As 2022 finally rolls around, games likePokemon GOhave started releasing information about their plans for the upcoming year.Pokemon GOalready has quite a bit going on. The Season of Heritage is in full swing and will feature a New Year’s celebration, a Kanto Power Plant event, and an event focusing onPokemon’s various mountains, aside from regular events like Spotlight Hours and Community Days. Niantic has teased that Team Rocket might finally start to factor intoPokemon GO’s Season of Heritage in the coming month, meaning players may have to help Professor Willow defend whatever lies behind the mysterious door soon.
These various Season of Heritage events and the upcomingPokemon GOTour Johto are great, but there’s one promised event that still hasn’t come to light yet. For a while now, Niantic has promised thatPokemon GOwill add a missing Pokemonto the game in a special way. That Pokemon is Kecleon, the charming chameleon-like Color Swap Pokemon that made its debut inPokemon RubyandSapphire.Kecleon’s arrival inPokemon GOis long overdue, so players want to know what exactly Niantic has in mind. There may not be room for Kecleon in the Season of Heritage, but hopefully Niantic won’t make fans wait much longer than that.
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Kecleon’s Long-Term Absence
WhenPokemon GOdebuted in 2016, it only featured the original 151 Pokemon from the Kanto region, but Niantic was quick to expand. By the end of 2017, Hoenn Pokemon were coming toPokemon GOin droves, and soon they were almost all in the game. However, one Pokemon remained absent fromPokemon GO: Kecleon. As such, fans have been asking themselves and Niantic when they can finally complete the Hoenn Pokedex.APokemon GOdatamine in 2018made some players optimistic that Kecleon would show up soon, but it never arrived.
By now, the majority ofPokemon GO’s regions have joined the game to some extent. Many hundreds ofPokemonare available now, and even though the Pokedex is still incomplete,Pokemon GOis always adding new monsters over time. For instance, the game’s New Year’s loading screen suggests thatFlabebe and Helioptile will come toPokemon GOsoon, which is great news for Kalos region fans. In spite of all these additions, though, it seems odd that Kecleon still hasn’t appeared so many years later. The Hoenn region’s Pokedex really ought to be complete by now, but instead Pokemon from Galar and Kalos continue to arrive in Kecleon’s place.
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Integrating Kecleon into Pokemon GO
It seems likely that Kecleon’s delayed debut has something to do with its signature Ability, Color Change, which causes it to change its type to whatever move it last took damage from.Pokemon GOdoesn’t have Abilities, and even as a unique mechanic, Color Change could be impractical to integrate intoPokemon GO’s fast-paced combat. Niantic could still find a solution, though. Maybe Kecleon will get a special mechanic closer to its Hidden Ability, Protean, causing Kecleon’s Fast or Charged Attack to define its type, rather than an opponent’s attack.
Kecleon will definitely be a fun addition toPokemon GOif it manages to keep its defining type-changing trait somehow. If it can learn attacks from a lot of different types, then Kecleon’s usefulness could be defined by versatility, offering an additional Pokemon of a certain type to any givenPokemon GOteam. For now, though, that potential utility remains a dream.The Season of Heritage’s focus on ancient Pokemon secretsmay suggest that Kecleon won’t appear until the next Season; Kecleon doesn’t have mythical lore to contribute to Professor Willow’s quest to open the mysterious door, after all. Hopefully, that means Kecleon will be a part of 2022’s spring season instead, bringing the wait to an end in just a few more months.
Pokemon GOis available now for Android and iOS devices.
