Lighting Strike Jutsu! Wait, wrong game... Hey guys, [member='Aura'] here with another fun discussion topic! In the August 1st trailer for Pokémon Sun and Moon (which was covered excellently by [member='LostSpirit'] on the site, with said coverage being available for reading here), there were many things unveiled to us. One of those things was the introduction of a special one-time attack, known as a "Z-Move". The official site describes Z-Moves as "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!". To be more specific, these Z-Moves work exactly like Mega Evolution; when the trainer wears the "Z-Ring" and the Pokémon is holding a "Z-Crystal", the pair can activate a super-powerful attack, but only once. Look at this kid. He's got so much swag right now. But that's not all. Not only is the Z-Ring the key to unlocking your Pokémon's ultimate power, but it's also the final accessory you can purchase to pull off that awesome trainer cosplay! That's right, the Z-Ring is going to be officially sold at participating stores! These bracelets will come with the Z-Crystals for Grass, Fire and Water (and a 5cm Pikachu figure, but that's not really important here), while there will be sets of 3 Z-Crystals sold separately in order to complete your collection. As for the other types, there's the Electric-Fighting-Normal Set, the Steel-Rock-Poison Set, the Poison-Bug-Dark Set, the Ground-Flying-Psychic Set and the Dragon-Ice-Fairy Set. To top it all off, this bracelet isn't just for show! The Z-Ring can connect with your Pokémon Sun and Moon game to add a real-world element to gameplay! There's even a case for them!? Alright, now I need this piece of plastic more than anything I've ever needed in my life So, what are your thoughts on the Z-Moves and Z-Ring? Are you going to buy the real Z-Ring, even though it's totally for children and won't fit your adult wrists? Do you have some name ideas for Z-Moves of the other types? What do you think will happen to [member='â€Bloomâ€'] when players start flinging her around in the new "Bloom Doom" attack? Comment your thoughts below! As always, this is [member='Aura'], signing out until next time!
I have small wrists, I can hope I certainly think it's an interesting idea, although I do hope the bracelet will have some other function otger than just vibrate whenever you use a Z-move. I've seen the price for the Pokénav Plus, and if Nintendo plans to sell these things at an equally high price, I don't think I'll get one. I have to admit, it looks very fancy though
Z-Crystals work when the Pokémon has a move that matches the Z-Crystal type. The example used on the site is that "a Pikachu with Grass Knot can use a Grass Z-Crystal". Therefore, you can use the Z-Move of whatever type your Pokémon's Hidden Power is.
Which completely breaks them, seeing as now every Pokémon (with the exception of Wobuffet, Wynaut, Kricketot, Tynamo, Spwepa, and those that can't learn TMs in the first place) have access to all Z-Moves that aren't Fairy or Normal. And most have a Normal move in Scratch or Growl or Hyper Beam or something. Unrelated, but Magikarp can use the Normal Z-Move. Is he easier to train now, or is that not enough?
Its got to be HP (Hidden Power) allows Normal and Normal only, as that is the inherit type of said move, it be too broken otherwise IMO
So are these Z moves just going to have a extremely high power? Which I imagine would be greater than the strongest moves in the game like Hyper Beam, Blast Burn, ect. Or will these moves just have special effects that no other moves have had before?
It hasn't really been disclosed as of yet, but it's probably the former of your suggestions; just super-powerful. But you have to remember that you can only use these moves once per battle, so it'd make sense if they were ultra-powerful.
I just hope the Z moves don't have priority like Mega Evolution does high base power and priority seems a bit too overpowered to me.
Z moves remind me of gems in a way, it's pretty much a powered up version of a move for one turn and a gem is only usable once and it makes your move that much stronger for one time. If the Z-Crystal vanishes after that one turn then i'll say it's a better gem depending on how good the moves are, but I don't see a problem with them. I do like the animations and the little dances your trainer does though.
Well the fact that a Z move could only be used once per battle makes it pretty different to gems. On Hyper offensive teams you would often seen 3 or 4 gems on a team and for VGC the fact that they all count as different items helps get past Sleep Clause. They were kind of just a 'if there isn't any particular item I need, I'll just slap on a gem', where as I imagine Z moves being less of a teambuilding aspect and more of a mid-battle concept. The fact that you don't need to give your Pokémon an item or move to use it and you can change which Pokémon uses a Z move between battles could make best of 3 battles a bit more interesting. Especially in doubles, since targetting a Z move in to a Protect really could screw you potentially. I'm curious about certain mechanics of Z moves. I'm pretty sure hidden power grass wouldn't allow a Pokémon to use the Grass Z Move, since that would just be dumb. But I am curious as to whether these attacks get STAB, and if so are affected by abilities like Huge Power, Adaptabilty and -ate abilities (such as aerialate and pixilate). Also, are these attacks special or physical and what determines that? Are some types of Z moves physical and others special like before the physical special split? Or are there two versions of each type. There's also a lot of talk about there not being Mega evolutions, at least for this generation. I was a bit skeptical of this at first, but after hearing there's a new ring which could potentially replace the Mega Ring and Alolan forms it just seems like they could be trying to replace this concept with other concepts. This and the fact that they haven't released any new mega evolutions makes me think this is at least plausible. Which would make sense considering the fact that Pokémon like Mega Kangaskhan are so prevalent in their tournaments and every viable VGC team had a mega evolution, with many this year opting for multiple, they may think it's a poorly balanced mechanic. I don't know, just something interesting I was thinking about.