extent Paldea (Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.) The Galar region then took the concept of regional forms one step further, with several regional forms receiving all new evolutions – Mr. Ryme, Obstagoon, Cursola, and Runerigus all were new Pokemon that came from regional forms of existing Pokemon. More recently, Pokemon Legends: Arceus returned to non-regional forms getting new evolutions, something we hadn’t seen since Pokemon Diamond and Pearl – Wyrdeer, Ursaluna, and Kleavor all evolved from regular forms of previous Pokemon.
