News: Z-Moves are here!

[François2]

The official site states:
There are two conditions for performing Z-Moves: a Pokémon must learn a move of the same type as a Z-Crystal, and it must be holding the corresponding Z-Crystal.
With this hidden power will be broken.

You really think they would just let an abuse case like that happen? Hidden Power will obviously be treated as a Normal-type move for the purposes of Z-Move access.

If I had to guess, the attacks are universal, meaning they are both a Physical and Special Attack at the same time. This would be another reason why they can only be used once.

How do you think this will work? How will they calculate the damage of a universal attack?

 

[Hikamaru]

I agree with Francois r.e. Hidden Power - I think it will be restricted to using the Normal-type Z-Move since Hidden Power's description in the Summary screen and move guides classifies it as Normal-type.

 

[nicosuave]

All I can say is thank god its not synchro evolution.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

You really think they would just let an abuse case like that happen? Hidden Power will obviously be treated as a Normal-type move for the purposes of Z-Move access.

How do you think this will work? How will they calculate the damage of a universal attack?

I also agree with the Hidden Power thing. I think it will be treated as a Normal because it is a Normal Type attack.


I see what you mean.

The Z-Attack could ignore all defense or add Spec Def and Def together and calculate it that way. Ignoring all defense would be another reason why it is only used once.

 

[Hikamaru]

All I can say is thank god its not synchro evolution.

I can understand you here. I was also happy it was Z-Moves and not synchro because with the bad reception the ReBurst manga got it would have caused controversial reception among the fandom again and cause the image of Pokemon to be changed completely.

 

[Hikamaru]

As Angie said, since Hidden Power is based on IVs I really can see it affecting any Z-Moves other than just activating the requirement to use the Normal-type one.

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

You really think they would just let an abuse case like that happen? Hidden Power will obviously be treated as a Normal-type move for the purposes of Z-Move access.

Are you new to pokémon? The fact that you use the word obviously means you don't know hidden power. Why would it suddenly be counted as normal type? Hidden power could never even be a normal type. Thats the whole point of hidden power. Hidden power even gets stab and activates ability's like flash fire, lightning rod, etc. So it would be weird that a move would suddenly lose its typing because it could be broken.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I can understand you here. I was also happy it was Z-Moves and not synchro because with the bad reception the ReBurst manga got it would have caused controversial reception among the fandom again and cause the image of Pokemon to be changed completely.

Except that the theorized Synchro was/is a lot different than that shown in ReBurst. Also, it's possible that Synchro could still exist, we do have the battle director going to that game convention later this month, and they mentioned they might have a surprise ;).

 

[François2]

Are you new to pokémon? The fact that you use the word obviously means you don't know hidden power. Why would it suddenly be counted as normal type? Hidden power could never even be a normal type. Thats the whole point of hidden power. Hidden power even gets stab and activates ability's like flash fire, lightning rod, etc. So it would be weird that a move would suddenly lose its typing because it could be broken.

Hidden Power is considered a Normal move, and appears as Normal type in any pokémon's move slot. In actual battle function its type varies, but if a pokémon can learn Hidden Power, that pokémon is capable of learning what is a "Normal" move. I never said they would turn Hidden Power into a Normal move in battle, nobody could ever suggest that because that would completely destroy the purpose of the move. I just said that given Z-move access is defined by the type of moves a pokémon is capable of learning, Hidden Power is clearly not going to contribute (and the excuse for that is "It's a Normal move"). Otherwise every pokémon in the game can learn every type of Z-move in the game, which renders the restriction on the mechanic pointless.

Theories like your own seem to assume that GF are terrible game designers with no idea how their own game works. If Hidden Power has abuse case potential then they can effortlessly remove that potential, particularly as Hidden Power always appears in-game as a Normal move which is the best excuse they could possibly ask for in making it irrelevant to Z-move access.

 

[Hikamaru]

Except that the theorized Synchro was/is a lot different than that shown in ReBurst. Also, it's possible that Synchro could still exist, we do have the battle director going to that game convention later this month, and they mentioned they might have a surprise ;).

Maybe the heavily speculated Synchro may be what the secret of the starters and Rockruff is.

 

[Squirrel]

I can definitely see Z-moves being a little abusable (or rather, the restriction on them being redundant) given that so many generic moves of various types exist in the game. If you think about the generic moves which 90% of Pokémon can learn such as Rest, Taunt, Curse, Sand Attack, Toxic, Thief, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, U-Turn, etc etc etc, then you have a huge amount of types covered already just from these. If they allow any type of move the Pokémon can learn then I think there'll be a lot of problems regarding the limitation actually mattering on Z-moves. The most obvious way in my mind to counter this is that only naturally learned moves by the Pokémon will count and not TM/HM/tutor/egg moves - this cuts the pool down to only 4-5 typings for the majority of Pokémon which I believe would be a considerably less abusable state for Z-moves and honestly it just makes a lot more sense than "Hm, this Pidgeotto learns Toxic by TM, I guess that means it has the potential to be a Poison-type for this move!". Naturally learned move types are the most logical restriction I can see happening.

Also I do not think Hidden Power typings will count towards Z-moves because, as said above, Hidden Power is a Normal-type move and as such will only count as a Normal-type Z-move. It's also tough to envisage TMs etc on the whole actually counting towards Z-move typings as I said earlier, so I think the situation for Hidden Power overall is looking quite unlikely to effect anything regarding Z-moves.

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

Hidden Power is considered a Normal move, and appears as Normal type in any pokémon's move slot. In actual battle function its type varies, but if a pokémon can learn Hidden Power, that pokémon is capable of learning what is a "Normal" move. I never said they would turn Hidden Power into a Normal move in battle, nobody could ever suggest that because that would completely destroy the purpose of the move. I just said that given Z-move access is defined by the type of moves a pokémon is capable of learning, Hidden Power is clearly not going to contribute (and the excuse for that is "It's a Normal move"). Otherwise every pokémon in the game can learn every type of Z-move in the game, which renders the restriction on the mechanic pointless.

Theories like your own seem to assume that GF are terrible game designers with no idea how their own game works. If Hidden Power has abuse case potential then they can effortlessly remove that potential, particularly as Hidden Power always appears in-game as a Normal move which is the best excuse they could possibly ask for in making it irrelevant to Z-move access.

Ah yes gamefreak never made something completly overpowered and broken at all. Like I said hidden power will never be treated as normal type. This is the only sure thing. Pixilate, Refrigerate, Aerilate, and Ion Deluge are abilties that transform normal type's, but it doesn't transform hidden power even though its stated as a normal type. So the most obvious conclusion you would make is that hidden power would affect Z moves.

 

[Migit78]

Pikachu is probably an example of one of perhaps many Pokemon that can utilize Z-moves, though I do think it's really interesting (and I suppose fitting, in a way), that it can use them, as well.

Saddening to see Raichu sit by the wayside more and more.

I'm pretty sure that it says somewhere that all pokemon can use Z-Moves

 

[Hikamaru]

I'm pretty sure that it says somewhere that all pokemon can use Z-Moves

It's true.

There is a difference between Megas and Z-Moves - Megas can only be used by certain fully-evolved Pokemon while Z-Moves can be used by any Pokemon.

 

[Migit78]

It's true.

There is a difference between Megas and Z-Moves - Megas can only be used by certain fully-evolved Pokemon while Z-Moves can be used by any Pokemon.

Do you see us getting new Megas? or even Megas making a return?
I could be wrong, but so far, I don't believe there has been any footage of Megas in Sun/Moon, and with the Z-Ring in place, the trainers don't have Mega Braclets

 

[Hikamaru]

Do you see us getting new Megas? or even Megas making a return?
I could be wrong, but so far, I don't believe there has been any footage of Megas in Sun/Moon, and with the Z-Ring in place, the trainers don't have Mega Braclets

It has been mentioned by someone on this forum that the Z-Ring has a circle-shaped indent on it which could likely fit a Mega Stone in it.

 

[WingsofBliss]

Hey guys, check this out:

https://mobile.twitter.com/denman2991/status/760796792833335296

I wonder how it could work for Pokemon with dual-type moves like Hawlucha's Flying Press?

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

Hey guys, check this out:

https://mobile.twitter.com/denman2991/status/760796792833335296

I wonder how it could work for Pokemon with dual-type moves like Hawlucha's Flying Press?

Flying press is still treated as a fighting type move. Its more like it has a special effect that adds flying type damage to it. The flying attribute does not get stab nor can it be boosted with items like the skyplate. I wonder what will happen when a pokémon is hit with electrify and tries to bust out a z-move or when you use protect.

 

[skyburial]

I say bring on the extra jewelry. Keep it going Pokémon. Can my character in Generation 10 get Grills please? Thank you.

 

[StarsMmd]

I get the impression that HP can be used as any type assuming the z-move condition just checks the moves in your move set as opposed to potential learnable moves (it's a little ambiguous). I doubt it would be OP though.
It would have no STAB and it would mean you have to forgo an item like AV, focus sash, life orb, choice item or leftovers for a one time move. You could switch into a resist or immunity to scout or even just use protect (which I'm predicting will see a lot more usage in the gen 7 meta). HP is also a pretty weak move so on every other turn that you don't use the z-move, you would have to deal with having a weak moveset as well as effectively no item.

Also, ash greninja probably isn't related to z-moves. "This phenomenon is also said to have happened just once several hundred years ago in the Kalos region, but it remains shrouded in mystery." is what was said about ash greninja. It's lore is linked to kalos' history whereas as z-moves are linked to alola. Also ash greninja doesn't use any items and ash doesn't do any dance or special movements to activate any abilities. He merely moves in sync with greninja. Also I'm pretty sure that in the anime, the one other trainer that synched with their pokemon thousands of years ago in kalos also synchronised with a greninja.