Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced

btw, Hello once again mysterious Hex Maniac

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QuentinQuonce said:
Actually quite like this design against all my instincts, it's goofy but it fits Victreebel's whole vibe

Are the majority of the new Megas going to be from Gen I, though? I'm hoping they're giving some of the Kalos roster Mega forms and saving them for release but c'mon, give me something non-Kantonian to get interested in. Something from Sinnoh or Unova or even Galar would be neat.
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Don't worry, the list that's out there will more than cover your demands. I'm a bit annoyed myself at them doubling up on Kanto for prerelease reveals but Mega Victreebel is a funny dude so I'll let it slide
 
R_N said:
Probably a dumb question, since I haven't reviewed all the footage before now and it's just front & center now, but is this the first time we've seen Vivillon in footage?
i was wondering what the pattern situation would be. Will it stick with Meadow worldwide since its france or just showing it for footage's sake, you know?
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We saw Vivillon in Scarlet & Violet and I believe the implication there was that the Fancy Pattern is/was originally from Paldea, seeing as real world France is bordering the real-world Iberian Peninsula. I think it would be neat if they took this and ran with it- instead of making the forms region exclusive for players depending on where they’re from, make it so that the patterns match what they would be in that region’s real world equivalent.
 
I've always thought of Victreebel as the least Poison of the Grass/Poison lines. It started out as the poster child of Razor Leaf's crit rate and became a chlorophyll sweeper. Like, it's hard to get excited about the possibility of an anti-Steel option on something that routinely ran Fire-type Weather Ball, no? Sure, it might help for a bulky role, but I doubt the net effect is going to be close to Venusaur removing two major weaknesses and being able to apply a better DoT in Leech Seed in the first place. And if it goes all-in on being a physical attacker to avoid being discount Venusaur, I'd rather take Beedrill.
 
Ironmage said:
I've always thought of Victreebel as the least Poison of the Grass/Poison lines. It started out as the poster child of Razor Leaf's crit rate and became a chlorophyll sweeper. Like, it's hard to get excited about the possibility of an anti-Steel option on something that routinely ran Fire-type Weather Ball, no? Sure, it might help for a bulky role, but I doubt the net effect is going to be close to Venusaur removing two major weaknesses and being able to apply a better DoT in Leech Seed in the first place. And if it goes all-in on being a physical attacker to avoid being discount Venusaur, I'd rather take Beedrill.
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Its kind of funny cause i thought the same before my pokedex dive, but its actually the MOST poison aligned of the grass poisons. Gameplay and lore segregation strikes again I suppose.
 
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Bulbasaur, Bellsprout, and Oddish always felt like some kind of neat trio to me. The latter two were actually the last Pokemon evolution families designed and added for Kanto that aren’t named Mew, and conventional wisdom seems to suggest they were added both to hit a better-looking 150 (plus Mew) and so Charmander and Squirtle players had another option for Misty’s Gym. Vileplume not having a Mega when these other two do now is… strange, to say the least. I suppose you could argue that Vileplume did get the split evolution with Bellossom, but Slowbro had a split evolution also and it still got a Mega in ORAS. So for similar reasoning, why no Mega Slowking either?

All of the Kanto bias here, I personally don’t mind that much. This and Champions are going to be The Pokémon Company’s main focuses for 2026 so it does make sense to some extent. It might be my Poison-Type bias showing, but I don’t mind all of the Megas being from Kanto for this Type because of the extremely specific way Poison-Types were selected. That’s for another thread, though.
 
Jungle cruiser said:
Also on an unrelated note, anyone else find it funny how all the poison type megas are from kanto mons? Says a lot about many things hehe
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To be fair though Kanto makes up like about 50% of all existing Poison-types. Pretty sure combining all Poison mons from gens 2 through 9 you just barely get more Poison mons than all of kanto
 
Oh yeah but on a side note since both Dragonite and Victreebel, two of the new Megas revealed so far, are both Gen 1 Pokemon, I decided to go down the list of Pokemon who have received dedicated changes/additions or any sort of special treatment since their debut among the Gen 1 roster, and compare it to the list of Pokemon who haven't gotten anything thus far, since this shrinks the list down further:

Baby Pokemon: Pikachu, Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan, Chansey, Mr. Mime, Jynx, Electabuzz, Magmar, Snorlax
New Evolution: Golbat, Gloom (branched alternate), Primeape, Poliwhirl (branched alternate), Slowpoke (branched alternate), Magneton, Farfetch'd (Galarian), Onix, Hitmons (new alternate), Lickitung, Rhydon, Chansey, Tangela, Seadra, Mr. Mime (Galarian), Scyther, Electabuzz, Magmar, Eevee (new Eeveelutions), Porygon (twice no less!)
Mega Evolution: Venusaur, Charizard (two!), Blastoise, Beedrill, Pidgeot, Alakazam, Victreebel, Slowbro, Gengar, Kangaskhan, Pinsir, Gyarados, Aerodactyl, Dragonite, Mewtwo (two!)
Signature Z-Move: Pikachu, Raichu (Alolan), Eevee, Snorlax, Mew
Regional Form: Rattata line, Raichu, Sandshrew line, Vulpix line, Diglett line, Meowth line, Growlithe line, Geodude line, Ponyta line, Slowpoke line, Farfetch'd, Grimer line, Voltorb line, Exeggutor, Marowak, Weezing, Mr. Mime, Tauros, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres
Gigantamax: Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Butterfree, Pikachu, Meowth, Machamp, Gengar, Kingler, Lapras, Eevee, Snorlax
Convergents (or ecologically similar species): Diglett line, Tentacool line

Which leaves the following as currently unchanged:
- Spearow line
- Ekans line
- Nidoran lines (both)
- Paras line
- Venonat line
- Psyduck line
- Doduo line
- Shellder line
- Drowzee line
- Goldeen line
- Staryu line (Though considering this is Lida's main partner, I suspect Starmie will get a Mega in this game accordingly, in which case this will be going off the list pretty soon)
- Ditto
- Omanyte line
- Kabuto line

This leaves a pretty small number of Pokemon left from the original 151 who have not received any dedicated significant changes or additions since debut. Aside from Ditto, who is entirely tied to its gimmick, the rest of them leave a small pool left right now. Psyduck and Ekans are fairly surprising considering how well known they are, but the rest of the lines for the most part are duds and not very popular among the 151.
 
Bakugames said:
gen 1 poison type is truthfully a fusion in role of modern poison and dark type. if they took the fairy inclusion approach of gen 6, a lot of pokemon like the ekans line, zubat line, ghastly line and maybe even the bellsprout line itself would have been retyped to dark
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Incidentally, Karen uses a couple of Poison-Types in her first Elite Four teams, repping Gengar, Vileplume, and what was likely originally a Poison-Type in Umbreon. Actual Poison/Dark Pokémon aren’t all that frequent though, with the only memorable ones I can think of being Drapion (not even Skorupi) and the Alolan Grimer family. Karen’s never shown up in a game with Alolan Muk and even if she had, Koga uses a regular Muk in the same Elite Four quartet. They could have given Karen five Dark-Types if they wanted to, since there are just enough, but it seems like they were going for some kind of nighttime theme with her final team, assuming she wasn’t a Poison-Type specialist outright prior to Koga getting his job promotion.
 
ScraftyIsTheBest said:
Which leaves the following as currently unchanged:
- Spearow line
- Ekans line
- Nidoran lines (both)
- Paras line
- Venonat line
- Psyduck line
- Doduo line
- Shellder line
- Drowzee line
- Goldeen line
- Staryu line (Though considering this is Lida's main partner, I suspect Starmie will get a Mega in this game accordingly, in which case this will be going off the list pretty soon)
- Ditto
- Omanyte line
- Kabuto line
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Spearow and Doduo were likely not given Megas at the time due to being released alongside Pidgey. Nidoqueen and Nidoking would probably hit less hard as Megas than they would with Life Orb + Sheer Force. Paras got all the spotlight it could ever dream of in Hisui, lol. Venonat… I’m not sure for this one, honestly. Psyduck is an interesting one, because it’s specifically Psyduck that’s the favorite, and if anything it would make more sense for it to get something than for us to get a Mega Golduck. Shellder and Goldeen are more I don’t know what they would do with. Drowzee surprises me given Hypno’s reputation and because pretty much every balance change in Gold & Silver ruined this thing. You already mentioned Staryu, as well as Ditto who will probably never get a Mega at all because of the Powder items and the Choice Scarf it likes to run. Finally, the two fossils probably weren’t given anything because Game Freak may have wanted Aerodactyl to be the only fossil Pokémon to get a new form.

How’d I do?
 
Aren't abilities absent in PLZA? If so, that throws a tiny bit of a wrench in the idea that Mega Victreebel would be able to hit Steel-types with Poison attacks with its ability. That's kind of a defining trait of a Pokémon that would be super weird to leave out in its debut game.

It's not impossible since they can always program an exemption/workaround, but I will heavily question Game Freak's game design philosophy if Mega Victreebel only gets such an ability in Champions or whatever.
 
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Karxrida said:
Aren't abilities absent in PLZA? If so, that throws a tiny bit of a wrench in the idea that Mega Victreebel would be able to hit Steel-types with Poison attacks with its ability. That's kind of a defining trait of a Pokémon that would be super weird to leave out in its debut game.

It's not impossible, but I will heavily question Game Freak's game design philosophy if Mega Victreebel only gets such an ability in Champions or whatever.
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I’m assuming everyone talking about Mega abilities refers to what they’d get in Champions…unless they pull a Legends Arceus Cherrim or Regigigas where they have Ability-like passives in ZA.
 
AztecCroc said:
I mean it's possible that only Megas have abilities in ZA.
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There’s almost certainly going to be some Pokémon like Cherrim and Regigigas here. Is the fandom forgetting that this is the region Aegislash came from? Now, what I will say is that Aegislash is probably just going to be another one of those passive Ability cases. This doesn’t mean all non-Megas will have Abilities by any means. So long as Mega Kangaskhan gets Parental Bond in some capacity, that’s the main thing I care about, that and Aegislash.
 
If I evolved into that I also would tie a rope around my neck.

Though from a boring competitive standpoint we're getting a Pokemon that probably has a lot of bulk, Corrosion, Strength Sap, Knock Off, and Synthesis while being a Poison so it still gets Toxic. If they just do a lazy +20 everything this guy is gonna be absolute ass. But if it gets like, -20 speed +40 def / sp def and +40 attack maybe we're looking at a passable Mega. Victreebel's stats aren't great so I hope they min-max.

This thing is one of my favorite Pokemon so I hope they do it right stat-wise, even if the design is goofy.
 
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