The New Gimmick

[DarkDragonMeister]

Okay so some YouTubers have pointed the star icon in the Japanese titles for the games and how said icons always hint at the new game gimmick mechanic.

And the only thing that comes to my mind involving stars are constellations which in turn makes me think of Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac, which is a series about warriors donning armor based on constellations.

So my theory is that certain Pokemon will be able to evolve or form change similar to Zamazenta and Zacian, wearing 'armor' made of some kind. OR it's a total form change, acquiring a new typing.

But that's my theory. What are you guys' theories.

 

[Fairy]

Certainly too early to rule out any theory imo! The stars could also mean that shinies might be more prevalent / play a bigger role since they've always been marked with a star symbol. Who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Sheep]

It does look like there are stars/sparkles on the localized logos as well, and I wouldn't mind either something constellation-based or even shinies like Fairy mentioned. Shinies with special powers/abilities would be insanely awesome, even if I can't think of any details right now! They were made more common in Legends so perhaps we're slowly transitioning into shiny focus...? Either way constellations is also a huge desire since I love stars and the galaxy so even if I haven't liked the latest gimmick much, I think I'd appreciate this one if that's what it was. \o/

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Pretty much what I said in my post on the speculation of light and colors. I think it has something to do with typing.

Spoiler:

I read a leaker's Tweet who was speculating, therefore it's not a leak, on the fact that since Galar is the name of Dwarf and we got Dynamax, this region could be called Titanium and therefore it could be something that implies making pokemon smaller. I m not fan of this idea, for many reasons. First of all, making the pokemon bigger is a way to show that a pokemon is stronger, making it smaller, would be not only a graphical mess, but also something maybe useless in battle. I mean, I think that making pokemon smaller wouldn't be a good gimmick and considering the competitive aspect, that would be quite similar to Dynamax, I guess, so idk how the two mechanics would differ. A typing mechanic wouldn't be bad imo. Maybe loosing or acquiring a new type in battle, especially competitively, would bring much more focus on the strategy. That would be fun.

 

[Ho-Oh]

Okay so y'all are talking about shinies...

Pokemon Crater back in the day introduced shadow and metalic Pokemon in addition to shinies. This was fan-made but still, hella cool.

Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon Go both feature Shadow Pokemon as a mainstay. Like, shadow formes are an actual canon thing in a Pokemon game now, which mmeans that something different to shinies potentially. Like in PoGo I know all of us love to collect shadow mons of every Pokemon... the same could be said for this game too. With shinies being so easy to get in PLA currently shinies might be a reference to the past whereas in the future Pokemon have developed further to allow different colouring to their standard shiny colours. So like, a secondary shiny colour (which honestly would make so much sense) and then make it as a mainstay going forward. Just a crazy idea but creating a secondary shiny set would increase the value of shinies - like how in ShSh they have the two different shiny animations. Maybe the additional shiny forme too :)

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I also think something related to Shiny Pokemon should be done. I don't want a massive battle gimmick. I am kinda sick of them. Mega Pokemon was the superior one and they haven't been able to replicate it. Having something to do with different colors, I am all for. Something that doesn't effect battling at all.

I think because Shiny Pokemon have become so common, we need a new gimmick that gives us something special again.

 

[Palamon]

What will the gimmick be?

Since every gen has a gimmick. What do you think gen 9's gimmick will be? There's apparently a symbol in the jp logo:

 

[Fairy]

Went ahead and merged these since they're similar!

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I really don't think the gem would be about making the pokemon smaller. It doesn't really make sense. Especially now that we have confirmation that pokemon can already shrink their size to fit into a Poke Ball. So it would be redundant to make a gimmick.

The diamond reminds me of a Zelda Diamond, so maybe it has to do with treasure or adventuring. Dungeons maybe that can be explored with pokemon. Maybe it is diamond based pokemon we can find if we did these dungeons. Maybe they are stronger than average pokemon.

If you look at the crystal closely, It looks more like a crystal shining than a full item. The spikes are like light beams coming off the side of it.

 

[Corveone]

No idea what the new gimmick will be. I just hope it's not something too balance shaking, or if it is, I hope it's at least something that can strategically benefit low/mid tier Pokémon and make them more viable, instead of overpowering mons that are already strong to ridiculous levels.

 

[Devalue]

Perhaps a mixture of Z-crystals and Dynamax? Equips the new "Power Crystal" on a Pokemon. Adds a secondary effect to all its attacks. Copies the secondary effects from Dynamax attacking moves (with little to no power increase) and the added benefits of Z-Crystal status moves.

Lasts for the entire battle. Limits you to one use per battle. May need balancing to prevent a stall-heavy meta.

Alternatively, perhaps "Constellation Crystals". Imbues the holder with specific benefits upon triggering it. For example, a "Libra Crystal". Represents balance. Equalizes everyone's hitpoints (like with Pain Split). Copies all the stat boosts and drops of the user onto everyone. Negates immunities, much like Foresight. Occurs for three turns or until switched out.

 

[PageEmp]

To be different from everyone else and have a chance at actually predicting something, I'm going to guess an original idea as opposed to combining old ideas.

This supposed spiked item helps give the mons 'inner peace'. This enables certain stats to have their amounts switched around. This could cause things like a physical attacker becoming special and vice versa, or a slow creature becoming fast.

 

[Whiteeyes1989]

Considering the gem is present on the plaza mosaic with all the types I'm throwing my hat into the ring that it has something to do with type manipulation. Perhaps adding/changing a pokemon's secondary typing to take advantage of stab/resistances and let you try new strats with older pokemon by tweaking types. Like Z-Moves/Megas I could see it being "once per battle" type deal while also taking up a held item slot. Protean is a powerful ability so a mini version that's stable is also rather good on paper as it opens up a lot of possibly uses.

 

[amberstar2604]

I think break evolution from the tcg would be cool and I made a mechanic in my fangame and balanced it. How it would work is pokemon would turn gold and gain a power boost. Also certain types of moves (fire-physical or electric-special or dark-status) would turn into a new move like a z-move with less power. You can only break evolve one pokemon per battle and it only is undone when the break pokemon faints.

 

[ReKoil]

I'd rather they don't add a gimmick at all and instead just spend more time making/designing the new mons.
Gimmicks are pretty much always gone with the next gen so I find them rather pointless.

 

[Whiteeyes1989]

If they are going to do a gimmick, I'd want them to bring back Mega Evolution. It was the first one and, in my opinion, the best one. Like it legit had a lot of potential that was never used to bring older or less viable pokemon up to competitive levels. And (almost) every pokemon is someone's favorite so giving some love to some otherwise not that good pokemon is a huge boost. Look at Beedrill and how it became great! There are so many options available there and -

- granting a lot of strategic depth with a need for commitment without the free for all nature of Dynamax and -

- that's why we should have Black 3 and White 3 instead of Black and White remakes...wait I got off topic. Anyway yeah regardless of what the new gimmick is I really would like Megas to come back. Because if a gimmick is around for only one gen it really is a waste of effort. Either commit or stop doing it.

 

[Sheep]

If they are going to do a gimmick, I'd want them to bring back Mega Evolution. It was the first one and, in my opinion, the best one. Like it legit had a lot of potential that was never used to bring older or less viable pokemon up to competitive levels. And (almost) every pokemon is someone's favorite so giving some love to some otherwise not that good pokemon is a huge boost. Look at Beedrill and how it became great! There are so many options available there and -

- that's why we should have Black 3 and White 3 instead of Black and White remakes...wait I got off topic. Anyway yeah regardless of what the new gimmick is I really would like Megas to come back. Because if a gimmick is around for only one gen it really is a waste of effort. Either commit or stop doing it.

Megas are ideal for me also since they were my favorite gimmick. Was really nice for some underrated mons to get mega evolutions that made them better too, miss those being around. :x Eventually it's going to be hard to keep up with all the gimmicks that exist across regions so I would love for them to expand on existing ones!

 

[Syndaesia]

I'd really prefer it if they didn't do a gimmick this time around, I always find these things incredibly frustrating because they have so much wasted potential. They could really dive into the lore behind these things - and I mean REALLY dive into it, not give us something we can complete in 30 minutes like the Delta Episode - and expand on them and give them real depth and meaning, but...they don't. One generation and that's it, they might as well not exist any more. It feels like they've run out of meaningful ways to expand upon the gameplay systems so they're just throwing in whatever works: Megas, Z-Moves, Dynamax; none of these things were anywhere near as significant as the gameplay features introduced with the third/fourth generations.

I think they really need to just stop half-arsing these things and stick with what works. Change should be meaningful and progressive, not just change for change's sake, and none of the gimmicks introduced from Generation VI to VIII have ever been that, because they've never been around long enough. Do we really need another pointless gimmick on top of these? We're probably going to get regional variants again as an excuse to not have more original, new designs, and that'll be bad enough as it is. Less style, more substance, please.