We’ve seen an odd assortment of Ghost-types so far, certainly, but all with sensible associations – wisps, haunted dolls, floating skulls, and actual corpses.
Unless you’re a Steven King megafan, balloons aren’t probably in your top-twenty hit list for “spooky icons”.
But that makes Drifloon’s whole concept all the more joyful. There’s a long tradition of sinister spirits taking unassuming forms, particularly in storytelling around yokai. Why not take that to an object so benign that its first association is “children’s birthday party”?
And it’s not like Drifloon doesn’t have her own little tells. The wide-set, dead black eyes are a big one, as is how its key art and Pokémon Home render both show her with a listless, downward tilt – even her original pixel art kind of feels like her “arms” are dragging, dead at her sides. Then, of course, is the X-shaped tape over where her mouth would presumably be. To muzzle her from screaming? Or to cover the puncture that did her in in life?
(Please disregard the biology of Fantina’s Drifloon here, an interpretation which still befuddles this editor.)
Anyway, Drifloon is deceptively adorable, and makes for a delightful turnabout on the idea of sinister ghosts. Who wouldn’t want to give one a hug? (You, if you’re sensible.)
Drifblim comes as us as “Drifloon, but more”, taking on the shape of a full weather balloon or possibly hot-air balloon. It’s a nice continuation, but the deception doesn’t quite work the same without Drifloon’s small, innnocent charm.
On the other hand, its four-directional arms and especially the cloud moving backwards across her noggin highlight how directionless Drifloon is. No thoughts, head empty, just drifting on the wind. She almost brings to mind a jellyfish-like creature, but one that would float through the clouds at night and confuse onlookers as to what they’ve seen. And really, it’s that kind of marriage of organic creatures with design patterns that makes so many Pokémon work so well. Good on Drifblim for being a model citizen.
Drifblim is an interesting sort in the main game, though – her defenses are low, balanced out by a hearty HP pool and three type immunities, and her attack stats are a bit balanced for one to stand out. She seems to peak early, what with learning the ever-potent Shadow Ball before she even evolves, but after that levels out to slower set-up moves that are less fun in a main campaign. Still, with the luxury of predicting NPC’s switch-in choices, Drifblim is easy to slot in and, especially with the patience to fire off Calm Mind a few times, really set herself up to clean house.
The elephant in the room is Drifloon’s Pokédex entries, which note that they grab onto children to attempt to drag them away to the land of the dead – and the original text does use that exact phrase. But what’s often missed is the attempt portion – Drifloon is a just a tiny thing, and not really the right size to actually carry off a child. So, most of its attempts seem to end up with a child grabbing Drifloon by the hand and dragging her all over the place, with nobody really the worse for wear – the Alolan Pokédex even calls this out as “making friends”, and Galarian entries note that they flee when frightened by aggressive children.
Poor, ineffectual Drifloon; the only thing we ever really see her carry away is Joltik in New Snap, and those are itty-bitty guys no more than a pound and a half. Well, perhaps they have just enough of a tug to them to lead children off the path to go missing, but it’s a far cry from the underworld abductions they’ve been blamed for. All hearsay and discrimination against the Ghost-type, I say, and a mark against the benign-but-directionless ways that Drifblim voluntarily ferry people and Pokémon through the air.
(Please disregard the Alolan Pokédex entries about her being stuffed inside with souls that scream should she burst. Clearly just more propaganda.)
On a much cheerier note, little Drifloon are very sensitive to the weather – of course they are, what with being balloons. But notably, they have a strong preferance for rainy weather, presumably because air pressure outside drops when it rains or is about to rain. This lets them expand a little bit, which surely feels like the kind of nice stretch that you can’t get with those dangly little ribbon-arms.
They also pull work as a “signpost for spirits”, at least in in-universe traditions. Ascribing this to a balloon specifically brings to mind the idea of lantern festivals – seen a bit in Japan as part of Obon, more prominently in China as Shangyuan, and even to an extent in the kingdom of Corona. We’ve yet to see them take on this role in the series itself in a material way, but hey – there is a very festival-themed DLC coming up for Scarlet & Violet.
There’s really no other Pokémon in the series filling Drifloon’s niche, and while she’s not a staple by any means, she’s so gosh-darned unique that I’d make her a Must-Have in every game going forward if I had my druthers. And so far, the designers at Game Freak seem to agree, with her naturally inhabiting every core game since her introduction, except for the obvious exclusions of Black & White and Let’s Go. Here’s to many more!
Dextraneous 
