Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Mega Evolution
The Pokémon Presents from last month gave fans a lot of cool stuff to talk about, but what seems to be making the biggest buzz is the announcement of Pokemon Legends: Z-A and the return of mega evolutions.
Pokemon has been somewhat polarizing with the last few generations, as most generations have introduced some sort of mechanic that occasionally feels a little gimmicky and gets abandoned after a little while. Mega evolutions were first introduced in gen 6, and quickly disappeared besides its presence in Pokemon GO. Similar analogues such as Dynamax/Gigantamax and Terastallization came in subsequent generations, but they were similarly short-lived.
The teaser trailer for Pokemon Legends: Z-A ends with an image of the mega evolution logo, which seems to undeniably confirm that they will be making a comeback in some form. For a lot of fans, this is excellent news. Personally, I’m not so positive.
Mega evolution in its original form was interesting, and I think it played well with the competitive scene, but it wasn’t balanced for standard gameplay. After the point at which you unlock mega evolutions in the gen 6 games, you can use it for every battle. Literally every battle. Every single battle for the rest of the game. And why shouldn’t you? It gives huge stat buffs and makes your Pokemon way stronger.
The problem is that it just adds so much overhead. There’s the whole cinematic when you mega evolve a Pokemon and it slows down the pace of the game. I obviously want to tackle these battles with my best effort, but is it really worth mega evolving to eradicate some level 3 trash mob that just got in my way? Hardly.
A friend once said I shouldn’t feel so obligated to mega evolve for every single battle, but that isn’t enough for me. If it’s an improvement, I should use it. Eventually I did reach a point, yes, where I didn’t mega evolve for just any encounter. That was a difficult internal struggle, though, since I knew I had a better option in my pocket that I was just refusing to use.
Contrast this with Dynamax, which you can only use in very select battles such as showdowns with gym leaders and raids. The Dynamax effect only lasts for three turns, you can only do it once per battle, and only in those battles that occur with Dynamax energy available. In my opinion, this heavily restricted effect gives much greater impact to Dynamax, but you also don’t get the opportunity to use it very often.
With the return of mega evolution, I’d like to see some sort of improvement over the gen 6 version. Whether it gets restricted in use like Dynamax or they give the opportunity to skip the cinematic like summons in Final Fantasy, I just want something that cuts down on the time I spend waiting on the game to finish some action. You can already skip the animation for most moves (or at least you could a few generations back). Why not do the same for mega evolution? I can’t say whether I’ll continue to mega evolve in every battle that I get the chance, but it would at least speed up the gameplay a bit.
Beyond mega evolution, the teaser trailer didn’t give a ton of details. It’s set in Lumiose city, which I thought was a cool place. The inclusion of the “Legends” subtitle tells me it has to be somehow like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which is NOT a bad thing. I really liked the gameplay of Legends: Arceus and I think it opened up a lot of interesting potential for the series. Maybe this is some attempt to marry the core series with the direction of Legends: Arceus? In any case, I’m curious to see what unfolds with future details about Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
 |
| Source: https://youtu.be/6Qi4COrQ7aA?si=AwXviGCovUZWuhLg |
Pokemon has been somewhat polarizing with the last few generations, as most generations have introduced some sort of mechanic that occasionally feels a little gimmicky and gets abandoned after a little while. Mega evolutions were first introduced in gen 6, and quickly disappeared besides its presence in Pokemon GO. Similar analogues such as Dynamax/Gigantamax and Terastallization came in subsequent generations, but they were similarly short-lived.
The teaser trailer for Pokemon Legends: Z-A ends with an image of the mega evolution logo, which seems to undeniably confirm that they will be making a comeback in some form. For a lot of fans, this is excellent news. Personally, I’m not so positive.
Mega evolution in its original form was interesting, and I think it played well with the competitive scene, but it wasn’t balanced for standard gameplay. After the point at which you unlock mega evolutions in the gen 6 games, you can use it for every battle. Literally every battle. Every single battle for the rest of the game. And why shouldn’t you? It gives huge stat buffs and makes your Pokemon way stronger.
The problem is that it just adds so much overhead. There’s the whole cinematic when you mega evolve a Pokemon and it slows down the pace of the game. I obviously want to tackle these battles with my best effort, but is it really worth mega evolving to eradicate some level 3 trash mob that just got in my way? Hardly.
A friend once said I shouldn’t feel so obligated to mega evolve for every single battle, but that isn’t enough for me. If it’s an improvement, I should use it. Eventually I did reach a point, yes, where I didn’t mega evolve for just any encounter. That was a difficult internal struggle, though, since I knew I had a better option in my pocket that I was just refusing to use.
Contrast this with Dynamax, which you can only use in very select battles such as showdowns with gym leaders and raids. The Dynamax effect only lasts for three turns, you can only do it once per battle, and only in those battles that occur with Dynamax energy available. In my opinion, this heavily restricted effect gives much greater impact to Dynamax, but you also don’t get the opportunity to use it very often.
With the return of mega evolution, I’d like to see some sort of improvement over the gen 6 version. Whether it gets restricted in use like Dynamax or they give the opportunity to skip the cinematic like summons in Final Fantasy, I just want something that cuts down on the time I spend waiting on the game to finish some action. You can already skip the animation for most moves (or at least you could a few generations back). Why not do the same for mega evolution? I can’t say whether I’ll continue to mega evolve in every battle that I get the chance, but it would at least speed up the gameplay a bit.
Beyond mega evolution, the teaser trailer didn’t give a ton of details. It’s set in Lumiose city, which I thought was a cool place. The inclusion of the “Legends” subtitle tells me it has to be somehow like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which is NOT a bad thing. I really liked the gameplay of Legends: Arceus and I think it opened up a lot of interesting potential for the series. Maybe this is some attempt to marry the core series with the direction of Legends: Arceus? In any case, I’m curious to see what unfolds with future details about Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
Comments
Post a Comment