Tentacool Family
Game Freak certainly had no shortage of creative ideas for Poison-types in Generation I. An impressive 30% of my Pokémon articles so far have featured such characters, and there are only more to come.
Today’s feature brings another couple great hits: Tentacool and Tentacruel!
While a character I generally like, Tentacool comes with a large caveat that needs to be addressed firsthand. To put bluntly, it’s the Zubat of the ocean. The only games it hasn’t shown up in is Black and White Versions and their sequels.
And just like the winged brat, Tentacool can be found in some areas 90 to 100 percent of the time. The overexposure can get understandably obnoxious.
No matter the discussion, Tentacool will automatically get some resistance from the fandom. But once again, I find myself praising a Pokémon despite its high saturation in the games.
Jellyfish are already well-known animals, so a character based off of them is a given. Game Freak assigned a suitable Water-Poison typing to represent this aquatic creature’s dangerous stinging tentacles (albeit with a little creative liberty by making it ooze literal poison).
Tentacool’s silhouette is visually fascinating. Its organic body shape looks like a cross between a jellyfish and an alien pod. This is doubly apparent when viewing Tentacool from behind.
It makes Tentacool feel more like an alien squid-jelly-thing, rather than a direct lift from its source material. I’m all for funky science fiction creatures, so I consider that thought a compliment to its design.
Tentacool also has a wonderfully eye-catching color scheme, with a chilly blue body and ruby red protrusions. The colors pop out without being irritating to the eyes.
I find it interesting that Tentacool has only two large tentacles. After all, real jellyfish have dozens of smaller ones circling their bell-shaped “bodies.” I would prefer the more realistic approach, but I can also respect the artistic choice that was ultimately made. Just two tentacles keeps Tentacool’s design streamlined.
An interesting detail about Tentacool’s spherical bumps is that they’re actually extra eyes. A few species of jellyfish have simple light-sensitive ocelli to loosely detect other objects in their surroundings. Tentacool’s ocelli take this concept a step further by filtering light into deadly laser beams. Because why not have a killer laser jellyfish?
In addition to its ocelli, Tentacool also has a pair of fully-developed eyes at the base of its body. It seems odd at first, but makes sense upon consideration. Ocelli can only do so much for an animal. They can detect that light exists in general, but can’t parse an actual image from that information. Tentacool evolved to have proper vision and repurposed its primitive eyes for a different function. What an excellent concept!
For some side trivia, there’s actually one species of jellyfish known to have sharper vision. Of its 24 eyes, a few of a box jellyfish’s can actually process images. I don’t think this information is crucial to Tentacool’s design making sense, but the artists get bonus points for doing the research.
The only major critique I have about Tentacool comes from the animation department. I can’t help but feel disappointed at how stiff it all looks.
While its tentacles move fluidly as expected, the rest of its body feels so rigid. One of the greatest and most mesmerizing aspects of real-world jellies are their flowing, gelatinous bodies.
I understand that 8-bit hardware limitations, early computer graphics, and restricted sprite animations would make Tentacool move like this:
But when Pokémon made the leap to higher-res 3D meshes in X and Y Versions, I was hoping to see more of Tentacool’s jellyfish inspiration represented in its animations.
As always, while I’ve made these critiques, I still ultimately like Tentacool’s design.
Game Freak could have gone with a simple jellyfish monster. Instead, they molded it into something different, with effective results. It’s not the most “proper” representation of a jellyfish, but its distinct science fiction vibes are a welcomed trade off. Once again, it’s another Pokémon that manages to simultaneously look and yet not appear like its source material.
And as we’ll see much, much later in the Pokédex, a more “proper” jellyfish would eventually arrive to fans.
Two Thumbs Up!
Before anyone makes the obligatory tentacle joke…
…The Pokémon Adventures manga already had you covered about two decades ago.
As pun-filled as the name is written, “Tentacruel” is a flat-out amazing-sounding name for a monster.
Paired with Tentacruel’s great name is an excellent composition. It has many of the same components as Tentacool – the color scheme, glowing ocelli atop its body, and big tentacles – but still stands apart from its predecessor.
Most notably, its main body has a completely different silhouette. Arguably, it’s a lot more jellyfish-like than before, with a pleasant organic and freeform shape. I especially love that Tentacruel reminds me of a Metroid, another creature design I love.
As far as I’m concerned, Tentacruel receives additional “awesome” points for making me think of that.
Logically, an evolution for a small jellyfish creature must have more tentacles! Surprisingly, I don’t find them overwhelming on Tentacruel’s design. I suppose it’s one of those “Goldilocks effects.” The tentacles aren’t too basic, nor too detailed against Tentacruel’s overall minimal composition. They fit just right on its design.
Actually, Tentecruel is supposed to have heaps more tentacles than is illustrated. The Pokédex claims it has as many as 80 of them. I’m thankful that Game Freak didn’t take that flavor text literally. 14 is more than enough.
As an added bonus, Tentacruel also has a pair of wicked pinchers. There isn’t really an explanation as to why it has them, or what purpose they serve. Maybe they’re abstract oral arms? Perhaps Tentacruel is closer to the Portuguese man o’ war, and the “pincers” are special polyps? Or maybe Tentacruel is still rolling with that squid-jelly-thing idea like I mentioned with Tentacool?
Whatever the case, those pinchers make Tentacruel extra menacing and badass by having them.
As a final note to Tentacruel’s impressive design, there’s an in-game feature I haven’t mentioned that both it and Tentacool have. Tentacruel is one of the few Pokémon to have the ability Liquid Ooze. It’s unique in that any Pokémon that tries to leech health from Tentacruel will actually take damage instead of heal. Tentacruel is so toxic, that other Pokémon risk injuring themselves if using attacks such as Mega Drain, Leech Seed, or even Dream Eater! This is an excellent concept that ties in perfectly with its Poison typing!
Tentacruel is an all-around excellent character. It may not introduce substantial lore or details that Tentacool doesn’t already have, but it still stands out as a solid and appealing concept.
I’ve had a great time reviewing Poison Pokémon thus far, and can’t wait to shine light on more of Game Freak’s impressive creativity with this typing.
Two Thumbs Up!
