i love Mega Evolution. it was the most balanced mechanic, it helped breathe new life into so many Pokemon, and it's just so cool. I really wish that they'd kept it as a mechanic for the last decade and slowly accrued a solid list of Pokemon to be Mega Evolved, instead of leaving us desperately hoping that we get enough new Megas to breathe new life into another 46 evolution lines.
i'm still a bit wishi-washi on tera. i think it's a fun way to twist the battle, and i genuinely like that it can be used for every pokemon, but the effects that it had on competitive battling are... really mixed for both singles and doubles. plus i think most of the crowns end up looking really goofy on a lot of pokemon, and not in a positive way.
dynamaxing i'm also mixed on. it was horridly unbalanced and unfun in singles, it started off okay in Doubles and then got significantly more degenerate as time went on, and the fact that a small handful of mons got super special gigantamax forms makes the whole "every pokemon can use this mechanic" point completely moot when certain pokemon got what are essentially mega-dynamaxes (and introduced some awesome designs which very easily should have been and still can be mega evolutions). it was super cute to see your pokemon grow suuuuuuuuuuuuuper big and strong though.
z-moves i just dislike though. imo they're extremely unfun competitively no matter how you dice it- whether it's using a super strong move to bust through a check without any counterplay, or using a status z-move to turn the game into a borderline coin-flip, i just don't think they're very interesting or fun. conceptually, they're neat, the idea of giving your pokemon a special one-time super awesome strong attack on a base level is cool and was actually kinda fun during the story mode... but most of the "animations" completely take you out of it as your pokemon stands completely still while glows and flashes happen around them. and they also have the issue of making the whole "every pokemon can use this mechanic" thing kinda moot, because there are as many z-moves unique to specific pokemon as there are generic ones! why!
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeI actually like Tera. Felt like a real extension of the battle system and game mechanics, like abilities and nature.
What I dislike is the dumb head crown thing the Pokemon gets when they tera.
I feel like the problem with Mega is that... well... it's kinda imbalanced. There are outliers like Charizard, but more often you end up with "you got a bunch of mega-able mons, but there are clear superior megas that you use those instead".
Edited by Ookamikun on Nov 19th 2024 at 8:47:49 AM
I loathe mega evolution. Allow me to explain my reasons via a numbered list:
- It is horribly unbalanced— Most megas suck! Others are extremely broken
- It inherently makes certain pokemon better than others
- Most of the designs are actually kind of bad?
- Several megas should have been evolutions. Instead they mean that those pokemon will never be able to evolve
- The implementation just felt very clunky. You put a specific item on a specific pokemon, then press a button to get a form that last the rest of the battle. Feels like there should be a meter attached. Or have the whole thing handled at team-building stage
- It's extremely centralizing, both to team-building and to the meta at large
- It doesn't feel like Pokemon. Super modes are at odds with the naturalistic appeal of the franchise
Better than I could have said it. I sympathize with all those reasons, especially 4-6.
I understand a lot of people like the gimmicks, so I know I'm in the minority for preferring a purer battle system. I also understand part of the reason for the gimmicks is to give each recent generation its own distinct niche. Even so, it's not what I want from Pokemon.
My ideal Pokemon game would be a Stadium-esque game full of powerful opponents to battle in a variety of formats, and my ideal implementation would be to have the default battle format be gimmick-free while having Megas, Z-Moves, Dynamax, and Terastalization all available as their own separate battle formats, just like Double, Triple, and Rotation Battles. Perhaps they could each have their own Stadium cup, and can be enabled in free battles or online battle lobbies.
Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Nov 19th 2024 at 12:13:53 PM
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!I actually like the head crown things. I think they're pretty neat, even if I think some of them do look a little ridiculous; ridiculous =/= bad, after all.
I don't think there's a gimmick I actually dislike, though I will also say I'm someone who has absolutely no interest in competitive multiplayer at all. The last time I did multiplayer battling was in Sword, and that was only because the shiny versions of the Galarian legendary birds were gifted to participants.
"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."Tera is definitely my favorite. It dosent favor any specific Pokemon over all others, brings in a huge amount of new strategies and actually interacts with the core battle mechanics rather then just boosting stats. The music defenitely helps as well.
The hats have grown on me more, but I still dont love them. So I guess thats my biggest problem with the mechanic.
I'm not much of a fan of Mega Evolution for reasons others have already stated.
Edited by uncertanSearcher on Nov 19th 2024 at 7:21:26 PM
I'm not trying to harp on you, but I'm genuinely trying to clear up misinformation because i see some of these points brought up a lot.
This is also not true. Mega Evolutions have never, ever been the most used/strongest Pokemon in their respective competitive format, except maybe Mega Kangaskhan in VGC or Primal Groudon in VGC if you'll count that.
i actually do very much agree with this criticism. i think Megas should have been relegated to Pokemon that are already the third in an evolution line (like Ampharos) or at a sufficiently high base stat total (like Lucario)
This doesn't sound clunky whatsoever, I'm actually kinda confused at this point. Giving a Pokemon a specific item for a specific form has been a thing since Platinum. A meter would be way more clunky and changing to the battle system and a lot less opaque, and you're already handling your mega evolution at the team building stage by giving your pokemon an item.
I do agree with it being centralizing to team-building, but I don't think that's inherently a bad thing. I think it's a very very good thing to be implemented as a "first step" getting into competitive Pokemon: it's as simple as picking your favorite Mega, and making a team around it. But never in competitive Pokemon is that the only step, and (besides CHALK teams which I agree were a big issue) teams with the same Mega Pokemon would still be different.
As for the meta standpoint, I already addressed that earlier. Mega Evolutions have never, ever, been the most centralizing threat in a metagame. Those that were got banned. The likes of Lando-T and Kartana are way more centralizing in singles, and Doubles had Incineroar, Legendary Pokemon, or both, running around being the central threats. The only time it was a Mega Evolution was Mega Kangaskhan during the XY VGC years.
everything else is an opinion and i think whether or not i agree/disagree with those is irrelevant to clearing up misinformation.
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeOn the point about Megas being unbalanced or not, I think they can have a perspective issue caused by how you can only use one per team. That means that even more so than when picking six Pokemon for a whole team you're going to be extra selective in picking from only the best ones. So if a Mega isn't great you're not going to use it, which means if it's "only" good then it's not worth it and you end up viewing it as straight up bad.
Personally, my only big problem with Megas is that some of them should have been regular evolutions.
What if you have two mons with Mega Stones in one team? You can’t use both in the same battle, but still.
Join the Five-Man Band cleanup project!his doesn't sound clunky whatsoever, I'm actually kinda confused at this point. Giving a Pokemon a specific item for a specific form has been a thing since Platinum. A meter would be way more clunky and changing to the battle system and a lot less opaque, and you're already handling your mega evolution at the team building stage by giving your pokemon an item.
Megas are effectively a full-battle form. Mega evolving is a free action requires no set-up, and does not wear off. Mechanically, having to evolve during battle is clearly just a work-around for not having any other way to prevent the player bringing multiple megas
The only time it was a Mega Evolution was Mega Kangaskhan during the XY VGC years.
That was a pretty large chunk of mega's legality
There is an admittedly small benefit to having mega evolution happen in battle, namely that the Pokemon revert when they faint, meaning that if you revive the Pokemon it will be in its base form. Granted, it's only now that's relevant to competitive in the slightest, but it is something to keep in mind while just playing trough the story mode.
Megas are good because they're specific buffs instead of broad abilities any Pokemon can use. Beedrill isn't doing anything with Z-moves, Dynamax, or Terra because it's still Beedrill at its core. Mega-Beedrill still is not your correct choice for a Mega, but at least it's giving a terrible Pokemon something of a niche that it can actually do instead of just doing nothing with the other gimmicks.
Of the other 3, Terra is cool because it's an interesting use of Pokemon's core identity. Types are one of the first things you think of when you think of Pokemon, so manipulating types feels like a more interesting twist than super moves or Pokemon but big. Maybe it should've required an item to use though. Certainly would make it a lot less strong.
okay? that doesn't mean that the mechanic is clunky whatsoever. it's an extremely straightforward mechanic. you give the pokemon a special item, and then in-battle you press the special button.
your point about it being a work-around doesn't make much sense either, megas are absolutely designed around sending in the base form first, especially since a lot of base forms have unique advantages due to their abilities (such as Intimidate for Mawile). i think it makes much more sense as a conscious design decision, especially as a means to be a flashy in-battle effect which has been maintained with every new mechanic since.
it was one year out of 6 that megas were legal in tournament, and Mega Khan shared that distinction with Cresselia, Lando-T, Amoongus, and Heatran. which are all distinctively not mega pokemon.
and even then there were plenty of other megas that got the spotlight during the exact same period of time (Mega Gardevoir, both Mega Charizards, Mega Venusaur, and so on).
it was a gimmick that relied on Sleep RNG to win, and afaik didn't see any real success. Unlike Mega Beedrill which was a solid pokemon in singles UU.
Which was so OP it created its own tier.
cant argue with that one
though funny enough it wasn't the most threatening pokemon in VGC ever, you can give thanks to Primal Groudon for that one
Edited by EpicBleye on Nov 20th 2024 at 7:51:48 AM
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeIn regards to centralization, that's not a particularly relevant point because literally every meta in pokemon history has centralizing mons and mechanics. I.e Gen 1 meta revolves basically entirely around Tauros, or gen 2 which revolves entirely around Snorlax.
There are good megas in gen 6 and gen 7 that shape the meta but I never got the impression any serious singles players ever had an issue with mega evolution as a whole and found it OVER-centralizing (which is where it becomes a problem), because mega evolution is a very broad mechanic that doesn't affect every Pokemon equally. Some megas were over-centralizing and were banned, but most of them ranged from bad to very good and fit in just fine. I'm not that familiar with the VGC meta to speak for them, though.
If you want to talk about over-centralizing mechanics, Dynamax was way more problematic in singles for the brief time it was allowed because it led to absurd swings of momentum that made matches extremely chaotic and unstable and led to other unreasonable and toxic measures like ditto becoming extremely popular to reverse sweep your opponents in case they had a dynamax sweep going.
Edited by NullMoon on Nov 20th 2024 at 9:59:45 AM
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is the main reason why everyone seems to be associating Articuno with Misty.
...I thought Starmie was more important to her than an Ice/Flying-type.
At least its Hurricane is good in a rain team themed after Misty since there's no way in hell you'd not give her Politoed Drizzle.
Edited by leafsaber47 on Nov 20th 2024 at 7:53:25 AM
"You can't spell 'Wario' without 'war'."One thing that I disliked about Mega Evolution was the lack of characers using it in game. Only one gym leader uses it and she doesn't use it for her gym battle. It would have made more sense if the gym leaders, Elite Four, Essentia and AZ had Mega Evolution as well.
"May your heart be your guiding key"Someone brought up how antithetical it is to pokemon right? I I recall seeing a video pointing out that its exclusivity (in regard of who got to use it) made it feel more special, like a privilege, which meant that it ran contrary to the anti-fascism message the games were going for, as it ended up being one great man prevailing.

As far as making major trainers' final Pokemon stand out, I think just the mid-battle dialogue, more cinematic send-out animation, and music change are fine enough on their own. Could maybe give them higher stats than usual, like actually having them properly EV trained, but I don't think we necessarily need to dip into Secret A.I. Moves like having multiple health bars or damage reduction mechanics.
Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Nov 19th 2024 at 11:43:15 AM
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!