Velvet Celebrity Digest

Fresh star stories with a cool online feel.

I'm a little conflicted. While I do think a set of starters could get Hisuian variants, I don't think the it will be the two sets of starters we know for sure will be in these games, partially because I think Game Freak would find that too predictable. Rather, I'm going to go out of left field and say that the starters that could get new forms would be the Hoenn trio instead (at least their 2nd and 3rd stages since the 1st stages are too iconic). Now, why do I think that? I largely blame the SwSh Expansion Pass including them in Dynamax Adventures, but I also think it would make good thematic sense as well as a fun meta commentary throwback.

In addition to the previously mentioned starter trio, Dynamax Adventures contains Galar native Pokémon, Legendaries not in any of Galar's Pokédexes, and even non-native regional forms. All of them have explanations (even the Galar natives since it is in their home region) and are even acknowledged to be found in the Max Lair: with the sole exception being the Hoenn starters. There isn't even a meta excuse like giving Kabu a Blaziken for the Galarian All-Star Tournament and Game Freak not wanting to split up a trio of starters for too long of a time period. However, if they were added to get our minds thinking about them in preparation of giving them something new (just not in SwSh), then it makes perfect sense as they'd be in the "non Gen 8 variations" category!

Not only that, but this could also make both good thematic sense and for a cool meta commentary! We could have the Hoenn trio native to a tropical region being forced to change their ways through the harsh environments of the Hisui region, symbolizing how the players had to adapt from changes in mechanics from Gen 3 to the ones present within Gen 4 (mainly the physical/special split). It also symbolizes how Gen 4 started development as a GBA game (same as Gen 3) and then moved over to being developed on the DS instead.

It's unlikely, but I can only really see the Hoenn starters getting Hisuian variants rather than the ones we know to be present simply on the basis of Game Freak wanting to be unpredictable. For this reason, I voted that neither the imported nor the native starters will be getting Hisuian variants.