My thoughts on Pokemon Sun and Moon · 11:17pm Oct 17th, 2017
Please note that this is my own opinion and none of it should be taken as a review. Everyone is going to think differently and to try and influence how others feeling about a game they love is wrong. Just letting you know.
While I do love my main series Pokemon games a lot there has always been a few problems with them that has lead me to like most of the Spin-offs more. HM moves, while important to progress the game, can cause you to either be forced to sacrifice a move spot for an attack that tends to be useless when in battle. Weaknesses and Resistances, which are even more important in Pokemon than many other RPG’s, can’t be checked during battle leaving you to try and figure out what moves will work on your opponent. Lastly, outside of a few exceptions most of the characters in the main games tend to be rather flat characters. While it is a crime that it took this long to solve these issues, Sun and Moon no less was a perfect reintroduction to me after being unable to play any of the newer games for so long.
Despite what people will tell you, Game Freak isn’t running low on idea’s for Pokemon even if certain examples do come up (let's not forget we have a pokemon literally named after the animal it is based on and a rock with two arms). This is probably the best looking group of starters in the series since Platinum, which is kinda odd considering my favorite starter is actually from Black and White. Outside of the starters we also have great new Pokemon such as Pikipek, Crabrawler, Oricorrio, and of my favorite gen 7 pokemon Salazzle (which I nicknamed Plutia for obvious reasons). The introduction of region variants also make this game better as not only does it make Pokemon such as Sandshrew and Vulpix more viable to use but also further connects them to real life animals and how different countries or continents have different subspecies of big cats or birds.
On the side of improvements made from this game compared to earlier game, we no longer need to worry about stupid HM moves. Once you complete the Melemele grand trial you will get the ride pager which allows you to call upon different ride Pokemon that you obtain throughout the game. These ride Pokemon take the place of HMs with Tauros being able to break rocks and Sharpedo being his water counterpart, Mudsdale being able to climb ridged areas due to having hooves, and even Stoutland which is this game's equivalent of the dowsing rod. This improvement, while I’m more than willing to guess things will go back to HM’s after gen 7, is a major improvement. Now you don’t need to pick up an HM slave or load your HM’s into your party members causing them to be stuck with those moves for the rest of the playthrough. It’s a big improvement, though it’s also one I know won’t stay around.
However, there are many improvements that probably will stay around despite them being much smaller. The biggest example of this being that the game now tells you what moves are super effective or have no effect after a battling a type of pokemon once. No longer are you left having to remember whether your opponent is weak or strong against you as you can check it by simply going into the move list. This also works when switching Pokemon out, though it does balance it out by making it so you can’t tell when the opponent sends out a new Pokemon. It’s one of those balancing things that makes Sun and Moon not only more accessible to newer players, but also to those like me who can’t remember for the life of them what certain types are weak to.
Of course, the biggest improvement this game makes is definitely it’s cast. In past games gym leaders, professors, and at times even rivals were rather dull characters who could easily be forgotten about if their team wasn’t bull (I’m look at you Fantasia). In this game, every character feels a least a little unique even if those characters don’t have much role. Each captain has their own little quirks that separates them from the rest, making it easy tell Ilima apart from someone like Acelrola. Professor Kukui is also probably my second favorite professor in the series next to Juniper, as both of them have a lot of personality and actually take part in the events of their games. Sure, Rowan did have some scenes outside of getting your Pokemon but he still didn’t stand out as much.
The rivals in this game are also probably the best out of any in the series, with both Gladion and Hau tending to both sides of what people like in rivals. Hau is the happy-go-lucky rival who acts more on the lines of a friend, but you actually get to know him as a character and that he matches you in strength throughout the game. Gladion on the other hand is a Blue or Silver without the intense bullying or ‘power over companionship’ belief. All he wants is to be strong enough to take stop his mother and protect his sister and Silvally.
The villains also probably the best in the entire series, as just like the rivals Game Freak gives us both types of Pokemon villains. Team Skull returns to the petty criminal idea of Team Rocket but feels more realistic as they’re a group of trainers who dropped out of the island challenge and see it as stupid. Aether Foundation on the other hand harkens to something more along the line of team Plasma and Galactic, although in truth it’s their leader and branch chief that are truly bad guys. The rest of the Aether Foundation just wants to help preserve Pokemon and help Pokemon that have been treated badly or injured while completely unaware of Lusamine’s goal of bringing the Ultra Beast to Alola. They’re both great villains who give those who like either the Team Rocket kinda bad guy or Team Galactic kinda bad guy something to enjoy.
However, even though I don’t like saying negative things about games as I feel like it will only make me feel more like a reviewer, the game does have a small lag problem. 80% of the time the game runs smoothly without much stuttering or slowdown, but there are two exceptions to this: Double Battles and Totem Pokemon. The reason why Double Battles cause a lot of lag is probably because of the amount of sprites on screen at one time, as usually their are only three to four sprites in a normal battle. In Double Battles, however, you can have from seven to eight sprites on screen at one time, which lags the game significantly as it isn’t use to handling all those sprites in one battle. The reason why it happens to Totem Pokemon is a something I’m not completely sure about, although I’m guessing it’s due to have the Z-power aura around it at all times even though they can’t use Z-attacks.
That said this is probably my favorite of the main series Pokemon games now, as it does so many things right while not doing much wrong. Every improvement was made without downgrading something else, and those editions makes it much more playable. The characters are much better than any I remember from past Pokemon games, though still not having the level of characterization that the PMD games have which is fine in the end. It also gives those who have been wanting a different type of rival or villain something to like while also giving us what we are use to in gen 4 and 5 as well. Even with the lag present in the game I have been enjoying my time with Pokemon Sun and Moon a lot, being the closest competition Explorers of Sky has had for the longest time.
Prepping for journalism? :P