Will Mega Evolution return?
 

With the new Z-Moves (which require a held item) and no Mega Evolutions having been seen yet in the official reveals, some have questioned whether or not Mega Evolution will return and simply be downplayed because it isn't a key feature of this generation, whether we'll get the Synchro Evolution from the anime (or Burst from the Re-Burst side manga), or that Z-Moves will be its replacement.

What do you think?

I'd be perfectly happy never to see them again. I've complained about them plenty in the past, from them being an advertising-campaign-turned-game-mechanic to power creep to everything else; I'm not too keen on these Z moves, either, but . . . eh.

My problem with Mega Evolution is that they gave it to many of the wrong Pokémon. Those who were outclassed were certainly brought up a little, but they weren't given useful abilities. Even then, they gave Mewtwo not one, but two Megas, and Speed Boost Blaziken became even more broken. And don't get me started on why Rayquaza's shouldn't exist. Legendary Pokémon do not need Megas. Or Primals. Or whatever they sugar-coat it with next should it come back.

"HEY YOU! ARE YOU A DUDE BETWEEN THE AGES OF TWENTY FIVE AND THIRTY WHO PLAYED POKéMON RED AND BLUE GROWING UP? YOU REMEMBER HOW COOL MEWTWO AND CHARIZARD WERE? WELL, WE WENT AND MADE TWO MORE OF THEM, SO HOW THEY'RE EVEN COOLER! BUY OUR STUFF!!!!!!!"

Unrelated but I would have been perfectly okay with a Primal Dialga and Palkia if only so that the Mystery Dungeon song would have returned as a battle theme that you could turn on for competitive battles, but that's about it. Primal Groudon and Kyogre could have just stayed as part of Art Academy and the metagame would just be that much better.

(I think Speed Boost Blaziken actually became less broken with the Mega because you automatically know what item it's holding and you don't have to play the guessing game . . . either that or the rest of the Uber tier just got more broken.)

Ha, Primal Dialga, I loved that song. I remixed that eight years ago. It wasn't that great, but folks loved it.

Anyway, I think the only reasonable way they could fix the balance is by either nerfing a lot of them or retconning the feature into something else. Proper evolutions for the ones that only have one or two stages would be a good start.

If I recall, Primal Dialga was also the reason I showed up here in the first place, I think because I was originally trying to use it in a game or something and needed the song in midi form. Well, that sure happened.

Back to Sun and Moon, if they spent this entire generation giving Megas to Marowak and Ariados and, god forbid, Lineoone, they could at least break the rest of the game equally. Looks like they're not adding any more, though, 'cause we probably would have seen them by now. The way they've been going, if we got any more Megas they'd probably be in the form of Ultra Primal Mega Ho-oh and Lugia instead, though :P

Do you think it's likely that Megas won't be back this generation, since I'm pretty sure we haven't seen any yet? It seems unlikely that a professional game studio would just remove a feature that was so heavily advertised in the last generation, but it also seems weird that none have been shown off yet . . .

I'd be fine with Linoone getting Super Saiyan mode. :)

Think about it this way, what features have they already removed between generations before?

• Battle Frontier
• Pokémon World Tournament
• Safari Zone/National Park
• Contests
• Following Pokémon
• Day/night cycle
• Day/night cycle giving different Pokémon
• Day of the week cycle
• The Pokétch and some of its useful apps (step counter, type chart, day care status)
• Game Corner (to be fair, they were legally obligated) and Voltorb Flip
• Vs. Seeker or equivalent
• PokéAthlon
• The ability to rematch gym leaders (see other thread)
• Poké Ball customization
• Apricorn balls
• Turning running on/off
• Entralink and the Dream World
• Join Avenue (StreetPass, perhaps?)
• Dive areas
• Item storage in the PC/Free Space in B2W2
• Trainer customization
• A room that can be decorated
• Poké Radar/DexNav (see "Vs. Seeker" for the PokéNav above)
• PokéStar Studios
• And I'll end with a highly-requested one, a difficult switch!

What's worse is some of these have been teased several times but keep getting removed, but it's also good that we don't have to suffer the Safari Zone or Game Corner these days.

Now, none of these are core mechanics that affect battling, but it still gives food for thought. After all, we still have Rotation and Triple Battles, even though I don't hear much about them.

The removal of these two in particular seem a bit odd since they're more to do with software design than world design. Would be like Microsoft saying "eh, the WiFi meter in Task Manager is useful and nice, but let's get rid of it anyway."