Mythical Distribution Methods

[Devalue]

Typically obtains mythical Pokemon through special means: Gamestop distributions, movie distributions, the newsletter, save data across multiple games, and so on. Occasionally allows players to catch it fully in-game with no other catches, such as Deoxys in Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire.

Do you like how mythical Pokemon are obtained? If not, how would you have the player acquire them?
______________

Dislikes most of the current methods, currently. Usually ties them to limited-time events and separate products. Feels like some kind of bad DLC. Liked the ones like Deoxys with a postgame story involved.

Proposes some alternative ideas:

1. Simple rarity. Make a mythical Pokemon like a shiny. Appears very rarely in the wild. Increase the spawn rate for each time you encounter it, but fail to catch it.
2. Tied to in-game achievements. Requires you to own a Pokemon with [X] ribbons/marks, get [X] straight wins in the battle facility, beat the Elite Four in a rematch, or completing the Pokedex. Triggers a Pokemon to appear somewhere in the world.
   
   Avoids asking for something more grindy here. Refers to goals such as clearing 20 6-star Tera Raids, defeating 100 Pokemon in an area without leaving, or reaching 100 hours of playtime. Ought to come up with more engaging or exciting methods than that.
3. Sidequests. Speak with people in the overworld and read books for clues. Points you to a mysterious location somewhere in the world. May stumble across vicious Pokemon there. Potentially partners with other trainers, such as Elite Four members. May involve solving riddles.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I despise how out-of-game events are the only ways to obtain most Mythicals. It punishes people who got their games late or otherwise can't make it to the events for whatever reason. In-game content should never be restricted by out-of-game circumstances.

They should just be treated like Legendaries, and should be caught in hard-to-reach locations in the postgame. It'd add more postgame content, more places to explore to make room for the Mythicals, and stay accessible to people who start new playthroughs at any point of time in the future.

 

[Janp]

I hate Mythical Pokémon distribution. I remember back when they did a "one Mythical Pokémon per month" distribution in Gen VI, it was suppose to be Gamestop distribution. But there is no Gamestop in my country. The official Nintendo distributor for my country got all the keys and decided to lock them behind buying a Pokémon game from them. Than means I would have to pay over 40€ for one Mythical Pokémon. Luckily, they also sent some codes to other shops and they pretty much gave them for free.

The Wifi distribution is better, but it's still meh. They pretty much lost all their value and usually were nothing but a box warmers. I wish there were some kind of side quests or activities you could do with them. Something like Mythical events in Gen IV games, but less amateurish and not time-locked. I know they are not Mythical Pokémon, but I love Regi trio side quest in Gen III games. Or even something like Spiritomb's quests in DPPt and ORAS would be nice.

 

[Corveone]

I don't like any method that demands things from real life outside the game. It's a videogame and I prefer stuff being obtainable within the game's logic and rules.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

If from mystery gift, sure thats fine

Anything else and its annoying

 

[BluShell]

I find it kinda funny how Gen 5 handled such distributions. On one hand, you had the sidequest with Victini in BW which had a small plot to go along with it, which was neat. On the other hand, Keldeo, Meloetta, and Genesect, while having special cutscenes elsewhere in-game regarding Secret Sword / Resolute Form, Pirouette Form, and the type drives respectively, were all just handed to you, in anticlimactic fashion, for free by the Pokemon Center delivery guy.

SwSh's way of giving Keldeo and Legends: Arceus' way of giving Manaphy, Darkrai and Shaymin were kinda cool, even if the lattermost two required save files from BDSP and SwSh already present on your Switch. It's more-or-less what I would wish to see more of in future titles. And yeah, ORAS's implementation of the Deoxys encounter was also a good way of handling it.

 

[ReKoil]

I liked how you caught Deoxys in ORAS. It felt like a proper boss fight.
Keldeo in SwSh was also a nice surprise. It was kinda hidden, but still findable.
The Manaphy quest in Legends was honestly too obscure. I do like that we're able to just catch it, but I don't like that you pretty much can't complete that quest without looking up how to do it.

Honestly I'd just like them to continue this trend. Scarlet/Violet have DLC upcoming. Why not make another mythical catchable in one of them like they did with Keldeo in the Crown Tundra?
Perhaps Diancie this time? Zeraora? Any Mythical aside from Deoxys/Keldeo/Manaphy really.

I'm indifferent on the Mystery Gift distributions. They're an easy snag if you're aware of them, but also easily missable if you aren't.

 

[Amore]

Obviously time-limited Pokémon suck, that's a given.

A lot of people citing ORAS treatment of Deoxys as ideal, and it certainly sounds like it but I've never played so I can't comment on that. What I have player and did like was how HGSS saw two of the major mythical distributions for that game - Celebi, and Arceus - activate extra story. Not in the "you'll understand once you buy DLC way" but Celebi gave more backstory for Silver, and Arceus showed off its power to create life. I would like to see more stuff like that if they insist on stuffing every legendary and most mythicals (srsly bummed that I never got see Dynamax Deoxys) into each game.

 

[Soaring Sid]

Basically what JanP said applies to many countries.
We don't even have a distributor as such ( or none that i know of) that would provide the mythical pokémon.

Moreover the entire culture of pokémon gaming that exists here is solely due to emulators.
Very few families allow a gaming console, although that doesn't seem to be the case moving forward.
Nonetheless that doesn't change the fact that many people get games very late.

So.. yes, I thoroughly detest the "Physically go to some shop that's only available in one place" methods to obtain mythical pokémon.

 

[Palamon]

Back in generation IV, and a bit of V, Mythical Pokemon had event surrounding them that made them feel much more special. Nowadays, it's just "oh, here's your code, and a delivery man will hand it to you!" It's not special anymore. No wonder there's no mythical Pokemon for Gen 9!

They were honestly just movie fodder, anyway, and it shows. Personally grown tired of the concept of mythical pokemon as a whole since they're a shell of what they used to be.