#524 - Roggenrola
Rock
Generation V brought back the classic Link Evolutions, those who evolve merely by trading into their final form as opposed to also requiring an item, in the form of Roggenrola and Timburr---basically the Geodude and Machop of Generation V. While Link Evolutions used to be pretty annoying in the older Generations, like I really want to use one of them in Red and Blue on the Virtual Console but lacking a way to trade them puts me off that idea, by Generation V and the availability of quick and easy Wi-Fi the option of using them in-game is a bit more realistic by finding a trusted online friend to help you evolve them. I ended up using both of them in Pokemon White, as since I had already played through Pokemon Black beforehand and had a DS and DSi I could easily trade with myself to evolve them, the only difficulty being deciding when the best time to evolve them would be since I wanted to "bond" with their middle evolutions before quickly changing them out. Anyway, Roggenrola has a few amount of differences compared to Geodude despite having the same evolution methods and similar stats and movepools---Roggenrola is actually pure-Rock instead of Rock/Ground, and thus has less Ground-type moves in its arsenal, and it's a bit slower but with higher Attack by the time it reaches its final form. It's actually a bit weaker in-game I recall, its low Special Defense really hurts it and its movepool takes awhile to get good (Rock Blast always seems to miss for me), though it was the first Pokemon to appear with the upgraded version of Sturdy which now prevents it from being OHKO'd not only from moves such as Fissure and Submission, but any move in general which would take it out in one hit. This means it'll always get at least one attack off before fainting, and also makes it somewhat of an annoying Pokemon to fight when NPCs use it since you'll always have to waste two PP to take it down unless you're carrying multi-hit moves.
Despite being seen as Generation V Geodude, Roggenrola is actually a pretty unique Rock-type Pokemon and honestly I really like the line, perhaps more so than their Generation I counterpart. While it has a very minimalistic and impersonal design---that's actually not its eye apparently, but an ear---I find it very adorable despite that and it reminds me of a cute little Kirby enemy who'd give you the Stone Copy Ability. It also happens to literally be based on a geode, not simply punned on one, which are rocks with cavities line with crystals which are formed after said rocks have been buried within the ground for thousands of years, mineral-filled groundwater slowly seeping into the rock overtime causing crystals to form within. Well, that's a somewhat basic explanation, I'm not really good with geology---but it's nice to see Game Freak got a bit more scientific with this Rock Pokemon instead of just making it a rock. In the Pokemon World Roggenrola is a recently discovered Pokemon found about a hundred years ago when an earthquake opened up the ground, and presumably it had been developing deep within the earth's core for thousands of years. Its body is said to have become as hard as steel due to the pressure from the earth but, you know, it's actually pretty fragile in-game being a Rock-type Pokemon.
One neat thing that Best Wishes did was, since the first time really since Kanto, Ash caught multiple Pokemon outside of his main six---and unlike the Kanto reserves, he actually rotated them into his team. Or, so, that was the idea---in reality this element was heavily underutilized as Best Wishes was still mostly "The Starter and Pikachu Show", with his reserve Pokemon for the most part getting very little screentime in a couple of battles and otherwise were pretty undeveloped overall. Roggenrola was the eight Pokemon Ash obtained in Unova and caught it after saving it from Team Rocket. Giving a Pokemon without a real face a personality isn't an easy task, remember Zubat and Staryu, and for the most part Roggenrola didn't have any standout characteristics except for the fact its Ash's only Rock-type Pokemon ever. It evolved soon after, but got a few appearances beforehand---among his reserves it certainly wasn't treated the worst.
#525 - Boldore
Rock
At Level 25 Roggenrola evolves into Boldore, the same level Geodude evolves into Graveler. Upon evolving Boldore learns one of the few Special Rock-type attacks, Power Gem, but it really can't make any use of it due to its poor Special Attack. That's my biggest issue with this line, thematically it seems like they could've been made one of the few Special-based Rock-type Pokemon to help them stand out from Geodude, but Game Freak totally let this idea go to waste for whatever reason and like Pidove it's a really unfortunate misstep in a Generation that is known for having on average pretty well-made Pokemon mechanically. That being said Boldore is good enough to use in the main game and I had fun with him, but it's easy to think how he could've been a bit more interesting as a mixed attacker.
You'll remember I said with the Link Evolutions the middle form is pretty much always my favorite and that holds true with the Generation V ones as well as Boldore seriously looks pretty sweet, like some kind of strange alien crab monster. Its said to basically walk like a crab as well, always facing forward and moving swiftly (well, not in-game) in the cardinal directions. The energy that was stored within its body as Roggenrola has now begun to leak out as glowing orange crystals, which really helps it stand out from the majority of Rock-type Pokemon who are typically kind of dull and dirty looking. That being said I do like how Boldore has a very rough, unevenly cut body and the way the crystals aren't perfectly aligned but instead somewhat haphazardly placed works to its advantage by making it feel more monstrous. Though now it definitely looks like it has actual eyes, I imagine those are still meant to be ears and the line is effectively blind relying on sound in order to sense their surroundings.
Ash's Roggenrola was one of the many Pokemon of his in Unova who evolved during a match, in this case it evolved during the Gym Battle against Clay after absorbing a Horn Drill with Sturdy and then turned things around with its new moves Rock Blast and Rock Smash. Like Unfezant though after evolving Boldore didn't have a great run, it got a couple of battles but lost all of them except a quick battle against a no-name character in a tournament and it never evolved again. I remember catching a quick scene of the Kyurem movie on Cartoon Network though (which I need to get around to watching) where Boldore helped Ash slide across some ice which was kind of neat, but beyond that outside of the Gym Battle it really didn't do too much to stand out.
#526 - Gigalith
Rock
Trading Boldore turns it into Gigalith. There's really no downside to evolving it as soon as possible, their learnsets are exactly the same, so if you have the means available you may as well go ahead and do it right away---though I liked sticking with Boldore a bit because it looks really neat. Gigalith is extremely slow, but its Attack and Defense is top-notch and can be a very powerful in-game Pokemon who can destroy a ton of opponents with Stone Edge and Earthquake and, if all else fails, Explosion can finish off virtually any opponent and is easily abusable by taking advantage of Sturdy + Full Revive during the Elite Four, except when fighting Shauntal's Ghost Pokemon. In the competitive scene though it has a bit more raw power than Golem, it's seen as the weaker of the two due to lacking the Ground-type, meaning it misses out on STAB Earthquake and losing the immunity to Electric-type Pokemon, and is painfully slow with weak Special Defense---Sturdy + Custap Berry is pretty much the one strategy it relies on, setting up Stealth Rock on the first turn, surviving the first hit with Sturdy and Custap allowing it to move first next round to get in one final attack such as Earthquake, Stone Edge, or Explosion. So it's a pretty one-note Pokemon, but has a good chance of taking out at least one of your opponent's Pokemon and hindering them with Stealth Rock. On that note, though, facing a Gigalith means it's easy to expect what's coming and prevent it with the proper strategy.
Gigalith is a giant dinosaur-looking rock monster who kind of reminds me of a mecha, it's even got a "High Mega Particle Cannon" built into its body as it's capable of absorbing solar energy through the crystals on its body, processing said energy in its core, and then fired out of its mouth as a powerful beam of light capable of blowing away a mountain---too bad its horrid Special Attack means there's no joy in actually doing this with Hyper Beam or Solar Beam, which it can pick up with TMs. I remember when he was first revealed everyone pointed out he basically looked like Chromastone from Ben 10: Alien Force, who I always thought was one of the cooler alien designs on the show so that was pretty neat...yeah, I like Boldore a bit more, but honestly Gigalith is a pretty legitimate design and does enough to stand out compared to Golem as his own Pokemon. Mechanically though you gotta wonder how many of the Generation V Pokemon will fare in the long run outside of Black and White since a lot of them kind of fill the same niche the classic Pokemon do---like XY returns the Geodude line back to prominence and it's easy to sort of forget Roggenrola was a thing. I'm guessing they might switch between them throughout the future Generations, like maybe Sun and Moon will focus on Roggenrola again.
Ash's Boldore never evolved, probably because the writers never really figured out how to handle Link Evolutions in the show---well, they did actually address one special line in Best Wishes who evolve through trading with one another specifically, but the normal Link Evolutions seem to basically be regular evolutions. Had Boldore evolved, I imagine Ash wouldn't have traded it and instead it would've just evolved through a Level Up. Gigalith's one major appearance in the show had one rampaging around town---because it had a nail stuck in its foot, seriously---but was stopped by the Unova League Champion Alder. With his bare hands. Yeah, forget Cynthia, Alder was legitimately the coolest Champion.
