There are plenty of interesting PokeDex entries for the nearly 900 different monsters featured throughout the Pokemon series, but they aren't always as lighthearted as the rest of the media surrounding the franchise might imply. One Pokemon featured in the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Arceus has been revealed to have a heartbreaking backstory prior to the release of the game.
Today, a new trailer for Pokemon Legends: Arceus was released that showcased new Hisuian Pokemon forms for Zorua and its evolved form Zoroark reimagined to be Normal/Ghost types as opposed to their original single type Dark forms. According to the official Pokemon Twitter account, the Hisuian Zorua are the ghosts of dead Zorua that were shunned by humans on other islands.
Because they were shunned, the Zorua migrated to Hisui but were "unable to survive the harsh environment." After perishing, their ghosts manifested into the Hisuian forms "through the power of their malice." While this isn't the only dark Pokemon backstory, it's certainly one that has other implications for answering the question that Pokemon media tends to dance around while simultaneously frequently bringing up surrounding what happens to Pokemon when they die.
Zorua's backstory is certainly heartbreaking, especially when seeing how cute the Pokemon is, but the story also informs its new title as the Spiteful Fox Pokemon, updated from its original form of the Tricky Fox Pokemon. Zorua's evolved form, Zoroark was also mentioned on the Pokemon Twitter account, but its entry didn't mention anything about tragic Pokemon deaths, instead focusing on how Zoroark is hostile towards anyone unfamiliar to it but has "compassion for those it considers family."
Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time that Pokemon Legends: Arceus has addressed Pokemon mortality in its marketing. Earlier this year, a trailer for the game introduced Basculegion, a Water/Ghost type, that's the evolved form of Basculin, but the water Pokemon only evolves when another Basculin in their school perishes while swimming upstream and possesses them.
Because there have now been two separate instances of Pokemon Legends: Arceus directly addressing the mortality of its Pokemon, it'll be interesting to see if the game discusses the topic in the finalized release or if all of this is simply for the marketing. The game had a similarly dark trailer released last week that showed Pokemon attacking a human in a found-footage style video. So far, some of the marketing for the game has been tonally off from Pokemon's usual lighthearted vibe, but it's still to be seen just how much of that is all for show and what will make it in the final release.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available on January 28, 2022, for Nintendo Switch.
