News: Z-Moves are here!

[blue]

That was so much to take in, might have to re-watch to see the smaller details of the trailer. The Icy Vulpix and Ninetales look beautiful, though!

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I've never been so blown away by a trailer before. That was so much inexpected information. I absolutely love all of it :3

 

[Hikamaru]

So Z-Moves is what the bracelet's mechanic is called? I was also right about each type having its own Z-Move as shown with the crystals that had the type symbols on them.

Alola Forms of older Pokemon was something I didn't expect - but I'm loving how Alola Form Ninetales and Alola Form Sandshrew have introduced us new type combinations. Ice/Steel and Ice/Fairy are both very cool combinations I wanted to see.

And Island Leaders pretty much confirms the "No traditional Gyms in Alola" mentioned in the Chinese leak as well. And they use the four traditional "starter" types which kinda fits with each island being named after the colors of the four first Pokemon games as well.

 

[MarinoKadame]

Exeggutor also has a new type combination with Grass/Dragon without being a Mega.

 

[jombii]

So no mega announcement yet. Are we going to get Alola forms this time around?

But I love this update oh my god. I love Dancing Bird and Exeggutor my god.

Z-moves was the least of my concern over this update. So we only have four trials this time around and it seemed that it doesn't revolve around battling. Good move.

 

[WingsofBliss]

Mind = Blown.

I'm so excited that it's scaring me, is that normal? And to think we still got CoroCoro's Island Guide info, plus Gamescom and Worlds to watch out for.

 

[kingdenas]

They threw so much information at us. I'm a little confused...
The Alola Forms were a big surprise for me! Exeggutor looks ... odd :/ Not a huge fan of it, although I was never a fan of Exeggutor in the first place. Now Vulpix's and Ninetails's Alola Forms look absolutely incredible. I love their designs and typing, especially Ninetails's. Sandshrew and Sandslash's Alola Forms look great. I was never a huge fan of them, but I love this new forms (an Ice/Steel typing is interesting)
About Oricorio .... I do like its concept ... I just don't like its designs .... Maybe they'll grow on me. Its ability is cool, and its revelation dance attack has a cool concept as well. It's cool to see there is a different style of it on each island.
Now Minior is something I was not expecting .... I do not like its typing, It looks more of a Rock/Ghost or a Rock/Psychic, rather than a Rock/Flying type Pokémon, especially with its core revealed. Its core form looks better than its "normal" form though.
Now, about Yungoos evolution, Gumshoos ... May I ask you what's the difference? It just turns bipedal, nothing more. Not a huge fan, but maybe It'll grow on me as well.
Fomantis and Lurantis are the 2 Pokémon I liked the most. I just love their designs =D They look pretty cute. I think an additional Fairy-type wouldn't have been bad. I like the new move as well, Solar Blade. Is it going to be like Solar Beam? Which you need 1 turn to charge the attack? We'll see...
I don't really have an opinion about Mudsdale's pre-evolved form. It just looks cute :3
I'm so excited about the return of riding Pokémon. I'm SO EXCITED to ride a Mudsdale, omg <3

About the Island Challenges .... I really didn't understand much... Are they going to be like the new gyms? But then we have the Trial Captions (which I don't know if we are going to battle them, or if they are there to help us), the Powerful Totem Pokémon (Gumshoos is one of them???? What???) and the Kahunas (which I think are the new type of gyms leaders). It's still something I do not understand much, but I hope we get more information regarding this.

Now the Z-Moves are AWESOME. I really love them. Especially the water-type one. It has such a cool animation. Now we need to know how to activate them, is it with those bracelets? And why are they called Z-moves? Is it something to do with Zygarde (the "Z" Pokémon)?

That was a hugeeee trailer.

 

[Starry Windy]

When I see Z-Moves, sometimes this reminds me a bit of several anime that shows the ultimate move's name when they started to attack (I guess that was because I was watching Digimon or Inazuma Eleven or something similar), and they look pretty cool!

I'm digging into some of the Alola formes like those of Vulpix and Ninetales, and Exeggutor's Alola forme looks pretty funny, for sure.

And when I see Island Challenges, I knew that it would have different vibe than usual region that we have visited before. That's a bit sad that there are no more Gyms (atm), but I think it might do well given that Alola region have 4 islands.

As for new Pokémon, sometimes Minior variants reminds me of Luma of some sort, but I think the concept of having the shell breaks after first attack is pretty good, and this reminds me of how Mimikyu's ability works. And I like Mudsdale's pre-evo form much more, for sure. As for Fomantis and Lurantis, I think I may seen some Gallade vibes in it, and the new attack Solar Blade looks cool! Oricorio might be able to counter several stat-raising moves if done right since they can imitate the dance, they might counter Teeter Dance right back too, even though it's still one risky ability because of Lunar Dance from Cresselia. I'm not quite fond a bit of Yungoos' evolved form though...

 

[YellowTemperance]

So we've basically got Limit Breaks in Pokemon now. How quaint. There better be a Stoner Sunshine analogue where the Pokemon throws a sun at someone. I want to get my Getter Robo allusions on and Zygarde just doesn't cut it anymore.

 

[Solar Snivy]

I think this the end of Megas. I mean, look at this info posted on the official site.

A new element has been introduced into the Pokémon battles in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon: Z-Moves. Z-Moves are moves of great power that can only be used once per battle. When the Trainer and Pokémon's wishes resonate with each other, and both release their full power together—the result is the explosive force of a Z-Move! All Pokémon can use Z-Moves to perform mightily in battle!

When the Trainer and Pokémon's wishes resonate with each other, and both release their full power together.

Sound familiar? This is exactly what Mega Evolution was, especially with Rayquaza's wish thing. They even have a "Z-Ring" and "Z-Stone".

Sure, this contradicts whoever said there will be a Mega for every fully-evolved pokemon one day, but it isn't the first time things have been contradicted this gen. (Someone said trainer customization was Kalos-only.)

 

[xWolfiex]

So, this Z-moves, is this the secret they were talking about?

 

[Hikamaru]

Anyways, the bracelet the trainer wears is called a Z-Ring and the gems are Z-Crystals. To be able to use the Z-Moves in battle a Pokemon needs to learn a move that is the same type as a Z-Crystal and it also has to hold the Z-Crystal that corresponds with the Pokemon's type. For dual-typed Pokemon this likely means they can hold either type's Z-Crystal (for example, Rowlet can use either the Grass or Flying Z-Crystals).

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I liked all the Z moves shown. Btw, does anyone think that they might be connected to Zygarde somehow? What's their Japanese name?

 

[Coconutteh]

I think this the end of Megas. I mean, look at this info posted on the official site.


When the Trainer and Pokémon's wishes resonate with each other, and both release their full power together.

Sound familiar? This is exactly what Mega Evolution was, especially with Rayquaza's wish thing. They even have a "Z-Ring" and "Z-Stone".

Sure, this contradicts whoever said there will be a Mega for every fully-evolved pokemon one day, but it isn't the first time things have been contradicted this gen. (Someone said trainer customization was Kalos-only.)

Wasn't there a spot on the underside of the z-ring though that looks sized for a mega stone? I think they're going to keep making mega evolutions, perhaps just less frequently. The z-moves may be to help balance it out - mega pokemon are fairly strong, and this is an interesting way to shake things up and provide other pokemon with the power to take them down.

 

[Solar Snivy]

Wasn't there a spot on the underside of the z-ring though that looks sized for a mega stone? I think they're going to keep making mega evolutions, perhaps just less frequently. The z-moves may be to help balance it out - mega pokemon are fairly strong, and this is an interesting way to shake things up and provide other pokemon with the power to take them down.

True. Maybe this their way of having a Mega Pikachu. They couldn't give Pika a real mega, so they invented a powerful move thing instead.

Joking aside, you're right, I hadn't noticed that. Seems to me that they have new evolutions achievable through friendship, so it only makes sense to have new moves as well. Helps to hammer out the "pokemon are our friends" thing.

 

[smocks]

Z-Moves for me is kinda pushing the envelope, but it's just something I'll get used to.
BUT OTHERWISE EVERYTHING IS GREAT especially the ninetales. the ninetales (and iceshrew) take the cake for me c:

 

[Hikamaru]

This YouTuber named ShadyPenguinn talks about the Z-Moves and how they likely won't be broken competitively since Serebii mentioned the requirement of needing to have the Pokemon hold the Z-Crystal and learn a move of its own type (e.g. Pikachu learning an Electric move) in order to use Z-Moves.

Plus, here's what all the types' Z-Crystals seem to look like:

Spoiler:

Top row: Electric, Fire, Grass, Water, Fighting and probably Normal.
Second row: Steel, Rock, Poison, Ghost, Dark, Bug, Flying and the spiral might be Dragon.
Bottom row: Ice, Fairy, Psychic and Ground.

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

Z moves seems to be a way better version of gems from gen 5? Also I don't see how usefull it would be on a pikachu because it would lose its ability to use the lightball. This could also be broken with pokémon that have the unburden ability, unless you don't waste a crystal when using it.

 

[Rivvon]

The way this is described makes it seem like as long as the Pokémon knows a STAB move and is holding the right Held Item, it can use this Z-Move. If this is the case, that means this feature is usable for any Pokémon and isn't exclusive to the starters and Rockruff--leading me to wonder what is the CoroCoro branded "secret" they share.

Also, maybe I'm looking into it too much (by the way, that's verbal/written irony) but the fact that they're named Z-Moves, of all things, leads me to question the role of our z-shaped Pokémon friend in the grand scheme of things (and, to a further extent, the role of his other letter-shaped friends and their region).

 

[Lunalie]

I don't think Mega Evolution is going the way of the Dodo, They put too much effort into it during 6th gen and it didn't receive a bad response from the community as far as I'm aware.

What I'm wiling to bet is that near the end of the game or post game in pokemon Sun and Moon You'll get the option to trade whatever allows you to use Z moves and in exchange you'll get a Mega bracelet, Making it so you cant use both a Z move and Mega evolution in the same battle. Of course you would have the option to trade back and forth but you can never have both at once.

I feel like if they did a choice like this it would be very interesting, Forcing you to choose between one form of power and another. A team with a mega pokemon would have more power in general but Z moves could potentially swing a battle back in your favor when you really need it.