>tfw this guy was supposed to be the next Lucario What went

>>33308565
Take him to the Vet.

>>33308565
Being event only for most of a gen will do that. The vat majority of people never get ahold of event-only stuff, and even breedable stuff like Zoroark still ends up being rare. Hard to be your bro if you never got to catch one.

Also, the Illusion ability hurts it a bit too. You don't really get to enjoy Zoroark's design much since 90% of the time you use it, it just looks like Excadrill's ass instead of its own design.

How to fix: You need a time machine. Go back to gen-5 and make Zoroark/Zorua with a regular ability (Not Illusion) catchable in the wild mid-way through the game. We'll say it's regular ability is something dumb like Keen Eye for the sake of this. Now make Zoroark with the Illusion ability the special event-only one. Suddenly Illusion seems a shitload more special and fun, but if you want to enjoy Zoroark's design you can always use one with Keen Eye readily available.

As it is, most people forgot about Zoroark. It had its chance and they blew it.

>>33308650
>this 100%
Game Freak fucked up completely.

In the generation that introduced Hidden Abilities, GF should have gone to the effort of introducing a high-profile one. Illusion Zoroark could have and should have been that, but instead it's an event mon. That made it obscure in BW - the only one you see is N's, which appears as a Klinklang and probably drops in one hit at that point in the game, so you never see its design used against you.

There's a whole area with an optional route leading to it that you walk past in the game dedicated to Zoroark that does nothing at all if you don't have the event dogs from Gen IV.

Compare that to Lucario in Gen IV: during the main game, you get given a Riolu egg which you probably end up hatching as you go through Iron Islands, and then you face off against a strong Lucario against the Champion. The core concept is the exact same as Zoroark but the execution was so much better, because the game incentivises you to experience the content.

>event-only on release
>not nearly as useful in battle as Lucario
>its main gimmick isn't that great or marketable, also it got cucked by Team Preview

>>33308565

1. Movie portrayal was underwhelming. Zorua got more focus than it did, and he spoke, unlike Zoroark, who was just a wild animal trying to reunite with her child. Moms aren't cool.

2. Being event-only really fucked it over, and the only character in-game who uses it is N

3. Lucario had a unique type combo (even today, the only other Pokemon that has it is a legendary), while Zoroark was just another pure Dark type

>>33308725
>not nearly as useful in battle as Lucario

Competitive viability isn't that big a deal, Lycanroc is worse than Zoroark in that regard, but it seems to be doing okay popularity-wise.

>>33308759
But just ok, it is nowhere near Lucario tier in terms of popularity.
It also helps that anything that isn't legendary or Toxapex from gen VII sucks competitively.

>>33308776
>But just ok, it is nowhere near Lucario tier in terms of popularity.

Nothing can reach Lucario's level.

>>33308565
Team Preview

>>33308759

You'd be surprised how general viability can help the popularity of a character, competitive or in game.

>>33308783

Was around long since Stadium, and competitive Pokemon is unplayable without it, so not an argument.

Not to mention that you only use three Pokemon in a single battle, so all Team Preview does is show you which Pokemon your opponent MIGHT use, not what they WILL use.

>>33308565
WE WERE FINNA BE THE NEXT BEATLES

>>33308823
>Was around long since Stadium
Yes, and?
>and competitive Pokemon is unplayable without it
>The first four gens don't exist

>>33308565
>Guy
>Him

>>33308650
And now they're repeating the same mistake with Lycanroc Dusk

It's like Gamefreak forgot that people like to actually catch the Pokemon they want to use in-game instead of being handed one by some nameless NPC

>>33308565
A myriad of reasons.

1 - He's not as cool as Lucario
2 - He's not as good as Lucario
3 - His ability is actually an interesting concept, but it was ultimately wasted because they debuted it in the same fucking generation as team previews. So as far as competitive usage goes, Zoroark was dead on arrival.
4 - Event only in B/W, and unlocking the respective events required you to have event Pokemon from HG/SS. You needed the the shiny Suicune/Raikou/Entei for the trailer event or a Celebi for the Zorua. Both of these events were in-store only ones. This means relatively few people got him at the time.

>>33311540
Also I forgot to add that you had to specifically use the Relocator to unlock the events. Seriously, one of the dumbest fucking things.

>transfer necessary Pokemon up the normal way
>"hey, why isn't the event unlocking?"
>google it
>u have got 2 b kidding me

The only relevant arguments ITT are event only shitbaggery and Lucario's overwhelming popularity being too difficult to overcome

People who think a 6 year old Timmy cares about shit like competitive viability of his favorote cartoon canine are genuinely retarded

Team Preview isn't the problem. Zoroark makes prolific use of Illusion in RU, it's just too weak to compete with OU titans.

>>33308565
You know, lucario was shilled before G4 even started. It goes as far as the being mentioned in the PMD: Rescue Team. That being said, its Movie is better than lucario's. It all comes down the MASS shilling that Lucario had and continues to have.

>>33308565
Zoroark is great as it is now.

>>33308565
For me nothing went wrong. Zoroark is much better than Lucario for me.

>>33311559
The fact that the movie sucked and it had no good characters associated with it didn't help. Zoroark was and is the definition of trying too hard.

>>33311613
>the movie sucked
Factually incorrect.

>>33311613
>the movie sucked
lmao
I bet you think the lucario movie was great
80 minutes of watching lucario solo 3 legendary pokemon and then ~heroically~ sacrifice itself for a 4th legendary pokemon

>>33308782
Well, Greninja did and kinda surpassed it

Event only
Female Zoroak in the movie