News: CoroCoro reveals Necrozma Z-moves and Rotom Dex features

I?m thinking if the Z-Crystals for both Lunala and Solgaleo will become
game exclusive. I hope not. I like Lunala?s Z-move by the way!

Linking the english trailer compiling this info in case anyone hasn't seen it yet.

All I can say is Lunala, and by extension Dawn Wings Necrozma, might be my new favorite of the two this time around after seeing its Z-Move. BOI. And that new art of both forms is pretty sick too.

I had a feeling that Rotom's special abilities were basically O-Powers. It's nice to see them return. That 2nd Z-Move thing might be kinda busted (but also allow for much more strategic play), especially if allowed in competitive play. But since it's tied to Rotom, I doubt that will be the case.

BadSamaritan said:

To say that Gamefreak doesn't care about competitive would be the biggest joke I've heard in years.

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so do you genuinely believe that game freak cares about metagame balance when they make broken af pokemon like mega salamence, mega blaziken and mega lucario? give me a break. hell even mega rayquaza is the biggest example of game freak going a taad bit too far even for the ubers tier lol.

also see: literally every ice type in existence. ice is a great offensive typing, but every ice type to date except kyurem black/white (i think?) are defensive. please tell me how they care; because if they did, we'd have decent offensive ice types by now.

colours said:

also see: literally every ice type in existence. ice is a great offensive typing, but every ice type to date except kyurem black/white (i think?) are defensive. please tell me more about how they care; because if they did, we'd have decent offensive ice types by now.

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Weavile would like a word with you.

But yeah, if being able to reuse Z-moves becomes a thing in competitive, VGC (and for that matter, OU) will be screwed beyond belief.

HeroLinik said:

Weavile would like a word with you. .

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this is only proving my point if weavile is only one of like... three or maybe four offensive ice types in existence, and maybe only two or three non-legendary offensive ice types? but i do stand corrected as i see your point and i forgot about weavile entirely.

bigger point being is that game freak doesn't prioritize competitiveness when designing pokemon. you work with what you have, and that's how always has been, from the best of my knowledge.

In case if anyone didn't see the new trailer yet, the English names of the legendary Z-Moves are Searing Sunraze Smash and Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom, with their respective Z-Crystals being Solgalium Z and Lunalium Z.

Like their base moves Sunsteel Strike and Moongeist Beam, these Z-Moves bypass the opponent's ability.

colours said:

also see: literally every ice type in existence. ice is a great offensive typing, but every ice type to date except kyurem black/white (i think?) are defensive. please tell me how they care; because if they did, we'd have decent offensive ice types by now.

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I did made a thread asking the competitive community on whether or not Pokemon is better off without Ice types, and they all disagree by telling me that Ice type Pokemon bring great importance to the game's balance.

BadSheep said:

Unfortunately, as much as I would like to see it, Pokemon will never be as big competitively as Overwatch, Halo, LoL, CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege are. Unlike these games, Pokemon is seen as a kids game outside of the adult Pokemon fanbase. Even if Pokemon remains just as competitive, it will have to change a lot to prove itself as a competitive game comparable to the aforementioned games.

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I totally agree. The big issue is there is a fundamental barrier with the games being rpgs. It's not like Cod where if you have a friend whose interested, they can get the game and being doing competitive within minutes of booting the game up. They could literally remove IVs/EVs/etc from the game, and it still wouldn't change the situation really. People would still have to learn all of the pokemon, their stats, movesets, go out and catch them, etc.

But for that reason, I think Pok?mon has filled a nice niche right where they are. They're basically the "chess" of competitive video gaming. And I'm assuming that's what Gamefreak is going for.

colours said:

so do you genuinely believe that game freak cares about metagame balance when they make broken af pokemon like mega salamence, mega blaziken and mega lucario? give me a break. hell even mega rayquaza is the biggest example of game freak going a taad bit too far even for the ubers tier lol.

also see: literally every ice type in existence. ice is a great offensive typing, but every ice type to date except kyurem black/white (i think?) are defensive. please tell me how they care; because if they did, we'd have decent offensive ice types by now.

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Yes, I do, for the reason I explained in my original post. Imbalance is what makes the meta-game interesting. How iconic would Mewtwo be, if he were as powerful as a Dugtrio in RBY?

People simply have this misconception of what broken means, because they've never played a game with genuinely broken characters. I could find a million counters to the supposedly broken megas you listed. Simply because they will win a higher percentage of the time compared to another pokemon, doesn't make them broken. "Broken" would be if you could skill swap wonder guard onto a spiritomb or sableye. Things that would genuinely guarantee victory.

?Broken? is not so simple as being an auto-win button, and I don?t think that poor balance/imbalance is something that inherently provides an interesting metagame (for any game really), but that is also a discussion to be had elsewhere.

But for something more on topic: I kind of like the initial names for the Necrozma forms Z moves better than these new official ones.....they?re kind of a mouthful

Did Dusk-Mane Necrozma just press down on the D-Pad mid-Z-Move to roll into a ball? Is it planning to take down all them Badniks?

Really excited for the new O powers tbh, I didn't see any kind of time limit in the trailer, so if you didn't have to constantly use them that would be rather convienent. Or maybe there is a time limit and I'm blind.

MUDKIP!!! said:

Really excited for the new O powers tbh, I didn't see any kind of time limit in the trailer, so if you didn't have to constantly use them that would be rather convienent. Or maybe there is a time limit and I'm blind.

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I just watched it and didn't notice any either.

Sorry but I'm gonna have to disagree with Angie here. Game Freak clearly cares about the competitive scene. This has been an ongoing battle for them since gen II, and the mechanics/buffs/nerfs added to every generation proves that.

However, I also agree that competitive balance is not the #1 priority either. They're looking to take things step by step is what I think is going on. Making the games great is their biggest focus, but they clearly care about the competitive scene.

Also what's wrong with there being OP threats? Many developers let certain things be OP for a bit just to give them their moment in the sun. The best example of this would be mega Kangashkan. Just because some things are OP doesn't mean that the developers don't care. Even the "hyper competitive" games have OP characters/items at any given moment.

While Rotom Dex's special boosts are merely re-skinned O-Powers, I would certainly appreciate the helping hand when grinding my Alolan team to Level 100 for Hyper Training.

Necrozma's new Z-Moves are nothing short of epic, since fusions and new forms are always awesome. This game is making significant breakthroughs with battling and gameplay mechanics with each passing month. I am officially pumped to play these games as soon as they come out.

SirBoglor said:

However, I also agree that competitive balance is not the #1 priority either. They're looking to take things step by step is what I think is going on. Making the games great is their biggest focus, but they clearly care about the competitive scene.

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I feel like it's more a case of, there's an entire RPG side of things that they have to be balancing things for as well. Take ORAS for example. If I'm a kid playing a pokemon game for the first time, if I catch primal groudon, I would expect to flatten half the roster with it. It's a cover legend of the game.

Which is also why they don't just say, make an in-game way to just generate competitive pokemon as quickly as a battle simulator. For a lot of players, breeding the "perfect" pokemon, or training them, is more interesting than actually using them online or in a battle frontier.

So I think it's a very careful balance they try to strike. And think overall they do a pretty good job with it.

I love that Necrozma gets to use Z moves that can also be used by Solgaleo and Lunala. Pretty awesome. Nice to see those powers returning.