Unpopular opinions

[Divine Retribution]

But at the top levels... there's still the same issue as always of using your mega slot on a passive wall instead of a high utility or high power one.

I don't think this is inherently an issue honestly, I think the problem is more that there are no defensive Megas except for Sableye and Audino. Mega Sableye saw some pretty significant success (although I guess you could argue it falls into the category of "high utility" with Magic Bounce, Wisp, Knock, etc.), and Mega Audino's shortcomings go beyond just it taking up your Mega slot.

I think if there were more actually viable defensive Megas, there's not really any inherent reason why they wouldn't see some usage on stall and other more defensive team archetypes, but for whatever reason GameFreak decided to give almost every Mega a heavily offensive bias. Even some that, on paper, might seem defensive, such as Slowbro, are usually used offensively, with Mega Slowbro seeming almost designed to be the ideal Calm Mind sweeper.

 

[Worldie]

but for whatever reason GameFreak decided to give almost every Mega a heavily offensive bias

Tbh it's not exactly hard to guess why.

Remember that the main competitive modes, BSS and VGC, are high tempo metas which (for separate reasons) heavily punish stall oriented team compositions.
If you want your "super mechanic" to be used, it's way WAY more likely to be used if it's offensive oriented than if it's defensive. Similarly in gen 7 and 8, Z-moves and Dynamax were hardly ever used for defensive purposes, their main usage was always to either get a kills with higher power attacks, or in best case to help a potential sweeper maintain its status by being tankier and live hits it had no business living otherwise.

 

[Samtendo09]

I don't think megas necessarily prohibit Pokemon like Banette and Audino from getting regular evolutions in the future. If Game Freak ever wants to do that, they can just... do that. And if they ever decide to bring megas back, Mega Banette and Mega Audino will just retroactively be in the same boat as Gmax Pikachu and Gmax Meowth. Or Catastropika and Extreme Evoboost. Or Light Ball and Lucky Punch. Pokemon getting special stuff that their evolutions can't access is nothing new. It'd be weird and pattern-breaking, but if it gets in the way, fuck it.

The catch is that Mega Evolution is meant to surpass standard evolution in terms of power boost… so there is key of not making a new evolution of a Pokémon too much resemblance of their Mega Evolution playstyle-wise and go for a more distinct direction from the Mega form design-wise.

I admit I do have the idea of giving new evolution for some Pokémon that got a Mega Evolution (so long they aren’t already stage 3 of course) to compensate not having access to it until postgame or not at all, but I do have to be careful not making the new evos just “their Mega Evolution but more natural / as normal evo”, I have to think Mega Evolution as special alternative forms akin to GMax as you pointed out, with a side flavor of ”special, stronger but limiting” breaching evolution line.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Another wrinkle in the Mega Evolution discussion I sort of alluded to yesterday but didn't go in-depth on is how little they contribute from a worldbuilding/"immediacy" (don't know a better word) standpoint. This is honestly a big reason why I have soured on the mechanic so hard. Mega Evolutions are in a very unique position in that they are among the only designs in the series that explicitly cannot exist in the wild. For all of Gen 6, they didn't even have their own Pokedex entries. This presents a major problem for their memorability, more than I think a lot of people realize. In their current state, Megas never get a chance to feel like a true part of the Pokemon world and its ecosystems. You'd have never see them occupying buildings and running around the world in newer titles, even if they hadn't been outright removed. An individual Mega Evolution has no special cultural or gameplay significance like Wyrdeer for instance. You can't tell a story about an obnoxious quest to find one in the wild, nor about shiny-hunting one. You pick up its base form, you find a rock somewhere and that's that.

It didn't have to be this way, of course. Perhaps in another reality we had Mega Raid Battles in XY that generated tons of fun anecdotes about people getting wrecked by 5 Star Mega Mawile or whatever. Or maybe Game Freak showed stronger commitment to the idea, steadily ironing out its flaws and further enhancing its strong points over the course of multiple titles. Once again, however, these are nothing but hypotheticals. They could theoretically still happen, but the prospects right now seem murky at best.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

Mega Evolutions are in a very unique position in that they are among the only designs in the series that explicitly cannot exist in the wild. For all of Gen 6, they didn't even have their own Pokedex entries. This presents a major problem for their memorability, more than I think a lot of people realize. In their current state, Megas never get a chance to feel like a true part of the Pokemon world and its ecosystems. You'd have never see them occupying buildings and running around the world in newer titles, even if they hadn't been outright removed. An individual Mega Evolution has no special cultural or gameplay significance like Wyrdeer for instance. You can't tell a story about an obnoxious quest to find one in the wild, nor about shiny-hunting one. You pick up its base form, you find a rock somewhere and that's that.

You know, between the artificial conditions and Generation VII's dark Pokédex entries, Mega Evolution has a bit of a "Dark Evolution from Digimon" vibe.
So it's strange that in-universe, a strong bond between the Pokémon and its Trainer is required.
Maybe in another timeline, XY would be about Team Flare toying with nature to create Mega Evolution and you stopping them with Xerneas or Yveltal (or even Zygarde, it's the Order Pokémon after all).

 

[Imperial Magala]

You know, between the artificial conditions and Generation VII's dark Pokédex entries, Mega Evolution has a bit of a "Dark Evolution from Digimon" vibe.
So it's strange that in-universe, a strong bond between the Pokémon and its Trainer is required.
Maybe in another timeline, XY would be about Team Flare toying with nature to create Mega Evolution and you stopping them with Xerneas or Yveltal (or even Zygarde, it's the Order Pokémon after all).

This is the part where I reference that one "aliens were behind the plot of beta X/Y" rumor and reference that mega stones where pieces of AZ's ship, with some mega evolutions resembling Deoxys, with ORAS picking up the pieces by having Rayquaza mega evolve from eating meteors.

 

[Samtendo09]

I mean Mega Evolution is the result of manmade wars in Kalos more than a thousand year ago, or at the very least a result of manmade stones by collecting powerful energy from landed meteors, in addition of the manmade Ultimate Weapon, fueled by Eternal Floette, that wiped out many population.

Nature have nothing to do with which Pokémon can Mega Evolve; chances that, the various Mega Stone just happened to be compatible with compatible species, even manmade Pokémon like we’ve seen with Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y. Or it could be that Mega Stones are also manmade by ancient civilizations some hundred years after the events of the Ultimate Weapon Armageddon… and the Mega Stones for Mewtwo are made by modern day Kanto scientists in hope to make it even stronger.

Whatever it is, the phenomenon isn’t natural, and even gives unpredictable side-effects that, sadly, isn’t into play in-game. It also explains why Sun and Moon’s Pokédex have horror tales about several Mega Evolution. That, or Rotom is jealous of not having one and is demonizing them whenever possible.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Wasn't it explicitly stated somewhere in X/Y that Mega Stones were the result of stones being irradiated with fallout from the Ultimate Weapon? Maybe I missed something but I don't recall anything about landed meteors, I assume the bit about them falling to earth was simply because the explosion from the Weapon being fired launched them into the atmosphere the way a real-world high-yield explosion or impact event will launch ejecta into the atmosphere.

We already know radiation in the Pokemon universe is basically just a magic force that causes evolution (and probably not cancer, otherwise my OR/AS character running around with dozens of Mega Stones in his backpack at any given time is dead as fuck), so it seems like as good a nebulous, hand-wavey explanation as any other.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Wasn't it explicitly stated somewhere in X/Y that Mega Stones were the result of stones being irradiated with fallout from the Ultimate Weapon? Maybe I missed something but I don't recall anything about landed meteors, I assume the bit about them falling to earth was simply because the explosion from the Weapon being fired launched them into the atmosphere the way a real-world high-yield explosion or impact event will launch ejecta into the atmosphere.

We already know radiation in the Pokemon universe is basically just a magic force that causes evolution (and probably not cancer, otherwise my OR/AS character running around with dozens of Mega Stones in his backpack at any given time is dead as fuck), so it seems like as good a nebulous, hand-wavey explanation as any other.

The bit about meteors was added in ORAS.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I would be down for a Legends: Zygarde someday that takes place in ancient Kalos that expands on the lore of Mega Evolution even more than Gen 6 did.

There's definitely a lot of potential to expand on Mega Evolution's lore in Kalos in particular in the future, and with the Legends sub series being a thing now within the mainline games, especially with the premise of said style of games being that they take place in the regions we know except in the past, there's tons of potential for Mega Evolution lore to be expanded on in an ancient Kalos-situated game, especially in terms of its relation to the legendary trio of Kalos, aka Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde. From a gameplay standpoint a Legends: Zygarde also opens up new potential to expand on the use of Mega Evolution as a mechanic in a new and different way from how it was implemented in the 3DS games themselves, while also perhaps adding more Mega Evolutions in the future, perhaps to more mons that actually would benefit from them too.

Mega Evolution is still my favorite of the super mechanics thus far, and while I can understand why some people here have grievances with how the concept was executed, I still personally love Mega Evolution because of how it made so many different mons more fun and interesting to use in its own way, and I honestly miss them a lot even now. Not a single super mechanic since has ever been as cool or fun to me as Mega Evolution (Z-Moves are a close second but not *as* fun to me as Megas, but Dynamax on the other hand is lame and boring while also being stupidly overpowered and mindless to use. I'm not sure how I will feel about Terastal but it's looking a bit shaky there).

From a lore standpoint there's definitely a chance to expand on Mega Evolution more, and with how successful PLA was, it's clear that they will want to make more Legends styled games in the future. A Legends game situated in ancient Kalos, such as a hypothetical Legends: Zygarde, would be a perfect opportunity to bring back Mega Evolution and to expand on its lore even further than what we saw in XY and ORAS. Especially since Kalos from a worldbuilding standpoint has a lot of untapped potential for more lore expansion (partially because it didn't get a Pokemon Z), and a Legends: Zygarde would be a magnificent opportunity to expand on Kalos lore and the Mega Evolution phenomenon. It's also a great opportunity to re-examine them from a gameplay standpoint in terms of how they are used, and perhaps they could re-work the mechanic to make it even better than it was in Gen 6 and 7.

Anyway that's my input on Mega Evolution from a lore standpoint and a little from a gameplay standpoint. There's still untapped potential on that front there, and imo I would love a Legends game in ancient Kalos to expand on that lore aspect more. Perhaps also reinvent Mega Evolution as a mechanic while also bringing in new ones in a different way for a PL Zygarde, Mega Evolution feels like the best mechanic that is worth revisiting in that regard and there's a lot they could do with it in the future.

 

[pika pal]

The catch is that Mega Evolution is meant to surpass standard evolution in terms of power boost… so there is key of not making a new evolution of a Pokémon too much resemblance of their Mega Evolution playstyle-wise and go for a more distinct direction from the Mega form design-wise.

I admit I do have the idea of giving new evolution for some Pokémon that got a Mega Evolution (so long they aren’t already stage 3 of course) to compensate not having access to it until postgame or not at all, but I do have to be careful not making the new evos just “their Mega Evolution but more natural / as normal evo”, I have to think Mega Evolution as special alternative forms akin to GMax as you pointed out, with a side flavor of ”special, stronger but limiting” breaching evolution line.

Megas in gameplay are already designed to either change the Pokemon's gameplay completely or to buff their current one's function (this assuming the Pokemon even had a playstyle instead of a meandering gimmick build), so theoretically an evolution can simply take the opposite route akin to Branched Evolutions.

Meanwhile, I feel like the point of Megas existence in design on Pokemon that can evolve is as easy to handwave away as any other in Anime or typical fantasy settings as far as worldbuilding goes. To step away from Digimon, another Transformation heavy series is Dragon Ball Z, in which oftentimes the characters have variants on their different forms that differ in efficiency, whether due to how easy they are to use, their stamina burn, or the power they can allow. Most applicable there is the Cell Saga, where characters kept finding variations on the Super Saiyan form (Vegeta and Trunks basically overclock it to bulk up, while Goku tries to acclimate to the form and reduce the power drop) before actually unlocking the next stage from it. Megas are already a phenomenon that doesn't occur the same way as natural evolution, so nothing says they strictly have to be stronger OR weaker than the other. There aren't many other issues with adding evolutions that specifically stem from the Megas specifically.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I can absolutely get on board with '[Pokemon] should've gotten a regular evolution instead of a Mega-evolution and it sucks that the gimmick might've locked out that possibility forever' but when the sentiment becomes '[Pokemon]'s Mega should've just been its regular evolution' I get a little confused. Imo virtually none of the Megas work as regular evolutions without a pretty thorough redesign, both in terms of appearance and battle capability.

To put it in perspective, Mega Mawile has 480 BST. The only thing that makes it such a threat is Huge Power.

Also, visually speaking, Mega Glalie looks like a regular evo in my book. It helps that it doesn't have sharp and wavy protrusions everywhere like most Megas.

 

[Coronis]

What will be most interesting for me is to see how the various super mechanics will be handled by the time we eventually come along to remakes for their generations. (assuming here of course that the relevant mechanic isn’t brought back for the whole generation)

 

[Yung Dramps]

What will be most interesting for me is to see how the various super mechanics will be handled by the time we eventually come along to remakes for their generations. (assuming here of course that the relevant mechanic isn’t brought back for the whole generation)

I know this is purely a hypothetical but jesus christ just the idea of me living long enough to see XY or SM remakes is a thought that makes me feel like im gonna shrivel up and die

 

[Coronis]

To put it in perspective, Mega Mawile has 480 BST. The only thing that makes it such a threat is Huge Power.

Also, visually speaking, Mega Glalie looks like a regular evo in my book. It helps that it doesn't have sharp and wavy protrusions everywhere like most Megas.

Nah none of the Megas look like regular evos or could be retconned into them for me, they literally are the Pokemon’s base design with an added or changed feature. A normal evo needs its own unique design.

 

[Divine Retribution]

I know this is purely a hypothetical but jesus christ just the idea of me living long enough to see XY or SM remakes is a thought that makes me feel like im gonna shrivel up and die

Now you know how I feel about the fact that I've lived to see BDSP remakes, and will probably see either B/W or another set of G/S/C remakes in the relatively near future, assuming we aren't plunged into nuclear war or something.

Nah none of the Megas look like regular evos or could be retconned into them for me, they literally are the Pokemon’s base design with an added or changed feature. A normal evo needs its own unique design.

... but there are plenty of Pokemon who boil down to "pre-evolution but bigger with some slightly altered features"? Like do you really think there's more difference between, say, Clefairy and Clefable than there is between Glalie and Mega Glalie?

 

[Coronis]

... but there are plenty of Pokemon who boil down to "pre-evolution but bigger with some slightly altered features"? Like do you really think there's more difference between, say, Clefairy and Clefable than there is between Glalie and Mega Glalie?

More of an overall general commentary, obviously there are cases that don’t follow this rule, particularly earlier in the series but yeah, thats my thought.

And yeah literally every Mega I can think of (including Glalie) is just something that should be a form change if anything rather than an evo.

 

[Cratersmash]

Something that’s dumb is XY’s underutilization of Megas in boss fights. The thing is, they realized that it was dumb and gave a bunch of them Megas in the anime.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Well, regardless I'm not really in the camp of wanting to retcon Mega Evolutions as standard evolutions, but I think there are definitely some Mega Evolutions that most people wouldn't have thought twice about if they had been released as standard evolutions instead, and Glalie is probably in that camp. "Big Glalie with a beard" is basically the same premise as Probopass, isn't it?

 

[Sonikku A]

If anything, I feel some Megas suffer the Gen 4 "over decorated" evo problem

That said, if we're to turn them into evos for design, personally...

Audino: tweak ear shape slightly

Sableye: perfect, maybe change purple

Beedrill and Ampharos: change yellow to be oranger

Altaria: cover eyes with fluff

Glalie: iffy on design, but it's distinct enough already

Aggron: I can't think of much

Salamence: it's a stupid design, but maybe make it greener. Or ref the RSE color

Camerupt: fine already

Blaziken: fine already

Sceptile: fine already

Swampert: good already

Gardevoir: have it more like a knight with flowing elements

Gallade: ^shrugs^

Aerodactyl: recolor it

Slowbro: This is horrible lore wise. Keep it

Lopunny: no changes

Tyranitar: meh. I dunno, but meh

Metagross: No changes

Sharpedo: Recolor spikes

Pinsir: recolor body to be darker, metallic

Heracross: fix the face, change color

Scizor: make it blue, rgb Evo line!

Alakazam: beyond perfect

Banette: perfect

Abomasnow: It's design is garbage, please redesign

Steelix: maybe make body black. Onix's dex entry notes that really old ones are smooth and black

Houndoom: recolor bones

Medicham: Gold instead of pink

Manectric: I feel a recolor is needed, unsure

Pidgeot: Perfect

Gyarados: Perfect

Mawhile: Change color (slightly or not), the second head and body shape is nice

Absol: maybe have it grey, to be a fallen angel

Gengar: change eye color, shiny differentiates nicely already

Kangaskhan: This is a weird case where I'd say make it so the pink baby for reg is first form, second is the mega of the kid, then final Kangaskhan

Venusaur: the design is trash cuz butt flower cutout

Blastoise: extra notches or maybe fluff, a bit plain otherwise

Charizard X: make the black shiny, color closer to orange, but retain red eyes

Charizard Y: change belly color

Mewtwo, Rayquaza, Kyogre, Groudon, Latis: No, you're legendaries, stahp

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Well, regardless I'm not really in the camp of wanting to retcon Mega Evolutions as standard evolutions, but I think there are definitely some Mega Evolutions that most people wouldn't have thought twice about if they had been released as standard evolutions instead, and Glalie is probably in that camp. "Big Glalie with a beard" is basically the same premise as Probopass, isn't it?

Considering how different Snorunt, Glalie, and Froslass all look, a Glalie evolution that looked looked like "Glalie but extra" would feel very weird.

Frankly, the only mega that I think could visually pass for a regular evolution is Mega Manectric. The huge lightning mane changes its stance and silhouette so much that it barely reads as "Manectric but extra".

 

[Divine Retribution]

Considering how different Snorunt, Glalie, and Froslass all look, a Glalie evolution that looked looked like "Glalie but extra" would feel very weird.

Frankly, the only mega that I think could visually pass for a regular evolution is Mega Manectric. The huge lightning mane changes its stance and silhouette so much that it barely reads as "Manectric but extra".

Fair enough, although I probably wouldn't consider it that much of a big deal, and I think we're kind of getting down into the reeds a bit here. Mega Altaria, for example, feels like a pretty logical extrapolation of the Altaria line while still being visually distinct enough from standard Altaria to me. The same goes for Banette, Mawile, Sableye, and probably a few others (Manectric included), but this is all purely subjective and honestly I don't really want them recycling Mega designs anyways for other reasons, I'd rather these Pokemon get entirely new standard evolutions. Some of them can draw inspiration from their Mega forms, others can take entirely divergent paths.

 

[Coronis]

Fair enough, although I probably wouldn't consider it that much of a big deal, and I think we're kind of getting down into the reeds a bit here. Mega Altaria, for example, feels like a pretty logical extrapolation of the Altaria line while still being visually distinct enough from standard Altaria to me. The same goes for Banette, Mawile, Sableye, and probably a few others (Manectric included), but this is all purely subjective and honestly I don't really want them recycling Mega designs anyways for other reasons, I'd rather these Pokemon get entirely new standard evolutions. Some of them can draw inspiration from their Mega forms, others can take entirely divergent paths.

Sableye really? It just picked up a big gem.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I thought the gem Sableye holds was the ruby in its chest that became huge due to Mega Evolution magic.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Sableye really? It just picked up a big gem.

I mean, I could also say "Altaria really?" - it just gets extra floofy.

Really I'm not personally convinced that any of the Megas barring one or two look like they could be full evolutions. They're pretty much all the original model with some extra fur, spikes, or weapons slapped on.

The only exceptions I can immediately think of are Mega Latios and Latias, neither of which look that similar to the original forms IMO so you could plausibly pass off as evolutions to someone unfamiliar. But even they fall into that Digimon-esque trope of "x with an addition", like how Growlmon becomes WarGrowlmon which is just Growlmon wearing some machine parts.