New Gameplay Features/Mechanics Discussion Thread

[PrinceOfFacade]

According to a few supposed leaks, including the Chinese leak, any pokemon transferred over to Sun and Moon from another region will be treated as the alien it would be in the game.

Thus, not only will it maintain its pre-gen 7 type and stats, but also it will not be able to learn any gen 7 moves outside of the TMs. Basically, all regional pokemon will be noted as such. Regardless of form, a Kalosian pokemon and an Alolan pokemon will not be the same. Interesting...

 

[B. Thunder Tiger]

So honest question here. After seeing the revelation of the Z-Moves, does anyone have a guess of what the Z could stand for? For me, seeing the power of these moves and the fact you can only use them once per battle, makes me think that the Z stands for "Zenith"

The word "Zenith" commonly refers to celestial bodies sitting on the highest point of the sky, and alternatively is also often used by people to depict/describe something or someone in being/or having achieved the very apex of a certain concept. In this case, this idea would refer to the Moves, or otherwise known as Zenith Moves. Also, seeing as the original meaning refers to celestial bodies, it does fit nicely with the Sun and Moon titles of the Gen 7 games, seeing as stars/suns and moons are celestial objects and reside on the highest point of the sky, which in turn may refer to the fifth element of Alchemy, that being Aether, which could be depicted as outer space.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? Is it plausible?

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Poor Pokemon Z version.

It could have easily introduced this mechanic...but I guess it was too much for a Gen VI update that it turned into a Gen VII mechanic.

 

[gliscor&yanmega]

So honest question here. After seeing the revelation of the Z-Moves, does anyone have a guess of what the Z could stand for? For me, seeing the power of these moves and the fact you can only use them once per battle, makes me think that the Z stands for "Zenith"

The word "Zenith" commonly refers to celestial bodies sitting on the highest point of the sky, and alternatively is also often used by people to depict something or someone in being the highest/apex of a certain concept. In this case, it refers to the Moves, or otherwise known as Zenith Moves. Also, seeing as the original meaning refers to celestial bodies, it does fit nicely with the Sun and Moon titles of the Gen 7 games, seeing as stars/suns and moons are celestial objects and reside on the highest point of the sky, which in turn may refer to the fifth element of Alchemy, that being Aether, which could be depicted as outer space.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? Is it plausible?

Zygarde. It wanted more of a role so it gave everyone a new move. But seriously, Zygarde is what I thought of first when I saw Z Moves, jokingly of course.

I'm not sure if we'll get much insight on it though, although I guess we'd probably have to wait for the games to come out.

 

[Ghost of The Forums]

the burst hearts are in the japanese logo so i'm assuming it'll either be a new variant of burst or something like what ash does which is close enough. Hopefully it'll be break though for that fifth move slot. Oh oh, or maybe pokemon specific moves? Thats wishful thinking though.

guess i nailed that one.

 

[Gizmoa]

I think the travel pokemon are alternatives to needing pokemon with HM moves on your team in the same way latias/latios were for flying. I don't think we will lose our HMs, but they may be reclassified to TMs if we really don't need them anymore.

I think each ridden pokemon has special abilities too, like the Herdier seemed to be sniffing out hidden items. That or it is related to special trials.

 

[Lykouros]

So honest question here. After seeing the revelation of the Z-Moves, does anyone have a guess of what the Z could stand for? For me, seeing the power of these moves and the fact you can only use them once per battle, makes me think that the Z stands for "Zenith"

The word "Zenith" commonly refers to celestial bodies sitting on the highest point of the sky, and alternatively is also often used by people to depict/describe something or someone in being/or having achieved the very apex of a certain concept. In this case, this idea would refer to the Moves, or otherwise known as Zenith Moves. Also, seeing as the original meaning refers to celestial bodies, it does fit nicely with the Sun and Moon titles of the Gen 7 games, seeing as stars/suns and moons are celestial objects and reside on the highest point of the sky, which in turn may refer to the fifth element of Alchemy, that being Aether, which could be depicted as outer space.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? Is it plausible?

This sounds logical; certainly it's plausible. Nice connection with the celestial bodies and Aether.

 

[Digitalkaiser65]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CoxsFUuW8AAOHzG.jpg

Has anyone discussed the odd colored pokeball, and the green device which this player character holds in this art?

The blue/purple pokeball looks to have a socket, that matches the one found on the green device, where a hole about the size of a pokeball would fit. I know its confirmed riders are back, but what if they took it a step further? What if you are 'borrowing' all these pokemon from someone who has trained them to do all these things, and built a machine that allows you to switch the pokemon you need? Its not really explained how pokeballs work in great detail but maybe these pokemon wait in reserve somewhere, and then are transferred to the purple pokeball when needed by the player?

Could this be a machine that 'contains' these pokemon where you can shift the pokemon to fit the kind of traveling you want?
Need to surf, switch to shapedo. Need to fly? Switch to charizard. Could this be a Device that effectively kills HMs?

 

[Wryteous]

So these Z-Moves.... Still affected by Abilities and Protect? Might beed to watch the trailer again to check

 

[Gizmoa]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CoxsFUuW8AAOHzG.jpg

Has anyone discussed the odd colored pokeball, and the green device which this player character holds in this art?

The blue/purple pokeball looks to have a socket, that matches the one found on the green device, where a hole about the size of a pokeball would fit. I know its confirmed riders are back, but what if they took it a step further? What if you are 'borrowing' all these pokemon from someone who has trained them to do all these things, and built a machine that allows you to switch the pokemon you need? Its not really explained how pokeballs work in great detail but maybe these pokemon wait in reserve somewhere, and then are transferred to the purple pokeball when needed by the player?

Could this be a machine that 'contains' these pokemon where you can shift the pokemon to fit the kind of traveling you want?
Need to surf, switch to shapedo. Need to fly? Switch to charizard. Could this be a Device that effectively kills HMs?

green thing looks like a way to call on a ridable service pokemon... the ball looks like it fits in the device to be programmed on the fly to port in different service pokemon. Pokeballs have always hinted at being portals to alternate dimensions/places of some sort, so this wouldn't be too outside the box. Dial up a pokemon, have it download to the ball, let it out on the fly. This would give field access, but keep it out of the team.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CoxsFUuW8AAOHzG.jpg

And the game still wants to tell us Charizards are 5'07." That Charizard looks like it could be twice that size.

Course we've long known about size variations in pokemon, and these Totem Pokemon look like they will provide a nice in-game example of that.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

And the game still wants to tell us Charizards are 5'07." That Charizard looks like it could be twice that size.

Spoiler: That Charizard it's a Totem Pokemon.

The anime will have a very long field day with this one.

 

[DotKU]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CoxsFUuW8AAOHzG.jpg

Has anyone discussed the odd colored pokeball, and the green device which this player character holds in this art?

The blue/purple pokeball looks to have a socket, that matches the one found on the green device, where a hole about the size of a pokeball would fit. I know its confirmed riders are back, but what if they took it a step further? What if you are 'borrowing' all these pokemon from someone who has trained them to do all these things, and built a machine that allows you to switch the pokemon you need? Its not really explained how pokeballs work in great detail but maybe these pokemon wait in reserve somewhere, and then are transferred to the purple pokeball when needed by the player?

Could this be a machine that 'contains' these pokemon where you can shift the pokemon to fit the kind of traveling you want?
Need to surf, switch to shapedo. Need to fly? Switch to charizard. Could this be a Device that effectively kills HMs?

Yeah I think that's most likely what it's going to do. Maybe someone will give you access to more pokemon/HM's as you progress through the game.

But I wonder if they are gonna have pokemon for cut, strength, rock smash, etc as well

 

[hydrosharp_98]

Spoiler: That Charizard it's a Totem Pokemon.

The anime will have a very long field day with this one.

I feel like they already have...remember the Island of Giant Pokémon? Man...it seems as though someone sat down, looked through EVERYTHING from the last 20 years of Pokémon and chose some things that stood out (special Pokémon in the anime, Delta Species trading cards, Pokémon Ranger, Snap and so on...)

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I feel like they already have...remember the Island of Giant Pokémon? Man...it seems as though someone sat down, looked through EVERYTHING from the last 20 years of Pokémon and chose some things that stood out (special Pokémon in the anime, Delta Species trading cards, Pokémon Ranger, Snap and so on...)

Then again, if it's something like how Sakurai picked Greninja before the XY games even came out first, they could've easily ignored whatever the anime has done.

Even if Alola is starting to shape up like Orange Islands.

 

[GDK]

So these Z-Moves.... Still affected by Abilities and Protect? Might beed to watch the trailer again to check

That would be a way to balance them cause for now they're broken.
Oh yeah a counter? boom Z move ? Oh the rest of your team gets swept now !

 

[Endless]

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't really care much for designated pokémon that you can ride, and by extention either getting rid of HM's entirely or reduce their usage even more(even though they are barely mandatory in gen V and VI). I always liked to get help from my party pokémon to travel across the region, and having these pokémon offer their services makes the journey slightly less personal for me, so to speak.

Z-Moves sound cool though, even if they were somewhat predictable, but as mentioned above there are still some interesting details I would love to know, like can they be blocked/absorbed by moves and abilities?

 

[Bguy7]

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't really care much for designated pokémon that you can ride, and by extention either getting rid of HM's entirely or reduce their usage even more(even though they are barely mandatory in gen V and VI). I always liked to get help from my party pokémon to travel across the region, and having these pokémon offer their services makes the journey slightly less personal for me, so to speak.

That is exactly the way feel. If these rideable Pokemon really are replacing HMs then I will be extremely disappointed. HMs demonstrated how a trainer could work together with their Pokemon to overcome any obstacle in their way. Calling on someone else's Pokemon to help you just ruins that completely. I'd much rather it be your own Pokemon you're riding, or even just keep traditional HMs than do this. I can't begin to say how disappointed I will be if this really turns out to be the case.

 

[ECM]

That is exactly the way feel. If these rideable Pokemon really are replacing HMs then I will be extremely disappointed. HMs demonstrated how a trainer could work together with their Pokemon to overcome any obstacle in their way. Calling on someone else's Pokemon to help you just ruins that completely. I'd much rather it be your own Pokemon you're riding, or even just keep traditional HMs than do this. I can't begin to say how disappointed I will be if this really turns out to be the case.

Well, for all we know, it could be more so an alternative than a replacement. This way you can still use HMs on your own Pokémon, but not be stuck into needing to have a Pokémon with Cut in your party when you really don't want to. They could even reward you by using HMs, like only being able to get items from Rock Smash if you use your own Pokémon.

 

[Alexander18]

I wouldn't mind if those rideable pokemon replace HMs to be honest. That way, I don't have to use up a move slot for my pokemon which means I can give them better moves. Z moves is a pretty cool feature. One thing interests me. Why Z moves and Z Crystal? What is with the Z? Probably nothing but there is one particular pokemon appearing in the game that starts with Z.