Over the years, Pokemon has introduced all manner of battle gimmicks. With each new game, the competitive landscape shakes up as features like Mega Evolution, Dynamax, and Terastallization change the game. But with the upcoming release of Pokemon Champions, Pokemon VGC will no longer take place within each newly released game. Instead, Pokemon Champions will be the default. And that raises some interesting questions about how the game will handle the various battle gimmicks across franchise history… and its future.
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As trailers and my own experience with the game have shown, Pokemon Champions will feature Mega Evolution as its primary gimmick at launch. This makes sense, as Megas are currently back at the center of Pokemon fandom thanks to the release of Pokemon Legends: Z-A and the Mega Evolution line of Pokemon TCG products. But many fans want to know whether Pokemon Champions will revisit past gimmicks and how it will handle evolutions in the future. Here’s what I learned from playing the game and speaking with Game Producer and Development Director Hoshino Masaaki.
Pokemon Champions Will Launch with Megas (But Probably Not All Of Them)
It won’t come as a surprise to Pokemon fans that Pokemon Champions will heavily feature Mega Evolution at launch. This gimmick returned in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, with new and returning Megas in the game’s lineup. But as that game moved away from traditional turn-based Pokemon battles to real-time combat, Pokemon Champions will be the first time players get to test out new Megas in turn-based battles. In fact, Hoshino Masaaki shared with us that this was one of the primary reasons the game is launching with an emphasis on Megas. He felt that fans would want to see the new Megas in a more traditional battle style, and having them available in Champions at launch allows just that.
From what I saw, we shouldn’t necessarily expect every Mega Evolution to be available in Pokemon Champions at launch. When I poked around in the item list while making my Pokemon team, I noticed that some Mega Stones for new Megas weren’t in the game. This could be due to the fact that I was playing on an early build, and those Mega Stones could arrive in the future. But the roster for Champions will not feature every existing Pokemon at the start, so it stands to reason not every Mega will be available right at jump, either.
Mega Evolution in Pokemon Champions works about how you might expect. In order to be able to Mega Evolve during battles, your Pokemon will need to hold its Mega Stone in the Held Item slot. This can be edited as you’re preparing your team. Items like Mega Stones can be acquired in-game using VP or by completing the Battle Pass. So, you’ll need to both Recruit or Transfer a specific Pokemon and get its Mega Stone in Pokemon Champions before you can Mega Evolve it for battle. But what about other battle gimmicks from the past and future for Pokemon?
Dynamax, Terastallization, And More Could Be in Pokemon Champions‘ Future
Having a game like Pokemon Champions as the new competitive standard could have interesting implications for battle gimmicks going forward. Without being limited to the current game and its gimmick, what’s to stop Champions from bringing back older mechanics? Or even mixing them together to see once and for all whether Megas are stronger than Dynamax? Naturally, that question came up during the group interview with Hoshino Masaaki.
From the sounds of it, other battle gimmicks could make their way to Pokemon Champions eventually. Specifically, Masaaki told us that other mechanics are being considered for the future, with the possibility of having previous gimmicks show up in Champions down the line. They will not, however, be present at launch. Masaaki also hinted that Pokemon Champions will likely adopt any “future mechanics” eventually. Though not official confirmation, this pretty strongly hints that fans can expect some form of new battle gimmick in future Pokemon generations, likely including the upcoming Pokemon Winds and Waves.
Whether these mechanics would ever be live in the game at the same time or available to face off against each other directly remains to be seen. My bet is that we could see multiple gimmicks available at once, but that players will be able to opt into different rulesets when matching for casual and ranked play. Having a Mega and Dynamax within the same battle sounds cool, but likely poses some balance problems that would need to be worked through.
Basically, Pokemon Champions is launching with a focus on Mega Evolution, but more gimmicks are strongly implied to be headed to the game in the future. This means competitive players could get a chance to revisit strategies from the past in a brand-new area. But first, we’ll get to test out turn-based takes of new Mega Evolutions when Pokemon Champions arrives on Switch and Switch 2 on April 8th.
What battle gimmick has been your favorite throughout Pokemon history? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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