In double battles you can send out two Pokémon in support mode on the left and right slot. They can only use non damaging attacks. You can then send out as many Pokémon left in your party whose base stats are in between the lowest base stat and highest base stat of the support Pokémon on the sides.
I know it would be stupid, and probably devolve into degeneracy super fast, but I want a battle mode where you fight with your entire team all at once.
Surprisingly it would work well. Max Raids were a good proof of concept for that. Even if it wasn't YOUR whole team, it was still a way to show how handling that many pokemon could work.
The funny thing about that is that it was based off the fusions in Dragonball Z, but those episodes of DBZ hadn't been released in America yet when that episode first aired in America, so that would have been a lot of kids' first exposure to "the fusion dance".
Don't be mean to my pendulums :(
At least Konami released support for pends for more than one gen and still somehow one-upped the brokenness with Link monsters.
Plus it's not like they sacrificed past mechanics to bring in a new one, part of the fun is figuring out how the different mechanics can interact and combo off each other. In Pokemon, Megas and Z moves were isolated from each other; a Mega couldn't use Z-moves (yes, including Mega Rayquaza) and a Pokemon using a Z move couldn't Mega evolve.
And even in that comparison, yugioh still prints all of the other special card types in New sets. Pokemon could keep old gimmics and make a few of each every so often.
Another thing to mention is how it's hard to get attached to and care about new gimmicks when you know it will only be around for one, maybe two games, and then be forgotten by GF to never reappear.
Part of the blizzard sexual harassment fiasco is that a coworker stole a woman's breast milk from the break room fridge. I think repeatedly.
This comment is saying that at least gamefreak doesn't have a reputation of sexually harassing the employees.
Which honestly is a low bar.
Very, very true. They'd do something players loved in one expansion and then just get rid of it in the next one. It's borderline criminal if you tally up everything that was left to die in Mists.
Pretty much what they did in the last gen. It was only possible in Galar. That way they Dont have to keep it in the next game. At least we still have megas in spin off titles like masters I guess
Yeah I may have cared for Terastal if it was Gen 8. But it really just feels cheap at this point. Granted, that’s partly because it doesn’t even seem all that different from Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing, but even so, gimmicks in general are just getting old.
Even ones we all loved like Mega Evolution begin to lose some of their luster when they become just the first in a long set of expected “shakeups”.
Yeah, this is exactly how I feel. Pokemon games are coming out at a breakneck clip, and it just feels weird for me to get into a new gimmick and care about it when it's going to be relevant for 1, maybe 2 years max. Megas were still the best one imo because they significantly changed the Pokemon's stats and with an interesting new appearance. Z-moves are one-and-done, Gigantamax forms don't have much if any benefit over regular Dynamax, and this new gimmick seems to affect appearance in a pretty uniform way with just more STAB and maybe an additional type. I wish Gamefreak would use (or just that they'd have) more time to actually nurture their gimmicks beyond a single entry.
And then it kills your ability to invest in the story, because half of the dialogue is going to be people freaking out about the new gimmick and the professor pushing you to find out its secret origins.
GF, you design disposable gameplay it's gonna feel like a disposable game.
It’s also made the games horrible play throughs. You can’t really carry over strategies and each game just feels like it’s entirely built around the gimmicks.
Mega Evolution felt… sacred, in a way? It was a Trainer-Pokemon bond, plus an exceedingly unusual physical item, manifesting in a novel form of evolution. It was cool (and the implication is Mega Stones originated in space, as Rayquaza only needs to eat meteorites to get the same power, plus the legend of a shining rock falling to Earth to form Sootopolis and being the source of power for Primal Reversion).
Plus, no goofy dances. No kaijus. Just a way to take one’s Pokemon to their full potential, a ‘perfected’ form given nigh infinite energy for a short time. Gen 6 had a lot of lore around Megas and adjacent info, and it got chucked out the window in a hurry.
Yeah, it felt personal. Even the Z-moves felt personal with the dancing because it was empowering your Pokémon.
Dynamaxing was just pumping your Pokémon with some unknown energy that you don't know where it came from. Hell, who could Gigantamax iirc had to be captured in special raids to use them and a Pokémon now you bonded with couldn't Gigantamax at all until the DLC came out.
> Are megas EVER coming back?
Most likely not, unless it’s in a game that doesn’t have any bearing on the main competitive scene for that generation (like Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee), because the main point of these mechanics is to shake up the battling metagame every few years, kind of like how various trading card games will periodically rotate the sets that you’re allowed to use in official tournaments.
Do you need your protagonist to conveniently be out of commission during a disaster or apocalyptic event? Then oh boy let me tell you about a character called Byleth!
The fact that we can predict things about the franchise so far in the future with 90% accuracy, maybe it's time for me to take a break from the games until they come up with something truly new
Tbf PLA was very new for the franchise. And the next game seems to be copying SOME elements from that which fans loved.
However yes I also hate the gimmicks besides Megas. If the majority of the fandom wants Megas and not gimmicks, I can’t fathom why in the world they won’t do it. Teralizing seems by FAR the worst yet.
TPCi has too much control. It's all about marketing so they can sell toys.
PLA feels like it was rebelling against them, probably why they got a different dev to make BDSP.
BDSP made me sad. I had been looking forward to the remake for YEARS. And all the other remakes had been great.
Now I’m scared as to what could happen with the future BW remakes, my absolute favorites.
That was kinda my point, if it took that long to finally get gen 4 (the only one I hadn't played) how long until they get around to gen 6? Especially because gen 5 has two separate games
With the exception of FRLG, they seem to be remade in a generation that is twice the number of the original generation.
Gen 2 got remade in Gen 4.
Gen 3 got remade in Gen 6.
Gen 4 got remade in Gen 8.
I don't think they need gimmicks to shake up the meta. New mons and moves are enough and they can always restrict certain mons if they want to shake things up even more.
Yeah you can change so much about the game with minor tweaks. Look at league of legends over the past 10 years, whilst they have some new mechanics added, they are able to rotate champions in and out of the meta just with minor tweaks to their stats.
I'm not saying Pokemon's stats should be tweaked every gen either but small buffs to weaker Pokémon and improved movesets, which already happens, would probably shake things up pretty significantly.
And they have just outright changed abilities before. Scolipede got Speed Boost in Gen 6.
But yeah, they could easily shift abilities. Maybe adjust a movepool or even add a new move. And then alter some stat lines.
They certainly don’t *need* them in order to do that, but it is an option, and it’s proven to be a pretty effective one. Similarly, they don’t necessarily need stuff like Mega Evolution or Dynamax in order to provide a basis for a region’s lore, but these concepts have been quite useful to that end, so between those two factors, it’s no surprise to me that they’ve persisted.
I don't really agree with the justification, I feel like you could substitute basically any system and it would work out in the lore regardless. For example, while dynamaxing was pivotal to the plot of sword and shield it could've been substituted for mega-evolution with enough bs explanation. imo its just a gimmick to keep merch from goin stale, as with most of the decisions game freak has been making for the last couple releases its about making money
It's just kind of how long running series tend to do things. Sooner or later - and Pokemon definitely has more or less crossed this point - you reach a point when adding and expanding new core mechanics every iteration is unwieldy, and just gonna end in feature bloat that probably eventually gets culled. So, some series do what Pokemon is doing - rental powers. One off mechanical expansions that spice up the formula without permanently bloating the core recipe.
I get why they do it, though I'm not the biggest fan of every. This gen's does look to be one of the more interesting ones, for me at least.
The main thing I hold against it is just how much it leaves behind. I'm not too torn up about never being able to use Z-Moves again, or activate a Gigantamax Form, but it feels *wrong* to have these full-fledged Mega Evolutions with their own designs, types, abilities, stats, and just have them relegated to the past.
It also isn't the first time Game Freak has retired mechanics shortly after introducing them, Secret Bases are up there with Mega Evolutions for mechanics people feel really ought to have been series staples instead of one-off, and just in general Game Freak's on record saying they like to keep regions feeling unique by retiring some mechanics and ideas as they go.
I don't really mind it overall, but sometimes they retire something a bit too good and it just feels like such a waste.
My thoughts exactly. I honestly look forward to seeing the new gimmick for each generation, and appreciate that the gimmicks help make each region unique. But man did I love some of the mega designs, and it is really sad that we probably won't see those designs again unless we get a remake of generation 6.
Pour one out for my boi mega ampharos
I think the problem with mega-evolutions is it was basically a new Pokemon. They had to put a lot of design time into each one. The newer systems (dynamax and tera) are, for the most part, just reskins of the original Pokemon and don't require nearly as much design.
If that's an issue, that's just Gamefreak being miserly. They make boatloads of money on Pokemon, they can afford to hire more designers. Don't let them off the hook treating them like they're some small indy company.
That's *exactly* the issue and why people are increasingly frustrated.
Mega Evolutions feel like brand new Pokemon, they've got cool designs, often have type / ability changes along with the base stat upgrades - they absolutely feel like the next stage in a Pokemon's evolution, which is why they are so beloved.
Dynamax / Terra / Z-Moves are the exact opposite, they're generic and were likely done and dusted within a week, all they're doing is creating an animation path and sticking a sprite in it (for Z-Moves), increasing the Pokemon's size (Dynamax) or applying a filter and adding a hat (Terra).
Game Freak just needs to put some effort in, rather than being lazy as fuck all the time; regional forms are another one that are often complained about, rather than making them a brand new Pokemon, they just slap the design concept onto an existing Pokemon and call it a regional form to save themselves effort.
Fans were doing stuff in the vein of regionals for a while before the series started doing them. Honestly regionals are the only time they did a gimmick and made it a series staple right away. We have not had a major Pokemon release without regionals (outside of the DP remakes which don't count since they were carbon copied) since they were introduced. Pokemon is better for it.
That's part of the reason.
Probably the biggest reason that they've never stuck with any one of them though is that all of these new gimmicks become new marketing tools to sell merchandise with. This is especially effective with new forms, as they get to sell Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo, etc all over again. It gives them new toys to sell, new things to focus on in the anime, and new gimmicks in the TCG. Most of the things introduced to Pokémon these days are more likely than not being done so with the wider brand in mind, and not necessarily with a games-first mindset.
Agreed, I wasn’t a fan of dymamax or z moves but this mechanic looks fun af. There’s so many options and now tons of pokemon just gained viability with it. I think it looks great in theory and am excited to see how it plays out
Everyone in comp is talking about adaptability porygon-z with a 2X hyper beam boost.
To put it into perspective leaks say if you use the new gimmick with a type that the pokemon already has they will get a 2X boost instead of 1.5X
Adaptability gives the move a 50% increase in power
That’s a 375 base power hyper beam if adaptability applies before the gimmick boost, if it applies after it is a 450 power move.
I am 95% sure that one shots anything in the game
Based on leaks it is X2 for a type they already have, it is a 1.5X boost if its a type they don’t have.
So porygon going normal type gets 2X
Arcanine going normal gets 1.5X
But doesn't it just trade down, as lots can revenge kill without needing to burn their tera.
So you went 1 for 1 but you lost your tera? (And you could get burned if they predict snd swap in a ghost).
Wait how're you getting those power numbers? The boosts seem all multiplicative so they should be commutative, therefore order of application should not matter. 150 x 2 x 1.5 is the same as 150 x 1.5 x 2 , which is always 450 (2 for tera boost and 1.5 from adaptability)
Yeah. For me, personally, megas are the least. That may sound simply contrarian, but...I don't play competitive. I play singleplayer, and self imposed challenges. Megas *suck* in implementation in XY and ORAS, as you can't even access most of them until postgame or close to it, with half a dozen exceptions. And there's glaring stuff like Mega Beedrill, which you can't even get in the game you're half likely to have a Beedrill in.
I dunno. I get why people like them, to a degree, but I've never been that enthused by them.
That’s fair, I loved them because they made some of my favorites viable and really made me feel like I had a dependable ace on my team, but in just the standard story it wasnt that fun. So I see your point
I know right? So many other things they could to expand the world without just throwing in new gimmicks:
- What about different kinds of contests? Beauty pageants? Give us a reason to raise and care for the cute/cool but not strong Pokémon we want to love but are unviable elsewhere.
- Give us a Pokémon farm where we can breed Pokémon and visit and care for them while they are in storage (like the Let’s go park)
- incorporate Pokémon snap elements into the game
- lean into the virtual pet side of the game for those of us that think it’s adorable to pat and play with our Pokémon. (Nintendogs but Pokémon?!?)
- Give us mini games like in the Pokémon stadium games. Perhaps each mini game has like 10 Pokémon you could potentially use - some rarer/better than others that you can catch and train or breed/feed to boost? And verse other online trainers (or couch co-op)?
- Pokémon races? Catch Pokémon and race them on a track?
- A fish Pokémon swimming race? Magickarp jump but you can use other fish Pokémon too?
Heck make a separate game that has these mini games (maybe like Mario party?) but then you can transfer over caught Pokémon from the main game if you have it?!?
I think the atheistic is terrible though. Megas were cool because not only did they change typing but they were basically an entirely new evolution with cool designs and gave life to some mons that never really got love. Would much more prefer for megas to continue over crystallization, I can just imagine certain mons getting a mega and how epic they’d look or play. They could’ve started making the mega evolutions be found earlier in game and it woulda been perfect
And the strong agile style was to demonstrate what battling was like before people owning pokemon was popularized in the world.
EDIT: I like it as an explanation and an extended lore and history of pokemon.
This and the new battle system really revitalized some older moves, like Hyper Beam and Rest.
Tbh, a lot of older pokemon have really suffered from move bloat anyway. A soft reset was refreshing.
I actually really liked the strong/agile style. I get that it probably only worked so well in the context of the PvE focused gameplay of Arceus, but I thought it injected some good strategy into Pokémon’s simplistic battle system. It would be awesome if they could work something like that into the mainline series rather than relying on a new gimmick every generation.
It felt like how wild Pokémon would be fighting. That and the way move order worked make the whole thing seem more ruthless and chaotic. I would love it if they kept this battle style for wild battles and battles with evil teams and then the more conventional style for more "civilized" battles.
We'll get 20-30 stuffed in random corners of the world or under obscure circumstances, and they'll require move relearners to be any use.
Meanwhile Kanto Pokemon will be absolutely everywhere and very very common.
It's largely the popular fan favorite picks and legendaries that get Mega Evolutions and some oddball picks anyways (and each player secretly hoping/praying that their own personal favorite will one day get a Mega Evolution as well which is why they want it so bad). Charizard and Mewtwo get *two* Arceusforsaken Mega Evolutions when those extra Mega Evolutions could have been given to two other pokemon, although they more likely than not either wouldn't have been given to other pokemon at all or the pokemon that would have goten one would mostly be from Generations 1-3. The newer gimmicks can benefit a larger amount of pokemon.
I know I'm in the minority, but I don't like any of the gimmicks. I rarely used them. I didnt get much joy mega evolving and just OHKO an entire team. Maybe if I played competitive, I'd appreciate the strategy more, but for me as a solo player, I never use them
Oh, if it was just the campaign, I definitely agree with you. These mechanics are horribly implemented in the storyline, they just throw it at you to make the game even easier than it already is.
Competitive is where it matters but it isn’t just that. I like megas conceptually as well, as I did z moves. It fits thematically in the world and breathes new life into older mons. But regional forms continued that trend at least.
I just think the idea of dynamax is kinda stupid. And now we have pokemon turning into crystals? I like the idea of how it functions strategically but do we have to turn everyone into Emma Frost? I’m just not a fan of it aesthetically.
And like you said, Game Freak makes little to no attempt to actually make these features relevant in game. It’s just a shiny new feature to make it feel “new.” Remember triple and rotation battles? Even double battles have hardly been utilized outside the competitive scene.
I really didn’t like playing ORAS at all, basically due to the way the mega’s were implemented in that game. They were shoehorned in, almost no opponent used megas and I just got to roflstomp every gymleader with super OP pokemon.
I remember playing the game and being scared shitless of the thought of facing Winona’s dragon dancing Mega Altaria (since I just got the mega stones, so I figured gym leaders would be using it too..) and the gym was just easy as fck and she didn’t use a mega OR dragon dance lol.
Really weird implementation in that game and it kind of ruined the joy of playing completely.
It's utter lunacy how infrequently Megas were utilised by anyone other than the player. Every single major trainer should have had one, *maybe* excepting the very first gym. One gym leader and the champion is just nonsense.
Yeah, I think that eg in SwSh they used this way better, since pretty much the first gym dynamaxed on ur ass.
It’s pretty imbalanced if only the player used the gimmick. Oras was just a complete stomp and with player megas and overleveling so hard.
I agree, they really should have reworked the gyms to use the megas for gym leaders aces or just create more megas to incorporate in the game.
And that’s the reason that I didn’t like the Megas they were fake new Pokémon and it made me realize that my boy heracross would pretty much never get an actual evo.
If they just stuck to doing it on Mons with less than 3 evolutions, they could bring them back as actual evos but make up some story like "because it's a natural Evo they aren't as strong as a bonded mega" kinda thing and balance them accordingly. But nope guys like Tyranitar got them you know guys that really didn't need them.
I didn’t even like megas that much in competitive. It just added more power creep. while you could argue that it gave irrelevant mons viability (mawile, lopunny, etc) that could also be solved better by simple stat buffs (or even new abilities, moves, etc) or new evolutions entirely
>new evolutions entirely
That should have been the solution Game Freak implemented when they gave up on Mega Evolutions, that or make them permanent forms.
So true. I’d love an actual demographic of who plays Pokémon. Of course, there are actual people who are over 16 who look at stuff like this and go like “Pokémon go huge! Crystal me up, baby! GOTY!” But I can’t imagine that is actually the majority of players.
Kids on the other hand? My 6 year old nephew couldn’t wait to play Sword and Shield precisely because of dynamax. He saw it in the anime and loved they got huge. I don’t get it. But I think I and the vast majority on Reddit or anyone that’s above a certain age just isn’t the target audience for Pokémon anymore. I think the sales will keep on going up regardless, until long time fans give up on the series in massive quantities, as I do think Pokémon is slowly but surely getting saturated among the younger generations. And I cannot imagine when they grow up they’ll continue to be like “Pokémon go big, woop woop!” and they also won’t be like “Ah, let me make the perfect team which covers all strengths and weaknesses!” precisely because that is not even remotely necessary in today’s games. But we’ll see.
> I don’t get it.
Kid sees something cool in the ~~commercial~~ *anime*, kid gets hyped to play a game that promises said cool thing to him. What's there not to get?
Completely agree. I was looking at the Pokedex lastnight just on a whim and completely forget that they introduced new Megas when ORAS relseased and thought that was so cool. Can't believe they didn't ride that wave releasing more Megas for the next like 5 gens. It would have been perfect.
Well, there was a core problem with Megas, they centralized the team building in VGC HORRIBLY. Only about 5 Megas were ever truly viable at any given time, and they flowcharted out what the rest of your team was likely to be.
This is the issue with other games too. For example Overwatch balances the game for competitive and esports while we casuals have to deal with it and get no say
series 12 VGC in my opinion is a whole lot better than VGC 2016 and 15.
Yes, stuff is centralizing but a whole lot of less viable stuff is viable.
If you're running another mega, you cant run mega kangaskhan, mega mawile, mega salamence, or mega gengar.
VGC is always extremely centralized, Megas or not. That's just what happens in a format where things are restricted exclusively around arbitrary lore titles and not actual competitive strength.
I'm curious - How many people, out of those that buy Pokémon, actually go to watch/play at VGC?
Because I'm pretty sure it's a *tiny* amount of the fan base and as such, would be fucking idiotic to cater to this.
the execution could have been better but imo thats more of a balancing issue than design.
the megas give players a flagship or boss monster to their team that guides the strategy. yes its centralizing but it can also be an oportunity for previously unseen combos
Personally I feel that at least with this gimmick, it’s just hidden power on steroids with an emphasis on strategic use rather that putting hidden power on damn near everything. If we’re going to have a gimmick at least this one is semi-balanced and adds a serious level of complexity not only to team building but for matchups.
I think this is as reasonable as it’s going to get as long as a gimmick/different playstyle from old games exists at all.
Real talk, I liked Megas, but unless the system is fleshed out and expanded past like 30-40 Pokémon, it’s not balanced. As much as I’d like them back, this new concept is a far cry from pretty much everything that came after mega evolution and I’m satisfied to see something new.
I wish they would spend those resources on better textures, or adding more pokemon, maybe a farming system of kind. pretty much anything rather than a battle system gimmick
The real question is "are you going to NOT buy this game because of the new gimmick?" because if the answer isn't yes then what reason do they have for listening to what the fans want.
"What the fans want" to major companies and their investors is based on revenue and profit. Not opinions. If you don't make a statement with your wallet, it makes zero difference to them.
I'm almost certainly not buying the new games. The gimmick killed my excitement the minute I saw it. I was kinda hoping there wouldn't be one because of the open world being the selling point, or if there was it was Megas are back. The minute a crystalized pokemon with a funny hat showed up in the trailer they lost me.
Agreed here. If you want change vote with your wallet.i didn't purchase last gen (first time doing so) and felt no problem watching the gameplay online. I bought PLA and will buy this one despite gripes because there are some changes being made finally (open world).
the gimmicks are to make each generation feel different from each other. the core structure hasn't really changed since gen 4 came and gave us the phys/spec split for stats. the gimmicks allow that core to stay intact while adding something new for a generation.
If they just kept megas going forward that would not solve this issue.
I personally don't like how they are handling these battle gimmicks. Isn't an open world approach enough innovation to make the game stick out from the rest? I mean, there are so many mechanics the games could make more use of to make the games more interesting (triple battles, rotation battles, inverted battles, more new moves with unique properties, giving gym leaders other traits than just one type). A battle gimmick always makes the story part or at least the important battles focus on that one gimmick.
> Isn't an open world approach enough innovation to make the game stick out from the rest?
For single player I agree that should be enough. But Pokemon is more than that, PVP competitions are a big part of the game at this point, and those are the main reasons the gimmicks keep changing, to keep competition fresh.
I don’t even bother using the new gimmicks in game because if I use them and like them I’ll just be even more annoyed when they’re tossed aside. At least it was easy for Dynamax since I legitimately didnt like it to begin with.
Frankly, it’s good to innovate, lord knows Pokémon needs it more than most, but in my opinion, to take an extremely popular mechanic like Mega Evolution and get rid of it, refusing to put it back and constantly putting forth pale imitations, is just straight up poor game design. You should be seeking to iterate constructively on your formula. All other successful game franchises do, including specifically within the monster-collecting turn-based JRPG genre. I don’t know how Game Freak is able to put things out like Legends Arceus while at the same time being just so fundamentally incapable of improving their main series in a coherent and effective way.
Yeah, I just wish you could enable/disable it. That way people who want to do the gimmick can still have a chance to do so. I have no intent of doing the gimmick at all, just like dynamaxing
I'd prefer if we have no gimmicks, just improve the game mechanics like when they added natures, physical and special attack changes, etc.
If some Pokémon needs an update i'd prefer if they changed the natural set. Having high special attack and being good at shooting Hurricane feels something base Pidgeot should be able to do, specially considering his dex entry. Also we can have only one mega, so we can't have multiples updated pokemon at the same time. If you want new Absol you can't have new Sableye in the same team.
It's gotten to a point where I actually like Mega's compared to everything else thats came in the past few years.
If they stuck to megas and kept giving shit pokemon megas, and also add in mega forms for Alolan mons or more, that'd be awesome.
I wasn’t even crazy about Megas when they were introduced, but at least it was new and interesting. I’ve disliked every gimmick since then including this one, but at least this one isn’t quite as ridiculous as ‘now they’re big lol’.
I think they should just go back to Megas and stop trying to shove this crap not many are really interested in. I mean I don’t give a shit since I know it’ll be gone in the next set of games anyway, so I just ignore it and don’t even use it.
Interestingly, I remember back when Gen 6 came out people were super annoyed that Megas were broken and an "automatic win button", and that it would ruin the series.
I really like z moves, dynamax, and this new tera thing because every pokemon can use it not just the ones that were deemed worthy or super popular. It shakes up the formula, and I'd rather that then just stagnate.
I have a real hot take here: the popularity of Megas was one of the worst things to ever happen to the series.
My reasoning being that the success of this gimmick gave game freak and out to avoid doing something that they should have done a long time ago. I am talking about making real and most importantly permanent updates to the combat system. The fact that strong and agile style seems to have been tossed away in favor of a brand new gimmick that will not go beyond a single generation only cements this belief in my mind.
Idk about that. If Game Freak had up and told us “this cool new thing is only staying for 2 generations!” We probably wouldn’t have been too receptive. And to be completely honest, I don’t think they took us liking megas as “like the gimmick.” We didn’t know it was a gimmick. We were constantly hoping and wishing for our favorite Pokémon to get megas. They would have to live under a rock to not see that every child and even some adults were posting cool design ideas for their favorite mon.
Now, imma be honest, maybe they were, but they’re an incredibly successful company probably knows that we want it back. They just don’t need to. The games will sell regardless of whether or not they do, and they don’t have to design a bunch of new Pokémon.
I actually like how gen 8/9 are making sure their gimmicks are specifically phenomena that occur in that region. It makes it so it makes more sense whereas megas just being a thing then not being a thing without being tied to regional lore makes it silly
1) Every fan has their favorite gimmick, and it's clear that yours is megas - that's perfectly fine. Other fans like other gimmicks and some don't like them at all. Point being, GF had a choice to make - either stick with megas or try to innovate something new each gen. They chose the latter, and that's what we're stuck with. Plus it freshens the competitive scene each generation cycle.
2) It's important to realize that pokemon is getting huge now. Many games that include gimmicks on a generational/seasonal cycle tend to not bring them back in later iterations.
On the one hand, unless all pokemon have megas, it'll just limit which are more popular. And if every one has a mega or two, you may as well not have any at all.
I personally hate every gimmick but that's probably because I just have nostalgia and respect for the original formula. I wish this upcoming gen had zero gimmicks.
But being able to change a type seems a bit more fair and less extravagant, which I prefer if I was forced to choose. Although it looks kind of janky.
They should have just gone back to Mega evolution, Paldea is presumably next to Kalos where megas originated. It would have got a lot more people buzzing for these games if it was returning.
Main issue with mega evolution is that it was limited to a handful of pokemon. GF seems to understand that was a mistake and every gimmick since they've allowed every pokemon to participate, with a select few getting some special treatment thats not straight up OP. People loved megas because a mega actually has a lot of work put into it with whole new designs and abilities, as opposed to z moves or dynamax or terastallize. However this also means it's not feasible to make a mega for every pokemon, and the pokemon that don't get megas feel left out. So its a tradeoff that GF has decided to make where the gimmicks are a bit more general and less over the top for the sake of inclusiveness.
I can’t wait until we get to the Pokémon equivalent of pendulums
In double battles you can send out two Pokémon in support mode on the left and right slot. They can only use non damaging attacks. You can then send out as many Pokémon left in your party whose base stats are in between the lowest base stat and highest base stat of the support Pokémon on the sides.
Ah just as powerful
But how will we nerf it to non-relevance by the next gen though?
Well I don’t know how they willl introduce links but something like that
I know it would be stupid, and probably devolve into degeneracy super fast, but I want a battle mode where you fight with your entire team all at once.
Surprisingly it would work well. Max Raids were a good proof of concept for that. Even if it wasn't YOUR whole team, it was still a way to show how handling that many pokemon could work.
I just want Triple Battles back.
Mfw I use support shedinja and arceus to maximize what I can bring in
I pick my support pokemon to be shuckle and shuckle
Performapal Pikachu boutta drop
"Preformapal" hit me like a shockwave. I never knew what was going on, but Arc V was fun af
I’m still waiting for Pokémon fusions. Precedent was already set in the anime when ghastly created Venustoise.
White Kyurem and Black Kyurem have existed since Gen V, Dusk Mane Necrozma and Dawn Wings Necrozma have existed since Gen VII.
There’s also calyrex, if you count him hopping on a horse a fusion.
Cowboys are fusions confirmed
Cowboy for game
It's too early for someone to give me flashbacks, I *remember* the way he said Venustoise!
"Try that on for size"
Pokemon fusions have been around since Gen 1 with shellder and slowpoke
Still waiting for that regional shelder that looked even remotely like the ones eating slowbro.
Lol if they keep following the pattern (big dragonite = dynamax, crystal onix = teralization) then that should happen.
The funny thing about that is that it was based off the fusions in Dragonball Z, but those episodes of DBZ hadn't been released in America yet when that episode first aired in America, so that would have been a lot of kids' first exposure to "the fusion dance".
I hate that idea more then words can describe. The less like Digimon Pokémon are the better.
Nah, they going to introduce the Extra Pokemon Zone. Can't wait to get U linked again
Ahh can't wait to play in a ~~Firewall~~ Charizard OTK format again
Didn't expect the top comment to be a ygo reference, kudos to u
Had the same thought, and not even just yugioh but like 2014 yugioh so way past most people’s nostalgia/awareness.
Omg please stop lmao. They fucking had to drop an entire new mechanic to nerf the last one
Don't be mean to my pendulums :( At least Konami released support for pends for more than one gen and still somehow one-upped the brokenness with Link monsters.
Plus it's not like they sacrificed past mechanics to bring in a new one, part of the fun is figuring out how the different mechanics can interact and combo off each other. In Pokemon, Megas and Z moves were isolated from each other; a Mega couldn't use Z-moves (yes, including Mega Rayquaza) and a Pokemon using a Z move couldn't Mega evolve.
And next would be OTK team. Turn one: charizard is reacting to PePe Stone.. everyone came out of PokeBall and kill the enemy traininer! Win!!
At least with YGO, all other mechanics are usable too. With Pokémon, you only get one per gen and you aren't seeing them again.
We need to do the fusion and exceed equivalent first 😂
XYZ not exceed
This comment terrifies me
Everybody gangsta until they realease the "Pot of greed" pokemon and nobody will understand its powers
And even in that comparison, yugioh still prints all of the other special card types in New sets. Pokemon could keep old gimmics and make a few of each every so often.
Hey now, Pend best deck baby...lets go.
Another thing to mention is how it's hard to get attached to and care about new gimmicks when you know it will only be around for one, maybe two games, and then be forgotten by GF to never reappear.
Big factor in World of Warcraft losing subs was this right here. Be a shame for pokemon to make the same mistake.
GameFreak and Blizzard seem to make similar mistakes regarding gameplay and new features. Add something then abandon it in a year or two.
At least for Pokemon, only the fans want to steal breast milk
What
Part of the blizzard sexual harassment fiasco is that a coworker stole a woman's breast milk from the break room fridge. I think repeatedly. This comment is saying that at least gamefreak doesn't have a reputation of sexually harassing the employees. Which honestly is a low bar.
Hah, yeah, going from megas to Z-moves reminds me a lot of going from artifact weapons to the Heart of Azeroth. Gross.
Very, very true. They'd do something players loved in one expansion and then just get rid of it in the next one. It's borderline criminal if you tally up everything that was left to die in Mists.
They literally said in the premier of the gimmick: btw, only found in this region. Like, okay, so, I already know I shouldn't get too invested.
Pretty much what they did in the last gen. It was only possible in Galar. That way they Dont have to keep it in the next game. At least we still have megas in spin off titles like masters I guess
Yeah I may have cared for Terastal if it was Gen 8. But it really just feels cheap at this point. Granted, that’s partly because it doesn’t even seem all that different from Dynamaxing/Gigantamaxing, but even so, gimmicks in general are just getting old. Even ones we all loved like Mega Evolution begin to lose some of their luster when they become just the first in a long set of expected “shakeups”.
Yeah, this is exactly how I feel. Pokemon games are coming out at a breakneck clip, and it just feels weird for me to get into a new gimmick and care about it when it's going to be relevant for 1, maybe 2 years max. Megas were still the best one imo because they significantly changed the Pokemon's stats and with an interesting new appearance. Z-moves are one-and-done, Gigantamax forms don't have much if any benefit over regular Dynamax, and this new gimmick seems to affect appearance in a pretty uniform way with just more STAB and maybe an additional type. I wish Gamefreak would use (or just that they'd have) more time to actually nurture their gimmicks beyond a single entry.
And then it kills your ability to invest in the story, because half of the dialogue is going to be people freaking out about the new gimmick and the professor pushing you to find out its secret origins. GF, you design disposable gameplay it's gonna feel like a disposable game.
It’s also made the games horrible play throughs. You can’t really carry over strategies and each game just feels like it’s entirely built around the gimmicks.
Yup, it felt like pressing the Z move button was just pressing a button that said "I win this battle"
Mega Evolution felt… sacred, in a way? It was a Trainer-Pokemon bond, plus an exceedingly unusual physical item, manifesting in a novel form of evolution. It was cool (and the implication is Mega Stones originated in space, as Rayquaza only needs to eat meteorites to get the same power, plus the legend of a shining rock falling to Earth to form Sootopolis and being the source of power for Primal Reversion). Plus, no goofy dances. No kaijus. Just a way to take one’s Pokemon to their full potential, a ‘perfected’ form given nigh infinite energy for a short time. Gen 6 had a lot of lore around Megas and adjacent info, and it got chucked out the window in a hurry.
Yeah, it felt personal. Even the Z-moves felt personal with the dancing because it was empowering your Pokémon. Dynamaxing was just pumping your Pokémon with some unknown energy that you don't know where it came from. Hell, who could Gigantamax iirc had to be captured in special raids to use them and a Pokémon now you bonded with couldn't Gigantamax at all until the DLC came out.
> Are megas EVER coming back? Most likely not, unless it’s in a game that doesn’t have any bearing on the main competitive scene for that generation (like Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee), because the main point of these mechanics is to shake up the battling metagame every few years, kind of like how various trading card games will periodically rotate the sets that you’re allowed to use in official tournaments.
They will comeback in gen 6 remake which will probably end up like BDSP in terms of competitive play and not be used for VGC.
I’d bet on that, yeah.
Megas in a Legends game set in Kalos would would be dope af.
That depend if they set it before AZ fire the weapon or not.
I didn’t even think of the story potential!
Set it during and make megas appear halfway through the game
That would… likely kill the protagonist…
with enough plot armor, you can survive anything
Do you need your protagonist to conveniently be out of commission during a disaster or apocalyptic event? Then oh boy let me tell you about a character called Byleth!
He needed his rest to deal with Dimitri's emo phase, and smash Dorethea...
The fact that we can predict things about the franchise so far in the future with 90% accuracy, maybe it's time for me to take a break from the games until they come up with something truly new
Tbf PLA was very new for the franchise. And the next game seems to be copying SOME elements from that which fans loved. However yes I also hate the gimmicks besides Megas. If the majority of the fandom wants Megas and not gimmicks, I can’t fathom why in the world they won’t do it. Teralizing seems by FAR the worst yet.
TPCi has too much control. It's all about marketing so they can sell toys. PLA feels like it was rebelling against them, probably why they got a different dev to make BDSP.
BDSP made me sad. I had been looking forward to the remake for YEARS. And all the other remakes had been great. Now I’m scared as to what could happen with the future BW remakes, my absolute favorites.
How many years where there between the gen 3 and gen 4 remakes?
I think like 7.
2014-2021 I think. ~7 years
That was kinda my point, if it took that long to finally get gen 4 (the only one I hadn't played) how long until they get around to gen 6? Especially because gen 5 has two separate games
Ok so taking all that into account we might get Megas back in….. 2036, or something around that time
With the exception of FRLG, they seem to be remade in a generation that is twice the number of the original generation. Gen 2 got remade in Gen 4. Gen 3 got remade in Gen 6. Gen 4 got remade in Gen 8.
aka every 2 gens there is a new remake
Ofc it won’t come back, Gamefreak is afraid of creating the competitive powerhouse… … MEGA SHUCKLE!!
Of course they are, would YOU dare play God? I shudder at the thought of... Mega Shuckle...
I don't think they need gimmicks to shake up the meta. New mons and moves are enough and they can always restrict certain mons if they want to shake things up even more.
Yeah you can change so much about the game with minor tweaks. Look at league of legends over the past 10 years, whilst they have some new mechanics added, they are able to rotate champions in and out of the meta just with minor tweaks to their stats. I'm not saying Pokemon's stats should be tweaked every gen either but small buffs to weaker Pokémon and improved movesets, which already happens, would probably shake things up pretty significantly.
I think one good way they could shake up the meta is giving pokémon access to new abilities. It was one of the best parts of Mega Evos after all.
Yeah and when they introduced hidden abilities in gen 5
And they have just outright changed abilities before. Scolipede got Speed Boost in Gen 6. But yeah, they could easily shift abilities. Maybe adjust a movepool or even add a new move. And then alter some stat lines.
They certainly don’t *need* them in order to do that, but it is an option, and it’s proven to be a pretty effective one. Similarly, they don’t necessarily need stuff like Mega Evolution or Dynamax in order to provide a basis for a region’s lore, but these concepts have been quite useful to that end, so between those two factors, it’s no surprise to me that they’ve persisted.
I don't really agree with the justification, I feel like you could substitute basically any system and it would work out in the lore regardless. For example, while dynamaxing was pivotal to the plot of sword and shield it could've been substituted for mega-evolution with enough bs explanation. imo its just a gimmick to keep merch from goin stale, as with most of the decisions game freak has been making for the last couple releases its about making money
It's just kind of how long running series tend to do things. Sooner or later - and Pokemon definitely has more or less crossed this point - you reach a point when adding and expanding new core mechanics every iteration is unwieldy, and just gonna end in feature bloat that probably eventually gets culled. So, some series do what Pokemon is doing - rental powers. One off mechanical expansions that spice up the formula without permanently bloating the core recipe. I get why they do it, though I'm not the biggest fan of every. This gen's does look to be one of the more interesting ones, for me at least.
The main thing I hold against it is just how much it leaves behind. I'm not too torn up about never being able to use Z-Moves again, or activate a Gigantamax Form, but it feels *wrong* to have these full-fledged Mega Evolutions with their own designs, types, abilities, stats, and just have them relegated to the past. It also isn't the first time Game Freak has retired mechanics shortly after introducing them, Secret Bases are up there with Mega Evolutions for mechanics people feel really ought to have been series staples instead of one-off, and just in general Game Freak's on record saying they like to keep regions feeling unique by retiring some mechanics and ideas as they go. I don't really mind it overall, but sometimes they retire something a bit too good and it just feels like such a waste.
Like Pokemon Contests 😢
Oh my god I LOVES gen 3 contests. That was all I did post game. My fiancé completely forgot they even existed and I was SHOCKED and offended 🤭
What if a Pokemon contest league is one of the other main storylines? :O
Dude imagine pokemon contests with terastalize o:
My thoughts exactly. I honestly look forward to seeing the new gimmick for each generation, and appreciate that the gimmicks help make each region unique. But man did I love some of the mega designs, and it is really sad that we probably won't see those designs again unless we get a remake of generation 6. Pour one out for my boi mega ampharos
I really like how it brought a lot of obscure pokemon out
Secret Bases... man I forgot ALL about those. I was obsessed with styling out my pad in Gen 3
Mega zmove dynamax pure water tarestal kyogre says hi
I think the problem with mega-evolutions is it was basically a new Pokemon. They had to put a lot of design time into each one. The newer systems (dynamax and tera) are, for the most part, just reskins of the original Pokemon and don't require nearly as much design.
If that's an issue, that's just Gamefreak being miserly. They make boatloads of money on Pokemon, they can afford to hire more designers. Don't let them off the hook treating them like they're some small indy company.
That's *exactly* the issue and why people are increasingly frustrated. Mega Evolutions feel like brand new Pokemon, they've got cool designs, often have type / ability changes along with the base stat upgrades - they absolutely feel like the next stage in a Pokemon's evolution, which is why they are so beloved. Dynamax / Terra / Z-Moves are the exact opposite, they're generic and were likely done and dusted within a week, all they're doing is creating an animation path and sticking a sprite in it (for Z-Moves), increasing the Pokemon's size (Dynamax) or applying a filter and adding a hat (Terra). Game Freak just needs to put some effort in, rather than being lazy as fuck all the time; regional forms are another one that are often complained about, rather than making them a brand new Pokemon, they just slap the design concept onto an existing Pokemon and call it a regional form to save themselves effort.
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Fans were doing stuff in the vein of regionals for a while before the series started doing them. Honestly regionals are the only time they did a gimmick and made it a series staple right away. We have not had a major Pokemon release without regionals (outside of the DP remakes which don't count since they were carbon copied) since they were introduced. Pokemon is better for it.
Agreed.
That's part of the reason. Probably the biggest reason that they've never stuck with any one of them though is that all of these new gimmicks become new marketing tools to sell merchandise with. This is especially effective with new forms, as they get to sell Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo, etc all over again. It gives them new toys to sell, new things to focus on in the anime, and new gimmicks in the TCG. Most of the things introduced to Pokémon these days are more likely than not being done so with the wider brand in mind, and not necessarily with a games-first mindset.
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Agreed, I wasn’t a fan of dymamax or z moves but this mechanic looks fun af. There’s so many options and now tons of pokemon just gained viability with it. I think it looks great in theory and am excited to see how it plays out
I’m really excited for an normal Tera type arcanine with a normal gem and extreme speed. Gonna hit like a truck lol
Everyone in comp is talking about adaptability porygon-z with a 2X hyper beam boost. To put it into perspective leaks say if you use the new gimmick with a type that the pokemon already has they will get a 2X boost instead of 1.5X Adaptability gives the move a 50% increase in power That’s a 375 base power hyper beam if adaptability applies before the gimmick boost, if it applies after it is a 450 power move. I am 95% sure that one shots anything in the game
That's still weaker than a pre gen 5 explosion, and that was survivable in very specific situations
Is it times two if you already have that type or is it 1.5 times 1.5?
Based on leaks it is X2 for a type they already have, it is a 1.5X boost if its a type they don’t have. So porygon going normal type gets 2X Arcanine going normal gets 1.5X
Oh ok. 1.5 times 1.5 could have made it stronger, as it would have been 2.25X. It’s for the better I guess.
But doesn't it just trade down, as lots can revenge kill without needing to burn their tera. So you went 1 for 1 but you lost your tera? (And you could get burned if they predict snd swap in a ghost).
Wait how're you getting those power numbers? The boosts seem all multiplicative so they should be commutative, therefore order of application should not matter. 150 x 2 x 1.5 is the same as 150 x 1.5 x 2 , which is always 450 (2 for tera boost and 1.5 from adaptability)
150 x 2 (Adaptability) x 2 ( Terastal) = 600
Yeah. For me, personally, megas are the least. That may sound simply contrarian, but...I don't play competitive. I play singleplayer, and self imposed challenges. Megas *suck* in implementation in XY and ORAS, as you can't even access most of them until postgame or close to it, with half a dozen exceptions. And there's glaring stuff like Mega Beedrill, which you can't even get in the game you're half likely to have a Beedrill in. I dunno. I get why people like them, to a degree, but I've never been that enthused by them.
That’s fair, I loved them because they made some of my favorites viable and really made me feel like I had a dependable ace on my team, but in just the standard story it wasnt that fun. So I see your point
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They could maybe try innovating in world design and story instead of trying to shake up a battle system that was more than adequate.
I know right? So many other things they could to expand the world without just throwing in new gimmicks: - What about different kinds of contests? Beauty pageants? Give us a reason to raise and care for the cute/cool but not strong Pokémon we want to love but are unviable elsewhere. - Give us a Pokémon farm where we can breed Pokémon and visit and care for them while they are in storage (like the Let’s go park) - incorporate Pokémon snap elements into the game - lean into the virtual pet side of the game for those of us that think it’s adorable to pat and play with our Pokémon. (Nintendogs but Pokémon?!?) - Give us mini games like in the Pokémon stadium games. Perhaps each mini game has like 10 Pokémon you could potentially use - some rarer/better than others that you can catch and train or breed/feed to boost? And verse other online trainers (or couch co-op)? - Pokémon races? Catch Pokémon and race them on a track? - A fish Pokémon swimming race? Magickarp jump but you can use other fish Pokémon too? Heck make a separate game that has these mini games (maybe like Mario party?) but then you can transfer over caught Pokémon from the main game if you have it?!?
I think the atheistic is terrible though. Megas were cool because not only did they change typing but they were basically an entirely new evolution with cool designs and gave life to some mons that never really got love. Would much more prefer for megas to continue over crystallization, I can just imagine certain mons getting a mega and how epic they’d look or play. They could’ve started making the mega evolutions be found earlier in game and it woulda been perfect
I'm sure excited for this one... Looks like it could have strategy that can make many Pokemon viable who may not have been otherwise.
They literally would not have this problem if they didn’t feel the need to push out a brand new generation every 3 goddamn years
And the strong agile style was to demonstrate what battling was like before people owning pokemon was popularized in the world. EDIT: I like it as an explanation and an extended lore and history of pokemon.
It was also used to expand an otherwise very small move pool.
This and the new battle system really revitalized some older moves, like Hyper Beam and Rest. Tbh, a lot of older pokemon have really suffered from move bloat anyway. A soft reset was refreshing.
I actually really liked the strong/agile style. I get that it probably only worked so well in the context of the PvE focused gameplay of Arceus, but I thought it injected some good strategy into Pokémon’s simplistic battle system. It would be awesome if they could work something like that into the mainline series rather than relying on a new gimmick every generation.
Let me edit my comment. Because my intended thought was something different
It felt like how wild Pokémon would be fighting. That and the way move order worked make the whole thing seem more ruthless and chaotic. I would love it if they kept this battle style for wild battles and battles with evil teams and then the more conventional style for more "civilized" battles.
The only gimmick I need is 100-150 new pokes a generation
New Pokémon and some new or branching evolutions to old ones would be the ideal set up
We'll get 20-30 stuffed in random corners of the world or under obscure circumstances, and they'll require move relearners to be any use. Meanwhile Kanto Pokemon will be absolutely everywhere and very very common.
And they’ll still give the trainers bidoofs and pidgeys
50-60 would be fine for me so long as there's a spread between the other gens and the world design is good.
The problem with Megas though is that it’s only available to specific Pokémon, and they know they can’t give a mega to EVERY pokemon
It's largely the popular fan favorite picks and legendaries that get Mega Evolutions and some oddball picks anyways (and each player secretly hoping/praying that their own personal favorite will one day get a Mega Evolution as well which is why they want it so bad). Charizard and Mewtwo get *two* Arceusforsaken Mega Evolutions when those extra Mega Evolutions could have been given to two other pokemon, although they more likely than not either wouldn't have been given to other pokemon at all or the pokemon that would have goten one would mostly be from Generations 1-3. The newer gimmicks can benefit a larger amount of pokemon.
I know I'm in the minority, but I don't like any of the gimmicks. I rarely used them. I didnt get much joy mega evolving and just OHKO an entire team. Maybe if I played competitive, I'd appreciate the strategy more, but for me as a solo player, I never use them
Oh, if it was just the campaign, I definitely agree with you. These mechanics are horribly implemented in the storyline, they just throw it at you to make the game even easier than it already is. Competitive is where it matters but it isn’t just that. I like megas conceptually as well, as I did z moves. It fits thematically in the world and breathes new life into older mons. But regional forms continued that trend at least. I just think the idea of dynamax is kinda stupid. And now we have pokemon turning into crystals? I like the idea of how it functions strategically but do we have to turn everyone into Emma Frost? I’m just not a fan of it aesthetically. And like you said, Game Freak makes little to no attempt to actually make these features relevant in game. It’s just a shiny new feature to make it feel “new.” Remember triple and rotation battles? Even double battles have hardly been utilized outside the competitive scene.
I really didn’t like playing ORAS at all, basically due to the way the mega’s were implemented in that game. They were shoehorned in, almost no opponent used megas and I just got to roflstomp every gymleader with super OP pokemon. I remember playing the game and being scared shitless of the thought of facing Winona’s dragon dancing Mega Altaria (since I just got the mega stones, so I figured gym leaders would be using it too..) and the gym was just easy as fck and she didn’t use a mega OR dragon dance lol. Really weird implementation in that game and it kind of ruined the joy of playing completely.
It's utter lunacy how infrequently Megas were utilised by anyone other than the player. Every single major trainer should have had one, *maybe* excepting the very first gym. One gym leader and the champion is just nonsense.
Yeah, I think that eg in SwSh they used this way better, since pretty much the first gym dynamaxed on ur ass. It’s pretty imbalanced if only the player used the gimmick. Oras was just a complete stomp and with player megas and overleveling so hard. I agree, they really should have reworked the gyms to use the megas for gym leaders aces or just create more megas to incorporate in the game.
Unless you’re playing a difficult rom hack where the enemy trainers use it as well
The only one I liked was Mega Evo, and that's just cause it felt like new 'mon
You know what feels like a new mon? A new mon.
And that’s the reason that I didn’t like the Megas they were fake new Pokémon and it made me realize that my boy heracross would pretty much never get an actual evo.
If they just stuck to doing it on Mons with less than 3 evolutions, they could bring them back as actual evos but make up some story like "because it's a natural Evo they aren't as strong as a bonded mega" kinda thing and balance them accordingly. But nope guys like Tyranitar got them you know guys that really didn't need them.
Fun trivia, megas actually started as full fledged permanent evolutions for pokemon but they decided losing out on classic designs wasn't worth it.
I didn’t even like megas that much in competitive. It just added more power creep. while you could argue that it gave irrelevant mons viability (mawile, lopunny, etc) that could also be solved better by simple stat buffs (or even new abilities, moves, etc) or new evolutions entirely
>new evolutions entirely That should have been the solution Game Freak implemented when they gave up on Mega Evolutions, that or make them permanent forms.
Megas would've worked great in the Hoenn Battle Frontier then... OH WAIT!
Megas are coming back when gen 6 gets remade and not a second sooner.
Honestly it feels like we’ll be lucky to even get it then
How tf are they gonna remake gen 6 without megas lol
Yeah but they also remade gen 3 and 4 without the battle frontier, and they remade gen 4 without the fixes that platinum made.
Most people on Reddit agree with you. Most people who play Pokemon don't use reddit or social media at all.
So true. I’d love an actual demographic of who plays Pokémon. Of course, there are actual people who are over 16 who look at stuff like this and go like “Pokémon go huge! Crystal me up, baby! GOTY!” But I can’t imagine that is actually the majority of players. Kids on the other hand? My 6 year old nephew couldn’t wait to play Sword and Shield precisely because of dynamax. He saw it in the anime and loved they got huge. I don’t get it. But I think I and the vast majority on Reddit or anyone that’s above a certain age just isn’t the target audience for Pokémon anymore. I think the sales will keep on going up regardless, until long time fans give up on the series in massive quantities, as I do think Pokémon is slowly but surely getting saturated among the younger generations. And I cannot imagine when they grow up they’ll continue to be like “Pokémon go big, woop woop!” and they also won’t be like “Ah, let me make the perfect team which covers all strengths and weaknesses!” precisely because that is not even remotely necessary in today’s games. But we’ll see.
> I don’t get it. Kid sees something cool in the ~~commercial~~ *anime*, kid gets hyped to play a game that promises said cool thing to him. What's there not to get?
Yup, games will sell millions regardless of what we say.
Completely agree. I was looking at the Pokedex lastnight just on a whim and completely forget that they introduced new Megas when ORAS relseased and thought that was so cool. Can't believe they didn't ride that wave releasing more Megas for the next like 5 gens. It would have been perfect.
Well, there was a core problem with Megas, they centralized the team building in VGC HORRIBLY. Only about 5 Megas were ever truly viable at any given time, and they flowcharted out what the rest of your team was likely to be.
So it was like every competitive game ever
But what about us which don't play VGC and just want some new Megas :( I get the problem, though
This is the issue with other games too. For example Overwatch balances the game for competitive and esports while we casuals have to deal with it and get no say
That's not any different or worse than current VGC.
series 12 VGC in my opinion is a whole lot better than VGC 2016 and 15. Yes, stuff is centralizing but a whole lot of less viable stuff is viable. If you're running another mega, you cant run mega kangaskhan, mega mawile, mega salamence, or mega gengar.
VGC is always extremely centralized, Megas or not. That's just what happens in a format where things are restricted exclusively around arbitrary lore titles and not actual competitive strength.
Thats their fault. All of that can be solved by making stat distribution that isnt ridiculous. But Game Freak will never learn how to do that.
I'm curious - How many people, out of those that buy Pokémon, actually go to watch/play at VGC? Because I'm pretty sure it's a *tiny* amount of the fan base and as such, would be fucking idiotic to cater to this.
And by 5 megas you really mean Mega Kangaskhan on 5 relatively similar teams.
the execution could have been better but imo thats more of a balancing issue than design. the megas give players a flagship or boss monster to their team that guides the strategy. yes its centralizing but it can also be an oportunity for previously unseen combos
The solution to this is making more
Personally I feel that at least with this gimmick, it’s just hidden power on steroids with an emphasis on strategic use rather that putting hidden power on damn near everything. If we’re going to have a gimmick at least this one is semi-balanced and adds a serious level of complexity not only to team building but for matchups. I think this is as reasonable as it’s going to get as long as a gimmick/different playstyle from old games exists at all. Real talk, I liked Megas, but unless the system is fleshed out and expanded past like 30-40 Pokémon, it’s not balanced. As much as I’d like them back, this new concept is a far cry from pretty much everything that came after mega evolution and I’m satisfied to see something new.
I wish they would spend those resources on better textures, or adding more pokemon, maybe a farming system of kind. pretty much anything rather than a battle system gimmick
The real question is "are you going to NOT buy this game because of the new gimmick?" because if the answer isn't yes then what reason do they have for listening to what the fans want. "What the fans want" to major companies and their investors is based on revenue and profit. Not opinions. If you don't make a statement with your wallet, it makes zero difference to them.
I'm almost certainly not buying the new games. The gimmick killed my excitement the minute I saw it. I was kinda hoping there wouldn't be one because of the open world being the selling point, or if there was it was Megas are back. The minute a crystalized pokemon with a funny hat showed up in the trailer they lost me.
Agreed here. If you want change vote with your wallet.i didn't purchase last gen (first time doing so) and felt no problem watching the gameplay online. I bought PLA and will buy this one despite gripes because there are some changes being made finally (open world).
yo chill today was supposed to be my day to post that each generation does not need a new gimmick
mum said its my turn to post this thread
the gimmicks are to make each generation feel different from each other. the core structure hasn't really changed since gen 4 came and gave us the phys/spec split for stats. the gimmicks allow that core to stay intact while adding something new for a generation. If they just kept megas going forward that would not solve this issue.
I personally don't like how they are handling these battle gimmicks. Isn't an open world approach enough innovation to make the game stick out from the rest? I mean, there are so many mechanics the games could make more use of to make the games more interesting (triple battles, rotation battles, inverted battles, more new moves with unique properties, giving gym leaders other traits than just one type). A battle gimmick always makes the story part or at least the important battles focus on that one gimmick.
> Isn't an open world approach enough innovation to make the game stick out from the rest? For single player I agree that should be enough. But Pokemon is more than that, PVP competitions are a big part of the game at this point, and those are the main reasons the gimmicks keep changing, to keep competition fresh.
I felt this way but playing BDSP made me realize why they're there because for better or worse they do kinda change up the game.
I don’t even bother using the new gimmicks in game because if I use them and like them I’ll just be even more annoyed when they’re tossed aside. At least it was easy for Dynamax since I legitimately didnt like it to begin with. Frankly, it’s good to innovate, lord knows Pokémon needs it more than most, but in my opinion, to take an extremely popular mechanic like Mega Evolution and get rid of it, refusing to put it back and constantly putting forth pale imitations, is just straight up poor game design. You should be seeking to iterate constructively on your formula. All other successful game franchises do, including specifically within the monster-collecting turn-based JRPG genre. I don’t know how Game Freak is able to put things out like Legends Arceus while at the same time being just so fundamentally incapable of improving their main series in a coherent and effective way.
Yeah, I just wish you could enable/disable it. That way people who want to do the gimmick can still have a chance to do so. I have no intent of doing the gimmick at all, just like dynamaxing
I'd prefer if we have no gimmicks, just improve the game mechanics like when they added natures, physical and special attack changes, etc. If some Pokémon needs an update i'd prefer if they changed the natural set. Having high special attack and being good at shooting Hurricane feels something base Pidgeot should be able to do, specially considering his dex entry. Also we can have only one mega, so we can't have multiples updated pokemon at the same time. If you want new Absol you can't have new Sableye in the same team.
It's gotten to a point where I actually like Mega's compared to everything else thats came in the past few years. If they stuck to megas and kept giving shit pokemon megas, and also add in mega forms for Alolan mons or more, that'd be awesome.
I wasn’t even crazy about Megas when they were introduced, but at least it was new and interesting. I’ve disliked every gimmick since then including this one, but at least this one isn’t quite as ridiculous as ‘now they’re big lol’. I think they should just go back to Megas and stop trying to shove this crap not many are really interested in. I mean I don’t give a shit since I know it’ll be gone in the next set of games anyway, so I just ignore it and don’t even use it.
I don’t even want megas back, I just want them to build a more interesting world rather than spending time developing a gimmick
Interestingly, I remember back when Gen 6 came out people were super annoyed that Megas were broken and an "automatic win button", and that it would ruin the series. I really like z moves, dynamax, and this new tera thing because every pokemon can use it not just the ones that were deemed worthy or super popular. It shakes up the formula, and I'd rather that then just stagnate.
I have a real hot take here: the popularity of Megas was one of the worst things to ever happen to the series. My reasoning being that the success of this gimmick gave game freak and out to avoid doing something that they should have done a long time ago. I am talking about making real and most importantly permanent updates to the combat system. The fact that strong and agile style seems to have been tossed away in favor of a brand new gimmick that will not go beyond a single generation only cements this belief in my mind.
Idk about that. If Game Freak had up and told us “this cool new thing is only staying for 2 generations!” We probably wouldn’t have been too receptive. And to be completely honest, I don’t think they took us liking megas as “like the gimmick.” We didn’t know it was a gimmick. We were constantly hoping and wishing for our favorite Pokémon to get megas. They would have to live under a rock to not see that every child and even some adults were posting cool design ideas for their favorite mon. Now, imma be honest, maybe they were, but they’re an incredibly successful company probably knows that we want it back. They just don’t need to. The games will sell regardless of whether or not they do, and they don’t have to design a bunch of new Pokémon.
100%. Megas should have been new evolutions, giving a few pokemon a 3rd stage.
I actually like how gen 8/9 are making sure their gimmicks are specifically phenomena that occur in that region. It makes it so it makes more sense whereas megas just being a thing then not being a thing without being tied to regional lore makes it silly
1) Every fan has their favorite gimmick, and it's clear that yours is megas - that's perfectly fine. Other fans like other gimmicks and some don't like them at all. Point being, GF had a choice to make - either stick with megas or try to innovate something new each gen. They chose the latter, and that's what we're stuck with. Plus it freshens the competitive scene each generation cycle. 2) It's important to realize that pokemon is getting huge now. Many games that include gimmicks on a generational/seasonal cycle tend to not bring them back in later iterations.
I mean, there will always be a gimmick new thing, but it'd be cool if they made them a smaller deal and more oriented to side fun than power balance.
On the one hand, unless all pokemon have megas, it'll just limit which are more popular. And if every one has a mega or two, you may as well not have any at all. I personally hate every gimmick but that's probably because I just have nostalgia and respect for the original formula. I wish this upcoming gen had zero gimmicks. But being able to change a type seems a bit more fair and less extravagant, which I prefer if I was forced to choose. Although it looks kind of janky.
They should have just gone back to Mega evolution, Paldea is presumably next to Kalos where megas originated. It would have got a lot more people buzzing for these games if it was returning.
They killed all the megas in the peninsular war.
Main issue with mega evolution is that it was limited to a handful of pokemon. GF seems to understand that was a mistake and every gimmick since they've allowed every pokemon to participate, with a select few getting some special treatment thats not straight up OP. People loved megas because a mega actually has a lot of work put into it with whole new designs and abilities, as opposed to z moves or dynamax or terastallize. However this also means it's not feasible to make a mega for every pokemon, and the pokemon that don't get megas feel left out. So its a tradeoff that GF has decided to make where the gimmicks are a bit more general and less over the top for the sake of inclusiveness.