Pokémon Sword & Shield’s Cramorant Is Just A Real-Life Bird

When it comes to new Pokémons, Pokémon Sword and Shield offers some truly fantastic designs. However, every generation has a few Pokémon that just don’t stand up to the others, and the Galar region is no exception. Of all the bird designs players have seen over the years, Cramorant is one of the more disappointing. With a design that is generally lackluster and a moveset that feels like it was copied directly from Pelipper, Sword and Shield‘s fish-gulping Pokémon leaves a lot to be desired.

Cramorant isn’t the only Pokémon with a poor design. Joining faces like Trubbish, Vanillite, and Nosepass, Cramorant is forgettable as far as appearance and moveset goes, and it’s frustrating in its overall design. While its appearance isn’t as offense as a sentient pile of garbage or a floating ice cream cone, it definitely isn’t as strong as Galar’s other bird Pokémon, like Rookidee and its subsequent evolutions. Cramorant doesn’t even have evolutions to help boost its appeal, either, relying on form changes instead. While it can be funny to see a Pikachu stuck in its mouth, this trick is only interesting a few times before the chuckles wear away.

The biggest failing that Cramorant suffers from is that its design is basically a cartoon version of a double-breasted cormorant, a kind of real-world water bird. Down to the eye-color, Cramorant is less a Pokémon than a generically Water-type-blue recolor of the actual bird. It doesn’t necessarily feel like a cop-out as far as designs go, but Cramorant just doesn’t really feel like it fits in the Pokémon world. Most creatures players find in the various regions, even when based on real items or animals, have a distinctly “Pokémon” fantasy feel. Pokémon‘s reimaginings tend to be unique and have an interesting spin on their real-world inspirations. Even Trubbish feels like a Pokémon, despite being actual garbage. Cramorant lacks any of the style choices that could have made it a believable Pokémon instead of a placeholder for better Galar Flying types.

Pokémon Sword & Shield’s Cramorant Doesn’t Feel Like A Pokémon

Because of Cramorant’s lacking design, it is likely to be put aside by fans of the Pokémon series. With nothing special to help it stand out, no movesets that make it a boon to trainers, and a general lack of originality, Cramorant doesn’t have much potential to stand out as a crowd favorite, even if it is given an evolution later down the line. With so many other Flying Pokémon to pick from in Sword and Shield, this Pokémon may end up a decoration in players’ storage boxes – a needed catch to complete the Pokédex, but not one to join a superior team for Raid Battles or the Star Tournament competition.

While not all Pokémon designs stand out creatively, Cramorant sits low on the ladder of original ideas for new-generation companions. While its Shiny Pokémon form gives the bird a little more of a spark in a sharp orange, there are other Flying types unique to the Galar region that are more likely to capture the player’s attention. Pokémon Sword and Shield has pushed many boundaries when it comes to what a Pokémon game looks like on the Nintendo Switch, but unfortunately, changes in the world and gameplay don’t stop individual Pokémon designs from falling flat.

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