>>54935884The true definition is that a gimmick is a marketing ploy that's meant to help "personalize" each new region for the current generation of Japanese children, giving them a sense of attachment to Pokemon that allows them to feel like it's truly "their game" and in turn encourage more sales.
This ideology stems from the turbulent period in the early 2010's when Japanese kids considered Pokemon to be a franchise for old geezers, which is precisely why Yo-Kai Watch was able to scoop them up for a little while and completely mog Pokemon's relevancy among the intended audience in Japan.
Mega Evolution is an odd one because they hadn't yet found their groove nor did they have this ideology in place yet since they didn't anticipate YKW to captivate Japan's kids. But it still played a key role in shaping their approach going forward as it was initially conceived for ALL fans, but they failed to make it feel "personal" to the kids because the mechanic wasn't exclusive to Kalos and instead became dissonant due to later re-emerging in Hoenn, in a remake that was primarily perceived as fanservice for older players.
This is why starting with Z-Moves, they began creating gimmicks that, as far as mainline goes, are strictly only present in that single region, and wouldn't you know it, combined with all the aspects of Yo-Kai Watch they shamelessly lifted, the Alola games were a massive success in bringing the kids back, and that later inspired them to do similar things such as Galar's Dynamax and Paldea's Terastal.
