Pokemon Sun & Pokemon Moon

Lots of things to love, lots of things I'm iffy about here.

I adore all the new Pokemon. Oricorio especially. The Alola reflavorings of old Pokemon, on the other hand? Regardless of whether some turn out appealing or not (none are to me, yet), it just seems like we're starting to codify "gimmick that changes old Pokemon" into a trope, what with this coming right on the heels of Mega Evolutions. (I also notice that we haven't seen any new Megas yet, and I'm gonna be really disappointed if that was just a one-generation gimmick that they abandon.) I wish we could go back to the days when Game Freak was willing to give old Pokemon regular new evolutions, just normal evolutions, instead of gimmicks.

I love the island challenge, and I love the fact that it looks like we'll get a change of pace from the Gym formula. I'll have to wait until we know more about Totem Pokemon before I judge them... it sounds like the trials themselves are going to serve a role more like the puzzles inside Gyms, and the Totem Pokemon are going to be like the Gym Leaders insofar as they are a tough boss at the end? If so, that's very interesting. I'm intrigued.

I hope Ride Pokemon mean the end of HM slavery but then again, this also could just be more of the same from XY where they can only be used in one tiny specific place, and you need HMs to get around everywhere else in the world.

Z-Moves? Bah. I'm sick of Game Freak using "you can only do it once per battle!!" as a way of balancing out its urge to make things Stronger, Bigger, and More Overpowered. I would much rather just have actual, unflashy, well-balanced moves.

Oh fuck no. I've been against them sticking more formes on shit ever since they started going nuts back in fourth gen, I do NOT want this. Alternate formes suck, mega evolution sucks, just come up with new pokemon, Game Freak. Even worse if they do indeed replace mega evolution, the last thing we need are some shitty new-forme mechanics that get replaced every generation. Also Z-moves are a bad idea and you should feel bad.

And if those starter final form images are real, they all suck. =/ (although minor lol at the litten form looking like a buff fighter type but not actually being fire/fighting)

If it turns out that they are getting rid of megas that's kind of terrible.

I always criticised them for making up new stuff for the mini-game half of the game (contests, pokeathlon, pokestar studios, etc) instead of sticking with one thing and improving on it to make it more refined "like they do with battle mechanics"
But maybe now they're even doing the same thing with battle mechanics just less drastically.

I'm not fond of formes in general, I'd prefer it if they were just cosmetic changes.

Z moves again look gimmicky, I've got to wonder if it'll me something that's single player only or if it'll be usable in multiplayer but maybe it'll get banned competitively if it's too broken.
(I wonder if there'll be a 3rd gen 6 game called Pokémon Zed where you can teach Zed-Moves to Porygon-Zed)

The new Pokémon are okay. I don't immediately dislike them which is a good sign. Gumshoos is a ridiculous name and it looks even more like Donald Trump than its previous stage. You'd think an Obama Pokémon would fit better considering he's from Hawaii.

JackPK said:

I hope Ride Pokemon mean the end of HM slavery but then again, this also could just be more of the same from XY where they can only be used in one tiny specific place, and you need HMs to get around everywhere else in the world.

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The official site specifically says "you can call on them anytime to receive their help", so no. That being said, I also think people are being pretty hasty to conclude this is THE END OF HMs; you could do this in OR/AS too, remember, and the Fly HM still existed. Also, while this covers some HMs, it doesn't really with others. So it's possible we don't have HMs anymore with this, but not certain.

JackPK said:

I wish we could go back to the days when Game Freak was willing to give old Pokemon regular new evolutions, just normal evolutions, instead of gimmicks.

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Uggggh please no. All that ever did was take Pokémon I liked and then give them evolutions I like less, which I am now obligated to turn them into to complete my Pokédex. I am much happier with megas or regional variations that leave the original untouched than added evolutions.

I imagine megas still exist, but you just don't get them during the main story because they want to show off Z-moves instead. There's no way they'd competely retcon out so many generalized Pokémon forms, especially ones with such a prominent role in the competitive scene; like, the Spiky-Ear Pichu was HG/SS-exclusive, but that was because it was based on one specific Pichu character.

Regional variations are cool and since the originals still exist it doesn't matter if you happen to hate the ones they come up with which is good (but I really like Alola Ninetales and am totally getting one, and Alola Sandslash is pretty cool too).

I'm not super-excited about Z-moves, but I do find it intriguing that the official site indicates that there's one Z-crystal for each type and any Pokémon that learns a move of a given type can use that type's Z-move if it holds the correct crystal. So it's not just Pikachu getting to use the Electric-type Z-move; you can also have it use the Normal-type one. And Pokémon that can learn, say, Shadow Claw should be able to use the Ghost-type one! That's pretty neat. (Also, unlike megas, all Pokémon can utilize it, not just a select few favored by the developers, which is nice.)

I actually like all the starter evolutions in that leak, even Litten's. I didn't want it to be bipedal, and the bipedality of literally every Fire starter holy crap I never noticed that is getting a bit old, but I kind of like the wrestler look it's ended up with. Also the bow motif on the Rowlet evo and the Popplio one's mermaid-seal thing.

I like those starter evos! Rowlet's is amazing and the other two are pretty interesting, although if popplio's isn't a gender difference or a split-evo as some are suggesting then there's gonna be a loooooot of whiny internet bullshit to dodge for a good while. (Also, that's Ash and Pikachu next to probably-Mallow in those leaks, so if it really is true then I guess she'll be one of his companions for his Alolan adventures?)

And if we're talking leaks/rumors, PokeJungle is also saying there are rumored to be 15 new megas. That's... actually slightly more than I would've expected. I definitely don't think they're going to abandon megas altogether—the original stated purpose of megas was to make old pokémon "exciting and useful" again, after all, and if they get rid of, say, mega beedrill or mega slowbro, then they go back to being "boring and useless"—but mega evolution was always A Kalos Thing afaict, so it's probably never again going to be as prominent as it was this gen. They'll come up with a few megas, they'll tease one or two along with a few shots of mega charizard or whatever, the rest will appear on the game's release or whenever someone breaks street date again. I would be extremely surprised if we saw another flood of ~30 in one set of games.

There are also rumors floating around PJN about what some other Alolan variants might be, which are pretty interesting. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the possibility of fighting-type abra, but I kinda hope it's real just for the ridic factor, tbh. (Maybe there's a buff mega Alolan alakazam that's just bending a giant spoon like Superman bends steel bars? I'm frightened, but I also think I might just need this in my life. Also maybe fighting abra wouldn't know teleport and thus wouldn't be a pain in the ass to catch, which would be nice.)

But that's all rumors and hearsay, which I'm trying not to get my hopes up about. Based on Kiawe's description on the site, though, it does sound like there'll be fire-type cubone and marowak. Juggling torches/flaming clubs, maybe, based on Kiawe's dance motif? That sounds kinda cool. Wonder how it'd play into the whole "bones of the mother" thing, though, unless they're just... bones on fire. IDK.

All in all, yeah, I'm somewhere between reasonably pleased with and actively excited about almost all of this. The new pokémon are great (although oricorio is tap-dancing all over another fakemon idea I had god dammit GF leave me alone), exeggutor is hilarious, yes please an official attempt to shake up the formula and let you ride on pokémon and et cetera, Z-moves... eh, whatever, they don't bother me. I do agree that entirely new pokémon are preferable to forms, but on the other hand I'm all for anything that can add a bit of spice to worldbuilding, anything that might pose questions about how types really work and so forth. As long as we can have at least ~100 new pokémon in addition to these sorts of things, I'm happy.

Also did I mention that exeggutor is hilarious.

i am hype about every leak (except z-moves, which seem pretty cool but im not hype about) except for litten's evo and specifically litten's evo which makes me want to cry.

Partially because about a month ago I bet a shiny Latios it wasn't real, but shhhh we're going to ignore that i did that.

good thing i'd committed to Rowlet I guess?

also i'm glad for pokemon based gimmicks, like mega evos and forms, because honestly there is inevitably going to get to be a point where there are going to be too many pokemon to be reasonable. I think XY was the first in an attempt to slow down pokemon for that very reason. There is going to be an oversaturation eventually and it's gonna suck so im glad for mechanics like these that make it less quickly coming.

Wait, that starter evo "leak" that someone linked to? I distinctly remember seeing that over a month ago. I'm quite sure it's fake.

Vipera Magnifica said:

Wait, that starter evo "leak" that someone linked to? I distinctly remember seeing that over a month ago. I'm quite sure it's fake.

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That's exactly the point! There was no reason to consider it credible back when it happened, but that particular one contains a character who's only just been revealed today, which verifies it (otherwise, either the person who faked it had other insider information but still faked the starters, or they somehow coincidentally drew a character design identical to one that was revealed today).

unfortunately :(

Ah okay I see now. Fingers crossed that the Litten evo is an older design that was scrapped in favor of something that isn't terrible.

I'd say 66% of me is happy that the starter evos are pretty much confirmed, because I would've mourned Robinhoot and Fablio (note: not official names) since those are some pretty designs (the only fake that could've topped Mermaid-Popplio was the creepy clown one. i fucking love that one).

Litten's evo isn't a bad or terrible design but it's just... eh to me. I was hoping for a sleazy alley cat and got something completely different, so me being disappointed was my own fault basically. Thankfully all the positive Cool Stuff overrides my tiny speck of negativity :P

Kratos Aurion said:

although if popplio's isn't a gender difference or a split-evo as some are suggesting then there's gonna be a loooooot of whiny internet bullshit to dodge for a good while.

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There already is a lot of said whiny bullshit, sadly. :C
According to a bunch of babies, a male pokemon having, what, long hair and a pink starfish means it's Too Feminine and can't possibly exist without ruining people's lives? Some people are way too sensitive, and they're not the ones the internet likes making 'triggered' jokes about.

Alolan Exeggutor has a guaranteed spot on my team. It looks just like me!

Other than that, I'm pretty excited about all of this! The new Pokémon look neat and interesting. I'm curious to see what Minior will evolve into (if anything), and I'm probably gonna stick it on a team with Lunatone and Solrock for ultimate space rock power. I'm also glad they seem to be changing up the usual Gym formula; it's about time they tried something new!

Z-Moves, well... I'm skeptical, but if I don't like them I just won't use them and that'll be the end of that. Hehe!

I'm so excited for this game oh my god
The Gym rework is so cool, and the totem Pokémon really hype me up for release.

The Z-Moves look mind-blowing, but I'm sure everyone woll get sick of the animations soon enough. Nonetheless, they're a pretty cool addition.

Minior has me confused. What do the colors of the core mean? Is it like Flabébé? It's been the first Alola Pokémon I've not been excited for.

Otherwise, I am super excited to see what Alola has to offer.

POKE LIMIT BREAKS. <3

Iiiiiiiiiiii am actually really excited for the Totem Challenges and the Z-Moves?

as a massive fan of JRPG type stuff i'm pretty intrigued by Pokémon Limit Breaks and what looks to be genuine boss-type enemies? I mean Gym Leaders and Evil Team Battles are cool and all but this looks awesome!

It's Corocoro time again! More new pokes + alola forms AND the evil team (Team Skull, apparently!)!

Little fish is Water and has an ability that turns it into a school of fishies, sandcastle is Ghost/Ground, Bewear's pre-evo is also Normal/Fighting, Alolan Meowth is Dark and Marowak is Fire/Ghost. The smug look on dark-Meowth's face is wonderful. :D

Also, really diggin' the evil team leader dude. B]



Next month's Corocoro is also supposed to feature Rockruff's "secret evolution" or someshit. Probably the "secret" it shares with the starters (maybe they'll have some sorta different evolutions too?). :O

ok I can't get over the sandcastle. Best Pokemon. No arguments.

JackPK said:

ok I can't get over the sandcastle. Best Pokemon. No arguments.

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I fully agree. This thing is on my team when I get these games. ∞/10

The Bewear pre-evo though... that's probably the first pokemon I don't like out of these new ones. It pretty much looks like bewears head with four weird ovalish legs stuck on it, without even a body. It just looks mismatched and unoriginal to me.

Here's some more artwork of Team Skull!



...oh wait.

Yeeeeah that's probably not gonna be their English name. (Maybe they'll just flip it with the Japanese name for the PMD team and we'll get "Team Skull and Crossbones"? omg can they be honest-to-god pirates please please please... probably not, given Team Aqua, but they just dressed like pirates you weren't like fighting Blackbeard or anything)

And cool I was right about the marowak, though I guess that was a pretty obvious conclusion to draw. Also ghost, though! That's interesting.

god dammit fucking canon magically-joined school of fish pokémon get out of my head GF stop taking my ideas before I get a chance to use them uuuuuuugh

JackPK said:

ok I can't get over the sandcastle. Best Pokemon. No arguments.

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What is there to argue? Killer sandcastle is a gift to all mankind.

Overall I've really enjoyed the new pokemon designs this generation, with the exception of the starters, which I find weirdly uninspiring.