‘Pokemon Sun’ And ‘Moon’: No More Mega Evolution? [VIDEO]


Just recently, some Pokemon fans around the internet have been speculating that Pokemon Sun and Moon will not only stop adding Mega Pokemon to the franchise, but do away with the concept of Mega evolution completely.

Pokemon Sun and Moon news has been coming in a steady stream for over a month now, and fans of the series are generally delighted by all of the new features and Pokemon designs that have been announced.

One of the most highly praised features is the new mechanic, which seems to involve the special stones the player character wears on his or her wrist. Several of the trailers already released make it look like the stones, which are being called “burst hearts,” will interact with some Pokemon in order to make them stronger during battle.

It sounds strangely similar to Mega evolution, a mechanic introduced in Pokemon X and Y that also entails jewelery worn by the player powering up a Pokemon for the duration of the battle.

Many Pokemon fans have been saying for a while that the Pokemon formula might get a bit too convoluted if another battle-enhancing gimmick were to be added on top of Mega evolution, but the idea never really seemed realistic and never had nearly as much support as opposition. Most casual Pokemon fans (who make up the vast majority of Pokemon players) love the solid designs and very high stats given to Pokemon’s Megas. They do not mind that Mega evolutions make the games much easier and all but break Pokemon’s online competitive battling scene, because they are just in it for the Pokemon themselves — which is not necessarily a bad thing.

But it wasn’t really until recently, when Pokemon-themed YouTube content creators Shady Penguinn and Shofu made a detailed speculation video debating the topic — a video embedded in this article’s header — that the notion of Pokemon Sun and Moon removing Mega Pokemon completely really started to seem like a credible possibility.

In the video, Shady Penguinn, the one of the pair arguing in favor of removing Mega Pokemon, points out that Game Freak, the makers of Pokemon, are beginning to care more about supporting Pokemon’s competitive scene. In the past, Shady continues, Game Freak has shown that they are only concerned with how the Pokemon game mechanics work in the story modes of the games themselves; the competitive scene always fell by the wayside.

Lately, however, competitive Pokemon battling has been making more money for Game Freak. Pokemon fans are paying more to compete at tournaments like the recent EVO 2016, and Game Freak has been showing they see the value of competitive battling by significantly upping the cash prizes they give players who win events.

The logical next step, Shady Penguinn says, is for Game Freak to remove the ridiculously overpowered Mega evolution mechanic that has basically destroyed the competitive scene by making everyone cling to a small group of overpowered Megas.

“For their competitive game,” Shady reflects, “it ruined their game, 100%.”

X and Y were good for a year, and then everyone realized how broken Mega Kangaskhan was, and then the next two years was Mega Kangaskhan.”

He also emphasizes that this new battle mechanic announced for Pokemon Sun and Moon basically confirms to him that Game Freak wants to phase out the too-close-for-comfort mechanic of Mega evolution, saying that it seemed to him the new mechanic was meant to lighten the blow of removing mega evolution.

“I really think that they’re like ‘Mega Evolution really messed us up, at least some of the Mega Evolutions. How can we ease this pain of taking some of these away? Well, let’s introduce a new mechanic,'” Shady says, imagining what he thinks might be going though the minds of the Pokemon franchise’s designers.

What’s more, Shady Penguinn finishes, removing Mega Pokemon from Pokemon Sun and Moon would be extremely simple and would not entail any confusing Pokebank transfer embargoes or anything. Items are not transferable via Pokebank anyway, so the Pokemon Sun and Moon designers could just make Mega stones unavailable in the game. Simple!

Shofu retorted that the idea of Mega evolution had been the central focus of Pokemon X and Y; there is no way Game Freak would just scrap an idea they had spent an entire main franchise game developing.

Besides, far too many people are already love specific Pokemon for the sole reason that the Pokemon’s Mega evolution looks fantastic! Game Freak would not take that away.

What do you think? Are Mega Pokemon too overpowered, or would you miss them? And do you think they are too much an established part of the Pokemon universe to be removed now, or do you think Mega Pokemon really could just be a generation six feature? Make yourself heard in the comments section below!

[Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Images]

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