im so 50/50 on whether abilities will be here or not. arceus had a battle style close to mainline and didnt have them, so a battle format that deviates even more would make sense to not include them. on the other hand, if the focus is battling its the perfect time to bring them back, and i dont think many of them would need to be retooled that much...?
-
Follow our Instagram!
-
Curious about what we're currently doing about bots? Check out the latest updates from staff in this thread.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
- Status
I'm honestly going to be really sad when (at this point it seems guaranteed) there aren't abilities because I think abilities are fundamentally crucial for Pokemon combat to be interesting on a casual level.
Not that Game Freak is generally good at using them, but they can make so many Pokemon more interesting. What's a Wobbufett without its Shadow Tag? What makes a Graveler feel different than a Rhyhorn if Graveler doesn't have Sturdy and Rhyhorn doesn't have Lightning rod? Legends Arceus tried to hack in some abilities pretty much, but to me it felt really shoddy.
Doing a Dex Cut is great for exactly this kind of thing, they'd be able to pick the scope of this kind of effect. The fact that we're going to just ignore Abilities again and be back to Pokemon feeling almost the same when fighting them if they're within the same archetype makes me feel sad.
Not that Game Freak is generally good at using them, but they can make so many Pokemon more interesting. What's a Wobbufett without its Shadow Tag? What makes a Graveler feel different than a Rhyhorn if Graveler doesn't have Sturdy and Rhyhorn doesn't have Lightning rod? Legends Arceus tried to hack in some abilities pretty much, but to me it felt really shoddy.
Doing a Dex Cut is great for exactly this kind of thing, they'd be able to pick the scope of this kind of effect. The fact that we're going to just ignore Abilities again and be back to Pokemon feeling almost the same when fighting them if they're within the same archetype makes me feel sad.
Definitely feels like the megas' attacks have some boost to them in the trailer. It could be a pseudo "strong style" except the activation method is Megas
Something else to note in these screenshots is that it seems Kangaskhan vs Garbodor is taking place outside of a Wild Zone (since it's not in a green area in the minimap)
This would surprise me. I don’t know what may happen in regard to regional forms - I wouldn’t call it a retcon as this is set at some point in the future. I mean lorewise for Alolan forms and Galarian forms it didn’t need to be “harsh conditions” just a different adaptation for something in that region. Wouldn’t be hard to shoehorn in. They moved away from regional forms (sort of as we still had Toedscool and Wiglett and Poltchageist) in Paldea so I’m curious to see what will happen. I’d be surprised with Megas though, it seems odd to only give them to specific members of starter trios. Then again, so did giving new forms to the Hisui starters. Though Megas would create more of an imbalance in a trio. (unless they just give a mega to every starter lol) Will be interesting to see what they do with them.
The only reason I don't really see them giving megas to the starter trio is cause of portability.
What I mean is, Megas are a supermechanic, so they are vulnerable to "not be in a game" (in fact, they haven't actually been in a mainline game since gen 7 now, only in some of the side ones).
Regional forms however usually stick. Since they're not a mechanic per se, just a pokemon. Of course they're vulnerable to "which mon are going to be in this game", but that's much less of a issue in general, as if Golem is in the game, so is (usually) Alolan Golem, and Alolan Golem being a separate entity entirely doesn't handicap its other version if it's not in the game. Whereas with megas you'd have a pokemon without the mega in the game so literally missing part of itself.
It's not like Pokémon is necessarily against retcons, either way. Eviolite doesn't work on Bisharp in every game up until SV. Thunder Stone couldn't evolve Magneton all the way up to Sword and Shield. The entire Fairy-Type is a retcon. Even with the Hisuian variants themselves, a lot of those Pokémon were present in DPP and didn't have avriants then (And I doubt "They changed the name of the region" would cause these forms to no longer exist. Typhlosion for instance is explicitly tied to Mt Coronet, which is still in DPP)
The PLA starters themselves were also explictly first discovered during the story of PLA, meaning they're forms that actively developped for the first time during that game rather than the mons developping over time. and on top of all that, Lumiose is outright stated to be going through redevelopments, making it not the same environment as XY's Lumiose. I could very well see this more urban setting being the reasoning for the starters gaining new regionals
This isn't to say they will absolutely get regionls over Megas, but I think its kinda silly to write off the possibility of new regionals entirely just because it'd technically be a retcon
The PLA starters themselves were also explictly first discovered during the story of PLA, meaning they're forms that actively developped for the first time during that game rather than the mons developping over time. and on top of all that, Lumiose is outright stated to be going through redevelopments, making it not the same environment as XY's Lumiose. I could very well see this more urban setting being the reasoning for the starters gaining new regionals
This isn't to say they will absolutely get regionls over Megas, but I think its kinda silly to write off the possibility of new regionals entirely just because it'd technically be a retcon
theyve been really fond of retcons lately. i think the biggest one imo was the complete removal of incense to produce baby pokemon: they existed as a contrived way to explain why you couldnt breed these baby pokemon before, but now gamefreak just decided to retcon the evo lines to have the babies as the base form, something they wouldnt have done generations prior. hopefully, this means theyre more open to revisiting various aspects of the franchise tbh
Champions could change their calculus on this, though. Even if Megas aren’t available in future games, they’ll still be usable there. (Although I do still kinda suspect that Megas may be supported in Gen 10, especially if Z-A lacks Abilities, which’d put the new Megas in the same position as all of Arceus’s new forms and species in terms of still needing a “full-fledged” debut in a core series game.)
Personally, I can’t say that either possibility strikes me as particularly more or less likely than the other; I think it’d be easy to justify either approach within the context of Z-A. The Starter trio having Megas would keep Z-A a little more mechanically consistent and thematically cohesive, whereas them having regional forms would establish Legends: Arceus as precedent-setting, would allow the “Lumiose Starters” to have more of a distinct group identity for themselves, and resonates fairly well with the idea that Lumiose has changed since last time, opening up new opportunities for Pokémon to adapt.
I think it would make more sense for the starters to have regional forms, because I'm expecting them to give mega evolutions to Chesnaught/Delphox/Greninja. Introducing two sets of starter megas in the same game would mean that a relatively large percentage of the new megas are taken by them
If regional forms do return, I'm curious if they'll add one that gets a mega evolution while its original form doesn't, like the regional cross-gen evolutions. Honestly it would be extremely funny to do this for Flygon
If regional forms do return, I'm curious if they'll add one that gets a mega evolution while its original form doesn't, like the regional cross-gen evolutions. Honestly it would be extremely funny to do this for Flygon
Then again, regionals + Megas for Meganium, Emboar, and Feraligatr gives them the chance to do the funniest fucking thing
Fire/(literally anything other than Fighting) Kalosian Emboar mega evolves into Fire/Fighting Mega Emboar
Perfect world where we get Fire/Ghost Kalos Emboar into Fire/Fighting Mega Kalos Emboar
Plot twist, Meganium is Grass Fighting
that's just not happening. Supermechanic bloat is a problem VGC doesn't want nor need to deal with, they already have enough powercreep as is.
I'm placing my bets on new Megas for the starters considering the return of Mega Evolution is more or less the cornerstone of the marketing.
It would just be really fucking weird to have a game set in Kalos where we will almost certainly be getting new Megas for other Pokémon and then them going "lmao have regional forms instead" for the starters.
It would just be really fucking weird to have a game set in Kalos where we will almost certainly be getting new Megas for other Pokémon and then them going "lmao have regional forms instead" for the starters.
To be fair it would be about as weird as having a game that introduces megas and doesn't have them for the starters, and yet
Tbf I believe they actually gave their logic there. And I kind of get it? Don't have the designers make them with the intent they would Mega Evolve. Might subconsciously affect the final normal evolution's design. Plus Megas were largely a nostalgia bait thing as an overcorrection of Gen 5.
Not a problem anymore with Champions.
VGC can literally rotate them out with regulations.
Now we have a precedent for it after Regulation H decided to cut all Legendaries and Paradoxes.
Megas definitely won't stick around long-term, even if they do reappear in gen 10 (and I'm not even sure that will happen). The mechanic requiring a specific set of Pokemon to work means that they have to include (at minimum) a large chunk of them in the dex, and it's a significant amount of bloat in terms of the modeling work required for something that will, at best, end up being secondary to a new battle gimmick
I didn't think they would develop something like Champions prior to its announcement, but it seems like a relatively elegant solution to this. As long as they're supported there, Game Freak doesn't have to worry about porting them into new games if they aren't a good fit
I didn't think they would develop something like Champions prior to its announcement, but it seems like a relatively elegant solution to this. As long as they're supported there, Game Freak doesn't have to worry about porting them into new games if they aren't a good fit
My reasoning for thinking the same thing is that they already did have a lock-on catch rate indicator in Legends Arceus, and KOing mons looks to be a method of stunning them as well, though I do wonder how that dynamic will play out in practice and if mons will actually take multiple attempts to properly faint or if they'll run away eventually or something.
Also, the EXP yields from KOing the mon seem to generally be 1.5x more than the catch afterwards.
My tinfoil hat idea is that we get regional Kalosian/Lumiosian forms of Meganium, Emboar, and Feraligatr and while they don't get Megas themselves, we'll see Megas for Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja instead. Sort of a reverse XY where the Kalos starters themselves didn't have Megas but the Kanto starters did. And the original Kalos starters will get special spotlight in this game as Pokemon who show you the ropes of Mega Evolution.
Come to think of it, actually kinda conspicuous that this trailer didn't show off Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie in any capacity, much less their evolutions. If they're gonna get star billing themselves as the new stars of Mega Evolution, that we'll see in later trailers, then that would be a good explanation as to why they're being held back in marketing so far. Unlike back in XY where they were completely new Pokemon who couldn't afford to get overshadowed by Mega Evolutions (not to mention the philosophy back then was old mons only get Megas), this time they're old news, yet at the same time they are some of the most prominent Pokemon of the Kalos region, so giving them Megas this time around and letting them take on a similar role that the Kanto starters did in XY would be a nice throwback to the original games and full circle moment for the Kalos starters.
Come to think of it, actually kinda conspicuous that this trailer didn't show off Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie in any capacity, much less their evolutions. If they're gonna get star billing themselves as the new stars of Mega Evolution, that we'll see in later trailers, then that would be a good explanation as to why they're being held back in marketing so far. Unlike back in XY where they were completely new Pokemon who couldn't afford to get overshadowed by Mega Evolutions (not to mention the philosophy back then was old mons only get Megas), this time they're old news, yet at the same time they are some of the most prominent Pokemon of the Kalos region, so giving them Megas this time around and letting them take on a similar role that the Kanto starters did in XY would be a nice throwback to the original games and full circle moment for the Kalos starters.
yea i reckon this is it. kalos starters get cucked by their mega evolving counterparts -- it's inevitable.
It’s a post that also belongs in Unpopular Opinions, given that Mega Evolution is a fan favorite as a lore and mechanic.
With all that being said, I can see why you disliked it as a fanservice. Mega Evolution was given to popular Pokémon first and foremost instead of a genuine attempt of making obsolete Pokémon better, which is where it did rises several issues such as a power creep only matched by SV.
I already liked the little headshots for Pokemon in your menu in Arceus but the addition of Alola dex-esque dynamic poses really kicks things up a notch. Look at Mega Kangaskhan's baby, they're just having fun
In general this is a way better minimalist UI than SV, keeps the modern simplicity while having just enough actual flair
We don’t know much about ZA outside of basic information on the game.
Regarding new megas, I don’t expect that many new megas. Ash Greninja being converted into Mega Greninja (X) with Delphox and Chesnaught are a high probability.
Meganium, Emboar, and Feraligatr are not likely to get Megas imo, especially since it would exclude Typhlosion.
Yveltal and Xerneas will get Mega-like forms but not true megas, just like how Groudon and Kyogre got Primals.
Among regular Pokemon, the most likely mega candidates would be Kalos Pokemon, ones that don’t have regional forms already. Most like the Aces of gym leaders get Megas besides Avalugg.
Another potential Mega would be AZ’s Floette. Either it Mega evolves or Florges-AZ is introduced.
Regarding new megas, I don’t expect that many new megas. Ash Greninja being converted into Mega Greninja (X) with Delphox and Chesnaught are a high probability.
Meganium, Emboar, and Feraligatr are not likely to get Megas imo, especially since it would exclude Typhlosion.
Yveltal and Xerneas will get Mega-like forms but not true megas, just like how Groudon and Kyogre got Primals.
Among regular Pokemon, the most likely mega candidates would be Kalos Pokemon, ones that don’t have regional forms already. Most like the Aces of gym leaders get Megas besides Avalugg.
Another potential Mega would be AZ’s Floette. Either it Mega evolves or Florges-AZ is introduced.
- Status