Visit an island near Nuvema Town, the starting location in Black and White, and you might meet a Pokémon Ranger with a mysterious egg to give away.  This mysterious egg will hatch into a fascinating insect, which will probably set you on fire.  With any luck this, like that regrettable incident between Ash and Pikachu, will signify the beginning of a lifelong friendship.  Unless you just decide to squash it.  Meet Larvesta, the torch Pokémon!

Personally I think Larvesta is cute but I could understand if she had her dissenters.  I don’t think there’s any question, though, that it’s a fun design.  The solar image created by her horns stands out nicely, and the idea of a larval insect that lives around volcanoes is just cool.  Combining the Bug and Fire elements is something Pokémon hasn’t done before and frankly I think it would have been a difficult idea to screw up, which illustrates something that I don’t think Game Freak have cottoned onto yet – there’s still a bunch of type combinations they haven’t tried yet, and just picking one at random is almost certain to suggest some interesting flavour as well as creating a mechanically unique Pokémon.  Continue reading “Larvesta and Volcarona” →