Yeah, if this thing is a DLC-ish itemisation quirk then I think it might be more palatable (and most likely banned in competitive play, so at least there's that), but I still find it pretty disgusting.
It's like Pokémon that was always all about being organic and centered on a theme that the creatures were a thing of nature that just happened to have lightspeed evolutionary form changes on the spot because it's a different universe (disregarding gameplay and commercial needs on purpose here because this is more about thematics than anything else) and where it was even emphasized that those form changes would not even always be necessary for achieving great things has now suddenly gone on a gene manipulation craze where everything is MEGA augmented and cool and powerful and… just not very original anymore.
That's why I at least am drawing comparisons between Digimon and this new change. Even though Digimon was never a real adversary for Pokémon in Japan, its thing was augmentations and all kinds of mechanical devices that they strapped on creatures, making it more Sci-Fi/Mecha like than natural. Even the form changes were forced by manmade Digivices - another mechanical appliance. It's a huge thing in Japan, and has been for several decades already, and it obviously has many fans all across the planet, but applying those changes to the Pokémon universe more or less breaks or at the very least changes the ongoing recurring theme that has, at least in my opinion, made Pokémon what it is. It just feels out of place.
Not to mention that the feeling I get is that GameFreak and Nintendo are just desperately trying to introduce new mechanics and appeal to people their franchise hasn't appealed to before only because they haven't been getting the kind of smash hit success stories that the first games were in years. That is something that I very staunchly oppose. Inventing is fine, changing the focus to something that old fans might not like is not. At least if their aim is to keep them.
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Also, Print, I love you. That Missingno is hilariously amazing ;D