Ryu Myuutsu
: What I mean is that I just don't see the spirits, game changing as they might be, as very significant changes, which is the same way a lot of people see Megas and Z-moves. Say what you will about them, but if you go to the reddit thread I linked, there are a lot of people who find Megas and Z-moves to be unnecessary gimmicks that don't really innovate on the core gameplay.
Again again, I'd like to see "simple but effective" additions to Smash's mechanics. Not something ignorable like customs or spirits. After Ultimate, it's time that the series take the Mario Kart route and successively build on its core gameplay without reinventing it. No need for it to become the next Call of Duty or Classic Mega Man, and no need for it to reinvent the wheel every game like Final Fantasy. Do it like Mario Kart: perfectly balanced like all things should be.
Not to sound arrogant, but a lot of those people have a misguided notion of what accounts as a gimmick.
They are stating their opinions, but opinions are often laced with misinformation and bias. I agree that not everyone will like Megas and Z-moves but to say it adds nothing to the core gameplay is ignorant. We also have to be objective.
I read the posts talking about them and that just supports my observations:
"Z-Moves honestly just felt like a step back. Thought the idea was great (and activating it via a dance move was stupid) but you could remove it from the game and the game and it would change very little (unlike for example the gimmicks in Mario which have a big impact on the gameplay). Having played through the Gen 7 games twice I often just forgot aobut Z-Moves because it is easy enough to progress through the game without them. "
"No one gives a **** about Z-Moves for one thing. "
These posts in a nutshell: Z-moves add nothing to the gameplay because I didn't bother using them/I didn't care about them.
People simply call gimmick a mechanic they aren't fond of.
Meanwhile, competitive players in Smogon and those who participate in Pokemon World Championships build teams heavily incorporating Megas and Z-moves. Turns out people did give a **** about them after all.
Deciding who gets to mega evolve or when to fire a Z-move to remove a threat from the field added an strategic element to competitive Pokemon battles. Nuking an opposing Pokemon with a powerful move can help make a huge difference. There also Z-moves with added effects which help turn mediocre pokemon into serious threats, like Kommo-o and Eevee. Also, non-attacking moves gain additional effects called Z-status; Porygon-Z is a notorious example since Conversion raises all the user's stats when Z-boosted.
There is also some irony because one posts claims that megas and Z-moves need to be eliminated, while claiming that features like the Pokemon Dream World and walking Pokemon need to be kept permanently. Those last two are much more gimmicky than the first two. Particularly the DW because it added a layer of busy work in the form browser mini games if you wanted to raise a particular Pokemon.
I think only this guy in the thread gets it:
"To be fair, you don’t need to have mastery of
any of the mechanics to progress; even in the earlier games before the new xp share, you could pick up pretty much any pokemon and clear the game easily.
Where mastery of the mechanics is necessary is in competitive battling, and there Z-moves and mega stones provide an interesting teambuilding tension as to which pokemon to give them too, because you can only have one on each ability on your team and letting your pokemon use them precludes them from using other useful items. I do feel like dynamax seems like a cheaper version of Mega evolution, which at least had an interesting lore explanation and had cool new art."
I don't know if Dynamax will become as prominent as Megas or Z-moves, so we'll have to wait and see how much they contribute to the core gameplay.
Also, Smash is actually on the same route as Mario Kart, as the game has also built on its core gameplay from previous iterations. MK8 DX is the culmination of mechanics and features that have been added through the history of the franchise. It uses the vehicle customization, double item box, the boosts jumps and glider/underwater portions that were introduced in previous entries while adding ultra turbo and anti-gravity sections.
Likewise, Ultimate has built on features from previous Smash games like merging the air dodge mechanics from Melee and Smash 4, keeping the footstool jump from Brawl while also getting rid of detrimental stuff like tripping and lack of hitstun, and giving players the ability to remove stage hazards, etc. Both franchises are good examples on how you build off itself without necessary reinventing themselves.
Smash is far from becoming a Call of Duty since each entry is more or less separated by 6-7 years as opposed to being released annually.
