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There's 3 very major distinctions between Dyna/Gigantomax and Mega evolutions:
- Those are temporary: only 3 turns, whenever you live or die. And since so far it's implied that there's no change of ability and just 50% hp (+ potentially some other stats for the pokemon able to Giga), it's significantly less "powercreepy" than Megas
- More widespread: while Gigantomax is obviously better than Dynamax, you are still able to Dynamax literally any pokemon thus get the increased HP and additional effects (expecially weather/terrain setting and the free setup) anytime
- Much more flexible: since so far there appear to not be a specific condition to pick up who Dynamaxes, you are able to have a team with multiple pokemon who'd be able to use the mechanic
All in all, while Dyna/Gigantomax does for lot of parts remind of Mega Evolution, there's huge core differences which also make its powercreep much lower while also making it much more interesting to play with / teambuild / design around.
Would you really have dedicated your "mega slot" in gen 6 to a pokemon just so he could have a side-heal? :P
There's 3 very major distinctions between Dyna/Gigantomax and Mega evolutions:
- Those are temporary: only 3 turns, whenever you live or die. And since so far it's implied that there's no change of ability and just 50% hp (+ potentially some other stats for the pokemon able to Giga), it's significantly less "powercreepy" than Megas
- More widespread: while Gigantomax is obviously better than Dynamax, you are still able to Dynamax literally any pokemon thus get the increased HP and additional effects (expecially weather/terrain setting and the free setup) anytime
- Much more flexible: since so far there appear to not be a specific condition to pick up who Dynamaxes, you are able to have a team with multiple pokemon who'd be able to use the mechanic
All in all, while Dyna/Gigantomax does for lot of parts remind of Mega Evolution, there's huge core differences which also make its powercreep much lower while also making it much more interesting to play with / teambuild / design around.
Would you really have dedicated your "mega slot" in gen 6 to a pokemon just so he could have a side-heal? :P
While significantly less powercreep-y, it also means that a Pokemon has to either be good from the get-go or it will be weak and stay that way unless it is blessed with Gigantamax bonuses.
The good thing about Megas is that they made previously worthless or "junk rare" mons actually worthwhile to both get and breed (think Altaria, Mawile, Sableye if it never got Prankster, Beedrill), and having more of them would just spice things up and add more building blocks to play with (certain megas being better in a certain archetype or requiring different support to function, etc), while also granting some obscure mons a day in the limelight for once.
The centralizing aspect of Mega Evolution is imho a necessary evil (of course some Megas will be better than others for a reason or another, but we've seen that they have for the most part become more of a luxury in recent times) but hey, perhaps Dyna / Gigantamax will turn out better than expected. Guess we'll just have to wait and see for ourselves.
While significantly less powercreep-y, it also means that a Pokemon has to either be good from the get-go or it will be weak and stay that way unless it is blessed with Gigantamax bonuses.
The main perk is that to make a pokemon "good from the get go" there's much more options than just "has a mega not called Audino".
Moveset for example: pokemon with wide moveset can benefit from being able to set different types of weather/terrain in order to deal with certain enemy comp (deny weather? check. provide psychic terrain to block priority but also able to use misty terrain in case enemy has a stall team? check)
A pokemon is not bulky enough to setup then sweep? Can be EVd to survive a hit, setup, then dynamax to be able to eat another one and retaliate (potentially racking a moxie boost or drain ability heal)
Some pokemon (like Lando-T or Salamen... hah if they even were in the game anyway) would benefit from getting access to a reliable second stab which otherwise would miss.
A pokemon has issues with one-time or very conditional abilities like Trick Room, Fake Out, Sucker Punch, etc? Can use them then Dynamax to swap them out for a 110/120 BP attack or Max Guard (pretty useful in doubles).
Obviously, Dynamaxing doesn't magically save Jigglypuff from being trash tier, and yes, it obviously will be a centralizing mechanic, but it does really feel there's potential to be much more variety in what and who to use, rather than the current "every team has a mega and that mega is picked from really a specific few"
There's literally nothing serious you can do about Pokemon that by nature is vastly inferior than other picks I'm afraid (like that Audino example, or things like Flareon). That's like trying to make a man with arms comparable to twigs wrestle with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his primes - you can give it a thousand perks and it still won't change the fact that you don't have much over the competition.
In the end it will require some serious work to overhaul the numbers and a lot of balancing work (which frankly GF couldn't do that), and there still will be comparisons of superiority/inferiority between Pokemon.
Mega was probably a good attempt, if only they didn't come up with the brilliant idea of giving things like Gengar, Metagross, Salamence, etc, with Megas that are also not bad at all (rip Garchomp and Flygon). The consequence of making these Megas as the pivot of teams instead of the previous old goodmons isn't really a healthy way of promoting variety either - the strong ones which are more standalone or just plain stronger (aka greater opportunity costs say mega Salamence, mega ray) will still get picked for most of the time as long as the rules allowed their usage. If over centralizing of super overpowered Megas is the cost to pay for the chance to mega-buff former trashmons then this IMO is a huge price to pay for it.
Z-moves and Dynamaxing are really attempts to make even weakmons/lesser mons a chance to power up, but with less power gain and limits shared by also other strongmons.
It wasn't clearly stated whenever a Mon can only be Maxed per game like Mega/Z or you can Max multiple mons per game (in theory, since the system can be designed such that you either fully Max or only partially Max a few mons, if the dynamax bar is of any indication), but if it's the latter then this is gonna open up a lot of opportunities and shake the meta significantly.
It wasn't clearly stated whenever a Mon can only be Maxed per game like Mega/Z or you can Max multiple mons per game (in theory, since the system can be designed such that you either fully Max or only partially Max a few mons, if the dynamax bar is of any indication), but if it's the latter then this is gonna open up a lot of opportunities and shake the meta significantly.
The main perk is that to make a pokemon "good from the get go" there's much more options than just "has a mega not called Audino".
Moveset for example: pokemon with wide moveset can benefit from being able to set different types of weather/terrain in order to deal with certain enemy comp (deny weather? check. provide psychic terrain to block priority but also able to use misty terrain in case enemy has a stall team? check)
A pokemon is not bulky enough to setup then sweep? Can be EVd to survive a hit, setup, then dynamax to be able to eat another one and retaliate (potentially racking a moxie boost or drain ability heal)
Some pokemon (like Lando-T or Salamen... hah if they even were in the game anyway) would benefit from getting access to a reliable second stab which otherwise would miss.
A pokemon has issues with one-time or very conditional abilities like Trick Room, Fake Out, Sucker Punch, etc? Can use them then Dynamax to swap them out for a 110/120 BP attack or Max Guard (pretty useful in doubles).
Obviously, Dynamaxing doesn't magically save Jigglypuff from being trash tier, and yes, it obviously will be a centralizing mechanic, but it does really feel there's potential to be much more variety in what and who to use, rather than the current "every team has a mega and that mega is picked from really a specific few"
I talked about this a bit earlier in the thread, but I think one aspect of Dynamax being overlooked is that the lack of any item restriction means that your choice can come into play during battling rather than teambuilding. Something with a merely situationally useful Dynamax or Gigantamax form is more worth considering than something with a mega that's only situationally useful because the opportunity cost is smaller.
This is something that I appreciated about LGPE (especially with the ability of Charizard and Mewtwo to choose which mega you use), and I'm glad they've continued with the idea.
This has long been the case with special edition Nintendo consoles, if I recall correctly. I got my Pokemon 3ds XL for the same price as a standard 3DS XL, and my LGPE Switch was only more expensive because it had the game preinstalled. I almost always buy special editions now because they hold their value better and aren't more expensive to buy new.
I talked about this a bit earlier in the thread, but I think one aspect of Dynamax being overlooked is that the lack of any item restriction means that your choice can come into play during battling rather than teambuilding. Something with a merely situationally useful Dynamax or Gigantamax form is more worth considering than something with a mega that's only situationally useful because the opportunity cost is smaller.
That means that if you are slighty weak to any of the six Pokémon of your opponent, being from the start or over the course of the battle, this Pokémon will suddently become 50 % more bulky, and will hit significantly harder. That looks more threatening than any Gigamaxed/Mega identified from the beginning.
(Or you could combine both if the Gigamaxed is also viable in regular form).
That means that if you are slighty weak to any of the six Pokémon of your opponent, being from the start or over the course of the battle, this Pokémon will suddently become 50 % more bulky, and will hit significantly harder. That looks more threatening than any Gigamaxed/Mega identified from the beginning.
(Or you could combine both if the Gigamaxed is also viable in regular form).
- Much more flexible: since so far there appear to not be a specific condition to pick up who Dynamaxes, you are able to have a team with multiple pokemon who'd be able to use the mechanic
Hmm, I wonder if they might actually include all of the non-Legendary/Ultra Beast Gen VII Pokemon since they're the "current" newest so having them all in would make the transition to a restricted dex a bit smoother for those new players who started with Gen VII. It would only be 61 Pokemon (counting the Starters, also didn't count Meltan family since they're obviously in for various reasons). Maybe they could also include Magearna, Marshadow and Zeroara, being Event Pokemon they don't need to make them obtainable unless they want to do a distribution or leave as a bonus for players who got them last gen to use (maybe also Poipole for its special treatment above other Ultra Beasts).
Yeah, Z-Crystals had the same issue. Though to be fair, since all Max Moves have an effect such as activating a certain weather or terrain those may have some niche uses in competitive (similar to how the elemental Z-Moves had their niches).
If it could learn Fling (which is doubtful) that's one way it could get rid of the item, though honestly wouldn't make the Ability any better. Only use I can see is if they pull the same "limited supply" thing with the Apricorn Poke Balls again where you only get a few. Otherwise it's kind of a pointless Ability as it has no use in battle and it'll save you what, at most 1k by fetching one of the specialty balls you can buy in bulk.
Speaking of which, some math!
If they have 4 Gym Leaders be version exclusive (which means 8 Gym Leaders total), that would be a total of 12 Types leaving 6 Type remaining. Now, what if they also do something similar with the Elite Four, have two of their members be version exclusive? That would cover the remaining 6 Types, meaning we could have a Pokemon League which has specialists for all the Types between both versions!
I sort of got that feeling when I first saw it, it reminded me of Druddigon and Turtonator in that way. Going to also guess Alcremie and Corviknight are also single stage, if any Alcremie having a prevo but it looks alright on its own.
Lance and Wallace were Champions however, they're sort of excluded since Champions don't have to be Type Specialists. It just so happened that Lance, Wallace, and Iris were Type Specialists in a gen which had a Gym Leader of the same Type. However a better example you could have given would be Bruno & Chuck in Gen II (and by extension, Sabrina & Will and Janine & Koga). Of course this was Gen II and with them having 16 Gym Leaders and 4 Elite Four members they covered all the Types with some to spare.
Remember this is the same people that gave Thick Fat to the Seel family, Marill family, Spheal family, and Tepig family (except for Emboar).
I can see Rolycoly becoming a tank-like thing.
I've spent so many years playing Pokemon I can tell whether a character is a girl or feminine boy.
At least the non-Mythical ones.
Or if it faints a crack appears on its back and a Pidgey (or another gen bird) flies out. :P
... Eh, still wouldn't be good. At least it's said to look like it's original Gen I sprite which would be fun to see in 3D:
Think it would get one of Pikachu's Z-Moves? Guessing 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt as I don't think the trainer would be able to throw it up to do Catastropika.
Actually, on a related note, do you think they'll let you transfer up the Cap Pikachu?
I love how happy it looks, lol! SLABS OF COAL FOR EVERYONE! *Everyone flees as blocks of coals hit people like a cannon ball*
How does that make a difference for Charizard getting a new form being the Champion's ace?
Is it such a crime to want them to keep designs that we liked? They already got rid of the Mega Evolution mechanic so they have the designs which many people liked just lying around now. Why not re-use them? As I said in my original post, they could just make the forms the Pokemon turn into during Mega Evolution and Gigantamaxing just "super forms" which the Pokemon can access a number of ways.
At this point it's pick your poison, GF haven't made things easy for themselves with the recent decisions so honestly it's up to each person to decide what the consolation they'll accept. Though no matter what they're going to disappoint a large number of people.
That's typical "anime protagonist standing defiantly strong" pose. It's actually the most basic pose you can draw a character, next to t-posing.
You mean we're not supposed to think that?
Probably childhood rival and the leader of the Team Skull expies we're supposed to think are jerks but turns out they've been trying to expose Chairman Rose and Leon. :P
Kid's game.
Would be nice, but probably an unmentioned Signature move that recycles the animation of Play Nice.
Would be neat if they revealed it was an alternate evolution of Swirlix. Swirlix goes from cotton candy/fairy floss to being a meringue, so why not just whipped cream evo too? Not sure what they would do to make it evolve into Acremie that would explain why its able to do it now. Maybe has to do with a new Signature Move?
Oh, wow, didn't make that connection! Rose revealing to be the 8th Gym Leader with a special rose-shaped Gym (curious if he would be Grass- or Fairy-type, or maybe a twist and do Poison-type since Roses have thorns and the Roselia family are part Poison-type (Roserade could be his partner and it has a Gigantamax form)). Pull a Giovanni on us.
Say, wait, didn't RR Giovanni at the end of the RR Episode in USUM say he was going to do evil in another dimension? Maybe Rose was able to rise in power thanks to RR Giovanni!
Waiting for them to announce that rumored cheaper handheld-only Switch model. But when they do plan on getting Shield, mainly since my cousins are all getting Sword.
"Why are you responding to your own post?"
Because after looking around I think I may know a bit more about Duraludon. If we're to compare it to it's apparent rival Tyranitar, who is obviously designed after Godzilla, that could mean Duraludon may be a reference to Mechagodzilla. It's meant to look like the opposite of Tyranitar is sorts of ways.
It's also looking to be a fast special attacker, which would fit with it being an opposite of Tyranitar.
I have other things to say but future posts bring up these points so I'll respond to them then.
I think this would mainly apply to the veteran GF (Satoshi Tajiri, Junichi Masuda, Sugimori Ken, etc.). And if that's the case, maybe they should split development teams into two groups: "The Pokemon Team" and "Additional Project Team". That way those who are tired of working on Pokemon can just be part of the "Additional Project Team" (aka the veteran GF staff) while the staff they trained to take over for them and are still excited to be working on Pokemon can do what they want without the executive meddling I'm sure at least Masuda does. And hopefully they'll be more willing to listen to fans requests and create a more deeper Pokemon experience. Sure, they don't have to, but if they don't have anything to lose then why not go all out and experiment instead of constantly playing it safe?
I don't know, while it has the trappings of a pseudo-legendary it doesn't feel like it's being treated as such. I have my doubts. I mean let's not forget for a while Aggron was being treated as a pair with Tyranitar but it's not a pseudo-legendary.
Indeed, but that's all poor planning on both GameFreak's and Pokemon Company's part. They're the ones who made the end decision to have a new game out each year when there's plenty of other ways to keep the franchise fresh in people's minds (like patches to add in new content, seems to work for games like Overwatch, Warframe, Splatoon, Mario Kart, etc..). Sure, they can't delay games, but they can sure plan when they're going to release games better. At the moment all we know is Sword & Shield at the latest games coming out, they can wait two or three years till the next core series titles and another few years for the next generation and no one would complain. And between then you can release side Pokemon games and put focus on them.
According to Serebii the name is meant to be a pun. It can be translated as either "Exhaustion Beam" or "Do Or Die".
Now a English equivalent would be tricky to come up with as it too would need to reference both... AND I think I got it:
All Ore Bust
Going off the "Do Or Die" reference, I combined two similar phrases together here: "All Or Nothing" and "(Goal) Or Bust". But going off the "Exhaustion Beam" reference, that's a combination of things: I made a pun by making "Or" into "Ore" to reference it being a Steel-type move, "Bust" means both "to be tired" and also "to hit hard", so put it together and the phrase could mean the Pokemon is using all of it's Steel-type power in order to deliver a powerful attack which would leave it weakened.
... at least it's better than Baddy Bad.
GF are the partial owners of the Pokemon Company, at the very least they're paid loyalties while at most Pokemon Company is a place they can access extra funds if needed. If you think the Pokemon franchise as a tree, the Pokemon Company is the trunk of the tree which where merchandise branches off from, but Game Freak are the roots.
Would you say it's like we're looking at the middle stage? Like if you look at Gabite without knowing about Gible or Garchomp, you can certainly think it would probably get a prevo but at the same time looks fully formed... yet for a psuedo-legendary has something missing about it that screams "I have a BST of 600".
CAUGHT UP! Don't really have anything to respond to on Page 60 I haven't already.
1. Gym Trainers: As it turns out, Gym Trainers you fight doing the Gym's puzzle do dress as the Gym Leaders. There's a scene in one of the trailers of the Water-type Gym which shows that the Trainers in there are now dressed like Nessa unlike the E3 demo, guessing the Gym Trainer models weren't ready or they wanted Nessa to stand out a bit more before dressing everyone up. But that at least confirms that Milo has a Gym puzzle which will have Gym Trainers you need to battle. 2. Another Arm Band: The official site has an image showing the player about to battle Milo, but the player has an additional gold arm band around his arm:
In the trailer we see Gigantamaxing doesn't need another band to use, so what is this gold band for? Also, unless it's another model change, we don't see the player wearing the gold band in the trailers when against Milo or Nessa.
Dynamax Crystals from ordering the double pack to get a Raid Battle with Larvitar and Jangmo-o early.
12 Quick Balls from downloading the game from the eShop.
A special track suit set by ordering from a certain Japanese or UK store.
Gold Stud Backpack by ordering the game from Amazon in Japan.
The last two in particular stand out and are a bit worrisome. So, if you don't do what is needed to get them via pre-order, does that mean you'll never get these clothing items? If so, would they be available to get later in some way? I was annoyed in Kingdom Hearts 3 how they had 3 exclusive Keyblades depending on how you bought the game and later they let you BUY the other Keyblades. Now honestly the track suit and backpack don't look impressive I would miss not getting it, if indeed you can't get these clothes without the pre-order it could be a slippery slope of releasing actually cool looking clothes but locked behind pre-orders.
Pikachu315111 When I mentioned the champion that we all know, I'm talking about Leon vs Diantha. She is a world-famous actress, also a Champion but nobody ever mentions the fact? Sure, Diantha has an ace from a previous generation with a new mechanic but in this case, I think Leon fits even better because Gym Leaders and Trainers are apparently stars here.
Team building is by nature about centralizing. The option of dynamaxing any Pokémon you want will not prevent your interest in dynamaxing a certain mon of the 6, because that's part of how your team works, which ultimately searchs for a win-con.
You are not going to battle with a team of 6 random mons and then freestyle on the go like "hmmm I'll dynamax this or this or this or this or this", you go into battle with a gameplan and your team is designed to work around a certain dynamaxed Pokémon (with certain flexibility).
If there's a meta team with Giantamax Corviknight as its win-con, that team isn't about to freestyle in a serious match.
Team building is by nature about centralizing. The option of dynamaxing any Pokémon you want will not prevent your interest in dynamaxing a certain mon of the 6, because that's part of how your team works, which ultimately searchs for a win-con.
You are not going to battle with a team of 6 random mons and then freestyle on the go like "hmmm I'll dynamax this or this or this or this or this", you go into battle with a gameplan and your team is designed to work around a certain dynamaxed Pokémon (with certain flexibility).
If there's a meta team with Giantamax Corviknight as its win-con, that team isn't about to freestyle in a serious match.
Yes and no. Sure, you may have an initial gameplan of what Pokemon you're going to Dynamax, but you aren't locked into that plan. Let's say I build a team around sweeping with Dynamax Volcarona. If I get to team preview and see that Volcarona isn't going to do shit to my opponent even if it Dynamaxes, but one of my other Pokemon would go ham on my opponent if it Dynamaxed, I'm not screwed because I chose Volcarona as my designated Dynamaxer. I simply Dynamax that other Pokemon.
Where things get weird is with Gigantamaxing. Because these Pokemon get a disproportionally higher boost than other Pokemon, packing a Pokemon that's only really useful if it Gigantamaxes (as I suspect will be the case for the cream) will make you more pressured to use your Max on that Pokemon.
Team building is by nature about centralizing. The option of dynamaxing any Pokémon you want will not prevent your interest in dynamaxing a certain mon of the 6, because that's part of how your team works, which ultimately searchs for a win-con.
You are not going to battle with a team of 6 random mons and then freestyle on the go like "hmmm I'll dynamax this or this or this or this or this", you go into battle with a gameplan and your team is designed to work around a certain dynamaxed Pokémon (with certain flexibility).
If there's a meta team with Giantamax Corviknight as its win-con, that team isn't about to freestyle in a serious match.
The difference between Dynamaxing and Mega Evolving (as far as we know) is that any Pokémon can do the former with no restrictions. It may not sound like much (due to what you said) but take a look at Viability Rankings of most metagames. In those where both the base form and Mega are usable and the Mega is viable, the base form is generally considered unviable (e.g. only 5 base forms of all the ranked Megas are also ranked) so knowing what is going to Mega Evolve is almost completely predictable.
With Dynamaxing, you can change your plans on the fly. With Gigantamaxing... not really, but it depends on its exact details.
If your Mega can't do anything of note, you are essentially Mega-less. If your initial plan for Dynamaxing can't do anything of note... you Dynamax something else.
It's heavily implied that Gigantamaxed Pokemon also have stat boosts outside of HP. For example, Giant Cream specifically mentions that it can tank physical attacks with ease, implying that it will at least get a defense boost.
It's heavily implied that Gigantamaxed Pokemon also have stat boosts outside oh HP. For example, Giant Cream specifically mentions that it can tank physical attacks with ease, implying that it will at least get a defense boost.
It's heavily implied that Gigantamaxed Pokemon also have stat boosts outside oh HP. For example, Giant Cream specifically mentions that it can tank physical attacks with ease, implying that it will at least get a defense boost.
Pidgeot currently has a base Speed of 101 and travels at Mach 2 when hunting, which is twice the speed of sound or 767 mph times 2.
If 1534 mph are represented by a base Speed of 101 in the Pokémon universe, then, proportionally, a base Speed of 20 would represent about 304 mph. I'd call that high speed.
Escavalier is not too slow for its Pokédex entries. Pokémon in general are just ridiculously fast creatures far beyond any animal in nature.
Pidgeot currently has a base Speed of 101 and travels at Mach 2 when hunting, which is twice the speed of sound or 767 mph times 2.
If 1534 mph are represented by a base Speed of 101 in the Pokémon universe, then, proportionally, a base Speed of 20 would represent about 304 mph. I'd call that high speed.
Escavalier is not too slow for its Pokédex entries. Pokémon in general are just ridiculously fast creatures far beyond any animal in nature.
