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Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
We’d be even happier if it’s left in your box at level 5, WOAT starter
I will say Greninja is overwhelmingly the most popular Pokemon post Gen 4, it wins those FB polls dominated by earlier generation Pokemon. And Megas are the most popular “gimmick” by far too.
Dont underestimate casual Pokemon fans, they still care engage with Pokemon a lot and know some guys.
Lmaooo. It’s gonna be so funny when Magenium gets buffed but gets screwed somehow to be useless in competitive, and also is bad in game because it’s too slow and big to dodge attacks.
On that note, I wonder if fans are gonna care more about “realistic” speeds for Pokemon now that speed means you will be able to physically move out of the way of attacks more easily: if a big hunk of a Pokemon moves faster than some small rat, it’s gonna look weird.
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ten more years of vikavolt discourse...
Eternal Floette is a bit different since it was an actual character in game and its form was never released. It was removed as a form because it never existed as something the player could actually get.
Ash Greninja (and the “bond phenomenon” or whatever they called it) only existed because the anime wanted Ash to have a something on par with megas, and mega Greninja didn’t exist. Besides removing it in SV, they also retconned it out of the anime - it’s shown in multiple flashbacks as regular Greninja.
Even if Ash Greninja does show up again, they are not gonna repurpose an existing design as a mega. Like… I just don’t see why they would do that over doing whatever they actually want for mega Greninja. Ash Greninja will just be a weird anime tie in they try to forget about.
So the chaps over at Hidden Power have posited that Eternal Flower Floette (shown in the trailer) may well be the original “Paradox Pokemon”.
Eternal Flower isn’t that far off the naming pattern, and the overall idea of it as an ancient Floette that can’t evolve is pretty much Screamtail.
Probably not true but as an idea about the potential lore of this game, it intrigues for sure.
Eternal Flower isn’t that far off the naming pattern, and the overall idea of it as an ancient Floette that can’t evolve is pretty much Screamtail.
Probably not true but as an idea about the potential lore of this game, it intrigues for sure.
Didn’t Floette’s unique appearance come about due to her resurrection?
I'm pretty sure she always looked like that. Her extraordinary power might be a side effect of her resurrection, though.
Floette's unique appearance comes from being revived from the Ultimate weapon. This also granted Eternal Flower Floette eternal life, allowing her to still be alive in the present day, 3,000 years after her revival.
From Bulbapedia at least. Unsure if confirmed lol. But yeah considering we know the whole backstory and everything I doubt the Paradox theory holds any truth
based on the flashback, she always looked like that (though she does look a little different when she turns back up at the end -- her flower has opened, which is also reflected in the model of the unreleased floette-eternal)
I had this old crackpot theory that Ash-Greninja really was supposed to be "<player>-Greninja". That it was originally designed as a gimmick for the unreleased Pokémon Z, where the starter Pokémon model could take on some characteristics of the player model. After all, Gen VI added clothes to the player model by "pinning" accessory models to the player's animation rigging, and adding a few textures. It would not be that much of a stretch to do something equivalent for the model and textures of certain humanoid Pokémon. Just have each piece of player clothing correspond to a piece of Pokémon "clothing"; it wouldn't have to be 1-to-1 either. Ash-Greninja in the Anime would be a useful demonstration of that feature, but in the games, the Bond Phenomenon Pokémon would look like the player instead. The mechanic could feasibly be extended at least to all three Kalos starters, since they are all humanoid. But alas, Pokémon Z went nowhere, and Ash-Greninja was all we got.
Perhaps there was something to this theory, and they are digging the scrapped mechanic up again? Or perhaps it's all hogwash. Game Freak has never actually given us any indication either way.
Which is pretty weird in hindsight, because it’s like… why not just give him a different Mega, like they ended up doing anyway in Journeys?
I would be surprised if they brought Ash-Greninja back, but to be honest I’m also kind of surprised by how they’ve worked to bury it, given that it’s a popular form of one of the most popular Pokémon. While I would understand it from a creative standpoint if Game Freak’s preference is for Greninja to have a Mega that they designed on their own terms, the fact that Ash-Greninja is already established and liked by fans is inevitably going to invite comparisons for whatever GF may come up with.
The problem with Ash Greninja is that it's mainly an obnoxious thing to keep porting.
It's a event-only pokemon, not even available any longer. It's not legal in VGC, and even if it was, it's tied to a supermechanic they don't want to keep porting.
While for legendaries they can do their usual random shenenigans to make them available (we've had sidequests or side activities for them in pretty much every generation after gen 5 at this point to catch all or almost all available legendaries that are legal in VGC). Why bother for a Pokemon that was available in exactly 1 generation?
They could honestly have just made it not transferable at all (like the costume pikachus for example) and saved themselves the hassle.
So one set of landmarks I've only seen passing mention of are these gated courts with Pokeball symbols on them. I decided to take some time to highlight all the ones I can find, and the results are interesting.
I was able to find 9 courts, with Magenta, Rouge, Bleu and Vert Plaza having 2 each. Magenta Plaza has a sneaky hidden one whose fence is just barely peeking out from behind a building. Jaune, meanwhile, has only one, and it's a dirt court unlike the others: Perhaps the other is completely hidden?
The trailer (and XY itself!) made it very clear that there are no legal restrictions on where Pokemon battles can take place in Lumiose City: Stone Edge some poor young lady's Altaria in the middle of the street, who cares? As such, while we do see casual usage of one of these courts earlier in the overview, I have a feeling that these will be the staging grounds for some sequence of boss encounters. Maybe not a Lumiose Gym Challenge, but something adjacent that's divorced from the broader Kalos League, especially given that last stinger with the Rotom Phone.
It's worth noting that in XY, Lumiose Gym had 5 floors: 4 where you answered Pokemon trivia questions with the 5th being Clemont's arena. If Lumiose City were to go so far as to have its own Pokemon League, this sequence of floors could be perfectly renovated to make way for a new Elite Four and Champion.
I was able to find 9 courts, with Magenta, Rouge, Bleu and Vert Plaza having 2 each. Magenta Plaza has a sneaky hidden one whose fence is just barely peeking out from behind a building. Jaune, meanwhile, has only one, and it's a dirt court unlike the others: Perhaps the other is completely hidden?
The trailer (and XY itself!) made it very clear that there are no legal restrictions on where Pokemon battles can take place in Lumiose City: Stone Edge some poor young lady's Altaria in the middle of the street, who cares? As such, while we do see casual usage of one of these courts earlier in the overview, I have a feeling that these will be the staging grounds for some sequence of boss encounters. Maybe not a Lumiose Gym Challenge, but something adjacent that's divorced from the broader Kalos League, especially given that last stinger with the Rotom Phone.
It's worth noting that in XY, Lumiose Gym had 5 floors: 4 where you answered Pokemon trivia questions with the 5th being Clemont's arena. If Lumiose City were to go so far as to have its own Pokemon League, this sequence of floors could be perfectly renovated to make way for a new Elite Four and Champion.
I think the snag was that pre-Journeys they made a point of Ash always using entirely original Pokemon from the generation for his final team in whatever region he was travelling through other than Pikachu. This is probably why he never used an Alolan form in SM, and the only other time he broke this rule was with Aipom and Gligar in DP: One of those was traded away and both evolved into the unique-dex-slot-occupying Ambipom and Gliscor. While I no longer buy into the conspiracy theory that Ash-Greninja was some retooled Z remnant, I do think that if a Mega for any Kalos original had existed in XY then they would've gone with that. Hell, given how he used Melmetal in SM I wonder if they ever thought about just giving him Mega Diancie or if they even got adequate advance notice to make that call
According to an interview with Tetsuo Yajima (director of the XYZ series), Game Freak came up with the design for Ash-Greninja, but that was because Yajima went to them seeking their advice in figuring out how best to represent the growing bond between Ash and Greninja over the course of the anime’s story. I suppose that doesn’t rule out the remote possibility of it being based on some kind of scrapped mechanic, but it does more like it was specifically an accommodation of the anime’s needs. (I’m still trying to find exact quotes, however.)
my brother in christ literally every pokemon in legends arceus except the origin forms are effectively retcons
especially when 8 months after that game they retconned the retcon and actually these species still exist in modern day because we see them LOL
Ursaring doesn't have an evolution -> Ursaring only had an evolution back in Hisui, but doesn't nowadays -> Btw there's actually an entire different version of Ursaluna in Kitakami
you're telling me you can't think of a SINGLE way to make ash greninja just a mega? this shit is significantly less complicated than anything to do with "hisui" or "regionals of old mons" or "fuck you these pokemon are now fairy type"
literally all you'd have to say is by the power of anime, ash found a way to mega evolve without a mega stone because his bond was just so great. why is it in the main series games? event demo one time, also sun and moon is like the only pokemon game where ash ketchum is directly referenced lol
It's not that they can't make Ash Gren into a mega, it's that they won't. Because why would they do that when they can make a brand-new design. These people like making new designs.
I swear, it's like a marginally-more-plausible version of the "why didn't they reuse mega evolutions as Gigantimax forms" complaint.
Also going from "Greninja can't mega evolve so here's an unrelated form specific to Ash" to "actually Greninja can mega evolve, here's a new Mega Greninja" is a way more Game Freak style retcon. "Pikachu is the base form of Raichu jk that's Pichu"
be
gmax would've made zero sense because it's an entirely new gimmick and they wanted (and failed) to sell shit off of that. mega greninja vs ash greninja is selling the same amount of plushies. shit, ash greninja returning might actually sell more than an entirely new design. so putting that in a batch of new guys would make perfectly logical sense
lore wise ash greninja is already basically just a stoneless mega evolution
my counter-argument is that while Game Freak Employee might like it, Money Likes reusing assets, especially very popular ones
gmax would've made zero sense because it's an entirely new gimmick and they wanted (and failed) to sell shit off of that. mega greninja vs ash greninja is selling the same amount of plushies. shit, ash greninja returning might actually sell more than an entirely new design. so putting that in a batch of new guys would make perfectly logical sense
lore wise ash greninja is already basically just a stoneless mega evolution
The other option is that every district has 2 courts, which would also make sense. The dirt court is interesting, and immediately makes me think of clay court tennis. Some element of the ground you're fighting on providing more/less traction would be interesting, though that's maybe a bit complicated for the debut generation of a new battle style.
Actually, huh. What's going to happen with water types? Will we be forced to use only mons that can swim(maybe with a speed debuff) when fighting mons that spawn in the canals? Can Seaking even be used outside of the water? If we get into a fight on the rooftops, will flying mons be incredibly good while your Golem has about 3 sq feet to stand on? They could do a LOT with terrain in these sorts of battles, and IDK if they will or not.
We back to Galar baby, all we need is a bike!
And Battle Bond would be a fairly obvious ability for Mega Greninja now that they reworked it in SV.
I think they'll do it like the anime and you can only use one super gimmick per battle.
With that said, they NEED to nerf Dynamax. NEEEEED IT.
Personally this is a big part of my conviction on this topic. The SV devs would know for a while before launch what was happening with Greninja, let alone before the DLC release.
Battle Bond Greninja would not actually be much more effort to bring in, especially for such a popular Pokemon.
Actually one thing struck me and needs to be brought up.
I lowkey hope Emmet is in this game.
It would be funny seeing him in Lumiose, after his brother Ingo got Isekai'd into ancient Hisui and is there as a warden of Sneasler in untamed wildlands, while Emmet himself is now in a position in modern Lumiose helping out with the redevelopment because he can't run the Unova Battle Subway with his brother anymore so he's now moved here and is helping with the Lumiose trains and possibly bringing his experience as a battle facility head to the city for some of their projects.
I lowkey hope Emmet is in this game.
It would be funny seeing him in Lumiose, after his brother Ingo got Isekai'd into ancient Hisui and is there as a warden of Sneasler in untamed wildlands, while Emmet himself is now in a position in modern Lumiose helping out with the redevelopment because he can't run the Unova Battle Subway with his brother anymore so he's now moved here and is helping with the Lumiose trains and possibly bringing his experience as a battle facility head to the city for some of their projects.
I feel Audino had some popularity, maybe not as a Pokemon you wanted on your team but had its own appeal due to its unique position as the first Chansey expy (and of course it being experience fodder).
But I agree with everything else, it would not be like my first few picks for a Unova Mega, especially the only one (my top choices would've been Zoroark or Volcarona). Though Audino isn't the only Mega that was a let down, if anything Audino is a lesson that, while the Type change was nice, with all Mega only getting a static +100 BST the ones who BST was 500 and below need an equally powerful Ability or it all falls flat (especially if you're making a defensive focused Mega which is a Sisyphean uphill battle).
Very likely this, like I can see sometime after XY the Legendary deciding it wants to go back into hibernation (hopefully they have a way they can enter their dormant form without making everyone nearby immortal/dead; maybe the Ultimate Weapon drained enough of their energy that's not a concern that time, but the next...).
THOUGH, there is one other problem: Which version is canon? Did Lysandre capture Xerneas or Yveltal? That's not so easy to handwave unless you want to imply Z-A takes place in third timeline where Lysandre captured both. Like they could maybe have a way for the player themselves to choose which is canon before it becomes an important plot point, like the player reads a report of either Team Flare finding the Legendary or a indepth story on what happened in Geosenge, asking the player whether it says the Legendary looks like a "blue x-eyed stag" or "red y-shaped bird".
Either only Complete would be able to Mega Evolve or each of its forms will have a unique Mega form.
I think that's all coincidental. That's a very out-of-the-way of adding in "X" and "Y" to their designs.
Oh, they already solved the "desert Pokemon" habitat by having a Wild Zone with sand-filled paths (deep enough for the Sandile family to swim around in it).
My question is what they'll do for the Ice-types. Are they going to pull a Cold Storage or the likely sewer layer will have a Wild Zone that's freezing (which fine for Bergmite and I guess Snorunt, but Snover doesn't feel like a sewer Pokemon).
Note all these Pokemon, aside from the Starters of course, are in XY's Dex (maybe not the same Dex environment, but catchable in-game regardless). So maybe that was used as a base and all Pokemon in the XY Dex are catchable in Z-A with some additional ones? Which means...
The Elemental Monkeys would be indeed back!... I wonder how many people will be mad if they got Megas?
Castform and Rattata are the only two you listed who aren't in the XY Dex.
Have you tried looking up prices for the Switch Lite?
And they can always add in more NPCs via DLC, maybe even let players upload teams they built which others could download as NPCs to potentially show up.
As others said there is a timer counting down. Said timer is split into 5 segments, so maybe instead of 1 Mega per battle you need to do something during battle to "charge up" those segments before your Pokemon can Mega Evolve, and if you plan your Moves right may be able to Mega Evolve twice or three times. That would mitigate the issue of only ever wanting to use a small handful of Megas because you only get to use one of them during battle; of course there would still be Megas you'd never want to use period but the potential for multiple Mega Evolutions opens up the doors for others as they may just so happen to be out/the best choice when that chance comes along and the main "Mega" had already gone.
Tangentially related, a while back I made a list of several kinds of Type Triangles (I believe nothing has happened to change them):
Type Triangles:
- True:
Fire/Grass/Water
Fighting/Rock/Flying
Poison/Grass/Ground
Rock/Fire/Steel
- One Immunity: Fighting/Dark/Psychic
- One Immunity & Resist: Ground/Electric/Water
- Two Resist:
Fighting/Steel/Fairy
Flying/Grass/Rock
Ground/Fire/Grass
Ground/Fire/Ice
Rock/Fire/Grass
- One Resist:
Fighting/Ice/Flying
Ground/Rock/Ice
Ground/Steel/Ice
Rock/Bug/Grass
- None Resist: Rock/Ice/Grass
- Other:
Fighting/Dark/Ghost
Fighting/Normal/Ghost
Ground/Rock/Flying
Ground/Electric/Flying
Type Trios that don't share a relation:
First Type:
- Second Type/(Third Types)
- Second Type/(Third Types)
- Normal:
- Flying/(Poison/Fire/Water/Psychic/Dragon/Dark/Fairy)
- Poison/(Fire/Water/Electric/Ice/Dragon/Dark)
- Ground/(Psychic/Dragon/Dark/Fairy)
- Bug/(Water/Electric/Ice/Dragon)
- Fire/(Electric/Psychic/Dark)
- Water/(Psychic/Dark)
- Grass/(Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Electric/(Psychic/Ice/Dark/Fairy)
- Psychic/(Ice/Dragon/Fairy)
- Ice/(Dark/Fairy)
- Dragon/Dark
- Fighting:
- Ground/Dragon
- Fire/Electric
- Flying:
- Normal/(Poison/Fire/Water/Psychic/Dragon/Dark/Fairy)
- Poison/(Fire/Water/Dragon/Dark)
- Ghost/(Fire/Water/Dragon/Fairy)
- Fire/(Psychic/Dark)
- Water/(Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Psychic/(Dragon/Fairy)
- Dragon/Dark
- Poison:
- Normal/(Flying/Fire/Water/Electric/Ice/Dragon/Dark)
- Flying/(Fire/Water/Dragon/Dark)
- Fire/(Electric/Ice/Dark)
- Dark/(Water/Ice/Dragon)
- Electric/(Ice/Dark)
- Ground:
- Normal/(Psychic/Dragon/Dark/Fairy)
- Dragon/(Fighting/Dark)
- Ghost/(Dragon/Fairy)
- Psychic/(Dragon/Fairy)
- Rock:
- Ghost/(Electric/Dragon/Fairy)
- Electric/(Psychic/Dark/Fariy)
- Psychic/(Dragon/Fairy)
- Dragon/Dark
- Bug:
- Normal/(Water/Electric/Ice/Dragon)
- Electric/Ice
- Ghost:
- Flying/(Fire/Water/Dragon/Fairy)
- Ground/(Dragon/Fairy)
- Rock/(Electric/Dragon/Fairy)
- Fire/Electric
- Fairy/(Water/Grass/Ice)
- Electric/(Ice/Fairy)
- Fire:
- Normal/(Flying/Poison/Electric/Psychic/Dark)
- Electric/(Fighting/Ghost)
- Flying/(Poison/Ghost/Psychic/Dark)
- Poison/(Electric/Dark)
- Electric/(Psychic/Dark)
- Water:
- Normal/(Flying/Poison/Bug/Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Flying/(Poison/Bug/Ghost/Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Ghost/(Bug/Fairy)
- Psychic/Fairy
- Grass:
- Normal/(Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Fairy/(Ghost/Psychic)
- Electric:
- Normal/(Poison/Bug/Fire/Psychic/Ice/Dark/Fairy)
- Fighting/Fire
- Poison/(Rock/Fire/Ice/Dark)
- Rock/(Ghost/Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Bug/Ice
- Ghost/(Fire/Ice/Fairy)
- Fire/(Psychic/Dark)
- Psychic/(Ice/Fairy)
- Ice/(Dark/Fairy)
- Psychic:
- Normal/(Flying/Ground/Fire/Water/Grass/Electric/Ice/Dragon/Fairy)
- Flying/(Fire/Water/Dragon/Fairy)
- Ground/(Dragon/Fairy)
- Rock/(Electric/Dragon/Fariy)
- Fire/Electric
- Fairy/(Water/Grass/Ice)
- Electric/(Ice/Fairy)
- Ice:
- Normal/(Poison/Bug/Electric/Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Poison/(Electric/Dark)
- Bug/Electric
- Ghost/(Electric/Fairy)
- Electric/(Psychic/Dark/Fairy)
- Psychic/Fairy
- Dragon:
- Normal/(Flying/Poison/Ground/Bug/Psychic/Dark)
- Fighting/Ground
- Flying/(Poison/Ghost/Psychic/Dark)
- Poison/Dark
- Ground/(Ghost/Psychic/Dark)
- Rock/(Ghost/Psychic/Dark)
- Dark:
- Normal/(Flying/Poison/Ground/Fire/Water/Grass/Electric/Ice/Dragon)
- Flying/(Poison/Fire/Water/Dragon)
- Poison/(Fire/Water/Electric/Ice/Dragon)
- Ground/Dragon
- Rock/(Electric/Dragon)
- Electric/(Fire/Ice)
- Fairy:
- Normal/(Flying/Ground/Water/Grass/Electric/Psychic/Ice)
- Flying/(Ghost/Water/Psychic)
- Ground/(Ghost/Psychic)
- Rock/(Ghost/Electric/Psychic)
- Ghost/(Water/Grass/Electric/Ice)
- Psychic/(Water/Grass/Ice)
- Electric/(Psychic/Ice)
Unless your a Sinnoh Starter, almost did in Legends: Arceus. Torterra got Headlong Rush, but so did Ursaluna, and then in SV was joined by Hariyama(?) and Great Tusk. Infernape got Raging Fury, but so did Hisuian Arcanine, and then in SV was joined by Gourging Fire (also became an Egg Move so normal Arcanine gets it too). Empoleon got Wave Crash... which worked off its lower offense stat, thus it worked better on Basculin & Basculegion who also got it, and then a handful of others got it in SV such as the Squirtle family, Aqua Tauros, Kingdra, Buizel family, Bruxish, Quaquaval, Palafin, and Dondozo.
SAY, what if for the Zygarde Cells instead of looking around the city, for some reason the Cells are sticking onto Pokemon and that's going to cause them to go berserk and be our Noble Pokemon expies. Now not all of them have to be Mega Pokemon, though then again they could have multiple on each Mega Boss. And then there's the Cores which could maybe be a way they have the Mega Legendaries with them.
"But why would Zygarde do that"? Well it wouldn't, something would be making Zygarde's cells go rogue in Lumiose City and it now needs a strong trainer to help recollect itself.
They don't need to retcon anything, just introduce a new factor that is changing the environment in a way it's affecting some Pokemon in unexpected ways. Infinity Energy created the Mega Stones, whose to say it can't cause new evolution forms?
Well since we're not likely going to Glittering Cave where else are we going to get fossils? Also Ghost-types would probably want to have that be their Wild Zone, would be their Lavender Town/Mt. Pyre.
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And I've finally reached my first post! Going to stop here for today then.
I've heard various proposals similar to this in that they entail bringing in major elements from other regions (for instance, another idea I've seen fairly often is having Ultra Beasts/Necrozma play a story role). Honestly, I'd rather not: This is Kalos' time to shine first and foremost and I don't want the continuation of its story, characters and worldbuilding getting cannibalized. LA Ingo worked because of how unexpected he was and how despite that he still tied into the overarching themes of time-space displacement and finding value in a strange new land.
Johto, Unova and Alola will have their return trips sooner or later. They can wait.
I'd have to check exactly what it can and can't do. For example, if it can't connect to a dock, that's already a dealbreaker.
The biggest one is the Switch 2 coming up on the horizon. Ain't no sense in splitting up bread for inferior hardware.