UB-08: Assembly or Stakataka
Now this one's all sorts of fun! STAKATAKA, which is even fun to say, is a concept I even proposed already when I reviewed rock types as a whole; a colonial being of living bricks! Its rock/steel typing is a little regrettable, as it results in some glaring elemental weaknesses for what should conceptually be an incredibly tough monster, but players have found ways to make an all-out offensive Stakataka work remarkably well, so you really can't judge a brick by its cover.
Stakataka could hypothetically take any shape it wants, but it usually chooses to form a hollow, rectangular tower with four segmented, spindly "legs." Every individual brick is a small, independent Ultra Beast itself, with a stony skin on one side and a single, spooky eye on the other. Seeing this pokemon in action is a real delight as the brick-creatures flip around to take a peek, their eyes turn red under stress and they sometimes rearrange themselves. The visual effect reminds me somewhat of the youkai, Mokumokuren, and also a lot like some long-lost evolution of Unown. Most of all, it fills a much needed niche for those who wanted an architectural-looking Pokemon that wasn't also a sandcastle. Nothing's wrong with Palossand, of course, but there's a difference between a sandcastle monster and an actual castle monster! I know people other than me don't prioritize team "aesthetic" a whole lot, but Stakataka looks especially good on a team of mostly "Medeival Fantasy" pokemon:
Shhhh we can pretend that bug is a European knight until we really get one that looks the part.
If I have only one minor critique about Stakataka, it's that this is another Ultrabeast that kind of looks like it could have been a regular pokemon. It's not that any concept at this point is too strange to be a regular pokemon, but my favorite of the beasts are still those whose very visual feel is counter to any other Pokemon's design style, and I could stil have seen Stakataka as a one-off in any other generation. I guess I'm just still torn as to whether I prefer the line completely blurred or prefer the UB's to be their own distinct category of entity.
Stakataka could hypothetically take any shape it wants, but it usually chooses to form a hollow, rectangular tower with four segmented, spindly "legs." Every individual brick is a small, independent Ultra Beast itself, with a stony skin on one side and a single, spooky eye on the other. Seeing this pokemon in action is a real delight as the brick-creatures flip around to take a peek, their eyes turn red under stress and they sometimes rearrange themselves. The visual effect reminds me somewhat of the youkai, Mokumokuren, and also a lot like some long-lost evolution of Unown. Most of all, it fills a much needed niche for those who wanted an architectural-looking Pokemon that wasn't also a sandcastle. Nothing's wrong with Palossand, of course, but there's a difference between a sandcastle monster and an actual castle monster! I know people other than me don't prioritize team "aesthetic" a whole lot, but Stakataka looks especially good on a team of mostly "Medeival Fantasy" pokemon:
Shhhh we can pretend that bug is a European knight until we really get one that looks the part.
If I have only one minor critique about Stakataka, it's that this is another Ultrabeast that kind of looks like it could have been a regular pokemon. It's not that any concept at this point is too strange to be a regular pokemon, but my favorite of the beasts are still those whose very visual feel is counter to any other Pokemon's design style, and I could stil have seen Stakataka as a one-off in any other generation. I guess I'm just still torn as to whether I prefer the line completely blurred or prefer the UB's to be their own distinct category of entity.
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