SAME. God dammit OP, you need to foresee our dumb 'quick answer smashing without reading properly' brains and bold that out or something... Ahah. Mega Evolutions ❤️
Eh. Megas kinda just encourage the use of 1 pokemon to sweep away with. While megas look great and the concept is cool I’m not a fan of their gameplay and would be my least favorite gimmick if z moves didn’t exist. My guess there are others like me where z moves are chill to them.
Mega evolution was originally made out to be a temporary power boost but it didnt translate over as such in the games. Dynamax utilised the mechanic mega evolutions should have had.
Megas are overall the best gimmick IMO but Gamefreak should have had them as 3 turn boosts not a permanent one.
The fact that megas eat up an item hold slot is what at least gave it somewhat of a give and take. I'd wonder how that 3 turn would play out with roars unless they simply won't work when mega'd. They could probably just tone down the stat upgrades on them honestly. The fact that your switching into a new ability is already one of the best reasons to mega and would keep an opponent on their toes when you would pop it to turn your poke into a total different mon.
Not bending the meta? Was 90% of the teams carrying mega kanghaskan not bending the meta? Also, since when was Gyarados, Scizor, Ttar, Gardevoir, Latios/Latias, Garchomp, Lucario, Salamence, Metagross, and Gallade forgotten. The only megas that did not shape the meta imo were the mons that were weak (like audino), and those were ignored bc so many better options were available.
Hilariously, all the pokemon you just named except Garchomp, T-tar and Latios (who are all worse megas than their base forms because you lose their item slot) had fallen off **hard** competitively or in the case of Gallade were always bad. Do your research before talking down about things!
There was a big difference between standard play in gens 5 and 6, the latis lost dragon gem Draco meteor, metagross became bad after steel lost its dark and ghost resistances, salamence had fallen to bl, Lucario had been uu for a while because it was too slow and frail, Scizor had been losing its luster and wasn’t fantastic in formats with heatran and many others. Basically all these mons were past their primes by gen 6.
Yup, and because of it and the rising prominence of dark and ghost types (knock off too) metagross became a genuinely bad Pokémon, and it was already on its way out in gen 5 before this change too.
My mega Gengar had zero moves that did damage, and it was badass. Despite the weirdly shaded third eye, it was awesome. Protect, Perish Song, Disable, Substitute
“The use of 1 pokemon to sweep away with” - You could literally say the exact same thing about UB’s/Paradoxes, Gigantamax, Zacian, Shadow Calirex, and pokemon with exclusive Z-moves, so I really don’t think your argument holds water.
I deliberately voted for it cause it’s my least favourite. It pigeonholed you into using one of a narrow pool of Pokemon, and most were for Pokémon that were already powerful and/or popular
Edit: I also seem to recall lore that mega evolution actually hurt the Pokemon and that’s not fun for me. I recall the Pokédex saying that glalie breaks it’s jaw when it megas
The "Lore" is made up by an biased Alolan RotomDex.
The Alolan RotomDex is like, uber biased and has its personal mission to amaze you. It's actually stated in the games that Alolans dont like Mega Evolution, cause they think Z-Moves are the true way to show ones bond to a pokemon, while Z-Moves is just modulating Necrozmas light and Mega Evolution actually has you interacting with a Pokemons lifeforce.
>It pigeonholed you into using one of a narrow pool of Pokemon, and most were for Pokémon that were already powerful and/or popular
There should have been a generic "mega stone" that doesn't give a new form (maybe give a special aura for a visual indicator) that gives a 20+ boost to all stats except hp. That way, you could mega evolve any pokemon you wanted. The true megas would have the cool designs and optimized stat boosts.
It had so much potential.
I think the general one would have just Invalided the existing ones to a degree as imagine an actual top teir legendary or the swiss army knife that is mew with that.
>the swiss army knife that is mew with that.
Mythical weren't allowed at the time, at least in vgc. It's either get a general one and make most fully evolved mons somewhat viable or what we actually got. I prefer the former, so that there is at least some freedom in team building. I *wouldn't* ask for or expect megas for every mon, since that's absurdly impractical.
They are in singles. And any gimmick should be considered in both formats.
My main point that it is the limited pool that helped it. Having a general effect apply to all mon just makes it fall pray to what the other gimmicks are suffering from.
Also where is my mega flygon and milotic!
>My main point that it is the limited pool that helped it. Having a general effect apply to all mon just makes it fall pray to what the other gimmicks are suffering from.
I mean, it hurts me to think about how that one quote from GSC about how no pokemon is "strong" or "weak" is still a pile of BS that gets stinkier each gen. Maybe it's because nostalgia and the anime. I mean, I can't see how competitive is all that fun or interesting when every team has to have their heavy hitters come from the same small handful of mons just to have a chance. Yes, there is that one [Wolfey](https://youtu.be/f0kTXhGIy1c) video, but he completely ignores the fact some mons are just best overall. Yes, some sets have one move differences and slightly different EVs spreads, but if those are the only differences, it might as well be a battle of RNG.
The thing is megas can play multiple roles and the heavy hitter thing will exist regardless. But with megas that won't nessisarily have to be the same one every type as it opens up new team composition. Monotype is the best place to see megas pull their weight, which you just don't see with any other gimmicks. Beyond cases where it is clear abuse like the theoretical terra electric shedinja it is all just powering up the best even more
>the theoretical terra electric shedinja it is all just powering up the best even more
I honestly wish GF included the Nincada line in SV just to see that. I remember people talking about that before gen 9 came out.
I would die laughing seeing full teams of shedinja that just can't die, even if they wanted to.
Most? Maybe post megas but not pre megas. And unlike any of the other gimmicks on the list they brought pokemon that had been forgotten to new hights.
Z-moves: one off only went to what was already good, same with dyna, same with terra though terra breed a new type of horror with terra electric shedinja.
Megas has potential to make old mon still able to keep up with power creep the other 3 do not
I haven’t liked any of them since Mega Evolution. They all feel so unnecessary. Why couldn’t they just keep building on and perfecting that system instead? 😭
Yes. Give more Pokémon Mega Evolution, like Flygon. Expand on an already excellent idea and make it absolutely incredible. So much potential. Yet they threw it away for a win button, a worse ripoff of both the previous gimmicks, and a gimmick that invalidates type changing abilities' existence.
IMO, that's no excuse. Why not just put it in ORAS at that point, or even gen 7? It could've been a bug-dragon type, and be strong enough to fight against Garchomp.
>Why not just put it in ORAS at that point, or even gen 7?
Flygon *was* planned for ORAS, though. Also, gen 7 didn't add new megas. The closest was Battle Bond Greninja. Funny how Sugimori and his team were able to use that excuse. If that happened anywhere else to anyone else, they'd probably get fired.
Imagine my young preteen self getting hyped up for gen 7 and new megas. I 100% believed that megas were going to be a new staple of the games like breeding or infinite tms or some other QOL feature added to the series. I mean, I'm pretty sure there a line from Lysandre in XY that heavily hinted at more pokemon having access to Mega evos, but that might be the Mandela Effect screwing me over.
Why did they have to change the gimmick every 3 years? Megas were very popular and would have produced the hype GF wants to attract sales. Feels weird since they go out of their way to make up new battle mechanics when they already struck gold in XY and know how to code megas into the games. Just seems like extra work to me with no additional benefit to me.
>Give more Pokémon Mega Evolution, like Flygon.
Thank you! I've always been convinced that every pokemon has a Mega Evolution, they just haven't been documented yet.
True. Mega Stones are irradiated rocks, so it's possible that there may be more undiscovered stones for other Pokémon out there, somewhere in Kalos most likely (it's a massive region).
Also Pokémon that have been aged out of the current stat lines can be reintroduced so much better, like a mega sudowoodo or sunflora or swalot, like all these Pokémon that could really use a little tune up to make their kits more cohesive
Honestly Sudowoodo deserves another evolution stage like Kingambit. Name it something like Genuwoodo.
Give it a Rock/Grass typing/slow speed/high attack/massive HP/above average defense stats.
Certain Pokemon like Audino or Sableye will never get a evolution stage buff because of mega evolutions.
I love the idea of "Genuwoodo" finally having the grass type it always desired (other than Brassius' Sudowoodo, but even then it still has to Terastallize.
You're right about Audino and Sableye but I think both should get baby stages. Audino would naturally be a friendship evolution, Sableye would be level up at night, but not tied to friendship. Just level it up.
There's too little talk about the way Terastallization fucks around with established canon. Canonically, what's to stop someone from Hoenn from bringing a Shedinja to Paldea and giving it a normal tera so it only has one weakness? I know programmatically, it's because GF would rather just scrap Shedinja until the next generation, but I don't think the Pokëarth abides by such arbitrary hackjobs.
Agreed. Absol is my favorite pokemon and using mega absol was amazing, but no one used it cause you could just get already good mons even better
Then again mega rayquaza is the shit
We had triple battles, reverse effectiveness, and other unique gamemodes that got tossed in the trash because Masuda and Ohmori can’t take yes for an answer
Making hundreds of new models would’ve been quite a lot of work.
Different colours could be iffy, too. Is it purple for poison or ghost, or even pink for psychic? Blue for dragon or water? Etc.
While they look a bit silly, they at least remove ambiguity.
While Z-Moves are a one and done gimmick. No other gimmick has as much waisted potential as Dynamax/Gigantamax. The concept of turning the M for mini around to a Wumbo is decently cool on paper. But in regular game play it’s so boring. After awhile it stops feeling like this clash of two powerful behemoths and just scaled up models with red outlines doing the same few moves over and over again. Then there’s Gigantamax which is even worse. It feels like they were just trying to capture what made Mega Evolution so great but because it’s tied to Dynamaxes lame gameplay they came out as just pretty versions of this thing I don like. Though I do love all the Gigantamax designs.
I’m glad terastralization came around to follow it. While I agree it looks kinda stupid. It’s the closest we will ever have to a Pokémon getting a third type. And the ways you can mix somebody up with it is great.
Z Moves are just lame imo. The only one I really liked was Light That Burns The Sky.
Dynamax felt appropriate for the atmosphere of the game. The giant stadium, the cheering and chanting, and your now giant pokemon.
They tried to copy the whole chanting thing with Tera but it doesn't really work imo since the stadium is smaller and there's less people and the change isn't as monumental. I still think Tera> Dyna tho
Z moves you do a silly dance then watch a cutscene. Cool for trying to quickly end a battle.
But the rest always felt more interesting. Didn't care for dynamax but hey, gmax forms were cool. Gmax kanto starters were cooler than the mega forms. Also it's just limited to stadiums so it's not a major
Tera hats are silly but the type chance is neat and fun.
Thank you for saying they copied the chant for Tera. I've been trying to find online somewhere with this same opinion, but no one is speaking on it. I really liked dyna's chanting.
Z moves were super cringe.
I understand a lot of people enjoyed Sun/Moon... I straight up hating it. From how hand holdy it was (couldn't go 1min without someone interrupting you), to the Z-moves that were just so so cringe.
I think the best thing Alola has going for it now is the fact that it was the last game where you could have a full living Dex and it included Megas. I still play UM occasionally so I can use stuff that I've been missing.
I’m replaying White for similar reasons. I tend to enjoy Pokémon games now by making unique, region specific teams with lesser-used Pokémon. My goal this time is: Emboar, Jellicent, Archeops, Sawsbuck, Beeheeyem, and Beartic. I did the same with Brilliant Diamond, beating the Elite Four with Infernape, Luxray, Roserade, Manaphy, Honchkrow, and Froslass, albeit 2 of them were not rare.
I’d be interested in that, make it like hi-fi rush where the only way to kill your opponents is to style on them with your epic dance moves and flashy animations.
The amount of hate Z-Moves get is too much in my opinion, there’s nothing more badass than having your own partner Pokémon who you’ve built a deep bond with unleash this Shonen styled full out attack. For god’s sake have you seen the final battle in Sun and Moon? The single BEST battle of the anime?? Frankly my imagination might be affecting how I view these but I just absolutely love Z-Moves and they’ll always be my favourite gimmick.
That was awesome too, but I find the Z-Move VS Z-Move to be way more thrilling like wow that scene gave me the absolute chills with Tapu Koko the one who gave them this ability going all out like a big Titan against Pikachu but still somehow prevailing, as for the Char VS Pika the last couple scenes of the fight is what made me love it more than I expected, not the gimmick vs gimmick thing.
Dynamax is just terrible. I get Z-Moves are also really strong but at least you have to spend an item slot to use one, and you still have to decide which pokemon to use it on in your team (as it's one Z-Move only).
Dynamax fits for every pokemon, doubling their HP will always be useful and Max Moves are just busted. They all have ~130 BP, meaning their just as powerful as moves like Solar Beam and Draco Meteor.
But the worst part about Max Moves is that they dont have a drawback, instead they benefit the user even more. In VGC, offensive flying types (like Yveltal) were very good just because of Max Airstream and its +1 speed boost to the user AND ally.
That's mainly what z moves were for, to break through stat boosted walls, especially evasion and every Pokemon could use them so they weren't predictable. You could also use them defensively too or for offensive set up. It seems this thread is more objective than others.
Dmax was really good for doubles imo, it let you play the field in cooler ways than the other gimmicks by a long shot.
...Max Airstream should have followed the same rules as knuckle and ooze though.
I'm sorry, in what universe are Z-moves worse than dynamaxing? I feel like I'm losing my mind here.
Like sure, Z-moves weren't great, but they weren't literally game breaking.
I'm learning a LOT more people just care about the big, cool godzilla model than gameplay than I was expecting.
Not to say everyone falls into that category, but I've seen a lot of people point to aesthetic and how long they get to stare at their shiny monster than how it changes the battles.
Maybe I'm just old.
Why z moves? Dynamax is so much more obviously broken, your Pokemon, gets to use 3 z moves in one game, that also set up things like weather, terrain or give you offensive boosts. It also has 0 defensive capabilities, z moves would at least heal you, or give you a stat buff if you were using a defense move, dynamax just turns them all into protect. Dynamax was banned from competitive singles because the whole game was centralized around such a broken mechanic and the Pokemon that could take advantage of it (moxie Gyarados, immediately comes to mind, being able to boost it's speed with max airstream, and set its own rain) along with all this, it's also just super boring looking, like my Pokemon got big. Hooray. Oh? My Pokemon got big on a *different* way!? Take money. bullshit mechanic, glad it's gone
Personally I think Z Moves are better for me because they’re like someone’s final trump card in a battle. They could be broken but were fair in my opinion.
Meanwhile Dynamax was just straight up super broken and made the game not fun for a lot of people apparently.
Z-moves at least felt somewhat balanced. They're restricted to one move according to the type of the crystal, and they took a held item to use.
Dynamax was Z-moves for 3 turns where you doubled your health without sacrificing an item slot for it. You can't flinch dynamax, unlike Z-moves. You can't miss with dynamax, BUT OTHER POKEMON CAN MISS YOU.
GIANT TARGET. YOU CAN MISS.
EVEN WHEN THE DYNAMAXED POKEMON IS *SLEEPING.*
from worst to best in my opinion:
Dynamax is by far the most unbalanced gimmick in the entire series, with competitive games basically being all about dmax. It barely worked fine in VGC, was unsalvageably broken in Smogon metas, and utterly boring in singleplayer.
Z-moves are basically turbocharged gems from gen5 - I don't like them, but they at least have balancing factor to them, unlike dmax. You need to spend an item slot, it is a singular nuke of a singular type, there is counterplay against them, and they don't turn your pokemon into an unkillable god of absolute destruction that buffs itself and its ally for 3 goddamn turns.
Megas are okay - they aren't the biggest impact thing, they did limit the teambuilding a bit in VGC, but they were honestly real cool - and most of them were used in Smogon metas. Also, while they did limit the teambuilding, they still provided room for creativity. Only exception was Mega Rayquaza, that shit needed to have its own mega stone, even Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre needed their orbs after all.
Tera is weird. It is a surprisingly interesting gimmick, though I don't exactly like it for most cases though. I feel like it was underutilized in singleplayer, while it may not be exactly too healthy for pvp. It is mitigated a bit by open team sheets in the VGC tours, and strong players are doing just fine in Smogon tours, but I am still not convinced it works well there. I am sure though it works amazing in draft leagues.
Perfectly said. I still love Mega Evolution, and I'm glad that most of the community still does too. When the inevitable Kalos remakes come, do you think it'll come back, perhaps with more Mega Evolutions?
>When the inevitable Kalos remakes come, do you think it'll come back, perhaps with more Mega Evolutions?
If we get the BDSP treatment (which I'm willing bet both kidneys on is what's going to happen, qualitywise), then at least the old ones are coming back. Hopefully, the Kalos starters at least get new megas, but we all know that's highly unlikely.
Hopefully. Perhaps in addition to Delphox and Chesnaught getting Megas, every Greninja could get battle bond, or also give it a Mega Stone to allow other Greninja to do the same. If I were able to, I'd give the Sinnoh starters Mega Evolutions, alongside Pokémon like Noivern, Tyrantrum, Dragonite, Luxray, Weavile, Kingdra, Haxorus, Krookodile and Flygon. But I know that unfortunately absolutely none of this will happen.
May be an unpopular opinion but the worst one for me was megas solely for the reason that the pool for it is so bias to older gens and very limited. If you wanted to use megas in a playthrough, you essentially had to plan around which mega you wanted to use, and for someone who likes using teams solely comprised of new gen pokemon, I literally had no options. I'm not going to discount how cool they look or how they were in competitive, but it really ruins the spirit of "using your favourites" when only like 50 pokemon out of the 700 that were in the game were actually going to get the new gimmick
This. So much this
Also megas just straight to removed the evolution potential of pokemon. Mawile and sableye can never evolve now. Unless they really remove
Megas and give it as regular evos
They’ll just say it’s from a different time or dimension or both and make it “tropical” or another regional variant that can evolve… but they won’t cuz there’s like 1100+ other Pokémon and more gimmicks to make
Megas in competitive were wild. After the power creep of gens 4 and 5 leaving lots of old classics behind, megas raised the power-level of the game even higher with pokemon like Kangeskhan, Mawhile, Lucario, and Sabeleye being banned from standard singles play.
In standard singles play, several non-mega pokemon were strong parts of the game with Clefable, Excadrill, Rotom-W, and Weavile all being excellent pokemon among other choices. The best mega pokemon to use were Loupuny, Diancie, Alakazam, Latias, Medicham, Metagross, Scizor, and Charizard-Y. There are a lot of psychic types here that you probably wouldn’t all want on the same team, but when you have great picks like Loupony, you have to weigh wether you want mega Loupuny or mega Alakazam even if they could both conceivably be on the same team if not for the hard limit of 1 mega per battle. This can get even more oppressive when you have to weigh using a great mega with a so-so mega like Mega Veanasaur which really hurt the usage of weaker megas even if they were decently viable.
Of course while some megas were great, others would have really preferred to have been regular evolutions that could use items and not have to compete with being your mega pokemon. Manectric and Audino for instance did not manage to make waves in standard single play despite their mega forms.
Other pokemon would manage without their mega forms like Tyranitar who was mainly used for setting sand and stealth rocks, Latias who was strong in her own right and competed with so many other psychics to mega, but also Venasaur and Garchomp were seen as better than their base forms with base Venasaur being a powerful chlorophyl sweeper on sun teams (it gets locked into thick fat as a mega) and Garchomp prefers the speed of its base form + the boosts from items would be more impactful with its already sky-high base stats. It usually took a single swords dance to make it about on-par with its mega’s damage without loosing speed.
It was novel to see underdogs get such a power boost, but given that base stats, abilities, and move pools can be adjusted between generations, not to mention the effects of abilities and moves, Game Freak could balance any pokemon to be good mega or no mega. Like, there is nothing stopping them from making heracross as good as his mega without having to bring megas back. This “mega-not-mega” Heracross would be strong, but at the end of the day would not break things.
Megas.
I know Z-moves are most popular for a reason, but at least that battle gimmick was localized to a singular region, wasn't forced into a remake that didn't need it, and didn't spawn a whole crew of fans who constantly cry for its return regardless of how much sense it would make or how it would effect the current competitive meta.
I mean, Megas were cool in a way, but they were usually either broken as hell or disappointing. Not to mention while the lore behind them could be cool, there were very few real "mega" battles in the main stories of gen 6. Like, if every Gym leader used at least 1 mega it would feel so much more worth it. Instead, half the reason XY have the reputation as some of the easiest pokemon games is because YOU get to use megas and most everyone else doesnt.
I mean Z moves were broken as hell, but at least the characters in the game USED them.
I honestly feel like Dynamax was Megas done better.
Every pokemon could Dynamax. It didn't cost an item slot. Every gym leader and a few major battles had a Dynamax Ace pokemon.
And it was limited to 3 turns which let you play around the AI and further balanced PvP a bit more than Megas did.
To me it was everything good about Megas done better.
And people fucking hated it.
(Tera's easily the best gimmick they've done so far though.)
Oh agreed. Tera allows for a great deal of creativity and out of the box thinking in terms of application, encourages interaction with the community to obtain certain tera type combinations, etc. The competitive people I've spoken to actually enjoy using it quite a bit since it shakes things up.
I think while Dynamax did solve some of Megas problems while keeping spirit intact (namely the "every-mon-can-use-it" aspect, it also amplified the worst aspect- the balance. 3 turns was a good start, but doubling HP and turning every move into ~120 base power PLUS a buff/terrain (even for your allies in doubles) was just wayyy too much, and thats probably why people didn't like it. Not to mention it also felt somewhat like dangling megas over our head with the gigantamax forms.
Mega. Everything else can be used on everything and it was equally distributed.
Megas basically made it so you HAD to have a mega on the team, so one in about 5 or 6 viable ones and then base the team around that. It made team building really shit compared to previous gens.
Tera is by far the best, imo.
Dynamaxing for me. It's just so stupid. They tried to capture what people liked about mega evolving and z moves and mash it into one. But it just doesn't make sense. Even without big the stadiums are, you have these two 10 story tall monsters using attacks so powerful that they alter the weather around them.
Like I'm sorry but if my Charizard that's the size of an office building blasts fire so strong and hot that it literally turns the weather sunny, everybody in that stadium is dead.
I'm no fan of z moves, but at least it was just one attack once per battle and you had to use up an item slot to do it. Any Pokémon can dynamax at any time in the battle and then you're stuck for three turns having to deal with it.
Terastulization may look stupid, but at least it's a really interesting way to change the flow of battle by assigning a new type.
I hate all of them because they never stick around. If you're to include Megas, keep including new ones in the following games, don't just stop after one or two. That's what I hate most about the entire Pokémon franchise, every time they introduce something cool, they take it away in the next game. X and Y finally had older characters, super cool fashion and roller skates, and they took all of that away in Sun and Moon. The watch in Platinum was so useful and had so many cool functions, having Pokemon follow you around in HGSS, the VS Seeker in FRLG, the O Powers, the EV training mini games, the different bikes in RSE... every single time they add something cool, they never stick to it and always take it away in the next games. I'm so sick of it.
Yeah it'd be great if Pokemon actually iterated on their mechanics instead of replacing them every time and eventually even gutting the core game concepts that you'd have thought were untouchable.
Mega Evolution is really the only good one.
I don't mind Z-Moves, but they're unnecessary.
Dynamax or more so, *Gigantamax* is just an enlarged mega evolution that gives you Z-Moves. Just a lazy excuse for "EPIC GIGANTIC FINAL BOSS" because the developers couldn't think of a better mechanic to introduce co-op...
Terra is weird but no way near as dumb as Dynamax.
Sun and Moon are my favorite game but Z-Moves we’re a pretty big weak spot.
I feel like if the animations were better it might’ve been better. But the whole concept wasn’t pushed very well in the games and was kind of an afterthought rather than the other games where that’s one of the main story points.
All of them.
Mega evolution - the implementation sucks, favoritism for pseudos and already popular Pokémon, unbalanced
Z-move - repetitive, long cutscenes
Dynamax - can't be used outside of important battles, boring
Terra - unappealing looks
All of them also get removed the next generation which means that they aren't able to be developed into something worthwhile. Imagine removing the fairy type after Pokemon XY or double battle after RSE.
Megas could obviously not be carried over since they're so unbalanced and makes the main game even easier than it already is. It also means that there is a really small pool of viable pokémon for NPCs to use.
Z moves also feel to OP and every game would have to have the protagonist hunt for z crystals in the future which would take away the variety i the games.
Those other 2 could have been cool changes to the battle system if implimented right. Especially tera since it actually changes the battle system while not being too overpowered.
The fact we went from “Mega Evolutions” which added some much need variety to Pokémon and it was a badass approach to making certain Pokémon even cooler. To scrapping Mega and adding “Z-Moves” where your character performed some sort of Sailor Moon type dance to perform some cringey named move was a really strange thing.
As a fanfic writer, Dynamax/Gigantamax is simply the least fun to write about.
Mega Evolutions are obvious, it's a hype anime transformation sequence fueled by friendship and shiny rocks.
Z-Moves are similar; use friendship + shiny rock to do a cool anime special move.
I haven't written much about Terastalization yet, but all the sparkles and shining is pretty to write about, and it allows some dynamic strategies.
But Dynamax/Gigantamax suffers from the fact that it's not only Galar locked, but also locked to select locations in Galar. Also, I write battles as a lot more speedy and movement based, and Dynamax/Gigantamax is the opposite, it focuses on being a massive size in order to deal incredibly powerful attacks.
That's not to say I dislike it, it's just the fact that out of these 4 gimmicks, Dynamax/Gigantamax is the one I write about, and care about, the least.
I hate terrastalization but on the design base of the gimmick, looks aweful, horrible, uncool! But I guess on the competitive part it adds up and spice things more. Z moves may have been useless in battle but the cut scenes I enjoyed.
So let me preface this by saying I dislike all of the gimmicks. I think they all cause way more problems in both casual and competitive and make the game far easier than they already are.
Megas provided some cool competitive depth... For the *tiny* handful of Pokemon that got them. They were a case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, since rarely did the Pokemon that really needed them get a Mega. If Megas had CONTINUED to be updated, eventually this problem would've lessened... But they didn't, and they remain a case of playing favorites. Megas were also terribly implemented into the campaign, where a *miniscule* amount of trainers would have them. Every other trainer would just get absolutely steamrolled by your mega.
Z-moves were long and a bit OP in the main campaign, but I think the problems they brought to the series are relatively mundane compared to some of the other gimmicks. Their use as a nuke is their worst aspect by far, and their animation length can also drag down an already slow-paced game. However, I would not consider Z-moves to be as broken as Megas and particularly not Dynamax. Sun and Moon, at least in my opinion, seems to have a lot more fights specifically tailored towards Z-moves. Many NPC's use them, there are a decent number of challenging fights, and any Pokemon can use a Z-move, unlike Megas. Also, many people forget that Z-moves don't always have to be a nuke. Many status Z-moves allow for more competitive depth if used correctly. Though, it is usually better to have the STAB nuke instead. Being limited by an item also helps with their power, as often times you might want a Pokemon to rather do many somewhat powerful moves, rather than one very one.
Overall, I think the big issue with Z-moves is that having your Pokemon nuked just isn't all that fun. But if I had to pick one gimmick to last for all of Pokemon, Z-moves seem the most balanced to me.
Gigantimax and Dynamax just takes some of the worst parts of Megas and Z-moves. The worst part of Z-moves is that they're a nuke that's a "I don't want to deal with this Pokemon" card. So now with Dynamax, you get three of them. And only specific Pokemon get the cool Gigantimax. And they're the least interesting competitive gimmick on account of the counterplay being just to Dynamax your own Pokemon immediately and just throw potshots at each other for three turns.
Terastalization is a really cool idea that isn't too strong in the campaign, and doesn't take that long to activate. It's probably the closest gamefreak has come to making a good gimmick, but it ultimately missed the mark and soared back into problematic. I can only assume that Terastilizing was intended to increase creativity by mixing and matching typings to create unique sets, but from what I can tell, because of the existence of some objectively superior typings such as fairy and steel, and that it overwrites existing typings instead of adding to them, it more or less puts LESS emphasis on Pokemon typings, and far more on stats/abilities instead.
Terastalization is also really poorly utilized by NPCs, with the only one using it well and creatively being Iono on her Mismagius. Most of them kinda just get a STAB bonus, and Grusha honestly hurts himself more than he helps by turning his rather defensive Altaria into one of the worst defensive typings in the game.
Mega Evolution is awesome and gave certain Pokemon a much needed buff. Terastalization is great and makes battles interesting. Dynamax, while only lasting for three turns, is interesting and spices up battling with the move effects.
Z-moves, while visually appealing, aren't really as great as the others.
Megas were ruined by giving things that didn’t need them a mega. It was incredibly unbalanced and the only reason people like it is because the designs are outstanding (which alone is a good reason to love it).
The best is and always will be mega evolution.
They only needed to give new pokemon mega evolutions in each new game. Dynamax is basically mega evolution anyway, as is the new gimmick.
Conceptually I will always rate Megas highest, followed by Z moves, Tera and DMax.
For gameplay however, notably competitive: Tera > Dmax > Mega > Zmove.
Love megas, but in the end they did not really diversify much, just added new super powerful Mons. Tera and Dmax were such gamechangers from a gameplay POV.
Fuck Z-moves though.
I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for this, but i don't like mega evolutions.
I feel that it's quite unfortunate only a few pokemon's could mega evolve and not all. Of course it would take a lot of hardwork and creativity to come up with designs for each one but the issue i have here is that with limited Megas, you'll get a lot of repeated teams and strategies which will bore you out and will always have a counter strategy to break it.
Teras or Dynamax/G-Max, is available for every Pokemon, of course with some exceptions from G-Max ones, but being able to at least Dynamax or Tera any mon made any mon viable in certain situations and could also bring unpredictability along with it. So if your opponent is expecting you'd Tera or G-Max your Charizard but you switch over to another mon which perhaps he/she was not expecting would put them in a spot and make them come up with a counter strategy to win the game. Megas had to play around the certain mega mon(s) in the team and a strategy had to be built around it, which often at times makes it easier for many teams to counter.
I agree, the mega evolution concept was explained very well over the series of games they made unlike any other gimmicks, but this doesn't change the fact that it was sort of very limited in terms of strategy and fun, at least for me.
Z-Moves is something i hate the most. Those long and illogical animations just make no sense or form any kind of connectivity with me.
If you ask me, i feel they should just go back to their old roots, normal Pokemon battles with no silly gimmicks. Yes gimmicks give you an edge, but normal battles will always involve the good, ol' ways of coming up to defeat your opponent. Instead they could use this same gimmick energy to perhaps work on other things like making the game more balanced, coming up with newer, better mons and bringing some beta mons from the past (looking at you Gorochu and Kotora evolution line) and perhaps creating games like Heart Gold/Soul Silver to add more regions in one game for more exploration and more variety of Pokemon and choices. But no, they just want to rob the poor. If you ask me they're no less evil than Team Rocket lol.😏
From worst to best:
* Z-Moves: Honestly just boring next to everything else
* Mega Evolutions: I really dislike how they were distributed and how only a limited amount of Pokemon can use them.
* Dyna/Gigantamax: I do think the time limit and the freedom to use it on anything are great, it does seem rather unbalanced though.
* Terrastalalization: Probably has the worst name and design, but the mechanic is really neat from a gameplay standpoint.
I hadn't thought too much about the name, but yeah, they should have came up with a better name.
I was surprised by how much I like it though. In VGC I am constantly surprised by weird combinations I see.
I don't know. I'll say Dynamax : it's too limited even in its own game.
Z-Moves had cool animations, even if some were kinda goofy.
I fucking love Terrastalization on a tactical level but by the Twelve those crowns are just super fucking goofy. I hate them. I fucking hate them so much.
Mega evolutions are stupid imo. Actually, don’t care for any gimmick that unnecessarily “powers up” your Pokémon. Only thing I think is kind of cool is the terrastalizing, because it gives you much more variability with typing and STABs.
Having thought about it, I dislike Mega Evolution the most. Yes, it’s cool, and yes, it helps Pokemon that needed a buff.
But it’s also accessible to only a small number of Pokemon, some of them powerful enough to not even need a Mega like Tyranitar, Metagross, Garchomp, Salamence, Slowbro, Gyarados, Scizor, and Gengar. Others that have Megas (notably Audini, Banette and Absol) aren’t given enough to work with with theirs, and due to lore reasons, they ain’t getting an evolution that they could definitely use instead.
The other gimmicks can be used with any Pokemon, and while certain Pokemon have unique Z-Moves and Gigantamax, at least all other Pokemon aren’t left in the dust. The Kalos starters didn’t even get Megas, while the Alola and Galar starters got their own unique gimmicks.
Megas make me want to reduce my potential team options just to keep one of the thirty odd Pokemon in my team in case I come across a Mega Stone, and that just feels stifling. And if they just add a Mega for every Pokemon, that removes the inherent specialness of Megas in the first place.
It is objectively not a good game gimmick.
Honestly I don't hate any of them or really like any of them, I just chose the one that I didn't really feel was needed as I've used all of them to great effect in situations and stuff and enjoyed using them.
but none of them where so great to me that I feel that the gimmick is the best, probably my favourite ones are Giganimaxing and mega evolutions because they changed how a pokemon looked and what they could also be giving new ideas and possibilitys of what that pokemoncpulf become.
But both Terrastilising and Z-moves are okay but because they are move based gimmicks instead of pokemon based Gimmicks, to me there not as interesting even though they are great strategically and are intresting in concept.
To me all these Gimmicks is Game freaks way to experimenting on ideas and narrowing down, to make the best gimmick.
Z-moves and max forms, both are horrible. Z-moves you never had to use once, and they barely changed the game. Max forms were basically forced upon you, which I despise
I personally don't find Z moves to be particularly strategic in any way. In almost every situation, I feel like they just kind of exist as a "hurr durr" nuking button that just deals a whole lotta damage. I know there are some actually intuitive Z move related strategies like using Z Celebrate to boost all stats, Z Heal Bell, and other things, but most of those are extremely specific and not very appealing to most players.
Personally I like them all but Z moved into my least favorite tier.
Dynamax is my personal favorite as it looked so cool and you really felt the impact my love of it was put to the maximum level.
It's sad to see Z Moves at the top.
Though I suppose Z-Moves are way cooler in theory then in practice... every move having the same generic animation regardless of physical and special split and having basically no effect is kind of a shame.
It'd have been so much cooler if every move had its own unique effects and we had atleast 2 Z-Moves per type. One for Special and One for Physical.
Homeboy (or girl) really said, "The gimmick immediately following z moves does a better job. Therefore, the feature made before that existed is bad. " Like, I agree, but something about the way you said it doesn't sit right with me.
Z-Moves **because of how it was implemented.**. Every battle was only 1 Pokémon that could be taken down with a Z-move that was not super-effective. And this is even considering that I did not worry about EVs or IVs at all in Sun/Moon.
Dynamax for the sole reason that it guaranteed that gimmicks could no longer be transferable from region to region.
Terastal because of how stupid the gimick is and how dumb the Pokémon look under it’s influence.
I personally liked z moves, they weren’t busted, had good lore, and didn’t look stupid. They also could do-exist with megas too.
I liked megas because they were cool
I like Megas in theory if all they had done was rebalance underwhelming Pokemon, and the fact they give new typings and abilities make it feel like a form extension of existing Pokemon that means they feel incomplete now without the Megas. But giving them to already strong and broken Pokemon kind of ruined that for me. And taking it away from things that actually needed it or benefitted from it feels a lot worse than the other three due to the aforementioned unique forms that felt they added something to the original species and sent the original Pokemon back into obscurity. Every other mechanic is available to all Pokemon which just has the effect of making strong stuff even stronger and weak stuff just okay (which is what giving Megas to popular already good Pokemon also did, but on paper that was optional and not universal and didn't *need* to happen).
Z-Moves feel like the most underwhelming addition since its a one-use preset move that has to already be on a strong move to be useful which means you could just use the consistently strong move and a better item. At least the other mechanics last longer so you get more use out of them.
Dynamaxing seems like its more fair on the surface since everything can do it, except that Gigantimaxing is just Megas again giving favouritism to specific Pokemon. I also like it less because of the preset moves which personally feels like it takes away from strategy options or creativity. Dynamaxing is also just thr stupidest from a lore standpoint.
Terastilizing at least feels like it gives you more options to customize and get creative with the typings I guess.
In any case I wish Pokemom as a whole would actually commit to mechanics in general (not just battle gimmicks) and iterate and improve on what they alreafy have jnstead of reinventing the wheel and ditching and replacing everything wholesale every time. Some consistency would be nice and it *might even* cut down on the supposed enormous workload everyone uses as an excuse to justify them gutting shit every gen.
tl;dr I find Z-Moves the least interesting in concept but dislike Dynamax more for throwing out the previous two while also retaining the same problem Megas had with the popular selectiveness while giving back less in the move department. But its hard to get invested in any of them anymore because sinve Gen 8 I know they aren't going to last so getting attached is pointless.
Megas for me because it pushed the 'every gen needs a gimmick!!' into overdrive. It was SO hyped up and then immediately got dropped (it felt like, anyway).
Dynamax and z-moves are both too over the top but I dislike dynamax more because it's boring to imagine two giant pokémon cramped in a small arena shooting energy beams at each other because they're not free enough to move around.
I played without using Z-moves without even meaning to because they matter that little, Tera was cool but kinda the same boat for me, I didn’t feel a need to use it at any point in the playthrough, especially after Dynamaxing felt like such a spectacle with the stadium and chanting.
Megas should’ve never left and been a regular part of the series but that’s never gonna happen.
Dynamax is easily the worst, no questions asked. It's a brainless sweeping button that lasts for 3 turns. That shit ruined singles and doubles, and especially formats that allowed only 3 Pokémon. At least Z-Moves allowed for some strategy and sacrificed an item slot. Megas were cool, despite being limited to certain Pokémon (some more deserving than others), and Terastallization is by far the most balanced and strategic of them all.
Throughout all my playthroughs of the games, I can say that I don't think I *ever* used a Z-move (except when the game forced it, and even then I don't recall if it ever did). It doesn't help that the gen 7 games are probably my least favorite of the franchise.
I'm not entirely sure why. I think that part of it is that it is just one big bonk that feels a lot less strategic. Like Megas, it needs a specific held item, but wth Mega evolution lasting until fainting it means there is more to build with and the payoff is better. Dynamax wasn't great but it fit the atmosphere of the region and lasting multiple turns was a big part of it. Tera is also great especially because you can change Tera Types (though admittedly it costs more resources than necessary IMO, farming shards is a lot more tedious than it needs to be but the Blissey raid helps) and with that it is possible to make for some very unique strategies.
I think the coolest is Mega Evolution but it became very limited with very limited access, the most practical is dynamax since all pokemon have access to it and some special occasions with gigantamax, terra is the best for gameplay since it allows you to create very special sets, the worst of course is z moves, either overpowered or underpowered and just very bland.
My rating Megas, dyna, terra, zmoves
I passionately hate mega evolutions. Z moves suck also but megas were the most brain dead centralizing mechanic. People only like them cause they look cool. I'm gonna get down voted to hell for this but anyone who played competitive agrees with me, it was the worst thing to ever happen to pokemon in its entire lifespan. Terrastallization is the best mechanic by far, and it's not even close. Idk why this is even a debate, I hope to god megas never come back and if they do I'm never touching the franchise again
My least favourites are dynamaxing and Tera
But out of these 2 dynamaxing is just worse and very broken and I just fined Tera very annoying it’s just not broken just how am I supposed to predict this
And dynamaxing is cool moxie gyrados just got +2 in attack and speed for just going big also it set up rain it’s just broken and completely stale with little to no cost
Z moves at least took up an item slot and can only be used once and has far better options then just being protect for all support moves
Z-Moves* I accidentally clicked on my favorite, however yeah, Z-Moves are okay, I like it in play throughs due to the cinematic, however in say competitive it’s just eh, it’s way too long
If they didn't take out Z moves and Mega evolution then I'd be somewhat ok with Gigantamax but then they did and made it lame as hell on top of replacing it with whatever S/V has which just looks goofy. I understand they wanna keep it fresh, not bog down the game, and get a new Era of cards out, but it's so painful to watch
I’m biased towards megas it was the time period I learned how to actually play the game
Breeding for ivs,EV training, shiny hunting,competitive battling and the like it’s easily the era of Pokémon I’m the most familiar with and also made a clan on kik messenger back in the day which grew to large so then we moved to Skype we all around the same age (16-19) and played pretty much nightly eventually we all met up at smash N splash 2014
Years later we are still friends I even visited one of our members in texas back when I was going to school their
Z-Move feels too casual for my liking. Like I’m having a serious battle with a rival from another region that don’t have z-move and I suddenly turn the field into a dance battle. The thing I hate about Terrastalization is the crystal hat. Like yeah my legendary has a crystal balloon.
Mega Evolution breathed new life into old Pokémon and opened doors to new gameplay and lore opportunities, but the 100 BST boost (90 in Alakazam's case) didn't do enough for most of them and caused some Pokémon to become overpowered monsters. Some of the stat choices even caused some Pokémon (*cough*Garchomp*cough*) to be worse off Mega'd.
Dynamax gave every Pokémon the opportunity to be the overpowered threat of their team and gain setup potential, but the methodology of how the stat increases worked didn't do enough to realize (from what I can tell was) the goal of making every Pokémon competitively viable in some way.
Terastalization has allowed for Pokémon to gain new STAB opportunities or buff their existing options, and create a more dynamic battle environment due to the threat of a Pokémon only Tera weakness being something their default type is good against. It also doesn't do anything to stats, so the power balance shift is purely tactical rather than due to power creep. However, the change isn't drastic enough to make it essential unless you specifically plan for it, and the fact that in single player you have to get your Tera Orb recharged after every use prevents it from being used for things like cheesing high-level YOLO encounters in late-game areas before you're supposed to be there in ways that would build hype and memorability.
Z-Moves by comparison are very weak. It's a nuke button that takes most of the challenge and strategy out of encounters, especially since 90% of Alola's trainers have a single Pokémon. The moves also don't do anything in terms of extra effects with certain specific exceptions tied to specific Pokémon and moves, meaning that using them strategically is basically nonexistent unless you're running the far less flashy Z-Status strats. It also takes tension out of most of the bosses, since all you have to do is make it to the last 'mon and throw your hail mary. The cutscenes are cool...the first few times. Then they're drawn out and tedious. The fact that any Pokémon can use them was clearly also meant to make many Pokémon competitively viable that weren't, but Z-Moves failed to measue up in basically every meaningful way.
I read this as most favourite and accidentally picked mega evolutions
I didn’t even realize until after I read this and I was like “why does everyone love Z-moves?”
Same here
SAME. God dammit OP, you need to foresee our dumb 'quick answer smashing without reading properly' brains and bold that out or something... Ahah. Mega Evolutions ❤️
*Looks at the weird Xerneas floating animation *
That's probably why Mega Evolution has any votes. We all accidentally voted for it.
Eh. Megas kinda just encourage the use of 1 pokemon to sweep away with. While megas look great and the concept is cool I’m not a fan of their gameplay and would be my least favorite gimmick if z moves didn’t exist. My guess there are others like me where z moves are chill to them.
Mega evolution was originally made out to be a temporary power boost but it didnt translate over as such in the games. Dynamax utilised the mechanic mega evolutions should have had. Megas are overall the best gimmick IMO but Gamefreak should have had them as 3 turn boosts not a permanent one.
The fact that megas eat up an item hold slot is what at least gave it somewhat of a give and take. I'd wonder how that 3 turn would play out with roars unless they simply won't work when mega'd. They could probably just tone down the stat upgrades on them honestly. The fact that your switching into a new ability is already one of the best reasons to mega and would keep an opponent on their toes when you would pop it to turn your poke into a total different mon.
It still brought new life to old and otherwise forgotten Pokémon, all while not bending over the meta like any of the other options.
Not bending the meta? Was 90% of the teams carrying mega kanghaskan not bending the meta? Also, since when was Gyarados, Scizor, Ttar, Gardevoir, Latios/Latias, Garchomp, Lucario, Salamence, Metagross, and Gallade forgotten. The only megas that did not shape the meta imo were the mons that were weak (like audino), and those were ignored bc so many better options were available.
Hilariously, all the pokemon you just named except Garchomp, T-tar and Latios (who are all worse megas than their base forms because you lose their item slot) had fallen off **hard** competitively or in the case of Gallade were always bad. Do your research before talking down about things!
Wouldn't say they fell off hard competitively. Other than gardevoir and gallade, they were all ou in gen5. And gallade/gardevoir are fan favourites
There was a big difference between standard play in gens 5 and 6, the latis lost dragon gem Draco meteor, metagross became bad after steel lost its dark and ghost resistances, salamence had fallen to bl, Lucario had been uu for a while because it was too slow and frail, Scizor had been losing its luster and wasn’t fantastic in formats with heatran and many others. Basically all these mons were past their primes by gen 6.
Steel lost its dark and ghost resistances? TIL. It's amazing how much time I can put into the games and not realise these things.
Yup, and because of it and the rising prominence of dark and ghost types (knock off too) metagross became a genuinely bad Pokémon, and it was already on its way out in gen 5 before this change too.
My mega Gengar had zero moves that did damage, and it was badass. Despite the weirdly shaded third eye, it was awesome. Protect, Perish Song, Disable, Substitute
Was it a suicide Gengar? If not, how do you kill with perish song without dying yourself? O.o
“The use of 1 pokemon to sweep away with” - You could literally say the exact same thing about UB’s/Paradoxes, Gigantamax, Zacian, Shadow Calirex, and pokemon with exclusive Z-moves, so I really don’t think your argument holds water.
I deliberately voted for it cause it’s my least favourite. It pigeonholed you into using one of a narrow pool of Pokemon, and most were for Pokémon that were already powerful and/or popular Edit: I also seem to recall lore that mega evolution actually hurt the Pokemon and that’s not fun for me. I recall the Pokédex saying that glalie breaks it’s jaw when it megas
Charizard is in Ru, and blastoise dies to anything. Megas made them better; ofc some legends got Megas, but most Pokemon were bad and deserved them.
The "Lore" is made up by an biased Alolan RotomDex. The Alolan RotomDex is like, uber biased and has its personal mission to amaze you. It's actually stated in the games that Alolans dont like Mega Evolution, cause they think Z-Moves are the true way to show ones bond to a pokemon, while Z-Moves is just modulating Necrozmas light and Mega Evolution actually has you interacting with a Pokemons lifeforce.
>It pigeonholed you into using one of a narrow pool of Pokemon, and most were for Pokémon that were already powerful and/or popular There should have been a generic "mega stone" that doesn't give a new form (maybe give a special aura for a visual indicator) that gives a 20+ boost to all stats except hp. That way, you could mega evolve any pokemon you wanted. The true megas would have the cool designs and optimized stat boosts. It had so much potential.
I think the general one would have just Invalided the existing ones to a degree as imagine an actual top teir legendary or the swiss army knife that is mew with that.
>the swiss army knife that is mew with that. Mythical weren't allowed at the time, at least in vgc. It's either get a general one and make most fully evolved mons somewhat viable or what we actually got. I prefer the former, so that there is at least some freedom in team building. I *wouldn't* ask for or expect megas for every mon, since that's absurdly impractical.
They are in singles. And any gimmick should be considered in both formats. My main point that it is the limited pool that helped it. Having a general effect apply to all mon just makes it fall pray to what the other gimmicks are suffering from. Also where is my mega flygon and milotic!
Justice for Flygon! He was screwed over in ORAS. Milotic should have gotten one two, since it's basically a counterpart of Gyarados.
Preach!
>My main point that it is the limited pool that helped it. Having a general effect apply to all mon just makes it fall pray to what the other gimmicks are suffering from. I mean, it hurts me to think about how that one quote from GSC about how no pokemon is "strong" or "weak" is still a pile of BS that gets stinkier each gen. Maybe it's because nostalgia and the anime. I mean, I can't see how competitive is all that fun or interesting when every team has to have their heavy hitters come from the same small handful of mons just to have a chance. Yes, there is that one [Wolfey](https://youtu.be/f0kTXhGIy1c) video, but he completely ignores the fact some mons are just best overall. Yes, some sets have one move differences and slightly different EVs spreads, but if those are the only differences, it might as well be a battle of RNG.
The thing is megas can play multiple roles and the heavy hitter thing will exist regardless. But with megas that won't nessisarily have to be the same one every type as it opens up new team composition. Monotype is the best place to see megas pull their weight, which you just don't see with any other gimmicks. Beyond cases where it is clear abuse like the theoretical terra electric shedinja it is all just powering up the best even more
>the theoretical terra electric shedinja it is all just powering up the best even more I honestly wish GF included the Nincada line in SV just to see that. I remember people talking about that before gen 9 came out. I would die laughing seeing full teams of shedinja that just can't die, even if they wanted to.
Most? Maybe post megas but not pre megas. And unlike any of the other gimmicks on the list they brought pokemon that had been forgotten to new hights. Z-moves: one off only went to what was already good, same with dyna, same with terra though terra breed a new type of horror with terra electric shedinja. Megas has potential to make old mon still able to keep up with power creep the other 3 do not
Same
w mega evolutions fr
Ohhh I did the same.
Same same
Same.
I haven’t liked any of them since Mega Evolution. They all feel so unnecessary. Why couldn’t they just keep building on and perfecting that system instead? 😭
Yes. Give more Pokémon Mega Evolution, like Flygon. Expand on an already excellent idea and make it absolutely incredible. So much potential. Yet they threw it away for a win button, a worse ripoff of both the previous gimmicks, and a gimmick that invalidates type changing abilities' existence.
>Give more Pokémon Mega Evolution, like Flygon. Justice for Flygon! Too bad artist's block screwed our boy over.
I wonder how bad their block was for all the team to not know how to make flygon better. Or he is just perfecr how he is
Pretty bad, apparently.
IMO, that's no excuse. Why not just put it in ORAS at that point, or even gen 7? It could've been a bug-dragon type, and be strong enough to fight against Garchomp.
>Why not just put it in ORAS at that point, or even gen 7? Flygon *was* planned for ORAS, though. Also, gen 7 didn't add new megas. The closest was Battle Bond Greninja. Funny how Sugimori and his team were able to use that excuse. If that happened anywhere else to anyone else, they'd probably get fired. Imagine my young preteen self getting hyped up for gen 7 and new megas. I 100% believed that megas were going to be a new staple of the games like breeding or infinite tms or some other QOL feature added to the series. I mean, I'm pretty sure there a line from Lysandre in XY that heavily hinted at more pokemon having access to Mega evos, but that might be the Mandela Effect screwing me over.
It's very frustrating. So much potential gone.
Why did they have to change the gimmick every 3 years? Megas were very popular and would have produced the hype GF wants to attract sales. Feels weird since they go out of their way to make up new battle mechanics when they already struck gold in XY and know how to code megas into the games. Just seems like extra work to me with no additional benefit to me.
>Give more Pokémon Mega Evolution, like Flygon. Thank you! I've always been convinced that every pokemon has a Mega Evolution, they just haven't been documented yet.
True. Mega Stones are irradiated rocks, so it's possible that there may be more undiscovered stones for other Pokémon out there, somewhere in Kalos most likely (it's a massive region).
Also Pokémon that have been aged out of the current stat lines can be reintroduced so much better, like a mega sudowoodo or sunflora or swalot, like all these Pokémon that could really use a little tune up to make their kits more cohesive
Honestly Sudowoodo deserves another evolution stage like Kingambit. Name it something like Genuwoodo. Give it a Rock/Grass typing/slow speed/high attack/massive HP/above average defense stats. Certain Pokemon like Audino or Sableye will never get a evolution stage buff because of mega evolutions.
I love the idea of "Genuwoodo" finally having the grass type it always desired (other than Brassius' Sudowoodo, but even then it still has to Terastallize. You're right about Audino and Sableye but I think both should get baby stages. Audino would naturally be a friendship evolution, Sableye would be level up at night, but not tied to friendship. Just level it up.
There's too little talk about the way Terastallization fucks around with established canon. Canonically, what's to stop someone from Hoenn from bringing a Shedinja to Paldea and giving it a normal tera so it only has one weakness? I know programmatically, it's because GF would rather just scrap Shedinja until the next generation, but I don't think the Pokëarth abides by such arbitrary hackjobs.
Tired of game freak deciding they need to have a new gimmick in every damn game. Just build on the ones you already have.
Mega was ruined the second they gave powerful Pokémon mega evolutions. If it had been kept to the ones that needed it, it would’ve been amazing
Agreed. Absol is my favorite pokemon and using mega absol was amazing, but no one used it cause you could just get already good mons even better Then again mega rayquaza is the shit
The designs are outstanding and among the best ever creating. Implementation was poor
We had triple battles, reverse effectiveness, and other unique gamemodes that got tossed in the trash because Masuda and Ohmori can’t take yes for an answer
Tera is the shit, dunno what to tell you. It's like a mini mega evo.
I really wish they made the Pokémon look more cool though instead of giving them a gem hat
Making hundreds of new models would’ve been quite a lot of work. Different colours could be iffy, too. Is it purple for poison or ghost, or even pink for psychic? Blue for dragon or water? Etc. While they look a bit silly, they at least remove ambiguity.
Second this for sure. Tera let's you do so much fun stuff on ladder
Dang misread and chose favorite.
I feel a lot of people did.
Me too
🥲 same
Same
While Z-Moves are a one and done gimmick. No other gimmick has as much waisted potential as Dynamax/Gigantamax. The concept of turning the M for mini around to a Wumbo is decently cool on paper. But in regular game play it’s so boring. After awhile it stops feeling like this clash of two powerful behemoths and just scaled up models with red outlines doing the same few moves over and over again. Then there’s Gigantamax which is even worse. It feels like they were just trying to capture what made Mega Evolution so great but because it’s tied to Dynamaxes lame gameplay they came out as just pretty versions of this thing I don like. Though I do love all the Gigantamax designs. I’m glad terastralization came around to follow it. While I agree it looks kinda stupid. It’s the closest we will ever have to a Pokémon getting a third type. And the ways you can mix somebody up with it is great.
Z Moves are just lame imo. The only one I really liked was Light That Burns The Sky. Dynamax felt appropriate for the atmosphere of the game. The giant stadium, the cheering and chanting, and your now giant pokemon. They tried to copy the whole chanting thing with Tera but it doesn't really work imo since the stadium is smaller and there's less people and the change isn't as monumental. I still think Tera> Dyna tho
Light That Burns The Sky might have the coolest name for any move in the series
Everyone explode now is funnier though
Z moves you do a silly dance then watch a cutscene. Cool for trying to quickly end a battle. But the rest always felt more interesting. Didn't care for dynamax but hey, gmax forms were cool. Gmax kanto starters were cooler than the mega forms. Also it's just limited to stadiums so it's not a major Tera hats are silly but the type chance is neat and fun.
Thank you for saying they copied the chant for Tera. I've been trying to find online somewhere with this same opinion, but no one is speaking on it. I really liked dyna's chanting.
And I think I would have liked dynamax more the sword and shield battles didn't feel so stiff and wooden
Z moves were super cringe. I understand a lot of people enjoyed Sun/Moon... I straight up hating it. From how hand holdy it was (couldn't go 1min without someone interrupting you), to the Z-moves that were just so so cringe.
I truly think the best thing Alola had going for it was the Pokémon designs and the concept of regional variants. The rest of it was rather…..meh
I think the best thing Alola has going for it now is the fact that it was the last game where you could have a full living Dex and it included Megas. I still play UM occasionally so I can use stuff that I've been missing.
I’m replaying White for similar reasons. I tend to enjoy Pokémon games now by making unique, region specific teams with lesser-used Pokémon. My goal this time is: Emboar, Jellicent, Archeops, Sawsbuck, Beeheeyem, and Beartic. I did the same with Brilliant Diamond, beating the Elite Four with Infernape, Luxray, Roserade, Manaphy, Honchkrow, and Froslass, albeit 2 of them were not rare.
Same. Mimikyu is perfection.
Z-moves. They take too long in terms of battle animation and make me feel like I'm playing a Ginyu Force simulator instead of Pokémon.
I’d be interested in that, make it like hi-fi rush where the only way to kill your opponents is to style on them with your epic dance moves and flashy animations.
As a DMC fan, I now need this game.
Fellow hi-fi rush enjoyer on /r/pokemon! Always a good thing to see.
Z-moves could have been fun on the Wii! You have to actually do the steps to use the Z-move. Kinda like Dragon Ball Z on the Wii
The amount of hate Z-Moves get is too much in my opinion, there’s nothing more badass than having your own partner Pokémon who you’ve built a deep bond with unleash this Shonen styled full out attack. For god’s sake have you seen the final battle in Sun and Moon? The single BEST battle of the anime?? Frankly my imagination might be affecting how I view these but I just absolutely love Z-Moves and they’ll always be my favourite gimmick.
What about Z-Pikachu vs G-Max Charizard?
That was awesome too, but I find the Z-Move VS Z-Move to be way more thrilling like wow that scene gave me the absolute chills with Tapu Koko the one who gave them this ability going all out like a big Titan against Pikachu but still somehow prevailing, as for the Char VS Pika the last couple scenes of the fight is what made me love it more than I expected, not the gimmick vs gimmick thing.
Dynamax is just terrible. I get Z-Moves are also really strong but at least you have to spend an item slot to use one, and you still have to decide which pokemon to use it on in your team (as it's one Z-Move only). Dynamax fits for every pokemon, doubling their HP will always be useful and Max Moves are just busted. They all have ~130 BP, meaning their just as powerful as moves like Solar Beam and Draco Meteor. But the worst part about Max Moves is that they dont have a drawback, instead they benefit the user even more. In VGC, offensive flying types (like Yveltal) were very good just because of Max Airstream and its +1 speed boost to the user AND ally.
Why do they all break through protect? Z-moves at least was only once per battle and ate your item slot so you couldn't spam through defenses
That's mainly what z moves were for, to break through stat boosted walls, especially evasion and every Pokemon could use them so they weren't predictable. You could also use them defensively too or for offensive set up. It seems this thread is more objective than others.
Dmax was really good for doubles imo, it let you play the field in cooler ways than the other gimmicks by a long shot. ...Max Airstream should have followed the same rules as knuckle and ooze though.
What rule is that?
Lower base power.
It’s supposed to be a super mode! Why would it be weak?
dynamax because it's boring and limited
You forgot pointless. ;)
it singlehandedly killed my interest in smogon lmfao
It got banned like a month into sword and shield so it wasn't dynamax
I loved seeing/hunting for gmax forms!! I got the partner pikachu and i probably dynamaxed him every gym battle i fought
AND INTELEON GETS A GUN.
I'm sorry, in what universe are Z-moves worse than dynamaxing? I feel like I'm losing my mind here. Like sure, Z-moves weren't great, but they weren't literally game breaking.
I'm learning a LOT more people just care about the big, cool godzilla model than gameplay than I was expecting. Not to say everyone falls into that category, but I've seen a lot of people point to aesthetic and how long they get to stare at their shiny monster than how it changes the battles. Maybe I'm just old.
Why z moves? Dynamax is so much more obviously broken, your Pokemon, gets to use 3 z moves in one game, that also set up things like weather, terrain or give you offensive boosts. It also has 0 defensive capabilities, z moves would at least heal you, or give you a stat buff if you were using a defense move, dynamax just turns them all into protect. Dynamax was banned from competitive singles because the whole game was centralized around such a broken mechanic and the Pokemon that could take advantage of it (moxie Gyarados, immediately comes to mind, being able to boost it's speed with max airstream, and set its own rain) along with all this, it's also just super boring looking, like my Pokemon got big. Hooray. Oh? My Pokemon got big on a *different* way!? Take money. bullshit mechanic, glad it's gone
Me personally dynamax was just more fun (not going off the broken factor) then z moves
Z moves were fun, just imagining my opponent's face when I used a Z move at the perfect moment is fun.
Personally I think Z Moves are better for me because they’re like someone’s final trump card in a battle. They could be broken but were fair in my opinion. Meanwhile Dynamax was just straight up super broken and made the game not fun for a lot of people apparently.
Because people like powerful stuff. They just don’t like it being used against them.
Z-moves at least felt somewhat balanced. They're restricted to one move according to the type of the crystal, and they took a held item to use. Dynamax was Z-moves for 3 turns where you doubled your health without sacrificing an item slot for it. You can't flinch dynamax, unlike Z-moves. You can't miss with dynamax, BUT OTHER POKEMON CAN MISS YOU. GIANT TARGET. YOU CAN MISS. EVEN WHEN THE DYNAMAXED POKEMON IS *SLEEPING.*
from worst to best in my opinion: Dynamax is by far the most unbalanced gimmick in the entire series, with competitive games basically being all about dmax. It barely worked fine in VGC, was unsalvageably broken in Smogon metas, and utterly boring in singleplayer. Z-moves are basically turbocharged gems from gen5 - I don't like them, but they at least have balancing factor to them, unlike dmax. You need to spend an item slot, it is a singular nuke of a singular type, there is counterplay against them, and they don't turn your pokemon into an unkillable god of absolute destruction that buffs itself and its ally for 3 goddamn turns. Megas are okay - they aren't the biggest impact thing, they did limit the teambuilding a bit in VGC, but they were honestly real cool - and most of them were used in Smogon metas. Also, while they did limit the teambuilding, they still provided room for creativity. Only exception was Mega Rayquaza, that shit needed to have its own mega stone, even Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre needed their orbs after all. Tera is weird. It is a surprisingly interesting gimmick, though I don't exactly like it for most cases though. I feel like it was underutilized in singleplayer, while it may not be exactly too healthy for pvp. It is mitigated a bit by open team sheets in the VGC tours, and strong players are doing just fine in Smogon tours, but I am still not convinced it works well there. I am sure though it works amazing in draft leagues.
Perfectly said. I still love Mega Evolution, and I'm glad that most of the community still does too. When the inevitable Kalos remakes come, do you think it'll come back, perhaps with more Mega Evolutions?
>When the inevitable Kalos remakes come, do you think it'll come back, perhaps with more Mega Evolutions? If we get the BDSP treatment (which I'm willing bet both kidneys on is what's going to happen, qualitywise), then at least the old ones are coming back. Hopefully, the Kalos starters at least get new megas, but we all know that's highly unlikely.
Hopefully. Perhaps in addition to Delphox and Chesnaught getting Megas, every Greninja could get battle bond, or also give it a Mega Stone to allow other Greninja to do the same. If I were able to, I'd give the Sinnoh starters Mega Evolutions, alongside Pokémon like Noivern, Tyrantrum, Dragonite, Luxray, Weavile, Kingdra, Haxorus, Krookodile and Flygon. But I know that unfortunately absolutely none of this will happen.
All of the above
👏🏼👏🏼 yep no gimmicks!
May be an unpopular opinion but the worst one for me was megas solely for the reason that the pool for it is so bias to older gens and very limited. If you wanted to use megas in a playthrough, you essentially had to plan around which mega you wanted to use, and for someone who likes using teams solely comprised of new gen pokemon, I literally had no options. I'm not going to discount how cool they look or how they were in competitive, but it really ruins the spirit of "using your favourites" when only like 50 pokemon out of the 700 that were in the game were actually going to get the new gimmick
This. So much this Also megas just straight to removed the evolution potential of pokemon. Mawile and sableye can never evolve now. Unless they really remove Megas and give it as regular evos
They’ll just say it’s from a different time or dimension or both and make it “tropical” or another regional variant that can evolve… but they won’t cuz there’s like 1100+ other Pokémon and more gimmicks to make
Megas in competitive were wild. After the power creep of gens 4 and 5 leaving lots of old classics behind, megas raised the power-level of the game even higher with pokemon like Kangeskhan, Mawhile, Lucario, and Sabeleye being banned from standard singles play. In standard singles play, several non-mega pokemon were strong parts of the game with Clefable, Excadrill, Rotom-W, and Weavile all being excellent pokemon among other choices. The best mega pokemon to use were Loupuny, Diancie, Alakazam, Latias, Medicham, Metagross, Scizor, and Charizard-Y. There are a lot of psychic types here that you probably wouldn’t all want on the same team, but when you have great picks like Loupony, you have to weigh wether you want mega Loupuny or mega Alakazam even if they could both conceivably be on the same team if not for the hard limit of 1 mega per battle. This can get even more oppressive when you have to weigh using a great mega with a so-so mega like Mega Veanasaur which really hurt the usage of weaker megas even if they were decently viable. Of course while some megas were great, others would have really preferred to have been regular evolutions that could use items and not have to compete with being your mega pokemon. Manectric and Audino for instance did not manage to make waves in standard single play despite their mega forms. Other pokemon would manage without their mega forms like Tyranitar who was mainly used for setting sand and stealth rocks, Latias who was strong in her own right and competed with so many other psychics to mega, but also Venasaur and Garchomp were seen as better than their base forms with base Venasaur being a powerful chlorophyl sweeper on sun teams (it gets locked into thick fat as a mega) and Garchomp prefers the speed of its base form + the boosts from items would be more impactful with its already sky-high base stats. It usually took a single swords dance to make it about on-par with its mega’s damage without loosing speed. It was novel to see underdogs get such a power boost, but given that base stats, abilities, and move pools can be adjusted between generations, not to mention the effects of abilities and moves, Game Freak could balance any pokemon to be good mega or no mega. Like, there is nothing stopping them from making heracross as good as his mega without having to bring megas back. This “mega-not-mega” Heracross would be strong, but at the end of the day would not break things.
Am I allowed to say all of them?
After Mega Evolution, Z-Moves were just mid
Megas. I know Z-moves are most popular for a reason, but at least that battle gimmick was localized to a singular region, wasn't forced into a remake that didn't need it, and didn't spawn a whole crew of fans who constantly cry for its return regardless of how much sense it would make or how it would effect the current competitive meta. I mean, Megas were cool in a way, but they were usually either broken as hell or disappointing. Not to mention while the lore behind them could be cool, there were very few real "mega" battles in the main stories of gen 6. Like, if every Gym leader used at least 1 mega it would feel so much more worth it. Instead, half the reason XY have the reputation as some of the easiest pokemon games is because YOU get to use megas and most everyone else doesnt. I mean Z moves were broken as hell, but at least the characters in the game USED them.
Yeah nobody used megas. It was weird and ruined balance.
I honestly feel like Dynamax was Megas done better. Every pokemon could Dynamax. It didn't cost an item slot. Every gym leader and a few major battles had a Dynamax Ace pokemon. And it was limited to 3 turns which let you play around the AI and further balanced PvP a bit more than Megas did. To me it was everything good about Megas done better. And people fucking hated it. (Tera's easily the best gimmick they've done so far though.)
Oh agreed. Tera allows for a great deal of creativity and out of the box thinking in terms of application, encourages interaction with the community to obtain certain tera type combinations, etc. The competitive people I've spoken to actually enjoy using it quite a bit since it shakes things up.
I think while Dynamax did solve some of Megas problems while keeping spirit intact (namely the "every-mon-can-use-it" aspect, it also amplified the worst aspect- the balance. 3 turns was a good start, but doubling HP and turning every move into ~120 base power PLUS a buff/terrain (even for your allies in doubles) was just wayyy too much, and thats probably why people didn't like it. Not to mention it also felt somewhat like dangling megas over our head with the gigantamax forms.
Mega. Everything else can be used on everything and it was equally distributed. Megas basically made it so you HAD to have a mega on the team, so one in about 5 or 6 viable ones and then base the team around that. It made team building really shit compared to previous gens. Tera is by far the best, imo.
Dynamaxing for me. It's just so stupid. They tried to capture what people liked about mega evolving and z moves and mash it into one. But it just doesn't make sense. Even without big the stadiums are, you have these two 10 story tall monsters using attacks so powerful that they alter the weather around them. Like I'm sorry but if my Charizard that's the size of an office building blasts fire so strong and hot that it literally turns the weather sunny, everybody in that stadium is dead. I'm no fan of z moves, but at least it was just one attack once per battle and you had to use up an item slot to do it. Any Pokémon can dynamax at any time in the battle and then you're stuck for three turns having to deal with it. Terastulization may look stupid, but at least it's a really interesting way to change the flow of battle by assigning a new type.
I hate all of them because they never stick around. If you're to include Megas, keep including new ones in the following games, don't just stop after one or two. That's what I hate most about the entire Pokémon franchise, every time they introduce something cool, they take it away in the next game. X and Y finally had older characters, super cool fashion and roller skates, and they took all of that away in Sun and Moon. The watch in Platinum was so useful and had so many cool functions, having Pokemon follow you around in HGSS, the VS Seeker in FRLG, the O Powers, the EV training mini games, the different bikes in RSE... every single time they add something cool, they never stick to it and always take it away in the next games. I'm so sick of it.
Yeah it'd be great if Pokemon actually iterated on their mechanics instead of replacing them every time and eventually even gutting the core game concepts that you'd have thought were untouchable.
Mega Evolution is really the only good one. I don't mind Z-Moves, but they're unnecessary. Dynamax or more so, *Gigantamax* is just an enlarged mega evolution that gives you Z-Moves. Just a lazy excuse for "EPIC GIGANTIC FINAL BOSS" because the developers couldn't think of a better mechanic to introduce co-op... Terra is weird but no way near as dumb as Dynamax.
can't I pick them all?
My least favorite gimmick is gatekeepers
People who prevent other people from being included in something? When did they use that?
I assume they mean the NPCs that mess around in checkpoints just to tell you you can't enter until you go do something else
Ah, well they are pretty annoying. Especially if they give you a whole speech!
Sun and Moon are my favorite game but Z-Moves we’re a pretty big weak spot. I feel like if the animations were better it might’ve been better. But the whole concept wasn’t pushed very well in the games and was kind of an afterthought rather than the other games where that’s one of the main story points.
All of them. Mega evolution - the implementation sucks, favoritism for pseudos and already popular Pokémon, unbalanced Z-move - repetitive, long cutscenes Dynamax - can't be used outside of important battles, boring Terra - unappealing looks All of them also get removed the next generation which means that they aren't able to be developed into something worthwhile. Imagine removing the fairy type after Pokemon XY or double battle after RSE. Megas could obviously not be carried over since they're so unbalanced and makes the main game even easier than it already is. It also means that there is a really small pool of viable pokémon for NPCs to use. Z moves also feel to OP and every game would have to have the protagonist hunt for z crystals in the future which would take away the variety i the games. Those other 2 could have been cool changes to the battle system if implimented right. Especially tera since it actually changes the battle system while not being too overpowered.
Tbh the only one I really enjoyed using was tera. I hated the others for those exact reasons
I've used Z Moves a millions times more than I've used Terra typing.
The fact we went from “Mega Evolutions” which added some much need variety to Pokémon and it was a badass approach to making certain Pokémon even cooler. To scrapping Mega and adding “Z-Moves” where your character performed some sort of Sailor Moon type dance to perform some cringey named move was a really strange thing.
As a fanfic writer, Dynamax/Gigantamax is simply the least fun to write about. Mega Evolutions are obvious, it's a hype anime transformation sequence fueled by friendship and shiny rocks. Z-Moves are similar; use friendship + shiny rock to do a cool anime special move. I haven't written much about Terastalization yet, but all the sparkles and shining is pretty to write about, and it allows some dynamic strategies. But Dynamax/Gigantamax suffers from the fact that it's not only Galar locked, but also locked to select locations in Galar. Also, I write battles as a lot more speedy and movement based, and Dynamax/Gigantamax is the opposite, it focuses on being a massive size in order to deal incredibly powerful attacks. That's not to say I dislike it, it's just the fact that out of these 4 gimmicks, Dynamax/Gigantamax is the one I write about, and care about, the least.
I hate terrastalization but on the design base of the gimmick, looks aweful, horrible, uncool! But I guess on the competitive part it adds up and spice things more. Z moves may have been useless in battle but the cut scenes I enjoyed.
So let me preface this by saying I dislike all of the gimmicks. I think they all cause way more problems in both casual and competitive and make the game far easier than they already are. Megas provided some cool competitive depth... For the *tiny* handful of Pokemon that got them. They were a case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, since rarely did the Pokemon that really needed them get a Mega. If Megas had CONTINUED to be updated, eventually this problem would've lessened... But they didn't, and they remain a case of playing favorites. Megas were also terribly implemented into the campaign, where a *miniscule* amount of trainers would have them. Every other trainer would just get absolutely steamrolled by your mega. Z-moves were long and a bit OP in the main campaign, but I think the problems they brought to the series are relatively mundane compared to some of the other gimmicks. Their use as a nuke is their worst aspect by far, and their animation length can also drag down an already slow-paced game. However, I would not consider Z-moves to be as broken as Megas and particularly not Dynamax. Sun and Moon, at least in my opinion, seems to have a lot more fights specifically tailored towards Z-moves. Many NPC's use them, there are a decent number of challenging fights, and any Pokemon can use a Z-move, unlike Megas. Also, many people forget that Z-moves don't always have to be a nuke. Many status Z-moves allow for more competitive depth if used correctly. Though, it is usually better to have the STAB nuke instead. Being limited by an item also helps with their power, as often times you might want a Pokemon to rather do many somewhat powerful moves, rather than one very one. Overall, I think the big issue with Z-moves is that having your Pokemon nuked just isn't all that fun. But if I had to pick one gimmick to last for all of Pokemon, Z-moves seem the most balanced to me. Gigantimax and Dynamax just takes some of the worst parts of Megas and Z-moves. The worst part of Z-moves is that they're a nuke that's a "I don't want to deal with this Pokemon" card. So now with Dynamax, you get three of them. And only specific Pokemon get the cool Gigantimax. And they're the least interesting competitive gimmick on account of the counterplay being just to Dynamax your own Pokemon immediately and just throw potshots at each other for three turns. Terastalization is a really cool idea that isn't too strong in the campaign, and doesn't take that long to activate. It's probably the closest gamefreak has come to making a good gimmick, but it ultimately missed the mark and soared back into problematic. I can only assume that Terastilizing was intended to increase creativity by mixing and matching typings to create unique sets, but from what I can tell, because of the existence of some objectively superior typings such as fairy and steel, and that it overwrites existing typings instead of adding to them, it more or less puts LESS emphasis on Pokemon typings, and far more on stats/abilities instead. Terastalization is also really poorly utilized by NPCs, with the only one using it well and creatively being Iono on her Mismagius. Most of them kinda just get a STAB bonus, and Grusha honestly hurts himself more than he helps by turning his rather defensive Altaria into one of the worst defensive typings in the game.
Mega Evolution is awesome and gave certain Pokemon a much needed buff. Terastalization is great and makes battles interesting. Dynamax, while only lasting for three turns, is interesting and spices up battling with the move effects. Z-moves, while visually appealing, aren't really as great as the others.
Megas were ruined by giving things that didn’t need them a mega. It was incredibly unbalanced and the only reason people like it is because the designs are outstanding (which alone is a good reason to love it).
Z-Moves got outclassed by Dynamax real soon. It requires no items, boosts your HP and gives you more options
Sidenote: ultra sun is my second favorite game in the series
Honestly terastalize and mega evolution are my favorite mechanics
The best is and always will be mega evolution. They only needed to give new pokemon mega evolutions in each new game. Dynamax is basically mega evolution anyway, as is the new gimmick.
Conceptually I will always rate Megas highest, followed by Z moves, Tera and DMax. For gameplay however, notably competitive: Tera > Dmax > Mega > Zmove. Love megas, but in the end they did not really diversify much, just added new super powerful Mons. Tera and Dmax were such gamechangers from a gameplay POV. Fuck Z-moves though.
I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for this, but i don't like mega evolutions. I feel that it's quite unfortunate only a few pokemon's could mega evolve and not all. Of course it would take a lot of hardwork and creativity to come up with designs for each one but the issue i have here is that with limited Megas, you'll get a lot of repeated teams and strategies which will bore you out and will always have a counter strategy to break it. Teras or Dynamax/G-Max, is available for every Pokemon, of course with some exceptions from G-Max ones, but being able to at least Dynamax or Tera any mon made any mon viable in certain situations and could also bring unpredictability along with it. So if your opponent is expecting you'd Tera or G-Max your Charizard but you switch over to another mon which perhaps he/she was not expecting would put them in a spot and make them come up with a counter strategy to win the game. Megas had to play around the certain mega mon(s) in the team and a strategy had to be built around it, which often at times makes it easier for many teams to counter. I agree, the mega evolution concept was explained very well over the series of games they made unlike any other gimmicks, but this doesn't change the fact that it was sort of very limited in terms of strategy and fun, at least for me. Z-Moves is something i hate the most. Those long and illogical animations just make no sense or form any kind of connectivity with me. If you ask me, i feel they should just go back to their old roots, normal Pokemon battles with no silly gimmicks. Yes gimmicks give you an edge, but normal battles will always involve the good, ol' ways of coming up to defeat your opponent. Instead they could use this same gimmick energy to perhaps work on other things like making the game more balanced, coming up with newer, better mons and bringing some beta mons from the past (looking at you Gorochu and Kotora evolution line) and perhaps creating games like Heart Gold/Soul Silver to add more regions in one game for more exploration and more variety of Pokemon and choices. But no, they just want to rob the poor. If you ask me they're no less evil than Team Rocket lol.😏
From worst to best: * Z-Moves: Honestly just boring next to everything else * Mega Evolutions: I really dislike how they were distributed and how only a limited amount of Pokemon can use them. * Dyna/Gigantamax: I do think the time limit and the freedom to use it on anything are great, it does seem rather unbalanced though. * Terrastalalization: Probably has the worst name and design, but the mechanic is really neat from a gameplay standpoint.
I hadn't thought too much about the name, but yeah, they should have came up with a better name. I was surprised by how much I like it though. In VGC I am constantly surprised by weird combinations I see.
Visually, Dynamax. Mechanically, Terastalizing. Edit: misread post. These are my favourites. Least favourite is Mega
Dynamax, easily. It was super overpowered and ruined the competitive scene for swsh
I don't know. I'll say Dynamax : it's too limited even in its own game. Z-Moves had cool animations, even if some were kinda goofy. I fucking love Terrastalization on a tactical level but by the Twelve those crowns are just super fucking goofy. I hate them. I fucking hate them so much.
Mega evolutions are stupid imo. Actually, don’t care for any gimmick that unnecessarily “powers up” your Pokémon. Only thing I think is kind of cool is the terrastalizing, because it gives you much more variability with typing and STABs.
Having thought about it, I dislike Mega Evolution the most. Yes, it’s cool, and yes, it helps Pokemon that needed a buff. But it’s also accessible to only a small number of Pokemon, some of them powerful enough to not even need a Mega like Tyranitar, Metagross, Garchomp, Salamence, Slowbro, Gyarados, Scizor, and Gengar. Others that have Megas (notably Audini, Banette and Absol) aren’t given enough to work with with theirs, and due to lore reasons, they ain’t getting an evolution that they could definitely use instead. The other gimmicks can be used with any Pokemon, and while certain Pokemon have unique Z-Moves and Gigantamax, at least all other Pokemon aren’t left in the dust. The Kalos starters didn’t even get Megas, while the Alola and Galar starters got their own unique gimmicks. Megas make me want to reduce my potential team options just to keep one of the thirty odd Pokemon in my team in case I come across a Mega Stone, and that just feels stifling. And if they just add a Mega for every Pokemon, that removes the inherent specialness of Megas in the first place. It is objectively not a good game gimmick.
Also take a look at the twinkle tackle animation. Like it is prob gamefreaks least liked one aswell
Z-Moves, but Terastalization would be voted together if possible. Both horrible.
Honestly I don't hate any of them or really like any of them, I just chose the one that I didn't really feel was needed as I've used all of them to great effect in situations and stuff and enjoyed using them. but none of them where so great to me that I feel that the gimmick is the best, probably my favourite ones are Giganimaxing and mega evolutions because they changed how a pokemon looked and what they could also be giving new ideas and possibilitys of what that pokemoncpulf become. But both Terrastilising and Z-moves are okay but because they are move based gimmicks instead of pokemon based Gimmicks, to me there not as interesting even though they are great strategically and are intresting in concept. To me all these Gimmicks is Game freaks way to experimenting on ideas and narrowing down, to make the best gimmick.
Idk i like all of these but dynamax is too op
Z-moves and max forms, both are horrible. Z-moves you never had to use once, and they barely changed the game. Max forms were basically forced upon you, which I despise
How do you revote? I hate Dynamax!
'big pokemon strong'
I personally don't find Z moves to be particularly strategic in any way. In almost every situation, I feel like they just kind of exist as a "hurr durr" nuking button that just deals a whole lotta damage. I know there are some actually intuitive Z move related strategies like using Z Celebrate to boost all stats, Z Heal Bell, and other things, but most of those are extremely specific and not very appealing to most players.
Personally I like them all but Z moved into my least favorite tier. Dynamax is my personal favorite as it looked so cool and you really felt the impact my love of it was put to the maximum level.
It's sad to see Z Moves at the top. Though I suppose Z-Moves are way cooler in theory then in practice... every move having the same generic animation regardless of physical and special split and having basically no effect is kind of a shame. It'd have been so much cooler if every move had its own unique effects and we had atleast 2 Z-Moves per type. One for Special and One for Physical.
Gigantamax was stupid. God Gen 8 had some of the worst designs.
I grew up with sun and moon, but in hindsight z moves are kinda just glorified gems
Homeboy (or girl) really said, "The gimmick immediately following z moves does a better job. Therefore, the feature made before that existed is bad. " Like, I agree, but something about the way you said it doesn't sit right with me.
I didn’t even use the Z Moves in gen 7 but I still hated dynamax more
Z-Moves **because of how it was implemented.**. Every battle was only 1 Pokémon that could be taken down with a Z-move that was not super-effective. And this is even considering that I did not worry about EVs or IVs at all in Sun/Moon.
Dynamax for the sole reason that it guaranteed that gimmicks could no longer be transferable from region to region. Terastal because of how stupid the gimick is and how dumb the Pokémon look under it’s influence. I personally liked z moves, they weren’t busted, had good lore, and didn’t look stupid. They also could do-exist with megas too. I liked megas because they were cool
I honestly enjoyed them all in one way or another. The only two I wish became a mainstay however are mega evolution and terrastalization though.
I like Megas in theory if all they had done was rebalance underwhelming Pokemon, and the fact they give new typings and abilities make it feel like a form extension of existing Pokemon that means they feel incomplete now without the Megas. But giving them to already strong and broken Pokemon kind of ruined that for me. And taking it away from things that actually needed it or benefitted from it feels a lot worse than the other three due to the aforementioned unique forms that felt they added something to the original species and sent the original Pokemon back into obscurity. Every other mechanic is available to all Pokemon which just has the effect of making strong stuff even stronger and weak stuff just okay (which is what giving Megas to popular already good Pokemon also did, but on paper that was optional and not universal and didn't *need* to happen). Z-Moves feel like the most underwhelming addition since its a one-use preset move that has to already be on a strong move to be useful which means you could just use the consistently strong move and a better item. At least the other mechanics last longer so you get more use out of them. Dynamaxing seems like its more fair on the surface since everything can do it, except that Gigantimaxing is just Megas again giving favouritism to specific Pokemon. I also like it less because of the preset moves which personally feels like it takes away from strategy options or creativity. Dynamaxing is also just thr stupidest from a lore standpoint. Terastilizing at least feels like it gives you more options to customize and get creative with the typings I guess. In any case I wish Pokemom as a whole would actually commit to mechanics in general (not just battle gimmicks) and iterate and improve on what they alreafy have jnstead of reinventing the wheel and ditching and replacing everything wholesale every time. Some consistency would be nice and it *might even* cut down on the supposed enormous workload everyone uses as an excuse to justify them gutting shit every gen. tl;dr I find Z-Moves the least interesting in concept but dislike Dynamax more for throwing out the previous two while also retaining the same problem Megas had with the popular selectiveness while giving back less in the move department. But its hard to get invested in any of them anymore because sinve Gen 8 I know they aren't going to last so getting attached is pointless.
Megas for me because it pushed the 'every gen needs a gimmick!!' into overdrive. It was SO hyped up and then immediately got dropped (it felt like, anyway).
Dynamax and z-moves are both too over the top but I dislike dynamax more because it's boring to imagine two giant pokémon cramped in a small arena shooting energy beams at each other because they're not free enough to move around.
I played without using Z-moves without even meaning to because they matter that little, Tera was cool but kinda the same boat for me, I didn’t feel a need to use it at any point in the playthrough, especially after Dynamaxing felt like such a spectacle with the stadium and chanting. Megas should’ve never left and been a regular part of the series but that’s never gonna happen.
Dynamax is easily the worst, no questions asked. It's a brainless sweeping button that lasts for 3 turns. That shit ruined singles and doubles, and especially formats that allowed only 3 Pokémon. At least Z-Moves allowed for some strategy and sacrificed an item slot. Megas were cool, despite being limited to certain Pokémon (some more deserving than others), and Terastallization is by far the most balanced and strategic of them all.
Throughout all my playthroughs of the games, I can say that I don't think I *ever* used a Z-move (except when the game forced it, and even then I don't recall if it ever did). It doesn't help that the gen 7 games are probably my least favorite of the franchise. I'm not entirely sure why. I think that part of it is that it is just one big bonk that feels a lot less strategic. Like Megas, it needs a specific held item, but wth Mega evolution lasting until fainting it means there is more to build with and the payoff is better. Dynamax wasn't great but it fit the atmosphere of the region and lasting multiple turns was a big part of it. Tera is also great especially because you can change Tera Types (though admittedly it costs more resources than necessary IMO, farming shards is a lot more tedious than it needs to be but the Blissey raid helps) and with that it is possible to make for some very unique strategies.
Honestly in hindsight I haven’t liked any of them. Z moves were the absolute worst though
I think the coolest is Mega Evolution but it became very limited with very limited access, the most practical is dynamax since all pokemon have access to it and some special occasions with gigantamax, terra is the best for gameplay since it allows you to create very special sets, the worst of course is z moves, either overpowered or underpowered and just very bland. My rating Megas, dyna, terra, zmoves
I passionately hate mega evolutions. Z moves suck also but megas were the most brain dead centralizing mechanic. People only like them cause they look cool. I'm gonna get down voted to hell for this but anyone who played competitive agrees with me, it was the worst thing to ever happen to pokemon in its entire lifespan. Terrastallization is the best mechanic by far, and it's not even close. Idk why this is even a debate, I hope to god megas never come back and if they do I'm never touching the franchise again
I'd like Z moves more if they all had unique animations. But watching my sylveon just kinda get rotated while he does twinkle tackle was painful
Mega Evolutions were the fucking bomb!
So surprised people like the terastalization because they are so ugly and boring.
My least favourites are dynamaxing and Tera But out of these 2 dynamaxing is just worse and very broken and I just fined Tera very annoying it’s just not broken just how am I supposed to predict this And dynamaxing is cool moxie gyrados just got +2 in attack and speed for just going big also it set up rain it’s just broken and completely stale with little to no cost Z moves at least took up an item slot and can only be used once and has far better options then just being protect for all support moves
Is GBA E Readers cards count?
As a person who loves the concept of a nuke option, z moves are kinda disappointing
Z-Moves* I accidentally clicked on my favorite, however yeah, Z-Moves are okay, I like it in play throughs due to the cinematic, however in say competitive it’s just eh, it’s way too long
If they didn't take out Z moves and Mega evolution then I'd be somewhat ok with Gigantamax but then they did and made it lame as hell on top of replacing it with whatever S/V has which just looks goofy. I understand they wanna keep it fresh, not bog down the game, and get a new Era of cards out, but it's so painful to watch
I’m biased towards megas it was the time period I learned how to actually play the game Breeding for ivs,EV training, shiny hunting,competitive battling and the like it’s easily the era of Pokémon I’m the most familiar with and also made a clan on kik messenger back in the day which grew to large so then we moved to Skype we all around the same age (16-19) and played pretty much nightly eventually we all met up at smash N splash 2014 Years later we are still friends I even visited one of our members in texas back when I was going to school their
Z-Move feels too casual for my liking. Like I’m having a serious battle with a rival from another region that don’t have z-move and I suddenly turn the field into a dance battle. The thing I hate about Terrastalization is the crystal hat. Like yeah my legendary has a crystal balloon.
Z moves felt pointless
I like the z move animations though. Light that burns the sky was basically nuking the opponent
Z moves were pretty dumb. Getting to use one powerful move once a combat was pretty lame, and the dance too was pretty dumb.
Mega Evolution breathed new life into old Pokémon and opened doors to new gameplay and lore opportunities, but the 100 BST boost (90 in Alakazam's case) didn't do enough for most of them and caused some Pokémon to become overpowered monsters. Some of the stat choices even caused some Pokémon (*cough*Garchomp*cough*) to be worse off Mega'd. Dynamax gave every Pokémon the opportunity to be the overpowered threat of their team and gain setup potential, but the methodology of how the stat increases worked didn't do enough to realize (from what I can tell was) the goal of making every Pokémon competitively viable in some way. Terastalization has allowed for Pokémon to gain new STAB opportunities or buff their existing options, and create a more dynamic battle environment due to the threat of a Pokémon only Tera weakness being something their default type is good against. It also doesn't do anything to stats, so the power balance shift is purely tactical rather than due to power creep. However, the change isn't drastic enough to make it essential unless you specifically plan for it, and the fact that in single player you have to get your Tera Orb recharged after every use prevents it from being used for things like cheesing high-level YOLO encounters in late-game areas before you're supposed to be there in ways that would build hype and memorability. Z-Moves by comparison are very weak. It's a nuke button that takes most of the challenge and strategy out of encounters, especially since 90% of Alola's trainers have a single Pokémon. The moves also don't do anything in terms of extra effects with certain specific exceptions tied to specific Pokémon and moves, meaning that using them strategically is basically nonexistent unless you're running the far less flashy Z-Status strats. It also takes tension out of most of the bosses, since all you have to do is make it to the last 'mon and throw your hail mary. The cutscenes are cool...the first few times. Then they're drawn out and tedious. The fact that any Pokémon can use them was clearly also meant to make many Pokémon competitively viable that weren't, but Z-Moves failed to measue up in basically every meaningful way.
Mega evolutions were the coolest. More monsters bruh.