Terastallising Could Be Pokemon's Best And Biggest Change Ever

thegamer.com:

Pokemon gets a lot of flak for churning out the same game over and over again, but a lot of changes have been going on under the hood with each new generation. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Pokemon be a bit more ambitious and playful with the formula - which is part of the reason Scarlet & Violet is my most anticipated mainline title in years - but there have been notable changes throughout Pokemon's lifetime. Terastallising, the latest gimmick to arrive in Scarlet & Violet, might be the most effective change yet.

I often think of Pokemon as I do the sports sims like FIFA, which I also pick up every year. FIFA gets criticised for being the same game every year, but if you pick up FIFA 17 now, you'll notice major differences to how the game plays. Likewise, Pokemon has stuck to hitting eight gyms in a set order, then the Elite Four, accompanied by familiar obstacles like a villain's lair, a cave, and a forest, but battling feels very different in each game - even if we perhaps don't always notice it.

Related: TheGamer's Biologist Explains Why Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Fidough Is BustedPokemon has changed itself in similar ways. HMs used to be needed to get around, meaning your party would either have a HM Slave like Bibarel, or you'd have one of your 'mons waste a move slot on Cut. Now they've been eliminated, only useful moves like Surf or Fly remain in use. We've also had the Physical/Special split, which revolutionised how Pokemon work in battle. It effectively doubled the amount of stats you have to consider at a competitive level, and reshaped each move individually. It's not a thing casual players tend to notice, but adding Special Attack and Special Defense to the stats alongside Attack and Defense might