We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Buneary and Diggersby, another pair of rabbit Pokémon! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.
Selected Fan Art (Artist: Melon Berri)
When Generation 6’s region is going to be based on France, the designers set out to figure out ideas for Pokémon in a French setting. Quite a few ideas were thought of, and one idea was to base a Pokémon on a rabbit, since one of the designers observed that there are rabbits in France when they visited that country. Not content with just using an ordinary rabbit, Pokémon makes these rabbits exceptional diggers.
The biggest feature with Bunnelby and Diggersby are their ears. Those ears are not ordinary ears, because they look like they have hands at the tip. That’s because they are used for digging. Instead of using their paws for digging, their ears are powerful to facilitate it, and it gets the job done faster. Diggersby’s ears also have elbows (how bizarre is that?), so it can do more work with it, such as lifting boulders and smashing them.
Diggersby is very much like a construction worker, doing heavy work. Not only does it do some heavy lifting, it also digs the ground quite easily, making it an efficient worker in construction sites. After Diggersby is done with digging, it would laze around. I get that the creation of these bunnies are due to the French-based region, but I can’t help but feel that Diggersby has some Japanese stereotypes injected in it.
Backed by having a lot of power when it comes to digging, the hidden ability these Pokémon have is Huge Power. This is one of the best abilities in the game when it comes to boosting a Pokémon’s viability, because it doubles Attack just by having it. If not for this ability, Diggersby would have been relegated as an unviable Pokémon, similar to other early-game two-staged mammals like Raticate, Furret and Watchog. The big advantage Diggersby has is a Ground-type, making its Earthquake stronger, which helps against Rock- and Steel-types that resist its Normal STAB.
In addition to this, Diggersby has a lot of coverage from the elemental Punches and Knock Off, so it has any tool to take on any foe. Diggersby could also boost its Attack further with Swords Dance, and it could also use Quick Attack for the first strike. Its defences and Speed aren’t the greatest, but they’re not bad either. It is as if the designers wanted to make the best early-game two-staged mammal Pokémon possible, because its stats are distributed in such a way that allows it to go toe-to-toe with stronger Pokémon, once you take into account its ability.
Huge Power is a huge deal that it’s easy to forget that Bunnelby and Diggersby have two other abilities. It gets Pickup, presumably thanks to the tendency for their ear-hands to pick things up, even when digging. Pickup is a handy ability to have if you are looking to get items you can’t get normally, including Rare Candy and PP Up. As for Cheek Pouches, it’s a strange ability choice for rabbits because rabbits don’t store food in their cheeks, at least not in the same way as hamsters (like Dedenne). Perhaps in-game, it could provide extra healing, but it’s not likely to see use in competitive battling because its practicality is sparse, compared to other abilities.
Bunnelby and Diggersby’s appearances differ drastically. The former is considered cute, while the latter is considered unkempt. It’s possible that this is the intention of the design since Diggersby is based on a construction worker, who is not known for their hygiene. I don’t think Diggersby is a bad design, because a design that is the opposite of cute are appreciated by other people. Not everything has to be cute, after all, because not everybody appreciates cute.
For an early-game two-staged mammal Pokémon, Bunnelby and Diggersby didn’t disappoint. In fact, they are suprisingly good. From the wildly different looks between them and having value in competitive battling, they don’t joke around.
+ Wild difference between both Pokémon
+ Very useful in battling
± Diggersby’s design
– Potential to become pests
Bunnelby’s TCG Card
In this semi-realistic scene, Bunnelby is readying to dig a tunnel, or it might be angry at some other Pokémon stole its food. For some reason, the scenery looks unreal, but due to the cartoonish Pokémon, it never quite look out of place since only the character needs to be believable for the whole picture to look believable.
Diggersby’s TCG Card
Normally, you would expect rabbits to dig in soil, so why does Diggersby look like it’s digging in a cave, where the rocks are too hard to dig? Well, because it can! It’s strange to see that Diggersby has sharp claws on its ears, like as if the ears are extensions. Not saying that they aren’t hands, but it’s pretty strange to see that they are sharper than its paws and feet (assuming it’s similar to the physiology of rabbits).
Flail
In RPGs, it’s not unexpected that there is an attack that encourages low HP in order to do a lot of damage. For Pokémon, this move fits the criteria. Initially, this move is quite weak, but when the learner is at critical HP, this attack is one you don’t want to be hit by. At its strongest, this move hits 200 BP. Combined with Diggersby’s Huge Power, it is very powerful that it’s easy to OHKO several Pokémon. However, the risk in achieving the highest power is that the user is very vulnerable to being KO’ed themselves. Maximum power is best achieved by guaranteeing that the Pokémon is brought down to 1 HP, such as Endure, Focus Sash and Sturdy.
There is another attack that does the same as Flail, and this move is Reversal. The only difference is that Reversal is a Fighting attack, which is more useful because Fighting can do super-effective damage.
Unlike most move choices for other Normal-types, there aren’t many suitable choices for Bunnelby and Diggersby, so Flail is chosen because it fits their ability to use their strong ear-arms as a battle advantage.
That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.
Next Article: Castform
