Hopefully so. I mean especially if it's considered a "playful" species. Everything seems to make it out to have a fairly agreeable nature, if not somewhat trickstery. Did you really get along with Entei though like... what happened there? Did you try talking to it or something?

It was a pretty long time though I think, yeah. Something like... long enough for people to forget that the sword in the stone test existed. And I am pretty sure that a pure heart was one of the requirements to getting it out. So if Ho-oh is as picky as the sword, it could be searching for hundreds of years not just a hundred-or-so.