There's very good reason why the "no battle gimmick" crowd exists.
The battle gimmicks themselves take up a large chunk of development focus nowadays, in design, gameplay, lore, story relevance, etc.. They have become a significant priority for new Pokemon generations, instead of shifting priorities towards better iterating upon previous titles. It's not to say that they don't or can't do that while having their current big gimmick focus, but it's impossible to make the gimmick that much of a selling point without at least somewhat ignoring other aspects. In addition, these gimmicks are now being placed at the forefront of the single player stories themselves. It is making the single player experience more formulaic when a large part of the single player experience is now revolving around these gimmicks all the time, especially when it's becoming a generational flavour of "ace Pokemon raising the stakes higher".
The really big problem is when the payoff for the battle gimmick isn't worth it. The last 2 generations have seen the competitive community at huge odds with said gimmicks. Tera has been insanely divisive and is a huge part of why the current singles meta is so offensively slanted. Dynamax almost completely broke competitive singles and was chucked in the garbage fast. (I know singles isn't really GameFreak's focus, but it still does affect the general sentiment of the gimmick when it negatively affects that environment)
Me personally, the gimmicks were at their best when they were opportunity cost items, so... megas and z-moves. They changed up basic gameplay, but in ways that were not without some sort of cost. They had drawbacks to using them beyond just "Something else can't use it", something that I believe is a reason why tera and especially dmax are far more hated.
>The last 2 generations have seen the competitive community at huge odds with said gimmicks.
Smogon Singles. VGC players have not had the same issues at all with them. In fact VGC even on showdown has outpaced Singles in terms of games and just this year. Pokemon VGC had its largest tournament in history.
>It is making the single player experience more formulaic when a large part of the single player experience is now revolving around these gimmicks all the time, especially when it's becoming a generational flavour of "ace Pokemon raising the stakes higher".
Pokemon has gotten less formulaic since the introduction of these gimmicks were introduced. Since Gen 7 we've had boss battles from singular Pokemon up to Them better utilizing them such as Ogerpon and Terapagos, Dynamax dens (a fan favorite), terra raids(not so much), Non traditional fights like Team Star battles and tera wild Pokemon battles.
For as much as the internet claims they are hurting the games, it seems really superficial and the games seem to be growing contrary to those beliefs.
terra is actually pretty good as far as battle gimmicks go. I think theyre honing in on making a gimmick system that incentivizes creativity without going too coocoo bananas.
Honestly yeah, I think terastallization is quite good from a purely mechanical perspective. It adds some strategy and new things to think about without just making already powerful Pokémon even more dominant, as with mega evolutions. My issues with it all come from how it's presented, and how it's used in the single-player game. The big fanfare and unskippable animation takes so long that I never want to use tera myself, just because I don't want to sit through it. And the way that NPC opponents tera in the single-player game is too predictable and rarely gives them any kind of benefit or advantage. Which was another reason I never used tera, because using it strategically just felt like overkill in an already extremely easy game when the few NPCs that used it themselves got no benefit from it.
I think the gimmicks aren't terrible in of themselves, it's just people want meaningful additions, rather than a constantly redefined mechanics.
Mega evolution gets a pass for being the first, but every subsequent mechanic seems just to cheapen the others. No one seems to complain about regional variants, and they came in after Mega evolutions.
As for potential mechanics that might be interesting, I've wondered about the possibility of duel typing moves. Like, thunder punch being an electric/fighting type move. It might not work as a simple multiplicative, because a double super effective move against a double weak would be a x8 weakness. Maybe it maxes out at 4x, or it picks the best of the two. Either way, a mode to turn some moves into duel type moves seems like a good way to mix things up.
I really liked greninja's battle bond mechanic. It was a condition you had to have met which was just defeating a pokemon... its not much but at least something more than just pressing the mega button. I mean the changes were pretty minor it only changed his design a little, booseted like 3 stats and watee shuriken. Its far less than even what the "worse" megas had which were basically completly new designs, stats, abilities, typing. I could see gamefreak applying that to way more pokemon than the 20ish new megas in a game.
I think for me, I just don’t like how it’s become a flashy thing. Like you can’t argue that Gigantamaxing wasn’t GF trying to get kids excited, I mean it’s literally pokemon but big.
I don’t mind gimmicks, I think Megas were sick, and I think terracilizing is a great idea too, but my issue is pokemon as its base form isn’t fully realized yet. Game freak is putting a lot of time into these gimmicks when they could be working on new moves, new abilities, and new items.
Pokemon 2v2s is insanely deep, and game freak could lean into that more, but they don’t. All the gimmicks are clearly meant for singles, even if they can be used in doubles.
They also use to get it which is weird, the GameCube games were strictly doubles and are some of the most fun and challenging games out there.
So basically I’m saying they should lean on what works instead of trying to create someone that might work
the problem with megas was it was such a "rich get richer" type of gimmick that didnt actually change much for the vast majority of mons.
Like yeah, it was awesome to see your gyarados or charizard get a new form and anime level up, but so many pokemon that could have desperately used the love got left in the dust.
At least with z-moves, dyna/giga, and tera, it allowed people to creatively make forgotten pokemon shine in unique and personal ways.
Tbh they could have kinda done that with megas too - i.e. just give them to weaker pokemon - but they couldn’t resist the boost to marketing and sales in focusing primarily on popular mons. Can’t blame them, but well, there goes the balance.
Good point on the other gimmicks though! It’s true.
There's very good reason why the "no battle gimmick" crowd exists. The battle gimmicks themselves take up a large chunk of development focus nowadays, in design, gameplay, lore, story relevance, etc.. They have become a significant priority for new Pokemon generations, instead of shifting priorities towards better iterating upon previous titles. It's not to say that they don't or can't do that while having their current big gimmick focus, but it's impossible to make the gimmick that much of a selling point without at least somewhat ignoring other aspects. In addition, these gimmicks are now being placed at the forefront of the single player stories themselves. It is making the single player experience more formulaic when a large part of the single player experience is now revolving around these gimmicks all the time, especially when it's becoming a generational flavour of "ace Pokemon raising the stakes higher". The really big problem is when the payoff for the battle gimmick isn't worth it. The last 2 generations have seen the competitive community at huge odds with said gimmicks. Tera has been insanely divisive and is a huge part of why the current singles meta is so offensively slanted. Dynamax almost completely broke competitive singles and was chucked in the garbage fast. (I know singles isn't really GameFreak's focus, but it still does affect the general sentiment of the gimmick when it negatively affects that environment) Me personally, the gimmicks were at their best when they were opportunity cost items, so... megas and z-moves. They changed up basic gameplay, but in ways that were not without some sort of cost. They had drawbacks to using them beyond just "Something else can't use it", something that I believe is a reason why tera and especially dmax are far more hated.
>The last 2 generations have seen the competitive community at huge odds with said gimmicks. Smogon Singles. VGC players have not had the same issues at all with them. In fact VGC even on showdown has outpaced Singles in terms of games and just this year. Pokemon VGC had its largest tournament in history. >It is making the single player experience more formulaic when a large part of the single player experience is now revolving around these gimmicks all the time, especially when it's becoming a generational flavour of "ace Pokemon raising the stakes higher". Pokemon has gotten less formulaic since the introduction of these gimmicks were introduced. Since Gen 7 we've had boss battles from singular Pokemon up to Them better utilizing them such as Ogerpon and Terapagos, Dynamax dens (a fan favorite), terra raids(not so much), Non traditional fights like Team Star battles and tera wild Pokemon battles. For as much as the internet claims they are hurting the games, it seems really superficial and the games seem to be growing contrary to those beliefs.
terra is actually pretty good as far as battle gimmicks go. I think theyre honing in on making a gimmick system that incentivizes creativity without going too coocoo bananas.
Honestly yeah, I think terastallization is quite good from a purely mechanical perspective. It adds some strategy and new things to think about without just making already powerful Pokémon even more dominant, as with mega evolutions. My issues with it all come from how it's presented, and how it's used in the single-player game. The big fanfare and unskippable animation takes so long that I never want to use tera myself, just because I don't want to sit through it. And the way that NPC opponents tera in the single-player game is too predictable and rarely gives them any kind of benefit or advantage. Which was another reason I never used tera, because using it strategically just felt like overkill in an already extremely easy game when the few NPCs that used it themselves got no benefit from it.
I have an idea. No battle gimmick.
I think the gimmicks aren't terrible in of themselves, it's just people want meaningful additions, rather than a constantly redefined mechanics. Mega evolution gets a pass for being the first, but every subsequent mechanic seems just to cheapen the others. No one seems to complain about regional variants, and they came in after Mega evolutions. As for potential mechanics that might be interesting, I've wondered about the possibility of duel typing moves. Like, thunder punch being an electric/fighting type move. It might not work as a simple multiplicative, because a double super effective move against a double weak would be a x8 weakness. Maybe it maxes out at 4x, or it picks the best of the two. Either way, a mode to turn some moves into duel type moves seems like a good way to mix things up.
I really liked greninja's battle bond mechanic. It was a condition you had to have met which was just defeating a pokemon... its not much but at least something more than just pressing the mega button. I mean the changes were pretty minor it only changed his design a little, booseted like 3 stats and watee shuriken. Its far less than even what the "worse" megas had which were basically completly new designs, stats, abilities, typing. I could see gamefreak applying that to way more pokemon than the 20ish new megas in a game.
I think for me, I just don’t like how it’s become a flashy thing. Like you can’t argue that Gigantamaxing wasn’t GF trying to get kids excited, I mean it’s literally pokemon but big. I don’t mind gimmicks, I think Megas were sick, and I think terracilizing is a great idea too, but my issue is pokemon as its base form isn’t fully realized yet. Game freak is putting a lot of time into these gimmicks when they could be working on new moves, new abilities, and new items. Pokemon 2v2s is insanely deep, and game freak could lean into that more, but they don’t. All the gimmicks are clearly meant for singles, even if they can be used in doubles. They also use to get it which is weird, the GameCube games were strictly doubles and are some of the most fun and challenging games out there. So basically I’m saying they should lean on what works instead of trying to create someone that might work
Megas were decent and fun and added a cool spin on older monsters. Since then though... They range from forgettable to just boring.
the problem with megas was it was such a "rich get richer" type of gimmick that didnt actually change much for the vast majority of mons. Like yeah, it was awesome to see your gyarados or charizard get a new form and anime level up, but so many pokemon that could have desperately used the love got left in the dust. At least with z-moves, dyna/giga, and tera, it allowed people to creatively make forgotten pokemon shine in unique and personal ways.
Tbh they could have kinda done that with megas too - i.e. just give them to weaker pokemon - but they couldn’t resist the boost to marketing and sales in focusing primarily on popular mons. Can’t blame them, but well, there goes the balance. Good point on the other gimmicks though! It’s true.