Pokemon Go players slam “pointless” customed Pokemon

Pokemon Go players are frustrated by how certain event Pokemon cannot evolve, even though their normal iterations can.

The regular Pokemon games rarely introduce costume variations, with Pikachu being the main exception. The opposite is true for Pokemon Go, which loves special outfits, often tying them to a current event.

The fan reaction to the Pokemon Go costume variants can be mixed. Some fans love the cute clothing sported by familiar Pokemon, while others feel that they’re minimum effort upgrades during times when the game needs attention in other areas, such as missing features or better monetization.

There’s also a huge downside to costumed event Pokemon, which only applies to specific creatures who can still evolve. This issue can be especially frustrating to players who find Shiny or perfect stats versions of these rare Pokemon.

Pokemon/Niantic

Pokemon Go players are annoyed that Fashion Week Kirlia cannot evolve

A user on the Pokemon Go Reddit is criticizing the Fashion Week 2023 version of Kirlia, which gives them a fancy bowler hat. Unfortunately, this also means it can’t evolve into Gardevoir or Gallade, even though it has amazing stats, severely curbing its usefulness.

Well this is lame. What’s with the lack of evolution anyway?
byu/Unicornshit9393 inpokemongo

This is because no event versions of either of Kirlia’s evolutions prevent it from evolving. The only hope for this Pokemon is Niantic introducing compatible evolutions in a future update, but the chances of that are slime.

“Feel ya. I have 2 hundo spheals wearing scarves. So that’s fun,” one user writes, while another says, “I never understood why they would make an event costume Pokemon and not allow it to evolve. At least give me the opportunity to remove the stupid hat.”

It would make sense to allow players to remove the event aspect and turn it into a regular version of the Pokemon rather than locking it into its current form. This would allow players to keep the event version while upgrading any they want to use for competitive play.

Sadly, this is the fate of some event Pokemon, whose lack of an evolution prevents them from becoming everything they can be. This Kirlia might be saved by a future Pokemon Go Fashion Week, but until then, it’s doomed to reside in the Pokedex while wearing a fancy hat.