What Makes Mega Pokemon... Mega?

the announcement for Pokémon Legends Za caught everyone off guard but in addition to announcing a new game the last few seconds hinted at the unexpected return of Mega Evolutions now this gameplay mechanic unlike many others before it introduced a new set of designs inspiring other artists to make their own Mega designs but Mega Evolutions weren't usable in the past 5 years so as megas are returning are there any tropes in the designs that we could learn about in other words I want to find out what makes mega Pokémon mega the story starts with not the sixth generation but the fifth generation of Pokémon games Pokemon often battled with the notion that all their games are the same so in Pokemon Black and White the fifth generation nearly all past Pokémon were gate kept until the main story was beaten offering a new experience with completely new Pokémon but many reviews still found the games to play out pretty much the same I mean sure there were new formats and there was this gem item that radically changed the competitive scene however the Casual playthrough wasn't different enough despite having new sites characters and a story that many fans called the best story out of the series additionally some older fans were uninterested due to how older Pokémons were locked until the end of the main game so in the follow-up games Black 2 and White 2 older Pokémon can be seen from the GetGo but while this generation ended up having the least number of sales Pokemon had an opportunity in the new Nintendo 3DS to really shake up the formula with the introduction of a new Elemental type Pokémon Now using 3D models which you can now pet with the Pokémon Amy feature and the subject of today's video Mega Evolutions a select few Pokémon got their own special marble which they can now hold in Li of any other comp competive item to achieve their mega evolution form with a new design and sometimes with a related but new typing only one Pokémon in a party can Mega Evolve per battle so the player would have to make a choice Pokemon X and Y gave Mega Evolutions to 26 pass Pokémon but Charizard and Mewtwo each got two different Mega designs raising the total to 28 mega designs and later in Omega ruy and Alpha Sapphire a remake of the third generation games there were 20 more mega evolutions of which only one was a Generation 6 Pokémon so it seems that Mega Evolution was a clever way to bring back older fans by showing that some of their favorites can now achieve a new design but what makes Mega Evolution so special in the game well these new forms were simply stronger they got 100 more points in their base stat total what does that mean so when it comes to base stat totals there are six kinds of stats there's health two kinds of offenses with their corresponding defenses and then speed none of the Mega Evolutions ended up touching the health stat maybe the code didn't allow it at the time because in later generations there were mechanics that change the health stat mid battle but anyways this means that the mega Pokémon is theoretically more capable in battles than the base form they should look and become stronger bulkier and or faster depending on their new stats so let's start looking at the designs of these megas no one can say there were any rules behind making the designs other than making them related to the creatures or mega evolving from because at the end of the day whatever the Pokémon company calls a mega Pokémon is a mega Pokémon but that doesn't really help when you're trying to draw a mega of your own so I wanted to share a few pointers that I found helpful when trying to make my own designs starting off with the following exhibition from 2020 that I call Mega Evolutions using Microsoft Office shapes mega manectric mega camerupt mega salamen and mega dii okay sure some of these megas look Goofy and Goofy is hit or miss with people but I've come to appreciate this kind of design philosophy in any character design strong shapes it makes the silhouette memorable and stand out from the design that they're mega evolving off from in a way these Mega Evolutions are variant of the previous design so even if they have similar features in anatomy exaggerating their parts with larger shapes can really distinguish them all this might be because the design team for Generation 6 were more prone to using stronger shapes we see that especially in the way that they draw older hands and legs into more blocky and recognizable shapes and they often use more saturated colors here than the Pokémon that they're referencing I personally really like this now maybe some of these are too Goofy for my personal taste but with some of these designs the shape language isn't used for just a larger silhouette but also for smaller details to offer cohesion in the design for example Mega Babas snow maintains these rectangular Frills and mega beedrills abdomen matches the shape of their Spears so we talked about designs being led by game stats and strong shapes but sometimes the main Drive can be found with the concept so the only role I think the designers had in mega designs was to keep the mega related to whatever the mega evolving from but that word related can be interpreted in so many different ways sometimes it's an amplification of the creatures identity like if they were more like themselves in a way Metagross line has different parts of Metagross coming together so what if more parts came in Sabai has gems so what if they not only grew but one grew to become larger than Sabal themselves take what's most memorable about a design and expand on it like having more spoons clouds and mouths or having AAR larger shell dress and child but that's not the only Avenue sometimes one can make deeper references Sharpedo can regularly regrow their teeth like real life sharks so the mega has a bunch of teeth and it kind of references the saw shark Gengar is supposed to be a shadow where honestly the design itself with no knowledge of it being the opposite of Clefairy they don't look too much like a Shadow unlike their Mega who is submerged in the ground so they think slink across it Mega anos is kind of like the antithesis of Aeros because that line loses hair while growing up and here they've grown it back with a majestic main there's quite a few megas out there that appear to tack on a new identity like Swamper becomes swole due to how the Dex entry said that they're strong and Absol grows Wings because they warn people and fans interpreted that as being an Guardian Angel you can say how some megas can really stretch the concept if need be while a concept could be a main driving force the actual appearance can certainly take the wheel as well in other words a few of these megas add new identities to look more dope or powerful that's why we shouldn't work with absolutes again there aren't definitive answers in what makes Mega design or not but you can still be inspired through the creatures identity shape and capabilities to make a variation of them that could possibly be more appealing speaking of having more variations for the past few years I designed not all but made over 150 creatures for kodon hyper Auto Battlers whose early AIS is coming very soon on Steam it's a Rog likee Auto battler where every line can reach a hyper State and every line has two different sets of misprints it's a unique combination of mechanics that come together to make a very fun gameplay Loop and despite the genres the game might look like they also elicit the gameplay of some card games where you strategize for Combos and synergies amongst your kons seriously the people of Dino rocket have made a fantastic game and I implore you to check it out to clarify this is not the personal project that I mentioned in my other videos I just drew many of the Sprites and creatures of this game and they've made quite a package so check out their steam page down in the description below because Early Access starts in a few days all right so with stats shapes and Concepts in mind I was finally ready to make a mega Pokémon not just any Pokémon but one that fans have been wanting for years a design that we thought would never be possible due to the disc continuation of this gimmick in the past 5 years but with the announcement of Legend Za we finally have hope if we'll ever get to see this Mega this would be the game the game we get to see Mega Tator you know every Pokemon after Gen 6 never got the chance to Mega Evolve as even though they're allowed in gen 7 they would outright be abolished by Generation 8 I guess in a competitive and marketing level having some of these megas would be too much of a power creep that new Pokémon and gimmicks wouldn't get the time to shine that's why it's so surprising that Legend Za is bringing back this gick and possibly adding even more megas so let's first tackle making a mega for Generation 7's turtonator what would they do seems like they're pretty defensive makes sense with the shell and they're more especially offensive which usually means they spit out stuff rather than punching their target what's what's their shape there's a big star specifically an explosion with spikes on the shell representing shrapnel flying off this is what's most iconic about turtonator which is why they're one of the few Pokemon who show off their back facing forwards in their Idol animation this is already enough to tackle the design by now but I also want to say how the lore confirms that the shell is supposed to be explosive made as a mine turtle I mean their droppings are also explosiv but I don't think I need to cover every aspect of turtonator in their Mega so here's the deal let's take those spikes and exaggerate them is that too big for them to stay standing have them fall over quadruped style their back was more important anyways does this change the silhouette too much good because my personal least favorite megas are the ones that change too little now that the shell is facing upwards a new concave shape can be made to elicit that upwards explosion hm explosion when a volcano violently erupts they can form a cinder cone where there is a crater left by the eruption so I made the shell cave in a little finally add some spikes to the face to make it more different looking now many Pokémon change their abilities when they Mega Evolve so instead of shell armor why don't they get I don't know maybe they get weak armor there's plenty of defensive Pokemon that can still get that ability all right let's get to the finale so Flygon was mentioned in an interview where they were supposed to receive a Mega Evolution but the designers didn't get to complete what they would look like thus so many fans have tried to take their own shot and frankly it was hard for me too but most of my difficulty came from trying to bring something new to the table despite all the other fan-made Mega Flygon designs out there so what could Flygon do in the games well by now not much this ground Dragon really needs help please my boy did not survive the power creep any big shape well actually yeah there are several kite shapes in the designs with the wings and their tail additionally they got some signature red bulging transparent lenses on their eyes all right anything else about their identity so this is my main drive for this design Fon is an ant lion not really a dragonfly but an ant lion so bug warning going to show some bug images until I say they're off in 3 2 1 as larvae ant lions make pit traps to trap and eat other bugs like ants but when they later grow up as an adult they look like dragonflies despite being in a different taxonomical order okay bugs are over from trapinch to Flygon this this line is a reference to the ant lion and I wonder why it was never bug type in the first place and dragon instead is it truly because of dragon flies why aren't they still bug types though either way many people wanted to see a bug dragon type by now and if we get a Mega flyon it might be our first bug Dragon sticking to the kite shape I tried doubling them and making them transparent like the lenses on the eye initially made the shape between the eyes also a kite but that looked kind of like a third eye so I opted for a different shape the forearms are now protected with insectoid kiten and I thought having this armor and extra Wings made the design bug likee enough and I ended up just adding more kites to the tips to give a more memorable silhouette for the ability I gave them tinted lens because they literally have tinted lenses Flygon and lurantis are the poster children for tinted lenses but neither of them gets that ability [Music] why again I don't think they had any set rules when making these Mega designs other than needing to reference a previous creature I just wanted to share some pointers I went through to get a design started from looking at the role in the game the shapes that characterize them and finally to the creature's concept and identity if you enjoyed this video I'll be working on some more leg Legend Za videos for the near future so follow along also check out Kon hyper Auto Battlers with the link in the description a special thank you to my patreon supporters for their direct support and thank you for watching my video have an Ultra Mega tastic one

Channel: n0Rtist

Views: 118,086

Keywords: pokemonlegends

Id: asEzDGwrSnU

Length: 15min 16sec (916 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024