Ranking Every "Gimmick" in Pokemon.
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- Pokemon Competitive Singles in Gen 6 introduces the revolutionary Mega Evolutions, a defining new mechanic that allowed Pokemon to become Mega forms of themselves with completely different Properties.
Ever since then, every single generation has attempted to create their own Definitive mechanic or "Gimmick".
How interesting and fun to play with are each of these mechanics? And how would Jimothy rank them? You're about to find out folks.
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0:00 Intro
0:44 Dynamax
3:05 Z-Moves
4:57 Terastallization
10:27 Mega Evolution
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The Fridge with Freezai would be absolutely insane. I would be willing to postpone the downfall of Iron Mugulis in order to have one.
I apologize to Dynamax fans. Many don't know that "Dynamax" and the beloved "Iron Jugulis" were actually conceived by the same person. I have just received news that the very same designer has now been promoted to CEO of Nintendo
:O
Iron jugulis...... More like iron MU-
What about iron mugulus
@@usernametaken017 iron Mugulis rhymes with Iron Jugulis
French pokemon
Everyone knows that the best generational "gimmick" is the addition of abilities back in gen 3. This really shook up the scene and gave way to many opportunities in future games
Not to mention the addition of natures, too, and on top of that, many of the modern, still-relevant hold items like focus sash. Gen 3 was a cornucopia of new mechanics that forever changed the game
@@frankcaggiano8282 Focus Sash was Gen 4. Most of the competitive items were Gen 4 or later. Gen 3 really just added Choice Band (Scarf and Specs were Gen 4) and Salac Berry. Leftovers and Lum Berry were Gen 2 (though Lum was Miracle Berry back then).
@@MD-vs9ff ahh, Choice Band was what I was thinking of, you right. I think Focus Band is Gen 3 as well? But Sash is Gen 4 for sure yeah, my bad!
@@frankcaggiano8282 It also introduced double battles and thus, VGC, the format Game Freak cares way more about
I would argue it was the Dark and Metal typings
Dynamax is just scaling up the Pokémon and applying a red filter to them
You can do this in blender in a minute
That's probably what they literally did 💀
Definitely a salty player lol.
my list of "best gimmicks" is basically the inverse of my "best looking gimmicks".
I don't care how it looks as long as it plays well.
It’s going to be insane when iron mugulis admits he is actually a future paradox version of you and not sinistea and the came to the present to stop you from becoming him
How does he become a conscious coffee cup with eyes?
The one "generational" mechanic that I really like is regional forms. While I still prefer seeing new Pokémon, revisiting an old design and modifying is usually really cool. I think Pokémon feels this way too, given that it's the one gimmick that they continued developing beyond the original gen that started it
It says something about megas that basically the only consistent criticism of it is they gave it to the wrong pokemon.
If the extreme outliers (pre-nerf khanga) didn't exist, and they were better distributed, I don't think you could say a bad thing about megas.
well they do limit team-building somewhat since you absolutely need to have a mega, but that's about it.
@@usernametaken017 That's every gimmick in fairness, you're handicapping yourself by *not* using it.
@@Pyroniusburn Yeah but every pokemon can tera and use zmoves yknow. Unlike megas you can slap it in at the end if need be.
Mega Rayquaza: *stares nervously.
@@usernametaken017 this is honestly an esay problem to address. just make like a generic mega stone any pokemon can use, and make it so that it gives that pokemon +20 in every stat other than hp when mega'd. done.
mega evolutions are cool in concept but i wish they gave more evolutions to pokemon that really needed it. seeing manectric, medicham, kangaskhan etc. become viable for the first time in decades was really awesome. seeing pokemon like mewtwo, salamence and metagross just get even stronger was not.
there's nothing wrong with either thing, as you said seeing underdogs get some love is awesome but so is seeing cool pokémon get even cooler, it's not good for balance but that's an issue with balance, not concept
It is an innate truth of the universe that not all competitors can stand a chance of winning.
Actually I wish they made more Megas that are synergistic with their base form, for like...99% of the Mega eligible mons it's efficient to just click the button as soon as possible, I wish we had more mons like Sharpedo (or Glalie, somewhat) who can get some boosts or value from their base form abilities before going Mega
Seeing Tauros back OU would be crazy
@@tehrik0020Yeah this is a great shout. I wish there was more strategy about not only which Pokemon to mega evolve, but also when to do it.
If there one thing that i learned with mario tennis ultra smash and yoshis new island is that nintendo games where the main gimmick is making things going giant are garanteed to stink
New Super Mario Bros. on the DS is the exception. Mario can go big mode and the game is good.
@@SSBMNicki Still you wouldn't really miss much if the mega mushroom was gone, it was such a 'well that happened' moment.
The minish cap proved that going smol should be Nintendo's way
@@SSBMNickithe mega mushroom is barely in the game though
so true
Gigantamax forms also had the problem that their unique G-Max moves were either just straight up worse than the normal Dynamax version or completely busted and little in between.
Aside from raw power, some Z-moves like Z-Conversion added new and interesting ways to setup certain pokemon at least.
The main problem with MEVO is that GameFreak really gave them out to the wrong pokemon that really didn't need a Mega form since they were already popular in the meta in the first place.
Yeah but the point of Mega wasn’t to create an interesting mechanic, it was to sell cool merch of existing Pokémon.
I’ll argue megas actually hurt a Pokémon’s viability in the long term because that mon becomes tied to their mega and if a game doesn’t have their mega then they lose all of their viability. Regional forms and regular evolution do every concept mega forms do but so much better imo.
@@Magic_Ice I don't disagree, but it would've certainly been a lot more interesting if typical Mega selections were typically Pidgeot, Absol etc. rather than TTar, Scizor, Gyara, Mence etc. aside from those that got utterly busted abilities like Kangaskhan or Mawile.
@@Arthion yeah it would be more interesting but which one would make more people excited and buy merch of them. Mega Dragonite or Mega Avalugg? It’s the same reason only a promoted mythical was the only mega gen 6 mon, the megas were picked for mostly popularity not for how viable they are in an unofficial format.
@@Magic_Ice there's also plenty that aren't that popular like Ampharos, Manectric, Altria, Abomasnow and so on even heckin' Beedrill, however they tend to get completely outshone by those who were already competitively strong.Edit: Hell if they wanted to print merch they could've just gone for more than 2 gens of starters, that'd basically be a money printing machine
@@Arthion beedrill is one of the most iconic bug types in pokemon tbf.
#1 : Megaelovution
#2 : Softlock Picking
#3 : Tera Flying Kingambit
#4 : Trading Based Evolution
#5 : Pokemon Legends Z moves
#6 : Sinnoh HM Slavery
#7 : Gen 1 Safari Zone
#8 : Dexit
#9 : Gigamaxxing
#10 : Gen 5 sleep
My favorite generational gimmick is permanent Tyrannitar sandstorm in the OU meta after >20 years.
I’m casually watching a jimothy video on my day off when I am jumpscared by my own face 8 minutes and 55 seconds in.
I agree pretty much with all your thoughts. I think that everything besides megas is not even that interesting. And megas aren’t even like- done super well conceptually.
Too many rich get richer moments, not sure that the item being held is good(it limits power / gives you a knock off nerf, but it feels clunky since they did the next few gimmicks without an item).
But the main reason it’s not that bad is cuz they’re just… new Pokémon? It doesn’t have the same sweeping effect on a meta that the universal mechanics do.
Say what you want about Dynamax, but I vividly remember reading comments in a UA-cam video showing the anime episode of Ash's Treecko became giant to fight a giant Gulpin. Several comments were asking why we can't fight with giant Pokémon and the reply I saw was "because GameFreak is lazy" and wouldn't put in the effort to do that. This was during the end of Gen 5, right in the middle of X & Y's reveal and release.
some things never change about the pkmon community...
The unexpected upside of dynamaxxing being so poor and getting banned from competitive is that gen 8 did end up being just the pure pokemon experience without gimmicks. While gen 8 has plenty of other problems, by contrast you can't really get away from tera in gen 9, if you play the regular metagames you're going to see tera in every game, and it does dominate the game like you say.
The biggest point in megas' favour for me is that at least the megas are a known quantity when you queue up for a match. With the others you've got no way of knowing which mon is going to change its type, or get big, or nuke you with a z-move until it happens, whereas you can usually easily tell which mon on the opponent's team is going to mega. You can still play mindgames with it by delaying your mega like you touched on but it feels a lot more manageable and less chaotic than later gens. It feels like each mega is just another threat to memorise and take into account like any other pokemon rather than being an insane wildcard like the gimmicks that came after.
And you can play with mega abilities for strategies from manectric intimidate volt switch / houndoom sun solar power / Swift swim swampert and so on
Yeah, Gen 9 is still really chaotic years later. The fact that any mon can abuse Tera makes the meta almost impossible to balance. Any setup sweeper with even an above-average power level can easily spiral out of control because Tera nets them free turns or lets them blow past their biggest checks.
I think one other thing to mention for Tera in doubles is that OTS really helps to lower the volatility of it and prevent those “you guessed my Tera type wrong now you instantly lose” moments
Gen 9 DOU is my personal meta game that I play, and I love Tera. I'm one of the last sickos running sand on the ladder, and tera flying Tyranitar is absolutely disgusting still. Turns your ground weakness into an immunity, and your 4x fighting weakness into a resistance. Rock slide, knock off, tera blast, and ice punch is my personal favorite set. Throw on an assault vest and that's the icing on the cake
That sounds really neat! What's the EV spread and nature you use for your tera fly Tyran?
@@bigtoblerone8446 252 HP / 156 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 92 Spe
@@bigtoblerone8446 252 HP / 156+ Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 92 Spe
Tyranitar runs 252/156/4/4/96 EVs, with adamant nature. I've been running this spread since first regulation, but could probably be min maxxed from these points
@@bigtoblerone8446 Sorry it took so long to reply, my replies kept disappearing for some reason
The only good thing about Gigantamax imo was that Copperajah had a Gigantamax form that could set a steel type form of stealth rocks on the field. Setting up stealth rock, sharp steel, three layers of spikes and two layers of t spikes was funny, even funnier if you managed to win after doing all that.
I've always loved Z-Moves cause of the funny animations and that certain non damaging Z-Moves have unique effects such as Z-Splash giving your Pokémon +3 Attack.
Every new Pokemon game since generation 6 has had what the fans call a "gimmick".
Some sort of powerful central mechanic that defines that installment in the series.
This began with Mega Evolutions, which allowed certain Pokemon to transform into special new forms when holding a Mega Stone.
These gimmicks have really dominated the identities of each generation and it is now an expectation to see a defining mechanic in every new game, for better or for worse
Let's take a look at every single gimmick so far and rank them based on how fun they are to play and how they affect the competitive Pokémon experience
What about gen 5 gem 💎
Tyranitar (and Abomasnow too I guess) did have some incentive to not Mega immediately: their weather abilities would reactivate when Mega evolving, letting them contest opposing weather or reactivate it after it runs out.
Megas are generally disliked more by the VGC crowd because Smogon singles simply banned any disproportionately powerful Megas while VGC players had to deal with the broken ones. But personally I don't see how that's different from for example Flutter Mane being absurdly powerful and making other offensive Fairy or Ghost types obsolete in the same way. GF being unable to balance shouldn't be a point against Megas, because VGC is always going to be very top heavy even without any gimmicks due to the lack of bans.
I also see a lot of people saying that already strong mons shouldn't have gotten Megas because then it becomes a rich get richer mechanic, but some of the most broken Megas were for previously bad mons like Kangaskhan or Mawile, and there are plenty of perfectly reasonable Megas for strong mons, best example being Garchomp. GF just showed no restraint when making the ORAS Megas. You can see the difference between the XY pseudo legends Megas for and the ORAS ones, and the big gap between the Mega Mewtwos and the Primals + Mega Ray. It all comes around to GF being bad at balancing even their own official formats, Smogon tiers simply have the advantage of being able to ban overbearing stuff because GF sure as hell isn't gonna stop making them.
Gyarados was personally most interesting to me. Look at it's defensive type matchups when it megas; it basically flips. It should have presented some really interesting gameplay/mindgames but was always worse than the sheer brute force of the good megas.
Dynamax to me will always be "No, son, we have Mega-Evolution at home"
I expected nothing for Gen 8 and I was still disappointed.
It makes me feel great hearing someone else say that Megas are a natural extension of Pokémon.
Where I think we can really see what's wrong with Z-moves looking back at gems from Black and White. Gems were items that boosted your first attack of a certain type x1,5 and then were consumed. They were considered broken in doubles and though they didn't make much waves in singles at first, they ended banned after some metagame development. This made game freak react with deleting every gem beside normal and nerfing normal gem to 1,3.
2 generations later they essentially released the exact same mechanic except you can activate the Z move whenever you want, it can't get knocked off, stolen or tricked, it works on status move and can have special effects, can go through protect, all at the cost of only working once per battle. They essentially managed to delete a broken mechanic, then brought back a buffed version of it learning nothing from their mistake.
Funniest thing is after the knock off buff gems could have been fine but they got nerfed to the ground anyways.
I quite liked Dynamax and Tera FOR DOUBLES. The lack of item requirement make them much more flexible and usable by multiple pokemkn on a team. Both have some issues mind (max airstream, lmao). But even just Dynamax having Terrains pop up can change how the game goes its interesting.
Mega-Evolution is still G.O.A.T. but could have been SOOO much better if actually bad pokemon would have gotten a mega form and actually became viable. This was done to some extent (Beedrill, Pidgeot, Mawile, Kanghiskhan), but why the hell do some pokemon that dont need this form to help their viability receive a mega that either makes them absurdly OP (Gengar, Salamence, Metagross) or is just a complete waste (Garchomp, Tyranitar, Scizor). That is a decision that I never understood and some actual fan favourites like Flygon or Milotic didn’t get one when so many fan art ideas exist.
Still best mechanic, but this is something that I don’t understand.
Mega scizor and tyranitar werent wastes they were useful megas and the op megas are just balancing issues that exist in every pokemon game. You also have to remember that pokemon is a single player game for the most part
I think Dynamax was really great for doubles, but shit for singles.
Personally still prefer it then Terra. Really don't find it fun when my opponent turns the game around randomly from a Terra type I had no knowledge.
@@metascrub285yeah terra really changes the tide of the game. It only made broken Pokémon more broken.
@ajye8935 honestly don't think dynamax is as broken as people think it is in singles. I think people hate on it cos it punishes passive and bulky playstyles that are more used in smogon, gamefreak and the pokemon company prefer offensive playstyles and speed and is the reason why vgc doubles is chosen as the main competive format over singles.
Mega evolution is by far the coolest gimmick, but I can't in good faith say that it's the most mechanically interesting. With tera, you never 100% know what pokemon the opponent is going to tera or when they're going to tera because they also likely don't know what pokemon they're tera or when they'll do it. That's a really cool mechanic to have to play around.
i love the pokemon that have a reason to not mega evolve (yet)
like, gyarados creating an interesting guessing game
will you close combat gyarados and hit it hard or not hard at all... when do you want to give up on intimidate
or mega pinsir, can you maybe snipe a ko with moxie pre-mega so that you can become even stronger?
or audino
when can you get rid of regenerator for more bulk and special attack
or sharpedo:
when can you get rid of speed boost to try to sweep
and so on and so forth...
also, the buffs to pokemon like pidgeot and beedrill that DESPERATELY need that 100 points increase is cool.
uncool is of course, megas who don't need higher stats
like... why do so many pseudo legendaries have megas, like, yea salamence really needed aerialate and more power. and of course mega rayquaza and the pseudo-mega primal forms☠️
Game Freak never designs things with balance as first priority, they make stuff that looks and feels cool and flavorful and THEN think about balance, Megas for pseudos and legendaries are exactly this and are super cool, it's fine if they are not balanced
@@rajkanishuyep, and just imagine if Mega-Ray hadn't created AG and Xerneus was still in Gen6 Ubers...
And where are Pidgeot/Beedrill now? Right where they were when they got their Mega, except that the 2 new Pokemon Mega-Beedrill/Pidgeot that were actually good no longer exist.
Mega evolving actually includes very stylistic design changes whereas d-max and g-max just makes the pokes bigger and I for one appreciate the effort put into all the mega forms (even the lazier ones).
One underrated aspect of z moves is that they can be used also for boosting moves. this adds to the complexity of the fight, if you decide to have a boost z move instead of an attacking one
I think a big reason why mega-evolution is so beloved by the singles community is that is very easy to restric megas without complex bans. Is very hard to do that with tera for example. In VGC, megas where not well recived becaused there was no bans, so 95% where imidiatly outclassed when mega salamance, khangaskhan and gengar where around.
Mega Evolution didn’t even feel like a ‘gimmick’ until they removed it lol. Agreed that a back to basics approach for Gen 10 would be refreshing but I seriously doubt that happening.
Tera’s issue is the unpredictability, Z had a huge cost, Dyna was interesting for doubles
I don't think that's a issue.
I know this is about the competitive uses of each gimmick (which i pretty much agree with) I absolutely love gigantamax design wise arguably equally to mega evolution design wise.
omg mega ampharos in the thumbnail..... jimothy ur genius knows no bounds
what if pokemon but large?
Mega evolution would have gotten so much better if they didn’t scrap it, as we gain Megas the team building options could have gotten really interesting especially with some older pokemon that need some love
A "Gimmick" is some sort of powerful central mechanic that defines a particular instalment in the series, folks.
Luigi is the best Gigantimax Pokemon.
Big Luigi isn't real, it would have been on the news
Yo GMax was cool. Even if it was unbalanced as hell.
while mega tyranitar is basically a stat boost there is a defiitive niche to it having the same ability, which is mega evolving would act as a switch in on weather abiliites and it would give tyranitar a mid-turn chance to reset sand. definitley seen more on Charizard Y however it gave mega tyranitar the nice oppurtunity to switch in on torkoal for example, be undersped then reset sand at the start of the turn by mega evolving
I suppose in the competitive scene and for the actual stat changes Pokemon receive, certain gimmicks are just better than others, but as someone who doesn't play a lot of Pokemon and who's kinda just a casual who's happy to do the main storyline of the games, I still think Dynamax is probably my favourite gimmick, because to me It's just the coolest looking one I've seen out of all of them, having a Kaiju Pokemon battle, is pretty cool :>
Finally a decent take about the gimmicks from a famous UA-camr. Thank you sir
Thank you jimothy cool for posting great content so often!! Perfect to listen to while i shiny hunt
Dynamax was much more interesting for doubles but that was mostly for the effects of the secondary moves
Megas just are the best. They're the easiest to plan for since you know on team preview more or less what the mon will do, and overpowered ones are easier to tier. Z moves, Tera, and Dynamax being given to every mon made them way harder to plan for and less fair feeling because of them. Also megas just have the most cool factor by far.
I didn’t mind Dynamax as much when I viewed Dynamax targets as more of “team captains” that a team centers around. I also wasn’t that big of a fan of mega evolution because of the limited distribution.
I'd still argue Z-moves are far less snowball-y than Tera, because at least in a casual setting, you have no idea what Tera type your opponent has brought, which makes it impossible to know what pokemon you need to keep around to check it.
Did your opponent not have any valuable Fire/Ground type pokemon left so you let your water type faint? Whoops, Tera fire pokemon is here to sweep your entire team.
At least with zmoves, even if a strong moxie pokemon got a ko it otherwise wouldnt have, you could still theoretically revenge kill it with a check you kept in the back
In gimmicks i think
-evolution of any variant if at least cross regional counts, and there’s 3 diff ways to dice it up.
Standard cross evo’s ur gen 1,2 rejects that glew up. Gliscor! Tangrowth, Weavile, sneasler
Regional variants w/ evo’s alolans, galarians, obstagooner, annihilape
“Convergent”
-ultra beasts, they’re the most OC thing in the game
-paradox, they’re ultra beasts but different war crimes while also serving to give old guys that modern juice rub.
Mega Evolution and Z-Moves are my picks for the best two (Mega being #1 and Z-Moves #2). They both filled different roles and were able to be used at the same time, showing that two generational gimmicks could co-exist at the same time.
Honestly I would have never come up with Tera or Dynamax and instead focused on each mechanic individually alternating each generation (so Gen8 would have focused on Mega Evolution while Gen9 would have focused on Z-Moves and so-on), expanding on and fine-tuning them. For Z-Moves in particular I'd focus on two aspects:
1. Unique effects for status moves when powered up (think Z-Splash or Conversion)
2. More Z-Moves with effects other than damage like Eevee's Z-Move (though not as busted)
Mega Evolution on the other hand would be focused on lesser Pokémon and completing pairs where one Mon got a Mega but the other didn't (Slowbro/Slowking, Glailie/Froslass, Butterfree/Beedrill, Gyarados/Milotic, Alakazam/Machamp, etc.). Plus mons introduced in that gen would get some, but not as many as previous gens.
Also I'd make both available to the player during the main game (even if the mechanic wasn't the focus), allowing for creative in-game battles where notable trainers would have both a Mega Evolution primary ace and a secondary Z-Move ace. So for example in Sword and Shield Leon would have the starter that neither you or Hop picked with a Z-Crystal and his Charizard a Mega Stone depending on your version. Admittedly you'd get the mechanic that wasn't the focus later in the game than the mechanic that is the focus of the generation.
I love the argument people say Dynamax was "fun" because it made every pokemon viable, when in reality all it did was making every already strong pokemon even stronger, and also games were involved around "Who is gonna abuse weakness policy first" the game.
Dynamax allowed some really niche Pokemon in VGC to shine, like Durant
@@tobiasgund8048 the point isn't that it's not actually true that it made weaker pokemon more viable, because it is, but that it had a much bigger negative effect by making all the strong pokemon even stronger
dynamax was fun because i could win with it (i have a skill issue)
@@rajkanishu Yeah, as if Megas weren't much more of a problem with that? Megas were far more centralizing, especially in VGC; remember CHALK teams?
@@rajkanishu Ah yes, because none of the legendaries or pseudo legends got Megas, only weak Pokemon that needed it.
sad to see Jimothy not being a Dynamax truther
Tera I think is interesting in theory but really obnoxious in practice. It lets already powerful pokemon bypass their worst matchups and feels really awkward to fight against. If team preview included tera types it'd be significantly more balanced.
Dynamax is a great example of complex mechanics not always being deep. Dynamax has a dozen different effects in what it does, but its probably the most Unga Bunga mechanic out of the 4 presented here. Pretty much all the effects it has are there to ensure sweeper’s counterplayer options like Encore or simply KOing a sweeper were limited. In 99.9% of scenarios you’ll just click Dynamax the turn anything could threaten you normally.
Congratulations on the 69.6K subscribers, dear Jimothy. It is quite nice.
Generational mechanics isn't exclusive to post gen 6.
However the older generation mechanics weren't temporary so its difficult to call them generational mechanics.
Gen 2 added natures and held items
Gen 3 added Abilities
Gen 4 added Physical Special split.
Gen 5 added Hidden abilities and Perma weather.
All of these had a HUGE impact on that generation's metagame too.
Mega Evolution was one of the main reasons Gen 6 was my favorite as a casual player. It was cool to see new designs for classic pokemon as well as the new abilities. You could get the same result with just new traditional evolutions, but the requirement to have the stone and limiting you to one mega evolve per battle allowed them to make these evolutions more powerful than what they would have done with a standard evolution without completely breaking the game balance. Finding out they were removing mega evolutions from Gen 8 really killed any sort of hype that I felt for the game and when I saw that the new mechanic was just that a pokemon would get big and stronger, I couldn't help but wonder wtf they were thinking. Dynamax just felt boring and lazy in comparison.
I have now come to think of Gen 5 gems as a gimmick in the same way as the following generations
Dynamax is hype. Keep in mind, I love ultimate marvel vs capcom 3 and scream like an NSYNC fan when X-factor gets popped
As a VGC guy I personally like Tera more than Mega Evolution, but I think you captured the benefits of each mechanic really well.
One thing I think people keep missing when discussing Mega-Evolutions, is that while yes, it did boost some already busted mons to even greater heights, this sort of boost is nowhere near the same problem as gimmicks like Tera, Dynamax, or Z-Moves.
This is because Megas, as explained in the video, are in concept neatly designed to each individual Pokémon that gets it, unlike all these other gimmicks.
This means, effectively, that when a Mega Pokémon appears that is "completely busted/unreasonable", it is in fact NOT a problem with the gimmick itself, but a problem with the individual Mega that GameFreak designed.
It is no different from introducing any overcentralizing default pokémon that isn't a "restricted" Pokémon.
Contrast this with gimmicks like Terastallization, Dynamax, or Z-Moves, which are all mechanics that are made to be as all-purpose as possible.
It means that bad mons can be better, sure, but given that these are gimmicks given to anyone, without specific purpose in mind on each individual Pokémon, it naturally means that it just inherently makes good Pokémon straight up better.
Sure, there are fringe cases where a bad Pokémon benefits massively from these gimmicks, but nowhere to the degree that a Mega Pokémon couldn't have.
Not to mention, but with how Megas work, it also wasn't guaranteed that a Mega Pokémon was straight up an improvement, as seen with Mega Garchomp, which suggests that more could be done with Megas that isn't inherently broken, even on the already strong Pokémon.
The flaw of Megas, outside of how many resources they take in development (but I'll get back to that), is that individual Megas could have been better designed.
Tyranitar, for example, could have had a Mega that was more interesting than "Tyranitar but better", and I don't believe that because it happened once, that they couldn't just redesign the Mega gameplay wise, may it be stat distribution, abilities or typing.
Again, cannot stress this enough, but that is an issue that you CANNOT say for most of the other gimmicks, when they boost already broken mons into the ozone layer, due to default mechanics inherent in the general gimmicks.
It isn't actually a flaw with the gimmick itself, which is why Megas is the BEST gimmick.
As for the development cost that Megas take, sorry, but I don't care, skill issue.
The potential for what Megas can provide in terms of Gameplay is such a massive positive, such a natural implementation of basic mechanics in Pokémon, that it is the only gimmick that genuinely has the potential to NOT be a gimmick in the same way that any system change between gens have been (items, weather, abilities, doubles, etc).
But the fact that it is hard to accomplish, is not an issue with the gimmick, it is an issue with those implementing it.
And so, while I see it as just factual reality that if the discussion is "which Pokémon Gimmick was the best" that the answer is just Megas unquestionably, the reality is that because of massive skill issues at GameFreak, it will never be implemented or used in the best way possible.
Remember, the discussion isn't "which gimmick was implemented the best", it is "which Gimmick is the best", and to that end, it is Megas.
All other Gimmicks are too general, they are too bland, they are too dumb, they are too poorly designed by the very virtue of being broad, which means they cannot balance things on an individual level.
And that is why Megas are the best gimmick, but also why you will never see it in it's totality at it's best. You may only ever catch a glimpse of it at individual cases of Gyarados, Beedrill, Manectric, or Pinsir, and so forth. You will never see Megas realized to the best of their design potential, because Skill Issue.
Now, if you asked me "which gimmick was implemented the best", then my answer MIGHT be different.
Well, no, it won't. But it won't be the landslide of a difference in how highly I view it in comparison to "which gimmick was the best".
That being said, thank you for attending my talk on why Megas were the best gimmick.
This post is sponsored by Big (ⁿᵒᵗ⁻ᵗᵒ⁻ᵇᵉ⁻ᶜᵒⁿᶠᵘˢᵉᵈ⁻ʷᶦᵗʰ⁻ᵈʸⁿᵃᵐᵃˣ) Mega™
Well said. Many dislike megas for the reason that they were balanced poorly, but as you said, that's the problem of Gamefreak's touch rather than a problem inherent to the mechanic itself.
Megas do nothing to help shitmons, it just creates a new top tier that is vaguely aesthetically based on an existing one.
@@thestylemage2092 very true statement.
However, Mega's are the most interesting way of helping shitmons, when just comparing the gimmicks, because it can create not just a better pokémon, but a mon that acts as a supplement to the main mon's strengths as well. Not to mention, that Megas aren't "JUST" another pokémon. After all, you can only carry one on your team, so it could be said that it is a somewhat limited pokémon to have.
If it was up to me, there would be none of the gimmicks, but if I had to choose, it would still be megas.
Additionally, the existence of megas do not subtract the ability to make normal mons better. That would be a made up rule, made by lame-o's for lame-o's.
You aren't going to argue that "actually tera doesn't change shitmons into a new mon", because as far as I am concerned, a mere type change already changes the mon completely, and is comparatively, a boring as fuck change.
Also my final point is that I don't give a fuck if there are bad mons or not.
Magcargo can stay bad for all I care.
But that point about what Megas do to shitmons was more to point out a basic problem with the assumptions that people are holding for what actually happens with gimmicks like tera in comparison to what happens with megas.
That being that the gimmick that changes the bad mons is inherently more capable of creating better and more useful mons, if it is specifically handcrafted for each mon.
Just slapping on a generalistic gimmick that all mons can use, is no different than giving every mon access to knock-off, which sure, makes some mons better, but then it obviously also makes a lot of much better mons extremely better.
That isn't the case with Megas, as with the case of Mega Garchomp, which is not really all that amazing for what it is based on and on the powerscale that it exists on.
It is just pointing out flawed logic.
TL;DR...
Raising the power level of everything does exactly what it says, but it also doesn't really change things up much.
If anything changes from a system wide change that is EXTREMELY generalistic, it is accidental, which is not something to be confident in.
I agree with most of what you said. I don't like Terra at all and I don't understand why it is so beloved. Pokemon has always been rock/paper/scissors to some extent at its core with typing. Being able to turn paper into scissors after throwing your hand down does not make any sense.
Better than Dynamax at least lol
I think that terasallization is probably the best generational gimmick, while mega evolution is more fun overall because it’s more exciting/flashy to play with I think not being forced to use one of a small pool of pokemon to mega evolve with is more conducive to better team building and more nuanced interaction beyond “turn one mega evolve, then hope I can sweep”
Tera also does not help weaker pokemon.
Its just rich getting rich as well as lame and boring
Shoutout to black and whites type gems which could be a gimmick. Although we now have the normal gem in every game, the other types were only gen 5 and act like z moves but instead of having your burst of power whenever you want, you only get it on the first use of an attack. I find this aspect makes the gems feel more significant especially if your using it for a stab move that you would normally only run 1 of on a set.
Id argue the EVERY gen has introduced a super influential feature:
Gen 1: All the basics
Gen 2: Held items, Shinies, Steel & Dark types.
Gen 3: Abilities, EVs, IVs, Forme Shifting & Alternate Formes
Gen 4: Physical/Special split, GTS
Gen 5: Hidden Abilities, Triple and Rotation Battles, Xtransceiver
Gen 6: Mega Evolution, PSS & Fairy types
Gen 7: Z-Moves, Poke Pelago & Regional Forms
Gen 8: Dyna/Gigantamax, Alpha Pokémon, Battle Styles, Raid Battles
Gen 9: Tera, Convergent Pokémon, Stellar-Type Tera.
The difference in the "main" 4 gimmicks of the latest year is that they are much more well marketed than most of these, but I wouldn't say that Tera is any more or less influential to the game than, say, held items or the phys/spe split. Dome of the new features even became staples such as Regionals, which I argue should have been discussed in this video.
Every generation has had a new feature or gimmick.
Gen 1: Pokemon itself
Gen 2: items
Gen 3: abilities
Gen 4: physical/special split
Gen 5: hidden abilities
Gen 6: mega evolutions
Gen 7: z-moves
Etc
Every new Pokemon game since generation 1 has had what the fans call a "gimmick"
gen 2: items, weather
gen 3: EVs, abilities
gen 4: physical/special split
gen 5: team preview
gen 6: megas, temporary weather
gen 7: z-moves
gen 8: dynamax, dexit
gen 9: terastal, open teamsheets
Gen 5 added gems
I feel like people Retroactively started calling things like these "Gimmicks" after Megas existed. These weren't advertised as a Primary, central mechanic of the Gen in the same way Megas, Z-Moves etc. were
@@jimothycool the fact that they were only confined to one gen (or two in megas case) also helps
Because things like abillities are more like permanent changes
Megas are more like generational changes, i guess that helps the gimmick vibe
@sla7889 but what was discussed are all battle gimmicks. Jimothy is correct. System changes and gimmicks are not the same thing
The gen 2-5 ones might not count because a popular quality of a 'gimmick' as opposed to just a new system in some peoples' eyes is that it gets abandoned shortly after to make way for the next gimmick while items, EVs, abilities, weather (though it has changed a bit), the physical/special split and team preview are all still core parts of the game.
Gems are probably the closest thing to them in pre-gen 6, being sort of like a precursor to Z-Moves.
As a mechanic I think Tera is the most interesting design-wise, but it needs something to keep it under control (a clause, or a held item).
Mega-evolutions sometimes end up being the same pokemon but overtuned, as you said.
In my opinion,
Mega > Tera in flavour
Tera > Mega in making a battle spicy.
I personally prefer Terastalization because it's a mechanic that relies on making readings and working your way for the opportunity to use it.
And it's not something that upon use you can just become an almost unbreakable powerhouse like Mega Evolution where all you need is to brute-force your way through.
But granted, I do think Megas are the second best mechanics, but I prefer practicality over showing off cool designs.
Now I will agree Dynamax in singles was BAD. But I liked dynamax in VGC. I feel everyone just focuses on "big move does big damage" but the moves all had side effects, and gave you options through them. Not every game was just "stack attack/speed boosts and then sweep". It also gave you options against fake out in vgc. It also enabled pokemon who would not set weather/terrain normally to be able to do that. You didn't have to run a drizzle/drought pokemon, and you could re-set your weather while you were dynamaxed and didn't have to switch out.
There was a game where whimsicott dynamaxed (a support pokemon not known for dynamaxing) and set misty terrain which prevented the ally pokemon from falling asleep to amoongus' spore. Gen 8 was the first time I started playing and watching VGC and I liked thinking about all the bonus effects the moves could do. There were some issues like not all pokemon favoring dynamax or some moves being straight downgrades and some being pretty broken. I know people don't like dynamax and accept that my opinion is not popular 🥲It was more fun to me than "mega into more powerful and then click powerful button" although mega designs were a very cool concept and fun on a surface level.
Sad that they introduced megas but did not give the X/Y or legendary Xerneas/Yveltal mega forms :( They gave it to kanto starters and mewtwo instead.
I'd agree with your list personally. I think megas are cool because it took a lot of pokemon that either weren't good anymore, or were bad and made them viable and that's what I'd hold as important to a good mechanic
You didn't talk about VGC regarding Mega Evolution. It seems it was generally not a very well received mechanic there by competitive-minded players, since they had to deal with the most absurd and broken megas that were banned in Smogon, like Kangaskhan or Salamence, and so only a handful of them were used, while dynamax and terastallization can be useful in any pokémon.
After the announcement of Pokémon ZA, I talked a bit with a friend about how to make megas more interesting in case they returned. And taking into account all the power creep we've had all these years, we thought that maybe they could allow us to use two mega evolutions: one of them would have to be holding a mega stone, and it'd be able to inmediately mega evolve upon entering the battle if you so wished, while the other one would be able to use any item but would need to manually evolve. Then, every specific mega evolution would also have a special move that would be an slightly improved version of a representative move of that pokémon. For example, Mega Gallade would get a "Mega Sacred Sword", which could just be something like a higher base power version of the move. Mega moves would also be useful to balance the different power levels of mega evolutions. So the ones with worse stats or typings could have better mega moves to compensate.
I like it when in pokemon you engage in battles
It's pretty interesting seeing how differing the opinions of gimmicks have been between Singles and Doubles players. Doubles players tend to view Dynamax in much higher regard for instance, while not having much of a favourable opinion of Mega Evolution due to how overcentralising it made the meta, especially in the Gen 6 VGC 2014 days when the meta basically revolved around around 3 Megas, with the rest being unviable or not worth using. And then VGC 2015 had CHALK which really didn't help.
And the less said about Z-moves the better.
From a competitive singles view point I prefer Z-moves over terra, due to having the ability to be creative with niche moves and having the ability for surprise KOs on mons (Z-dig Gren taking out Pex is probably my favourite example)
Crazy that Generation 1 still has the most amount of gimmicks!
Not sure if they were all intentional...
I think it would be interesting to get regional versions of existing Pokemon w/ signature moves along with Mega's. I think that would give a rework to certain types of pokemon and also giving more power to others and help make the gimmick not so strong as weve seem how strong all these new paradox forms and etc are.
Mega Evos were perfectly designed for Smogon singles. You can almost entirely consider a Mega independently from its base form for the sake of tiering, and it’s very easy to ban a broken Mega without damning the base form. From the VGC lens however, there is no way to balance Megas. Take Mega Kangaskhan-it’s by far the most broken (unrestricted) Mega, and there’s no way for VGC to balance its metagame around Mega Kangaskhan. The meta becomes over centralized, and as a result you see stale strategies like the infamous CHALK team from VGC 2015.
I’m mostly a Smogon singles player, so I am very happy with how Megas interact with that particular competitive format. However, I understand why some would view Megas as actually the least-balanced/worst generational gimmick.
The main issue with Mega Evolution is exclusivity, which at least none of the other gimmicks possess.
I think megas are the 2nd worst balanced of them all lol with z moves being the worst balanced. Mega pokemons are more centralizing than dynamax just because some megas are just way too fycking strong. U see a kangaskhan in the team preview and you know it's gonna mega evolve but u can't really do anything about it cus let's say your mega pokemon is weak against theirs. And u don't really have a choice but mega evolve it just because it's so strong you're basically at a disadvantage when u don't. But unlike megas, u can dynamax any mon. That means even if u see a Charizard on your opponent's team and u feel like it's gonna gmax u can just play it out and max whatever mon u think would be the best. In short dynamax has more counterplay.
Dynamax makes you many times larger but only makes your HP two times larger, clearly this is an oversight and HP should have been multiplied by twenty.
So I wouldn't call myself a dynamax fan per se, but I didn't mind it. I am primarily a VGC/doubles player and from a gameplay perspective I enjoyed having a big tough dude to anchor you gameplay around.
i like dynamax
1 out of 5 found
And with everyone super...no one will be
I’ve been hesitant with the gimmicks since they were conceived in gen 6. I remember refusing to use Megas for as long as I played that meta. Some have grown on me, after I’ve seen what horrors they come up with next, but at first I always reject them.
Let’s go mega Pokémon ruled. You can run while teams and pick which one needed per battle. My favorite matches were against “thatsaplusone”s teams. The ones where he didn’t just go auto mega aero.
Ok, I expect this commment to get exactly 5 likes. Lets gather my fellow Dynamax enjoyers
there's something about this community around this channel that's so loyal to the irony that I love so much
I think a big problem I have with mega-evolutions that make me hate them is that most of them just aren't very good visually. They read as 'the same but MORE' in an almost childish way, exaggerating the features without doing anything new, and often reaching a point of being too busy or losing more subtly appealing design elements. There's a few that have real ideas behind them like Swampert and Kangaskhan, and those are great, but so many are just 'we added more spikes to the spiky guy'.
I was a fan of dynamax in vgc, at least early on before the gates opened for restricted pokemon. Surely there are more than five of us...
The worst part of Tera is the Tera Shard grind, needing 50 of the same type of shards for just one Pokémon was too much of a slog to even bother and made me drop competitive Pokémon entirely
I am definitely more of a VGC and Gen 3 player, and I would definitely put Tera at the top. It's important to note tho, neither Calyrex form was designed with Tera in mind. Those mons have definitely been pushed over the edge by the mechanic
Personally I find tera a more fun mechanic to play with even if it does feel a bit much at times. Though megas slightly edge it out for the designs and buffing old pokemon can be cool.
i think tera easily could have been the best mechanic, but it has two major issues. the first is like you said, it's a rich get richer situation where the more powerful you are the more you benefit, so all the interesting pokemon that we were theorising about before gen 9 dropped got ignored immediately in favour of more ridiculous mons. the other issue is the prediction aspect, i know pokemon is all about predictions, but i really don't think it's healthy to add extra layers. let's say it's turn 1 of a game, your opponent has 4 different moves or can switch to 5 different pokemon, which gives us the baseline of 9 options per turn per player which was true from gen 1 to 5. if you add tera to that, your opponent can now choose to tera while clicking any of those 4 moves, and have 19 types to choose from. that's 85 options per player, so that turn is almost 10 times more complicated. obviously there is a meta, so we know what types are common or when someone's likely to click it, but the sheer number of options is a big issue. and gen 9 makes it far worse with its really overpowered offensive pokemon and tools, which make each turn far more impactful, so many games will be decided by one or two turns of tera prediction. tpc realised vgc was already way too complex to handle this so they made it open team sheet which gets rid of most of this issue, but singles is a huge pain to play with it. ik high level tournament players like it, but they're far more aware of the meta and the mindset of their opponents, if you're just laddering then you have no way of knowing for sure and you just have to guess
Tera is such a powerful tool in the hands of a dumbass. If you thought predicting those guys was hard enough, so much of your hair's gonna get ripped out playing Gen 9
I am a Dynamax defender, but I also started VGC in Gen 8 so it’s how I originally learned vgc lol
I dislike the Tera gimmick most. It may not be as ridiculous in singles as Dynamax, but it makes a lot of strong Pokemon borderline broken, and it doesn't allow nearly as much variety in doubles.
its scary how much i agree with you, especially on z moves
Tera is really an overhated gimmick. Surely its a bit overtuned in some aspect, mainly the fact that it can give you the adaptability boost, but most of its flaw come down to already broken Pokémon abusing the mechanic, and any and all mechanic can be abused by broken things. But when tera is used on things that are actually balanced, it can really lead to fun interactions and bring a new dimension to mindgame, while still allowing for counterplay that is not just "dynamax to counter your opponent's dynamax". Honestly if Kingambit had been banned when it should, much fewer people would have complained about tera.
If you think about it, ability is a gen 3 generational mechanic that just remains unlike mega.
I feel like one of a few people who aren't really that fond of Mega Evolution; in a lot of cases it just felt like there was some favoritism in terms of what Pokemon got them with Pokemon that were either already popular or good Pokemon as is while a lot of Pokemon that could use some improvement just got forgotten. Kind of hoping if PLZA uses Gen 2, 5, and 7 starters again that we see Chikorita so Meganium either gets a Mega form or a new form with a good ability.
As a casual the only gimmicks I really liked were Mega Evolution and Regional Variants (which I think counts as gimmick).
Tera is also neat but I feel that it's about 3/4's there and needed a bit more time to cook, like everything S/V related really. Playing with the types is a good idea I think but the crowns just look silly and not in a good way, and the Stellar type could have been really interesting but just turns out to be a nothingburger.
I can understand the reasoning behind dynamax (who doesn't love Kaiju's?) and it was fun the first 5 times or so but it started to drag after that. The Gigantamax forms felt like an imitation of mega's that just didn't reach the finish line. There were a few of them that could serve as great inspiration for mega's that I honestly liked; Kingler for example, or Blastoise which I really liked much better then it's actual Mega form.
TL;DR: Dynamax felt like an idea you think is really cool until you actually put it in practice and then it really wasn't as cool as you thought it was.
Z-moves fall in two problem camps for me; the first is that like Dynamax I kinda got the idea and enjoyed it but got bored of them rather fast. The second segues neatly into my beef with Mega is that resources are commited to something cool and then get thrown in the trash and not used again.
Presumably a lot of time and resources got put into the animations of the Z-moves and mega designs but that locks out that potential for the future. I would have preferred if the Z-move animation budget was instead used to improve the animations of the high end moves permanently instead. They don't need to have the 'long' production of the Z-moves but just a bit more pizazz for the Hyper Beams, Fire Blasts and Hurricanes and some touch ups on the other moves would have been much more preferred for me.
The same goes for Mega's. They're great, I enjoy most of them and they give 'mon like Beedrill, Mawile, Lopunny etc. etc. a time to shime, but it is just for a small time. Lopunny got it's time in the sun, but will forever be terrible without it. What I would have liked to see from Mega's is more like Gyarados where interesting choices can be made. Or instead of Mega's always having a +100 stat boost give the strong ones +50 or +25 and rearranging the stats and ability to give them a chance to use movepools in different ways like Heracross and it's Skill Link.
What I would like to see instead of Mega's for underappreciated 'mon like Beedrill, Mawile and Lopunny is to instead give them something like it permanently. We have regional forms now and they're often a success but to the detriment of the original 'mon being left in the dust (looking at you Ninetales). What I would like to see in the future is for Gamefreak to look at all the older pokémon and give them a touch-up. Take inspiration from the mega-evo's that worked and give some 'mon a mega-lite that you can use an item for them to change in to permanently like how Hidden Abilities work now with the Ability Patch. That way they'll be able to stay somewhat relevant forever without evolving them. A Hidden Form or something.
Honestly I just want Gamefreak to touch up old pokémon types, movesets and maybe some extra stats for those who really need them.
Sorry for the huge wall of text, felt passionate about it.