If I'm going to be honest, Gen 8 might very have one of my favorite rosters of new Pokemon of all time. Part of the reason I love Galar a lot is that the new mons it added are all really good and memorable to me, and there's very few Pokemon from Gen 8 that I straight up dislike (the only ones I really dislike are Stonjourner and Eiscue), and yet so many of the new Pokemon are incredibly fun and inspired designs and a lot of them are also fun and memorable in battle as well.
But if I had to pick my absolute favorite Gen 8 Pokemon, it's
Dragapult.
Dragapult is one of my favorite pseudo-legendaries by a wide margin, and one of the most creative, excellent designs I have ever seen. I love how it has the wonderful Dragon/Ghost typing, being the first non-legendary to have the type aside from Giratina. But while Giratina has a monstrous, sinister vibe to its appearance, Dragapult is more fun, and in many ways, a lively and creative design in its own right.
The lore behind its Ghost-typing is quite neat, and different from many other Ghost-type Pokemon. It's not spooky and creepy like Chandelure or Dusknoir, and it's not particularly prankster-ish like Gengar. In fact, it doesn't really steal souls or spook people like many Ghost-types do. Its Ghost typing comes from a more simple place. The Dreepy line were one ancient prehistoric life forms who lived in ancient seas so long ago, and have since gone extinct. But the souls of these organisms have seen been reborn and came back as undead Ghosts, and as Dreepy they wander the places that were once the ancient seas where they lived. In that sense, they are prehistoric creatures who defied extinction by becoming the undead! No need for fossil restoration, they come back as Ghosts!
And the path to their evolution is quite neat, and befitting of a late bloomer pseudo-legendary. Dreepy starts off exceptionally weak, so much so that on its own a mere child could beat it just by playing with it. This is reflected in both its abysmal stats and its complete and utter lack of movepool, with its strongest attacks being Bite, Astonish, Infestation, and Quick Attack. A fairly pathetic set of moves. But if it has friends to help it train, it can evolve and become much stronger, and said friends are its evolved forms, Drakloak and Dragapult. Drakloak carries a Dreepy on its head, and Dragapult carries two in its horns. The former is very doting on the Dreepy it carries and they battle as a team, but Drakloak takes very good care of the Dreepy until it successfully evolves. Dragapult is a bit more tough on the Dreepy, as it shoots them from its horns like supersonic missiles to send them flying towards their opponents as ammunition: even so, the Dreepy eagerly enjoy this experience and as Dragon Darts is a Dragon-type move, this helps Dreepy increase their power and harnesses the draconic energy within them as they grow stronger through this experience.
Dragapult also has an incredibly clean and slick design. The slim, sleek design that looks like a lizard, but the tail that grows transparent at the end of it makes it look ethereal, and the head looks like that of a Diplocaulus, which is neat, while simultaneously looking like the missile base of a war plane, which is incredibly slick. It's also surprisingly cute in and of itself, as seen in Camp especially with its two Dreepy, while also looking badass at the same time with its clean design and watching it use Dragon Darts in battle is quite cool and also an absolutely fun and creative concept.
Dragapult is also an excellent pseudo-legendary in battle, and is the best pseudo-legendary we have had in competitive since Garchomp. After Garchomp was such a masterfully made Pokemon, the following pseudos after it underwhelmed a bit and it seemed like we would never get another one like Garchomp ever again. Hydreigon, while good, was a tad underwhelming due to its incredibly awkward Speed tier, exploitable weaknesses, lack of way to boost power, and vice versa, which only got worse when Fairies joined, which made Hydreigon worse. Goodra has a nice and unique approach, but ultimately it failed to take off in singles competitive and has a negative reputation in Smogon competitive, plummeting down the tiers to Gen 6 UU (where it was still outclassed), then RU, and now NU. That being said, Goodra has its niche and good uses in VGC, something Hydreigon cannot claim to. Kommo-o proved to nearly be just as underwhelming, until its Z-Move came, which bolstered its viability, but even so, it's no Tyranitar or Garchomp and it's a fairly boring Pokemon both stat and design wise. But then come Dragapult, and it's a force to be reckoned with. Great dual typing, GODLY speed, and ability to go both physical and special, with Dragon Dance and dual STABs, or with a colorful special movepool, being able to go both ways makes it a versatile force. Plus it has great utility with a fast U-turn, or it can use annoyer sets with Will-O-Wisp and Hex, or alternatively Thunder Wave, all of which gives Dragapult some great utility. Not to mention two absolutely excellent abilities: Clear Body prevents stat drops, while Infiltrator allows Dragapult to bypass screens and Substitute. Dragapult is also excellent in Doubles and VGC thanks to Dragon Darts hitting both targets, Phantom Force bypassing Protect, and in VGC Dynamax Max Airstream helps it and its ally get even faster. After Garchomp was followed up by a trio of good, but not outstanding pseudo-legendaries that were all ultimately disappointing in battle in one way or another, Dragapult comes in and becomes yet another excellent pseudo-legendary on par with, if not better than, Garchomp in the field of battle.
The fact that Leon, who is imo one of my favorite Champions thus far, uses one, adds to its appeal to me imo. Even moreso when Dragapult has been pushed as Leon's secondary ace behind his G-Max Charizard, with him using one in the anime, in Twilight Wings, and in the Journeys manga.
While Dragapult may be my favorite of the bunch, there are some honorable mentions I will give:
Call it cliche but Toxtricity is a close second. The typing is unique and cool but the mon itself is just so neat. Toxel is a funny little baby dino but it turns into two rock stars! Toxtricity's Amped form is an electric guitar, and the Low Key form is a bass guitar! As someone who is pretty into rock music these two appealed to me immediately once I realized their schtick and they are just so unabashedly cool! They may not be that good in battle but they are still unbelievably fun and they have a great gimmick going for them.
One of the best regional birds by far, Corviknight is definitely up there as a Pokemon that I really like. It's a strong, imposing, armored bird of steel and it absolutely nails the look while looking totally natural. Great stats for a defensively oriented Pokemon while it has a good movepool to serve a variety of roles, making it a wonderful Pokemon both in-game and in competitive.
I know many people are off-put by the Galar starters' designs because of how heavily anthropomorphic they are, but I don't mind. This is a case where I think all three Galar starters appeal to me equally in many ways. First off, let me say that I really like their unevolved forms Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble, and they have great personalities with Grookey's "Have a Nice Day" vibe, Scorbunny's energetic and hyperactive personality, and Sobble's timid baby "Must protect at all costs" vibe. The mid-evolutions are kind of meh except Raboot but it's whatever in those cases. As for Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon though, while I still notably prefer the Alola and Kalos starters aesthetically, there are some things about Galar's trio that I like. I think they work really well together as a group and have fun little themes going on that tie into UK culture pretty well: Rillaboom is a drummer, and again like with Toxtricity I love it on that merit because I'm into rock music, Cinderace is based on football (or as the US calls it, soccer), and Inteleon is a spy/sniper and its most recent anime appearance really went in on that by letting it play into some spy movie tropes (especially when many people nicknamed their Inteleons either James Pond or Bubble 07, which was hilarious).
But the big thing that makes me like the Galar starters a lot, despite me still liking Kalos and Alola's groups more aesthetically, is their battling capabilities. One of the things I look for in a great starter is that they are fun and splashable to use in battle, and these three deliver on that front. Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon are sincerely one of the most enjoyable trios of starters to use in-game, right up there with Sinnoh's trio in how fun they are to use collectively. While many other starter trios have one or two members who are underwhelming or difficult to use in-game (Meganium, Charizard, Serperior, and Greninja, to name a few), this isn't the case with Galar's trio: you can use any of Grookey, Scorbunny, or Sobble and you literally cannot go wrong with any of them. And boy, not only are they solid thanks to their well distributed stats and great movepools, they sure as hell are enjoyable to use. They may be mono-typed, but they make up for it with their stats and fun movepools. And boy are their signature moves absolutely fun to see. Rillaboom beating that tree stump drum and watching roots hit the opponent, Cinderace dribbling a pebble and conjuring a soccer ball of fire and kicking it in the opponent's face, or Inteleon focusing and shooting the opponent at their most vulnerable spot. That is really, really fun imo. Plus they all have good coverage to use via TMs or TRs and U-turn for a bit of utility as well if you're in for that.
Plus they are among the strongest group of starters competitively so far. Despite being mono-typed, they make up for it with their movepools, great stats, and most of all, excellent Hidden Abilities that make them forces in the metagame, though mainly just Rillaboom and Cinderace. Rillaboom's Grassy Terrain plus strong priority in Grassy Glide combined with a good movepool make it awesome in both OU and VGC, same with Cinderace's Libero, though sadly it's banned to Ubers now. Inteleon got the short end of the stick, unfortunately, and it's a lower tier mon, but Sniper isn't totally useless and if anything, combined with Focus Energy gives it a funny gimmick to utilize in getting crits like crazy (like Kingdra basically). Their G-Maxes are also fun and tie into their schticks even harder. Watching G-Max Inteleon snipe Leon's Charizard from the top of a tower was a sight to behold.
This is an incredibly creative Dragon-type line that uses an unusual typing but it's so cool and unique. Applin is literally a worm in an apple, but is also part Dragon in that it's a "wyrm" in an apple, perfect play on words there. Its evolution branch gimmick is also neat, in that apples can be either sour or sweet, and that flavor triggers a different evolutionary path for Applin depending on which one it ate. Flapple takes on a broken apple appearance and being a apple wyrm literally, taking more after the Dragon-type. Meanwhile Appletun becomes more of a turtle-like creature, and its back now resembles apple pie! Creative concept for sure!
Scolipede is one of my favorite Gen 5 Pokemon, and Gen 8 certainly didn't disappoint in introducing another centipede to the mix, this time a fiery centipede. Centiskorch has a really cool and imposing design and it's one of the best Bug-types we've gotten so far. And the fact that Scolipede's IoA dex entry later revealed the two are rivals who will eat each other after they fight just makes it even cooler in my eyes.
Hatterene and Grimmsnarl are a really cool counterpart duo that represent forest-dwelling creatures that are scary in their own rights. Hatterene is a forest witch who will kill you if you express strong emotion, Grimmsnarl is a goblin with hairs that act as muscle fibers. And they just have really excellently made designs! It's even funnier when they are both centered around their hair to conceal their true bodies: Hatterene looks really tall but is actually a tiny little creature underneath it all, Grimmsnarl has a noodle body despite being muscular. There's an inherent irony there.
Big shout-out to these. These four are abominations and are hella creative, Arctozolt and Dracovish my favorite of all, but they're a shoutout to history in that paleontologists long ago put together unrelated skeletons and claimed they discovered a dinosaur, especially in the UK, which ties in really nicely into Galar, and they're just utterly hilarious abominations in and of themselves. Dracovish and Arctozolt are my favorite of the lot though, and I am happy Ash and Goh caught them in the anime.
Cool typing, funny design. It's interesting how it looks so tall and made of metal but it's so unbelievably light, and yet it has that kaiju vibe to it looking like Mecha Godzilla, and the fact that it's canonically known to be rivals with Tyranitar (a huge long time favorite of mine) is even cooler in my eyes.
Calyrex's design wasn't something I liked at first, but actually seeing it in the Crown Tundra made me like it because it became its own character. Seeing Calyrex take possession of Peony to actually talk with you was fun, and seeing how despite it carrying itself regally like a king it was a giant dork and had a funny personality plus being out of touch with modern day reality made me love it. The Freezington Snow Samba scene was utterly hilarious to witness too, especially since Calyrex made Peony do it while possessed and floating in the air right next to him.
This is one of those funny designs that is really great and cool. It's a group of six who line up and battle together under a leader, and it's a perfect shout out to the phalanx formation in ancient combat, soldiers lined up with shields all around both sides and spears at the ready. Falinks, right down to its name, is an excellent play on this concept.
Looong ass post sorry lol, but I just love Gen 8's roster of Pokemon so, so much. So many creative and inspired designs and it's clear a lot of thought went into creating a large number of Galar's new mons and I appreciate so many mons from Gen 8 because of how creative they got with all of these, not to mention many of them are great battlers and fun to use whether it be in-game or competitive.
