The Problems With The Legendary Beasts

Up until this summer, the Legendary Beasts have somewhat plagued Pokemon Go. They were in research breakthroughs for the longest of times, especially Suicune, which no one wanted. We had the Legendary beasts for ages and most people were somewhat tired of them. Over the summer, we did get three 3-hour raid events in which there was a chance to get shiny variants, but even then, they are still… a chore. Last week was a chance to get Entei, Suicune and Raikou in level 5 raids, but aside from that, most people have them from research breakthroughs earlier in the year.

The thing is, two of the three Legendary Beasts, Entei and Suicune, aren’t very useful, and Raikou is considered the strongest electric type Pokemon, but only just, as there are a lot of nearby contenders like Zapdos and Magnetron. Ironically, Raikou’s just one of the easier electric types to get a good collection of.

I mean, Entai and Suicune aren’t that bad, but they’re both somewhat outclassed by other Pokemon. Like starter Pokemon. Suicune in particular is outclassed by Feraligatr, Blastoise and the recently added Marshtomp, as well as being completely outclassed by Kyogre. Entei is alright as a fire type Pokemon but there are more appealing options in the form of starter Pokemon with community day moves that are cheaper to both power up and give second charge attack moves to.

The Legendary Beasts though have been around for a relatively long time. They were basically the consolation prize for not getting any of the Legendary Birds or Ho-Oh and Lugia for ages, all of whom at the time had a shiny form while the Legendary Beasts didn’t. And because most of these beasts, before this event, came from research breakthroughs, you were limited on the candy you could get.

The only reason people are interested now is because the Legendary Beasts have shiny forms, and even then, the shiny forms aren’t that amazing, more of a hue change or anything. Suicune, the least wanted of the Beasts, has the nicest shiny – it’s mostly the same but the pink bits turn royal blue. Raikou goes more golden orange all over, while Entei goes more grey and subtle.

To get these Shinies though, you need to raid. The raids for these Pokemon aren’t that difficult – electric types for Suicune, water types for Entei and ground types for Raikou – but they’re weirdly not as easy as Rayquaza raids. You can do these with 3-4 accounts but the Legendary Beasts are kinda tanky.

But my personal bigger problem with the Legendary Beasts is that I don’t know what they are. Are they cats? Are they dogs? Who the fuck knows? Entei looks a bit like a lion but has somewhat dog-like features, Raikou sort of looks like a cat but seems kinda dog-y as well as Suicune is a dog with ribbons but also a lion-like mane. The three beasts were supposedly resurrected by Ho-Oh after its tower got struck by lightning, burnt down and was put out by the rain into legendary, uh, beasts, but it’s not sure what they were, aside from being unknown Pokemon that died inside the tower. The Legendary Birds on the other hand have basically always been there and seem so much more… regal.

Luckily though, the Legendary Beasts are going away now. They’re going to be replaced by Deoxys. And Deoxys comes in many forms and was only available in EX-Raids, so people will want these guys.