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Normal-type Reviews: Regigigas

We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Regigigas, a legendary who, befitting to its name, the tallest Normal-type! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.

Selected Fan Art (Artist: SmithyGCN)

Normal-type legendaries didn’t come into play until Generation 4, and Regigigas was the first to be known. As its name and appearance are similar to the Regi trio found in Generation 3, it is related to them, mainly being the trio master of the Regis. Its Normal-type is likely a result of it being a non-elemental Pokémon, being that it basically brings the Regi trio, who are elemental, to life.

Regigigas is clearly based on a golem, which is basically an anthropomorphic shape that is considered amorphous, as if the golem is an unfinished shape of a human. This comes from a Hebrew word that means “my unshapen form”, which could also mean that the person is uncultivated. While Regigigas looks humanoid, its features are enigmatic in that you cannot make out its face. The lack of an obvious face could be quite scary for some people due to its uncanny look. Golems are also depicted as a large being, so Regigigas’ gigantic size made sense, standing at 3.7 metres.

The title of the “Master of the Regis” (note: title unofficial) indeed belongs to Regigigas. While Regigigas was introduced one Generation later after the original Regi trio, it shares a lot of similarities with them, mainly being golems and having a lack of an obvious face. One thing it didn’t share with the original Regis is the material. The Regi trio are made of a certain substance, whereas Regigigas is more organically built. This is because Regigigas created the three Regis with materials after its image, mainly ice (Regice), rocks (Regirock) and magma (Registeel). Based on this, it is possible for Regigigas to build more Regis, and perhaps use new material for new types of Regis, such as fire, wood, water and earth (to complete the five elements).

The jewels on Regigigas’ chest have familiar colours, representing Regirock (red), Regice (blue) and Registeel (gray), to signify its connection with the Regi trio. Indeed, when one meets a Regigigas, you need to have each member of the Regi trio in order to awaken it. The process is considered troublesome and time-consuming, because it involves catching the original Regi trio, who have low catch rates, on top of some tricky puzzles to gain access to them.

Befitting for a giant golem, Regigigas possesses a lot of strength. With that strength, it could even pull continents with a rope, which while said to be a legend, isn’t hard to believe. If that is the case, does that mean it pulled Groudon, the Continent Pokémon, at one time? It is also demonstrated to be as destructive or powerful as the other powerful legendaries, as it’s shown to have strength on par with them. Regigigas is also powerful that it could withstand extreme heat and chill, and basically any terrain, so it’s not in a state of discomfort when constructing the Regi trio.

As shown in the episode “The Pillars of Friendship!”, if Regigigas were to be disturbed from its slumber, it could become rampant and shoot powerful beams, but when it is befriended, it is calm and gentle. Regigigas’ strength and importance to the plot made it a Pokémon owned by two characters in two different manga, Pokémon Special and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventures, where their versions of Lucas (male player character of Diamond, Pearl and Platinum) got one.

While Regigigas made its appearance in the anime, it also has a key role in the movie Giratina and the Sky Warrior, where it was shown alongside Shaymin and of course, Giratina. In the movie, Regigigas woke up from its slumber, where it attempted to hold a crisis back, namely holding back a large glacier that happened as a result of interference in the Reverse World. It was speculated that Regigigas would get a new Forme (this movie is the first instance of this spelling of “form” used) like Shaymin and Giratina, but that didn’t turn out to be the case, which is too bad, because a new Regigigas Forme would be sweet.

Assuming that every Legendary Pokémon has long life spans as a prerequisite, Regigigas is one to have a long life. Regigigas’ long life could also be attributed to its constant state of slumber, in which it is dormant in every encounter. As such, there is an undergrowth of moss growing on its feet and shoulders as a result of being still. Amusingly, it cannot be caught in a Poké Ball until it’s animated, as the manga had demonstrated. Taking a long rest must have been detrimental to its battle ability in Platinum, where it is battled at Level 1, which ironically makes it harder to catch because catch chance is based on HP percentage, meaning that a Regigigas at Level 1 will have a lower chance compared to a Regigigas at Level 68, assuming both are at 1 HP. Regigigas will be in a state of unpreparedness when it just got up, so it needs some time to get its act together. This is the basis of its ability Slow Start.

Having this ability puts Regigigas at a general disadvantage compared to the average Pokémon, because it halves its Speed and Attack for five turns, in which the stats will be restored to its default after that. While its defences are great, it lacks options to stall for turns, because it cannot learn Protect, Rest or a recovery move (not counting Drain Punch). Moreover, five turns is quite a long time in an average Pokémon battle, the time in which the opponent has an advantage because Regigigas is quite weak while its ability is active to threaten them, and when Regigigas is switched out, the timer is reset.

If its ability only lasted less turns or it learns Skill Swap, it could’ve been better. Speaking of Skill Swap, this is one way for the Lucas equivalent of the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventures manga to overcome the Speed issue, though it is prevented by the judge on one instance because the character attempted to use it in a single battle (said character is basically a jungle boy, so he didn’t know better).

Even though Regigigas is supposed to be a powerful legendary, one could help but feel that it is not so strong in a Pokémon battle because of its ability that hinders its performance. Because of the way the video game battles work, Regigigas is considered weak. That disadvantage takes away the allure of what it means to be a legendary, which is to basically be more powerful than the average Pokémon. It’s unfortunate that things were the way it is, because Regigigas is quite majestic.

TCG Card

The colossal Regigigas shows how gigantic it is on this card, in which it dwarfs the battlefield it is occupied in. It’s forcefully giving a powerful punch to what is presumably its opponent, presumable when it got its act together (because it didn’t look like it pulled its punches). Fortunately for Regigigas in the TCG, Slow Start is not a handicap on its battle performance as to make it impractical, though it has this Poké-Body (the precursor of Abilities) in one early card. It is also fortunate that its cards generally use Colourless Energy now instead of using at least one Water, Fighting and Metal Energy to use its more powerful attack, making Regigigas cards more practical to use.

Crush Grip

This attack is Regigigas’ signature attack, therefore it represents Regigigas best. This move is indicative of Regigigas’ huge power and size, since it is able to squash anything with its large hands by gripping them.

For all intents and purposes, Crush Grip is the Physical counterpart of Wring Out, so its power is at its highest when the opponent is healthy. Unfortunately for Regigigas, it has Slow Start to stall out before this move could become powerful, so it cannot do a lot of damage when its Attack is halved.

As stated in my comments for Wring Out’s, it would be ideal if the constant power for Crush Grip is higher because a weakened opponent will make this move a lot less power. It’s even problematic that this is a Physical attack, because that means its power can be weakened by burn and Intimidate. If the base damage is, say, increased to about 60, then even when the opponent is weakened, this move can still do decent damage.

Overall, this move fits Regigigas thematically, but it is not the ideal move for Regigigas to use due to its temporarily-reduced power and this move’s reduction in usability when the opponent’s HP is lowered.

That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.