Poltchageist

About

Poltchageist is a Pokémon introduced in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC. It is a "convergent species" of Pokémon, meaning its design is similar to a pre-existing Pokémon (in this case, Sinistea). After it was revealed in two trailers on August 19th, 2023, the Pokémon drew significant interest on social media, with people praising both the trailers and its design.

Origin

On August 22nd, 2023, the Pokémon Japan YouTube channel posted a cinematic trailer introducing Poltchageist, gaining over 200,000 views in less than two hours (shown below, left). The Pokémon is a "Convergent Species" of Pokémon related to the Sinistea line (similar to how Wiglett is related to the Diglett line), and is modeled after a jar of matcha. Poltchageist appears in the first wave of DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Shortly after the cinematic trailer was released, the official Pokémon YouTube channel uploaded a gameplay trailer for Poltchageist, gaining over 35,000 views in less than an hour. (shown below, right).

Poltchageist is a Grass/Ghost-type Pokémon with the new ability Hospitality, which will restore a small amount of allies' HP when it switches into battle.^[1]

Spread

Poltchageist was quickly praised by fans of the game for its design and reveal, while competitive players speculated it or its potential evolution could be useful in competitive play. On August 22nd, 2023, Twitter user Lewchube gave the trailer high praise, calling it the "most gorgeous reveal for a Pokémon," gaining over 540 retweets and 3,700 likes in less than two hours (shown below, top). The same day, user @TheYisusOne^[2] posted a tweet praising the new Pokémon, gaining over 15 retweets and 330 likes in two hours (shown below, bottom).

bro Poltchageist has the most gorgeous reveal for a pokemon yet like holy shit pic.twitter.com/56iKoQT3n7

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) August 22, 2023

Competitive players expressed that the Hospitality ability and Poltchageist's typing could make it effective in competitive play. User @JoeyPokeaim^[3] gave an explanation for how Poltchageist could fit into the competitive Scarlet and Violet meta, gaining over 20 retweets and 390 likes in two hours (shown below, left). The Pokémon also saw some fan art in the hours after its reveal. User @lumisoda^[4] posted art of Poltchageist that gained over 25 retweets and 75 likes in less than an hour (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References