[Sword & Shield] Dynamaxing

So the tl;dr is that you can make your Pokemon giant and that their moves would become significantly stronger as a result, apparently into different, more earth-shattering moves altogether.

Preliminary thoughts on this? Do you see yourself using this often? This seems to be Galar's "gimmick", but I wonder if it's actually going to see more than a few uses?

I'm never a fan a of the gimmicks and that is not changing with this one. I see myself getting more annoyed by this than mega-evolution and Z-moves though as it appears from the way they worded it in the direct that it'll be pretty necessary in gym battles since the leaders will be using them and dynamaxed Pokémon need to be dealt with properly either with a group (I shan't be bothering with that feature) or with another dynamaxed Pokémon. So I probably can't pretend this doesn't exist the same way I do for mega-evolution or Z-moves and will need to use it to progress. Urgh.

Part of me isn't sure how to feel just yet. I think this can be potentially more exciting than Z-moves and less so than Megas. While Z-moves iirc weren't obligatory, that also made them, for the most part, forgettable. Making the gimmick obligatory to use would at least, for better or worse, give the player more and more experience in trying out the feature and seeing whether or not it'll grow on them.

Presumably, once they're done battling the Gym Leaders, they'll likely won't be obligated to use Dynamaxing against the Elite Four, but that's a giant assumpion. Seems like you'd have to do the same for the Champion. Not that it bothers me personally, but more for others who may be a bit disillusioned by generational gimmicks.

eh, it's another gimmick that i won't end up using. just like mega evolution and z-moves, they look cool, but for me it's just something that doesn't interest me much.

I'm like really not into this at all, but I don't know that I've ever enjoyed the gimmicks. At least this one has a good capacity for memes which is more than I could say about mega evolution or Z-moves, lol.

that said i want a giant cherrim

It's the one thing I didn't like about the trailer.

It seems incredibly unnecessary. I'd rather they make more Megas, Z-Moves, and regional variants than devise this mechanic. If we can get new Megas then I won't be as disappointed, but this seems like a feature that I won't even care for during Sword and Shield, and even less so in future games. And since they're tied to "special areas" they may not even see their way into online/competitive battles.

Rivvon said:

It seems incredibly unnecessary. I'd rather they make more Megas, Z-Moves, and regional variants than devise this mechanic.

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Agreeing with this. Hoping that at some point in a future trailer we'd get some confirmation of megas making a return and, if so, if we're going to be getting any new ones since we're way overdue for that. I'm not personally bothered by whether or not Z-moves return because that seems more like an Alola cultural thing, so it makes sense there. Agree with regional variants though and they probably should have gone that route to begin with, but it remains to be seen if this is Galar's only gimmick to show.

colours said:

Agreeing with this. Hoping that at some point in a future trailer we'd get some confirmation of megas making a return and, if so, if we're going to be getting any new ones since we're way overdue for that. I'm not personally bothered by whether or not Z-moves return because that seems more like an Alola cultural thing, so it makes sense there. Agree with regional variants though and they probably should have gone that route to begin with, but it remains to be seen if this is Galar's only gimmick to show.

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This is a fair point. I similarly wouldn't be super bummed if Z-Moves didn't come back, but they're easier to implement than new Megas (they don't require a new creature design to be made) and like Megas they're based on holding an Item, so they can be kept to the post-game if they absolutely had to.

The nature of Megas and even Z-Moves to some extent make them easy to turn into series staples that can keep coming back with little reasoning. But with Dynamaxing requiring all this set-up--only in "special locations"--I can't even imagine it returning for the next region.

There's no way to know for certain if we won't be getting new Megas again but there's a chance we won't and to see them potentially getting sidelined again for what seems to be a mostly uninteresting mechanic that we may never even see outside of Galar is a bit... exhausting? At least with Megas being guaranteed to return with each new game (even if only for the post-game), making new ones always has long-term value.

It's... megas for a limited time but they're just bigger Pokémon without even the cool designs (I don't like all megas, sure, but some are great). Not a fan of all of these gimmicks like megas, Z-moves, or Dynamax (which sounds like a battery brand name...) and if these are the premises the less they are present in the game the more I'll like it

Not really a fan of it. It looks like unnecessary combination of Mega evolution (the form of Pokémon changes) and Z-moves (powerful move with special name). I loved Megas and enjoyed using Z-moves, but Dynamax.

As for that special in-game area with 4v1 battles, that's something from the trailer that I really dislike. I get that they're trying to be modern, but this looks like something straight out of free mobile game.

I guess I'm in the same boat as everyone else so far in that I'm not a fan of Dynamaxing either.

Hopefully they'll realize for next gen that getting these superpower battle gimmicks every gen makes them less special/fun and stuff. Nevermind that the competitive scene doesn't need this either.

Not a fan either, Dynamax doesn't have the same appeal that Mega Evolution had, I find seeing the same design bigger just boring. But maybe we see more than it was shown.

That being said I want a Dynamaxed Wailord.

When seeing this, first thing that came to mind was this:



It's a situational gimmick but like with Z-Moves, it appears any Pokémon can do it. While I'm not entirely a fan of Mega Evolution, it's limited to certain species and therefore I can tolerate it by using Pokémon that can't Mega Evolve.

I've wanted kaiju-sized pokemon, but this wasn't really what I meant.

I would have preferred more megas (or the rumoured armor evolutions), but I don't hate this.

Lmfao, what a silly name, "Dynamaxing" I actually think Dynamaxing seems interesting. It reminds me of totem Pokemon, just more limited. I don't think there's anything wrong w/a brand new gimmick that only lasts three turns and once per battle. Mega Evolutions were already broken as-is as were Z-moves.

I will probably try Dynamaxing in game, it looks a lot of fun, but maybe there's more to it than we got to see in the new trailer?

I'm honestly glad we got this over "armored evolution" anyway. I wasn't sold on that one at all.

I was surprised when I see Dynamax for the first time. Still, making the Pokémon into giants might look awesome, having kaiju vs kaiju vibes in it. Still, I need to know the good timing to use it. After all, it seems that it'll be limited to once per battle, and the 'mons will revert to normal after 3 turns. Not sure if the same limitation will apply to Max Raid battles or not, though.

Starry Windy said:

Not sure if the same limitation will apply to Max Raid battles or not, though.

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iirc in the Direct they said that the same limitations apply for the player's Pokemon in Max Raid Battles, and only one of the four players can Dynamax in the battle (probably for balance and to keep in line with the "only once per battle" usage in single player)

and the opposing Pokemon stays Dyanmaxed for the entire encounter

I like the idea for the simple fact that giant versions of Pokémon have appeared many times in the anime and we finally get the see them in the games. Especially if we get to have alakazam vs gengar or treecko vs gulpin.

However, like other people have said, I'm kind of tired of every new generation throwing in a new "super powered" battle mechanic that doesn't even get expanded on in further generations. I would rather see new mega evolutions and z moves. And depending on how they restrict things in competitive it could just be overwhelming having one mega, one z move user, and a dynamax Pokemon.

So while I like the idea of dynamax Pokémon, I just feel like game freak needs to stop with these gimmicks and focus on improving older stuff.

Competitive will get pretty interesting with this mechanic and the rumored Gigantamaxing! I'd love to see how it changes up the competitive scene. I'm honestly just open to whatever Game Freak decides to add into the games, because the fanbase has been pretty good at telling which ones are broken and which ones aren't, creating custom rulesets that have been pretty enjoyable in their own right.