Pokemon X and Y Introduces "Mega" Evolutions

[Steven Bogos]

Pokemon X and Y Introduces "Mega" Evolutions

MegaBlaziken, MegaAbsol, MegaMawile, MegaMewtwo, MegaLucario and MegaAmpharos have been confirmed as the first six of the new kind of Pokemon evolution.

Remember how Game Freak teased that weird-looking Mewtwo-like Pokemon [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk_YC0MXJ-0] a while back? The latest edition of Japan's CoroCoro magazine has revealed that it is indeed an evolution of Mewtwo, but not just an ordinary evolution, a mega evolution. That's right, Pokemon X and Y will feature mega evolutions, which rather than your standard evolution are a kind of super-beefed up version of the initial Pokemon. It's basically Super Saiyan but for Pokemon.

The Magazine revealed the appearance of the first six of these mega evolutions: MegaBlaziken, MegaAbsol, MegaMawile, MegaMewtwo, MegaLucario and MegaAmpharos. There doesn't seem to be any clear pattern, with some of the megas coming from three-evolution families, some coming from two, and some coming from Pokemon that previously didn't evolve at all. I guess you could consider mega Pokemon the counterpart to "baby" Pokemon introduced back in Gen II.

Each of the mega Pokemon will have a special ability that's not normally accessible to them, for example, MegaBlaziken has SpeedBoost while MegaMewtwo has Insomnia. The respective Pokemon reach these forms through "Mega Evolution," though it isn't clear how this will be achieved.

Apparently, the key to understanding Mega Evolutions is via a character named Koruni (Japanese name), who is one of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y's Gym Leaders.

The magazine also reveals that Torchic, the fire starter from Ruby and Sapphire who can eventually become MegaBlaziken, will be the first distribution event Pokemon.

I think these look quite cool, Lucario and Absol in particular. It's nice to see Game Freak revisiting their older, popular Pokemon when working on a new series, as i'm always much more excited to hear about new evolutions for existing Pokemon than brand-new Pokemon.

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/08/08/pokemon-x-and-pokemon-y-introduce-mega-evolutions-like-megablaziken/]

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[Nazulu]

Mega Mewtwo? Wasn't he powerful enough in the first movie? Able to control and create whatever he wants.

I don't like the idea but I'll lookout just in case.

 

[Atary77]

Someday in the world of Pokemon there's going to be a game where someone breeds or evolves a new Pokemon that can only be described as an abomination against Arceus.

 

[Gormech]

Well ... so that's how it ends. They take the path of Digimon. It's kind of sad. Oh well, couldn't last forever.

 

[Terminate421]

Well ... so that's how it ends. They take the path of Digimon. It's kind of sad. Oh well, couldn't last forever.

You have no idea how Naive that statement is.

Seriously, no idea.

EDIT: I like this, opens up new opportunities.

 

[Abomination]

MegaMewTwo?

Really?

There wasn't any other name you could think of for this creature?

I would think a name would be as easy as "One, two, three".

 

[crimson sickle2]

I really don't like the sound of these. I'm not a fan of the designs, and they sound like a one time gimmick to try and add more useful held items. Problem with adding more held-items which give better abilities and might give free stats? There will be no reason to not use that item. It should be noted, I don't know if they evolve via held-item, but I'm guessing so, else they wouldn't be able to be used in wi-fi battles. If there's a mode that allows players to use a limited amount of items, and that's how they evolve (mega-stone), then it's going to be stupid to see team lineups where both teams carry Pokemon with mega evolutions. New Absol might grow on me eventually, but I'm not liking how they added wings to the simple body and made it's hair grow bigger, DBZ style.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I've only played the original Pokemon Blue, and did a double take when I heard in Nintendo direct that there are now over 600 types.

The series got really bloated and complicated over the years, with no end in sight. Not unlike the progression of Mega Man to Mega Man ZX Omega Starforce Alpha - Renegade Harbinger Xerxes: Neo Ultima Simulacrum...5 or whatever BS it got up to before Capcom more or less killed the franchise.

From what I recall, Mewtwo scarcely needs more power...

 

[Gatx]

Hell yeah, MegaAmpharos. I always liked the Mareep and Flaafy, but thought it was weird that Ampharos didn't have any sheep like qualities. I'm totally on board with this, even though Lucario, Blaziken, and Absol look terribly over-designed.

 

[Charli]

Well ... so that's how it ends. They take the path of Digimon. It's kind of sad. Oh well, couldn't last forever.

As a long term fan of both franchises I'm going to ask a very serious question

Spoiler: The serious question

You are highly misinformed. That is all, should you care for elaboration I will be more than happy to provide it.

 

[Uratoh]

My real question, from a balance perspective, is 'will these raise stats, or is it just a new apperance and ability?' I mean, Dream World Torchic already had Speed Boost as an ability, this just means 'now you can breed moves onto speed boost blaziken' which will make it more rediculous....

 

[Dark Knifer]

Well hopefully this changes things up dramatically and shows nintendo can actually be interesting once in a while.

 

[Gormech]

Well ... so that's how it ends. They take the path of Digimon. It's kind of sad. Oh well, couldn't last forever.

As a long term fan of both franchises I'm going to ask a very serious question

Spoiler: The serious question

You are highly misinformed. That is all, should you care for elaboration I will be more than happy to provide it.

I understand in hindsight that my original post is coming off as something that could possibly be considered trollbait so I'll try to clear it up some ...

In my general area growing up, there was a pretty big split between the two franchises. I came across digimon prior to pokemon so at first, thought pokemon was a ripoff of it. General age was around 6 or so. Digimon season one was really the only thing of its kind that we were exposed to but the story seemed a lot like pokemon when the two were put side by side.

IE: Kids out in the middle of nowhere getting animals to fight other animals.

Then we began to recognize a split.

Pokemon would keep adding more pokemon with the previous ones having an evolution every now and then.
Digimon would have an evolution with a new character every now and then.

Right or wrong, that's how we saw it at the time.

Pokemon appeared to have the winning formula and we assumed Digimon had died out because it didn't bring enough completely new characters in, just upgraded ones we already had. Didn't help things that the show didn't come on anymore on the cartoon channel my parents had. I didn't learn of the new seasons till much later.

My earlier post was made with the thought process of: They're just gonna start upgrading the current pokemon more now that they've started to run outta ideas and will slowly stagnate like my childhood memories of the old digimon. In hindsight, it was poorly worded.


TLDR: I type faster than my brain works to tell me not to post it.


Also, how do we add images in a post? Been trying to figure that out for awhile now.

 

[Innegativeion]

The series got really bloated and complicated over the years,

I'm tended to seriously question this assertion, considering

I've only played the original Pokemon Blue

For my part, I've enjoyed each pokemon game more than the last. Pokemon as a series is notable for always adding simple, yet overall beneficial expects each generation.

2nd; breeding, babies, new types for balance

3rd; running, double battles, a streamlined hidden genetics system for stat growth, alt forms... sort of

4th; 3d environments, physical and special move distinctions, online play and trading

5th; fully animated sprites, the ability to EV train level 100s, improved online options

6th; fully 3d game, a new type for balance, pokemon nintendogs (I mean come on. That's brilliant), a more approachable EV training system, and this mega evolution... thing.

That list being of course by no means comprehensive. I've honestly found the notion that "too many pokemon=bad" baffling. The real world has THOUSANDS, not hundreds, of species... but people only seem to be impressed by that, never put off. I like the idea of there being huge numbers of monsters to choose from, so everyone's teams always look different, and everyone has a different favorite.

From what I recall, Mewtwo scarcely needs more power...

From what I can tell, these mega evolutions are temporary in-battle form changes that occur somehow, but require the pokemon to be holding a specific item. That alone is a big trade-off, since clever application of held items is a huge part of pokemon's metagame.

-----------------------

and finally, because I've clearly not bitched and moaned enough in a single post, I must say that the mega man franchise is NOT bloated, in fact quite the contrary.

It's just long-running. It's been around since essentially the stone age, so it has a huge catalog.

On the other hand, it hasn't seen a real entry in years, which is a shame since the main series' last entry was great and underrated. That being megaman ZX.

Mega Man star force (and battle network) you referred to is completely different than the main series, anyway. It's its own thing.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I'm actually quite alright with this. While I'm not too sure how much I like how they look, this opens up some interesting new possibilities. Fingers crossed for MegaDunsparce!

From what I can tell, these mega evolutions are temporary in-battle form changes that occur somehow, but require the pokemon to be holding a specific item. That alone is a big trade-off, since clever application of held items is a huge part of pokemon's metagame.

If that's true, then the Mega Pokémon are going to need a serious edge over their previous forms to stay viable. We can already see that their abilities are going to be major draws; a Blaziken with its hidden ability, Speed Boost, is already considered Uber by Smogon, so MegaBlaziken, which has Speed Boost as its ability by default, might be even more powerful if it can compensate for the lack of a Life Orb or Leftovers. Or we could have a case like the introduction of Eviolite, which made Chansey statistically superior to its evolution, Blissey, in terms of taking hits; if the Mega Pokémon can't keep up with their previous forms because they lack an effective item, they're not going to see much use.

EDIT: Or we could have a case like Zen Mode Darmanitan, where the conditions for activating Zen Mode, coupled with the changes in stats, essentially neutered Darmanitan. Zen Mode Darmanitan might have been decent, but the fact that the change takes place once Darmanitan loses half its HP, as well as how it swings from a pure-physical Pokémon to a pure-special one, cripple it and make it useless.

 

[CJ1145]

Is nobody else going to comment on MegaAmpharos' GORGEOUS LOCKS? Because I will if you won't. They are just damn beautiful.

I'm hoping the English version gets a more clever name for the Mega Evolution, because that's kind of lame. Still, I'm interested to see how the dynamics might get changed up in the metagame with temporary(?) evolutions mid-battle.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

Am I gonna get to play more Pokemon in the OU tier now? SIGN ME UP.

And Mawile gets one? Fucking. Yes.

Edit: Not sure if I like Blaziken getting one...
If Gengar gets one... I'll be sooo god damn happy.

 

[AidoZonkey]

This would be a good way to mix up the norm, plus lucario and blaziken look badass in their new forms. However I would like this to be permanent or at least for there to be downsides to using these forms otherwise I cant see any real point of these evolution.
However, game freak if your out there you missed one pokemon who could do with a mega evolution
<---- hint hint