New Pokemon Snap’s Legendary Dog Snub Explained

New Pokemon Snap’s full roster of photographable monsters has been uncovered, and not all of the Legendary Beasts have been treated equally.

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New Pokemon Snap might have only been out in the wild for a few short days, but that hasn’t stopped the latest Nintendo Switch chart topping sensation from receiving acclaim. Would-be photographers have embraced the sequel to the original 1999 N64 game so quickly that each of the Lental region’s 214 indigenous Pocket Monsters have already been uncovered. Despite prominently featuring Suicune, one of the iconic Legendary Dogs (or beasts/cats depending on who is asked), it at first seems like the elegant water guardians two other siblings have been inexplicably snubbed from the archipelago paradise.

First introduced to Pokemon Trainers in the same year the original Snap was released via the ever popular Pokemon Gold and Silver, Raikou, Entei and Suicune have been one of the franchises most prevalent legendary trios ever since. Considering in-universe lore, which depicts each as an embodiment of the natural forces that destroyed the tower they once inhabited, their partnership and fate has often made them inseparable. While Suicune embodies the forces of wind and rain, the electric type Raikou represents lighting and Entei personifies fire in ways that would’ve made them equally perfect choices for New Pokemon Snap’s often nature-focused courses.

Origins Of The Snub

Examining the weather based influences that have informed the designs of the Legendary Dogs reveals that there’s always been a slight bias towards Suicune, by virtue of more factors being incorporated into its creation. However, the disparity in status that’s led to Raikou and Entei being side-lined in New Pokemon Snap is far less superficial than that, and can be traced back to the Johto based generation 2 games. Unlike its fire and electric siblings, Suicune was not only the poster child for Pokemon Crystal – one of the most acclaimed entries in the series – but also played a pivotal role in the expanded plot of that beloved classic.

With Ho-Oh and Lugia also joining Suicune in the Lental archipelago, it’s clear that developers Bandai Namco have consciously decided to give precious roster slots to each of the generation 2 cover stars. Despite more than doubling the original Snap’s tiny 63 selection, the exponential population boom since the 90s that’s given rise to 898 (not including alternate forms and regional variations) Pokemon species has meant some were always likely to miss out on making the cut. Reaching mascot status within the franchise, independently of its position within the Legendary Dog trio, has elevated Suicune to a level of prevalence that makes it harder to ignore than the others.

Wider Franchise Significance

While the mainline Pokemon games have always ensured the trio are at least catchable in the same region, there’s more precedence in the wider franchise for the Legendary Dogs needing time away from each other every now and again. In 2003’s Pokemon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unown, for example, Entei had an entire feature length anime film all to itself without Suicune or Raikou stealing the spotlight. How the latter has yet to feature in its own standalone adventure at all, after two decades, is a mystery only The Pokemon Company can answer.

What isn’t mysterious is one of the more technical reasons for the snubbing, and the fact that New Pokemon Snap’s is developed by Bandai Namco. This latest entry in the world of Pokemon isn’t the first time the developer has been given the keys to the franchise, or even the first time it has shown love exclusively to Suicune. Crucially, its arcade fighting game Pokken Tournament featured the legendary water beast prominently in all three incarnations of the game. Having spent a considerable amount of development time refining one monster, perhaps transferring what it learned with its first game was something of a no-brainer.

Will New Pokemon Snap Add Raikou and Entei Later?

Not all is necessarily lost for Raikou and Entei, or the extensive list of other popular Pokemon that haven’t made Bandai Namco’s initial guest list. With The Pokemon Company’s revised content strategy seeing the publisher embrace downloadable content expansions in mainline games for the first time, there’s a real possibility that more islands will eventually be added to New Pokemon Snap as DLC. Even before the game was officially released, dataminers had already unearthed a number of empty “reserved IDs” within the games code that point to more content having either been planned or cut during development. If those spaces do get filled in some way, the snubbed legendary dogs and their ability to control the weather would make both ideal candidates to star front and center in brand new content.

New Pokemon Snap is now available for the Nintendo Switch.

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