Missed Opportunities in Pokemon Games

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Even then, I still don't agree. How am I supposed to be amazed by this super special and rare mechanic when it's used by a lot of people and even some small fry Gym Leaders?

For post-game stuff, sure. Main story? I'm good. I think you can rather fix the cakewalk issue by, you know, not giving you a Kanto Mega straight away or giving away a Mega Lucario for free and some other adjustments. I don't think fixing games in terms of difficulty should be "Just add this strong form/mechanic everywhere" but rather a combination of proper teambuilding, coherent movesets and a healthy level curve.

Literally only the Gym Leaders and Elite Four would be using it (and Lysandre, but since he's the main villain I think it's justified). No one else. Also, I'm not sure why Mega Evolution needs to be oh so wowing and amazing when usually the factor of being a shiny new battle mechanic does that job well enough.

Your solution of taking away so many free gifts is pretty good on paper, but that would then create the extreme opposite problem of the cool new mechanic that's supposed to be the central focus of the games feeling underused and underplayed.

 

[Esserise]

Personally, I don't think that the "but in the story..." is that a reasonable excuse. Why? Because that could have easily been written different. They could have just reserved Mega Rings for powerful trainers, which Gym Leaders would certainly qualify as. Yes, the lack of Mega Evolutions may make narrative sense, but that doesn't change the fact that it came at the cost of the XY games being too much of a cakewalk unless you actively handicap yourself playing them.

They certainly could have “written it differently,” but Mega Evolution being a sparse resource is thematically important to what XY is trying to say. A big deal is made about how you and your rival have to compete over who gets it because there’s only one - which is a fact that Lysandre later references to support his own arguments. In fact, I’ve always thought it was kind of a cop-out that Calem/Serena just magically has a Mega Ring of their own in the post-game... it kinda undercuts that whole point.

That said, the practice goes back several generations, so I don’t think it would be that much of a stretch to say that the Gym Leaders have all received their own Mega Rings over time, as new Key Stones were discovered. Perhaps you could even frame it like, “There are only a certain amount of Mega Rings in the Kalos region, which are handed down from generation to generation” and this certain number just so happens to match the number of Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and maybe a couple others like the player and Diantha. Lysandre could have inherited his from his royal ancestry.

Of course, I also agree with RK9 that the major characters lacking access to Mega Evolution is hardly the reason why XY are easy. Lysandre’s Mega Gyarados is strong ‘cause it’s kitted out with good coverage, but I’ve never struggled against the rival’s Mega Absol or, in ORAS, the evil team boss’s Mega Camerupt/Sharpedo. Megas on their own, especially when controlled by the games’ subpar AI, aren’t really a reliable generator of increased difficulty.

 

[RK9]

Lysandre could have inherited his from his royal ancestry.

Isn't Lysandre a very rich entrepeneur? He could easily fund excavations/searches towards Mega Stones or manufacturing of Mega Rings if he has a sample of one to use as baseline.

 

[Esserise]

Isn't Lysandre a very rich entrepeneur? He could easily fund excavations/searches towards Mega Stones or manufacturing of Mega Rings if he has a sample of one to use as baseline.

It’s certainly possible. But if there aren’t that many Key Stones in existence to begin with, concentrated excavations are only going to make so much of a difference. (Although in thinking a out it... these excavations could even be one way of bringing Zygarde into the story, if one were so inclined - if aggressively mining up Key Stones entails harming the environment, then Zygarde acting as a deterrent could be one reason why Key Stones aren’t so prevalent. And after all, Terminus Cave is a mine...)

I don’t think it’s until the post-game that anyone understands how exactly Mega Stones and Key Stones come into being, because it seems as though Sycamore needed to witness the ultimate weapon’s revival and Xerneas/Yveltal’s installment in it in order to really connect all of the dots. (And even at that, what Sycamore proposes is only said to be a theory - which is then complicated heavily by what’s depicted in ORAS.) So my impression is that they rely pretty much entirely on the ones that’ve just happened to be discovered. As to the production of Mega Rings, that’s... not a very clear topic. Subsequent games would demonstrate that all you really need for Mega Evolution is the two stones. The “Mega Ring” is just an arbitrary accessory that people embed their Key Stones into. For instance, Diantha and Wally use pendants, Lysandre just stuck his on an actual ring, Steven’s is pinned to his lapel... there’s seemingly nothing special about the bracelet itself, so I don’t think that’s much of a factor (and if it was supposed to be, then it seems as though GF abandoned that idea very quickly).

 

[R1ke]

I miss challenge mode, and I wish they brought it back for later titles. It made the game more enjoyable imo, and at least added some form of difficulty settings. But it should be available from the start, I didn’t find much incentive to replay the whole game all over again right after I just completed it.

 

[Epic Spheal]

• Not getting Pokemon Z: Zygarde should've gotten a chance to be a cover legendary, we could've learned more about AZ and Floette, we could've even gotten mega evolutions for the Kalos starters and even some Kalos mons (I know it's supposed to be a rare thing but I feel like some of the Kalos mons could've gotten one besides Diancie)
• No Pokemon World Tournament in Galar: Seriously it was actually a good opportunity what with Leon's dream being about making Galar's trainers the strongest, what better way to show it than inviting trainers from other regions. Also consider the fact that Raihan's league card states he's strong enough to be champion in another region. A PWT could've been an opportunity for him to show up and beat say Lance or Iris to prove that point.
• No Hilda/Hilbert cameo in BW2
• No Sonia battle or league card: If we can get Ball Guy's league card we could've gotten Sonia's
• No Challenge Modes post Gen 5: I feel like Challenge mode should've stayed a feature from BW2 except make it available at the start of the games. I see nothing wrong with making the games more casual to be more accessible but I think acknowledging veterans of the series with a challenge mode would be great.
• No customization in ORAS: After getting a chance to change skin tone and outfits in XY it was a little disappointing to not have that return in ORAS. I hope with DP remakes we get customization even if it's just skin tone.
• Not seeing all of the minor league gym leaders: It would've been cool to see who they are, maybe have them as opponents in the champion's cup post game. Also would've added to the lore of Galar gym challenge