Discussion Your Thoughts and Impressions on Sun and Moon

Bolt the Cat

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
Member
So now that the game is out and we've had enough time to play it, we're at a point where we can start to form opinions on the game. So what did you think about the game? Did you like it or did you not like it? What specifically did you like or not like about it? How do you think it compares to other Pokemon games?

I like the game in general, there's a lot of interesting changes in the game with the Island Trials, Pokemon Ride, the Rotom Dex, Alola Forms, Z-Moves, the list goes on. In fact there's not a feature in this game I can definitely say I don't like. My main criticism with this game would have to be the region design still being too linear, with the island based region system and the Rotom Dex showing you detailed maps of the region and telling you exactly where to go, there's no need to railroad you down a certain path. Overall though I would consider this game above average, it's the best Pokemon game I've played in the last 5 years.
 
I'm not kidding when I say this. I was right with my estimate. Sun and Moon were in my opinion, the best Pokémon games of all time. The story, the difficulty, the Pokémon, the region design, all of it was perfect or close to it. The only problem I can even bring up about the game was the dropped frame rates in double battles, which I can deal with. Pokémon Emerald has been dethroned. [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️]
 
As for me, I really liked it! The story is really good and the characters are great! At first I hated Hau but... I think he is really nice (and he always jump XDD) and Lillie... I was sad when he went to Kanto but... I hope to see her again! I think she is the best character of the game!
The only thing that I was "please do it!" was when Lusamine fused with the UB... I wanted to battle against her and not her team but... well... that's ok too I think (Beast Mother was really strong after all!)
The difficulty is good, finally the wild trainers don't have useless Pokémon at level 25-30 XDDD
Finally... the lag of the double battles is something that I hope they will solve in future games...
And if I have to compare it with other Pokémon games... uhm, I think it's one of the best Pokémon games I played (Ruby/Sapphire and Black/White are for me ones that I like the most and now I'll add to the list even Sun/Moon)
 
Sun and Moon are legitimately the best Pokémon games to come out in... Ever. At least, that's how I feel about them. I got the very first copy of Moon in my city, and over the weekend I managed to pump about 28 hours into the game, and still hadn't completed the main game. On Monday, despite having four hours of class, plus being social at school, I managed to pump another five hours into it, and beat the main game.

The length is great! 33 hours? Wow! And I wasn't doing what a lot of friends did, which is spending inordinate amounts of time on the early islands catching everything. No, I powered through it.

The story is fantastic! I fell in love with the story. And the character development! What brilliant development! It was so nice to see so many characters get such lovely character development.

The setting is divine! Alola is such a rich, vibrant, and colourful region. Everything about it feels so unique. This sense of uniqueness reminds me of when I first played Yellow; discovering a totally foreign land for the first time! The little things, too, like how many characters greet each other with "Alola!" really adds to the cultural depth of the region.

The character designs are lovely! Lusamine, Wicke, Gladion, Lillie, Kukui, MC, Lana, Olivia, Acerola, Nanu... The list goes on. They're all fantastic. Lovely designs. Also, the new Pokémon themselves are great!

I could honestly rave on and on about these games. I'm so happy with them. 10/10.
 
Hm, I agree with the above posts, mostly.. (Gold/Silver are still the best games imo.. Something about them that makes them hard to top).

But yeah, Sun & Moon are great games with much improvement mainly over the last three installments. More atmosphere and they did a great job in not just repeating the same formula over and over again, as was the case in previous games. It started to feel old which is a shame because the formula is so good. They changed it just enough to make it feel new again, but not so much that is doesn't feel like the nostalgia Pokemon anymore. Just for that I have to give credits to GameFreak because Pokemon is really back again!

Loved the little details such as trainers really looking at you (and the possibility to dodge them), the sky that really colours different each time and many other smaller things. For example, when you talk to your mom after becoming champion she says something standard, like always, but when you talk to her again, she says something different in stead of just repeating what she said before.. And then when you talk to her a third time she says something different again..

And last but not least, Gary/Blue and his annoying music are back! The memories.

If I had to name one thing that I didn't like to much it's that you constantly get help with everything. I really miss the good old days with Red/Blue where your rival was really a rival and was there to make things hard for you. When you could sell your 'TM's to go to the casino only to regret it later because you obviously needed them.. When your Pokemon fainted of poison somewhere in the middle of a cave and you just had to do it over again.. I get why they changed these things after gen 2, but I miss that.
 
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After having finished the main game a couple days ago, I'm really loving Sun/Moon. Whilst I'm not sure yet if they're gonna be the ones to dethrone R/S/E as my all time favourites, they've come very close.
Before the games I will admit I was slightly apprehensive as to the Island Trials/Grand Trials as a whole, but I'm very happy to say that I really love the feature. Totem Lurantis, Wishiwashi and Mimikyu all gave me a fair amount of grief to deal with (in a good, 'I'm actually being challenged' way).
I'm really glad that they managed to redeem themselves after the somewhat let down of X/Y (I had so much hype for them but alas, they did not deliver as much as I hoped they would).

If I was to nitpick on certain things, I wasn't a major fan of the Rotom Dex showing you where all the places you need to be are (one of my favourite parts of previous games were finding my way around myself), and another thing which is admittedly pretty specific was getting the Brick Break TM right before Totem Raticate/Gumshoos; imo it makes fighting said Totem Pokemon a lot easier (although I'm a complete sucker for having a slightly harder challenge and I don't particularly like using thing which give me a blatant advantage so that's probably where that comes from).

Overall they're my favourite games since R/S/E; I really hope they manage to keep up with this level in future games.
 
Although there are some great feature, The fishing part really upset me as I kept getting Magikarp most of the time it become annoyance.

The best thing for me would be the part you became a champion and people come challenge you.. Having random challenger make it more exciting.
 
The game is good and above average but taking into account the series slow and painful road, that's saying little.

Visually, I like how the routes aren't just straight paths but instead have curves, ramps and less obvious paths but in the end it felt short and used as a mean to make it feel biger when it's not. On the second island I was expecting something bigger and in the end - all paths open - the island is small. There's has been attantion to detail, which was indeed needed when having a game with realistic proportions, namely when filling the house interiors and cities but I feel that what has been pu here has robbed time for creating new Pokémon.
The overall fell of the islands is that at first they were having a longer pace but rushed it at the end...the third and four islands seem to me as small in content and so does the story.
Finally, there's a f*cking jungle instead of some woods or forest, but it became dull for not having a maze that made us be careful...instead we are collecting ingredients and under 3 minutes, Lush Jungle is explored.

As for the trials...I started with a Poplio and I felt it was easy. They were a good novelty but it grew boring quite fast if not for the characters and overall story. It feels lame that after introducing trial, the last one is already more than a nod to the old way, AKA Poké League. Why did it had to have that name, why the need to Stolen a mountain just to make something at the top...it would be better to just have the final battles at a renewed Po Town.

The battling...the routes trainers are still easy. The lack of rematches with increased difficulty is dumb and overall feel quite easy if not for what I consider as a stupid cheat that disrupts the battle that goes bythe name of Z-moves. And while at it, collecting crystals that I won't use is stupid. Something that I felt akward was the new positioning of Run, Pokémon, Bag and Fight...I was used to just press Down on the d-pad and the just left or right.
The new post-capture options are just great, although if used correctly, in the wild it can be used as a cheat.
I was surprised to the that in the battle background, time also goes by, with the moon being in different positions according to time.
Seeing the trainer in battle is something that was more than in time as well as trainers using different Pkballs.

Btw, what's with all the Kanto and Johto influence, but then only having one f*cking ball for each type of those made by Kurt? Lame!

As for the story and characters...I hated Hau and was instered in Gladion but in the end, it was the other way around. Nebby is...just too cute and awesome and marvelous to have it as our legendary. Lillie was a great surprise as character. As for Team Skull, I tought that GF might had something more after Po Town and how they were a group of young guys that wasted their lifes, but placing them as Aether's henchmen in the end leaves us with no true explanation for their motives and the need for them in rwlation to Aether's goals.
Lusamine is great and after SM, Platinum story need to a have a 2.0 version with the main legendaries having an Ultra form, because Arceus needs more story and spotlight. I was wishing for a long time for this extraterrestrial route due to all the Dex nods and Deoxys. I had a blast battling her and I loved how her team was good and different from the typical evil leader team.
Also, GF could get back more older characters and nods besides the Canalave Library and the Nugget Bridge. If Alola is close to Unova and the real world counterparts, it would've great to see N making an appearence (and not just an Aether guy that was a former Plasma).

Alolan forms...most underused-but-great mechanic ever. The anime had this a long time ago, but GF only remembered to use it know (GF is more numbskull that Team Skull grunts) and again, with all the Kanto and Johto nods, Alolan forms are just a handful of them. I'd love to see a second wave of Alolan-form starters: Water/Ice Empoleon, Grass/Fairy Meganium and Fire/Rock Emboar.
Too bad that as with all other great features, this will be contained to Sun/Moon, just like Pokémon following you and Seasons. What's wrong with you GF?

Customisation...total pain in the *ss due tot the limitations and lack of options for males and not having something in my bedroom room to change colthes.
Also, I'm tired of being an 11 year old child and having tutorials that aren't skippable.

PS: I wanna revisit Lusamine's lab...it's so awesome and I love that mansion.
 
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I have returned to confirm that I found Sun and Moon a massive improvement and a solid step up from X & Y, especially with the main story. Gladion was exactly what I needed for a jerky, but well-intentioned rival.

I didn't mind Hau too much, surprisingly. I welcomed his enthusiastic and fun-loving demeanour to lift a smile on my face every now and then.

Lillie was by far, the best character in the game. She definitely got the best character development and arc out of all the characters in the game. Here's hoping that we'll see her in the next installment, unless Game Freak cops out prematurely and goes straight to Generation VIII.

Lusamine was one fierce villain, I gotta say, despite being under Nihilego's toxic influence. She was certainly no pushover compared to Lysandre or Maxie/Archie. Glad to see a female Big Bad in the overall main series game at long last.

Glad to see the Elite Four having five Pokémon again the first time you face them. I certainly found them a lot more difficult than I anticipated, even if I prepared the best team to deal with each Type beforehand.

Trials were certainly a great change of pace from the traditional Gyms. Each Trial certainly brought something new to the table in terms of puzzle solving and certainly added to the adventure.

The only gripe I have with the game is how difficult it is to fight and trade with other people, since the PSS is gone now. Although the Battle Spot, GTS, and Wonder Trade do remain in tact, I wish finding friends and acquaintances wasn't such a mundane and complex task.

I also do kind of wish some of the newer Pokémon were a bit faster, but I was able to work around with some of my favourites that ended up being slow, like Primarina, Lurantis, and especially Vikavolt. A truly skilled Trainer wins battles with the Pokémon he/she loves best, and that's certainly what I did with Pokémon Moon, which made me feel like a genuine Pokémon Trainer.

Finding all of Zygarde's Cells and Cores was equally as difficult, but it was worth the reward at the end of the day.

Overall, this was a great game worth celebrating a milestone as big as the series' 20th anniversary.
 
The story was really interesting (and surprising). I have managed to find all Zygarde Cubes and Cores!

Now I've begun looking for Ultra Beasts! Captured Nihilego and Buzzwole so far....

But there's one thing I'm wondering about UB's: If I accidentally knock one out, will it reappear?
 
UBs reappear since they HAVE to be caught, similarly
Tapu Koko reappears if you knock it out during the epilogue

It wasn't until the League that there was really a huge challenge, some slogs here and there but that was where those medicines I'd been hoarding paid off.

Overall, the storyline was fantastic, the 3ds era has been bringing character development and emotion and bodes well for the franchise's future. We finally got a female villain and she was probably the most vicious yet but the resolution was beautiful and cinematic. Some of the characters were really annoying like Hau and some of the designs varied from weird to awful but on the whole when the plot kicked in it was gripping.

Z-Moves are ok, an enjoyable gimmick but I didn't use them for most of the game. The trials were a change of pace, it was nice to have more variety but they just weren't gyms, the stamps and crystals just aren't as fulfilling a reward as gym badges, I mean they're more useful but they're not as nice to look at. The trial captains were no more or less memerable than any gym leaders.

I'm over the location, tropical island settings have little appeal to me, however you cannot help but admire the work put in to making the scenery and making the world so much bigger, again a good omen for future games.

The regional dex was again on the small side, Alolan forms were such a great idea and they squandered it imo, and one thing that bugged me was how so many of the actual new pokemon are like the 5%s on routes. Why would the new pokemon be rare in their native region. When I play a new gen, I like to only use new pokemon so how long it took for some of those to appear did stop the game being fun sometimes.

So final verdict, not the best gen but I'd say the best developed game. Some amazing new pokemon added to the instant favourites list. Most of what it brings is a renewed sense that the franchise will continue to grow, I do hope for not another half-gen or at least less gen one wallowing. I still sorely miss cross-generational evolutions.
 
I just finished the main game, still gotta do post game stuff. Trying to reach the Battle Tree next.

But I gotta say, the difficulty catched me off guard. I went with my usual settings: set battle mode and no exp share and man, was I crushed. I can't believe after 20 years playing these games I still got 15+ white outs. The mix of BW style experience gain and XY Exp. Share did wonders, allowing you to use a few mons every battle and saving other ones for special niches (special conditions and etc) without them getting behind the main battlers and without making the game stupidly easy like gen VI. The sory also impressed me, as
disfunctional family issues are a hard theme to approach on a kid friendly game, but was really well executed. Lusamine also pointing out how we just use Pokémon as tools, boxing the ones we don't currently need was surprising and a nice nod to BW's plot. They missed an opportunity of bringing N back btw.
I was really disapointed when I learned these games wouldn't answer any of the questions left by XY, but Sun and Moon are great on their own. Hopefully Kalos' plot will be expanded on other games. I cannot stress enough how the difficulty increase got me invested and made these games much better in my opinion.

The only thing that disapoints me is the terrible performance on old 3DS and the fact that the art direction remained the same as gen VI. Why the heck they insist on the ugly black outlines for mons and trainers is beyond me. Just look at Wind Waker and how the characters look great without outlines even being cell shaded, just like 3D Pokémon games.
 
Oh, how I love these games so much.

Visually, they're a treat. It felt far more immersive with the proper scaling and, looking back, XYORAS look quite ugly comparatively. The designs and landscapes were wonderful and I enjoyed everywhere I've explored so far and I'm sure I will with what I have yet to find.

Story-wise, I would say these games have the best story of any Pokémon games we've had. The plot was intriguing and the characters had an unprecedented level of depth. Lillie, in particular, is possibly my favourite Pokémon character of all time. My only disappointment was the lack of involvement in the story by Colress, and also the lack of N, which was a real missed opportunity.

I was happy to see more Pokémon included than in XY, and at the huge amount of Pokémon in the regional Pokédex which I shall task myself with collecting; a tad disappointed at the lack of a Friend Safari of sorts though. Some of the designs this time round were very intriguing and I think it could have been added to, especially in the case of Pokémon like Komala, who would have benefited from an evolution.

My only qualm with the actual gameplay was the lag on my old 3DS, and the absence of Wi-Fi Multi Battles in the Battle Tree, which while a small thing to be bothered about makes it a bit less fun.

Overall, these games certainly get a 10/10 from me! Best Pokémon games since Diamond/Pearl, for sure and possibly best of all time.
 
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