[Legends: Arceus] Agile Style & Strong Style

Using a move in the Agile Style raises the user's action speed, which may make the user's next turn come sooner, but lowers the move's power.
Using a move in the Strong Style raises the move's power but your Pokemon's action speed will be lowered.

So! New generation post-gen 6, new battle gimmick. Except I actually kinda really like the idea of this one. It feels like it would add a lot more tactical depth than one-off buffs or powerful attacks like we've gotten in the last few gens. I'm really curious how this will factor into competitive.

Also maybe someone knows, I'm not sure if your attacks are always Agile or Strong, or are they modifiers? Like is there a "Normal" style? I'm not clear on that.

What do you think about the styles? My one concern is that it might be totally unnecessary if the game is too easy.

Let's suppose Agile style moves have a 50% power reduction, for a conservative estimate.

Then if Pokémon A moves twice before Pokémon B, using a move like say Scald, is equivalent to using one Scald with 30% + 70% * 30% = 51% chance of burning.
Same thing applies to moves like Discharge (51% chance of paralysis) and Sludge Bomb (51% chance of poison).

That doesn't look very balanced - being able to fire essentially a normal 80 ~ 90 BP move, with perfect accuracy, a coin flip chance of inflicting a secondary status and a chance to pivot into another move if you do get a status in the first move is ... scary.

Especially since it's likely Agile style moves will have a smaller reduction and Paralysis will likely make a Pokemon wait longer for their turn. So a Pokémon like Agile Jolteon can come in, spam Discharge, likely get a Paralysis and move again.

Or you get some fun combos like ghost types throwing WoW / Toxic + Venoshock / Hex before the opponent can even react. Or a Pokémon like Froslass setting up Hail + Blizzard and getting a guaranteed to hit, 30% chance to freeze before the opponent can even do anything.

Now, to be fair, this is all theorycrafting and I could very well be wrong. But I'll just say that the styles have quite the potential to be broken.

Interprets styles as an optional modifier. Shows Vulpix using Quick Attack versus a Hisuian Growlithe (16:36 of the 8/18 Pokemon Presents). Never plays the style cinematic.

Notes one other interesting part of that encounter. Displays a scroll with L and R between move PP and effectiveness. Indicates the style, based on the later encounter against Gastrodon (22:54). Appears alongside Quick Attack, Nasty Plot, and Flame Wheel, but not Hex. Wonders why.

Expects these styles to be powerful, particularly Agile Style. Works very well with stat boosts (and maybe especially Agility). Imagine squeezing in two Iron Defenses before your opponent acts. Perhaps Belly Drum + Recover instead? Synergizes well with high flinch chance moves. What happens with Spore?

Could wind up being a better balanced Z-move. Nerfed damaging Z-moves by acting slower. Buffed status Z-moves by acting sooner. May simply tip the scale the other direction, however.

I do wonder how it'll be difficulty-wise and how necessary these Styles will be, but Legends is a brand new take on the series so I'm hopeful they'll have enough use and it won't be too easy to overlevel most of the game. I can see myself using Agile together with stat boosts since, like Devalue said, the combination seems like it could get pretty strong. :O

Like is there a "Normal" style? I'm not clear on that.

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yeah this - I'm curious too. Seems like there should be but I almost hope there isn't, since that might mean I'll need to think a little bit about the drawbacks of certain Styles before using them.

As long as they don't make one style significantly better than the other, I'm pretty interested. I don't play competitively, so the more advanced strategies are totally lost on me, but it's going to be a real downer if say, Agile is just better than Strong because it gives an extra turn or something.

Well, this could go one of two ways - it could be a major gimmick like Mega Evolution/Z-Moves/Dynamaxing, or it could be an afterthought like triple/rotation battles. I think it'll probably go the way of the latter in that it will neither be essential for gameplay progression or widely advertised, but it'll probably factor into things significantly in the metagame. In terms of the metagame it could be as big of a change as the physical/special split if the differences between the two styles are that significant. It'd be nice to see, although it's not a side of the games I dabble in, so I can't see myself utilising it too much if that's the case.

I expect there will be a "normal" style too, it'd be odd to pigeonhole moves into styles after all these years and if anything it'd restrict creativity rather than enhance it. But I do expect some moves to be only usable in certain styles, or have different effects, and I also think there is potential for new Pokemon to only evolve if they win a battle or level up using a move of a certain style too.

I cannot see this make any sort of a return in any future games myself. I see it as a gimmick for these games alone, perhaps the rest of the Legends series itself. I am not a competitive player, so don't really care for if it's stronger than the other etc. Perhaps if fans like this enough we can see more styles make it's way into the future games.

I think this style makes more sense, at least for the agile style. Why should strong style be slower.. Hmm, it can be fast and powerful right? Haha

Like you said, the styles will add more tactical depth and that's nice, but I'm old fashioned.
GF should continue with the main line and also create something new, like Legends Arceus. This would keep everyone happy

I thought this said 'argyle' and I was like YES I don't care if this has nothing to do with Pokémon argyle is the king of patterns. ٩̋(ˊ•͈ ꇴ •͈ˋ)و

But I digress. I'm definitely more Agile than Power. I've always valued stealth hits, high crits, and clean getaways before brute strength. Actually that applies to more than just Pokémon games, now that I think about it.

I am almost 100% thinking we will be using agile more than power depending on how they actually work. I just don't think it was needed, even though it is nice for the story. But I just don't see it being balanced at all.