Nintendo Pokémon Sun/Moon

Given that it's been going on as long as it has, maybe we're finally reaching the end point of pokemon. There's only so many different ideas you can come up with it. That, or they're just getting lazy and figure "hey, we have so many different pokemon, no one would mind if new games used 80% old pokemon and 20% new". I would just like something where I can play more than once and have a large variety of pokemon to choose from for a new team.

 

Maybe, we will get lucky and this generation will be very much worth the lack of information. I'm not too sure, but I know they had some bad leaks in the past, and they are just being cautious?

 

Finally got our first look at the game With images of the legendary pokemon, starters, and the region; which i might add looks incredibly small and better be much larger than the view leads us to believe.

 

I'm definitely liking Rowlet the most, but all three starters look fantastic, and I've never felt so excited in my life.

It's also worth noting that the Japanese trailer is different in every way and shows off some really neat little touches, like the player character physically picking up the starter you pick.

 

I'm guessing this new region is based off hawaii or something? Also, is that guy who gives you the pokemon a professor? Because if so, he gets props for having a sword.

Who wants to guess Moon has a dark/flying type legendary again? I don't think they would do two legendaries of the same type 2 generations in a row, but who knows

 

I just guessed because it was an island, and the names and speech reminded me of Hawaii. I've no knowledge of any of the islands, and I only guessed when I watched the second trailer this morning. Though maybe that means we'll finally get another region with plenty of swimming like Hoenn. Surf has been forgotten for so long it seems.

Serebii put this up as well: Differentiation in some parts of the trailer show that the character is wearing a slightly different shirt and shorts, potentially indicating that full trainer customisation is back in.

Please please please give us customization again.

Oop, I was going through the japanese trailer again, and at 0:58 you can see four different selections for boy and girl characters. One more than X and Y gave us.

 

Seems pointless not to use it as a source to get around when it's usually used as a main way to get to the second half of games most of the time. Also, it's better to have use for it than what they've done to rock smash and strength, pretty much making them all but pointless except for shortcuts now

I would also like to point out, so far I'm not a fan of any of the start designs. I'd probably go with the owl just because it's the least dumbest-looking one.

 

If people think Hoenn was too much, they should try to find a middle-ground where there's about 70% more surfing than in Sinnoh and 30% less than Hoenn. X and Y murdered the surfing having only that tiny stretch of water which was pointless really. Unova was pretty bad too, having almost next to nothing. I think there was more in Black2/White2, but I can't remember

 

Honestly, there's never been a HM that wasn't pointless, besides Fly. Most of the time they exist to serve as a roadblock for one area specifically, and then they're just used to find optional items later, which almost always feels like it was just put in later as an excuse to reuse it. The exception is Strength, I suppose, since it's often used in Victory Road puzzles.

The big issue with Surf is that almost every Pokémon you encounter while Surfing, somewhat obviously, is Water-type. If you favour a different type, or if you already have a Water-type you love, then every encounter feels like a drag, and it gets very monotonous. A big part of the fun of Pokémon is how many types and species there are, so any particularly large area filled with only a certain type or even a limited number of species is going to take away from a lot of the enjoyment. Less so if you don't need to go there, but in the case of Hoenn, with half of the region being water-based it gets very dull, since the encounterable species are essentially the same no matter what part of the sea you're in.

My hope for Sun and Moon is that they'll reduce superfluous HM usage and either make them needed far less, or give far more reward for having those moves, to the point where it actually feels worth having a limited choice of moves.

 

Well, if you prefer to wonder around everywhere and lose some minutes, that's okay, but I'll stick with the faster way.

At this point though, pretty much all HM moves have become pointless as of generation six. Heck, there's not even 8 HMs anymore, just 5. Soon enough all of the moves will probably become TMs. Cut wasn't used for anything in X/Y outside of a few items, Strength was only used to get out-of-the-way items, or unblock the short path through Victory Road, which I don't get why you'd use in the first place if you had Fly, Surf was pointless outside of the tiny stretch of water, Waterfall is used once, and that's probably just because it's become a staple to use waterfall to reach Victor Road, and Fly is the only thing of use still that gets used all the time. I remember when HMs meant something, now they just feel like they're there because the games have always had them.

Maybe generation 7 will do something about these pointless HMs, or just make them all TMs.

 

A third trailer was released, which is mostly the same as the English one, but has about a second of new footage. In this second of footage, a never-before-seen Pokémon can be spotted for just a second, viewed from behind (seen on the far left of the below image).



With the very brief look, from what is not a very favourable angle, there isn't much telling what the Pokémon could be based on, but first impressions suggest that it may be the analogue to Rattata/Sentret/Zigzagoon, etc; being an early-game Normal-type Pokémon, but it's in no way confirmed to be that.

 

Honestly, that was my immediate thought too. It would definitely be a cool addition to the little family of dog-based Pokémon that exist. Both Gen V and VI introduced a dog species each, so it's very possible they'll stick to that trend.

Hawaii isn't particularly known for any specific dog breeds, but France isn't known for Japanese Dormice either, and yet Kalos ended up housing Dedenne, so while it doesn't really fit the new Region's theme, that alone doesn't prove anything. It seems like we'll have to wait for more info to know what it is. Maybe if we're lucky, next months CoroCoro, which is supposed to have a lot more information, will show more about that Pokémon in particular.