Pokémon Sun and Moon: Now in Ultra Flavour!

Could be worse, if this was Square Enix they'd have spoiled the massive plot-twist of the game from the very first teaser!

I've been on blackout since they've started doing more and more Pokéreveals - I've been spoiled on the starter's middle evolutions as they were everywhere, but that's about it. I like to be surprised when a 'Mon jumps out at me!

Following the Jay Directive myself - trying to stay spoiler-free to get some surprise out of the game. My issue is that the only search I have saved on Instagram is '#Nintendo', and Insta users care not for those of us who don't want to be spoiled in any way. The next thing I might try is sitting at home with my eyes closed and hands over my ears, going "LALALALALALALA" as loudly as possible.

Sadly, Zero, that seems like the best option. While I've managed to keep clear of most of the updates, going pretty much anywhere on the 'Net (Twitter, Youtube, Google) shortly after yet another spoiler-trailer leads to me inevitably seeing something I'd rather not.

I've had to unfollow and mute Nintendo and Pokémon's official accounts on the twits.

So who's actually picking up the demo. tomorrow? I think I will, I didn't enjoy the ORAS one much at all but with this being a whole new generation I hope I'll get more out of it.

Yes. Well up for this. The ORAS demo wasn't the best, I agree... this one had better hit the spot!

Despite my status as resident Pokemon Master I won't be nabbing the demo straight away, fe Fates still occupies my 3DS slot. Plus I want to maintain my Gen 7 Virginity!

I'll probably nab it if there's a reason in the main games to nab it, some kind of good exclusive Mon I'll want to use or the like.

Got the demo this morning and did what I had to do and finished it in like 5 min (maybe a bit longer) it was all "Hi" here's your Pokemon now bigger off and do a thin and then done

That's... unsurprising yet disappointing. Maybe I'll hold off.

Oh hang on... Apparently the demo.'s been datamined and people now know basically everything. So it's a month of absolute spoiler city. This is ridiculous.

Yeah there's a new form that's been revealed (which I've seen and I think its awesome) and all sorts of stuff which I have not seen

Well.  That was a demo.  Ash-Greninja's stats are insane, cracking 135 special attack at level 36.  Now remember, this is an untrained Pokemon, at level 50 I can see it packing 175 special attack easily.  A bunch of griping going on about the fact it has to knock something out to transform, personally I think it's a necessary thing to prevent it being utterly broken.  It's a Mega that actually requires risk to achieve the reward.  

As for the actual demo, team skull grunts are confirmed so-bad-they're-hilarious!  The walk they do, it needs to be seen to be believed!  And I thought the drunken swagger of the Team Rocket grunts in the Pokemon Generations anime was hilarious, they topped it!  Would've liked to see a bit more gangsta speak from them though, given their literal street-gang origins.


My only complaint is the demo was SO EASY that you didn't really get to have a feel for anything.  Greninja one shotted most things, and the one boss you fight went down so easily I can't tell if it was Ash-Greninja's Water Shruiken being insanely powerful or just the game giving me a weak boss.  It did have a special defence boost and resisted it, but aside from that everything was just "look at the pretty moves and meaningless kills!"

The friend looks annoying, but they've at least reduced it to a single character this time rather than the farce that was gen 6.  I can tolerate a single one.  When it's a pack of five all being extremely lame (and bad trainers to boot, lolSerena not even getting a full team till post-game).  



One bad thing though, they removed sitting in chairs!  


On the leaks, all I've seen so far is the evolution of a Alolan we already knew about that's doing the rounds. Said evolution made me feel sad.

Spoiler:

Drunkalilly wrote:

I've had to unfollow and mute Nintendo and Pokémon's official accounts on the twits.

I've just unfollowed Nintendo Life's for the same reason. They'll be relatively good with spoilers as each new Pokémon comes to light - and then post a massive bit of spoiler-filled official artwork. Why, NL, why?

Played!

I can only agree with Athrun that it was crazy easy, but this is a demo so I won't hold that against it.
It looked nice, I like the camera movement and the fact Pokémon were knocking about the environment. I'm now feeling about X & Y the way I felt about Diamond and Pearl when Black and White came out. That is to say, this feels like the 3DS game we should have had all along. It doesn't look as good as say a Monster Hunter, but it is crisp and colourful and clear and inviting.
The music made me feel lots of Mario Sunshine vibes, which is definitely a good thing.
Amusing that the best stuff in terms of getting a feel for the gameplay is all after the demo "ends."

More spoilable things:

Interesting that you comment on the difficulty, does anyone expect any form of difficulty from a Pokemon game? Kyogre being a dick to catch simply stopped me playing Alpha Sapphire...

I'm not necessarily looking for a difficult game (though I do like an Elite Four and a Post-Game that put me to the test) but there's a balance between not too difficult and utterly mindless. I want to feel like I've chosen the right Pokémon with the right moves and that's why I'm winning.

I still long for a proper AI. XD had that. Having the opposition hit you with a Tackle when a Water Gun would knock you out is, and always has been, miserable.

Otherwise, on difficulty, I want the exp. of the opponents to rise at or slightly above my own. Have the terrible new Exp. Share there if you must have an 'easy mode' for the kiddies. RSE seemed to be the last games that pitched that right - in fact they went arguably too far the other way. I still remember that one trainer, with a Milotic, in the rain...

Gen one had a pretty rough Elite Four, gen two had the same as well as several brutal gym battles including the infamous Whitney Miltank's Stomp-Flinch hax, gen three was on the easier side but had a more averaged difficulty and never felt like a push-over (unless you started with Torchic and solo-ran it anyway lol), gen four was the same as gen three except the Elite Four were closer to gen 1 and Cynthia had an honest to god Competitive Team, gen five was easier but again made sure to make the big fights on the tougher "if you aren't paying attention you best be after a good booty-whoopin'" side of things.

Gen six?  Gen six had such wonderful AI that a Elite Four would have a Gyarados out against an underleveled Azumarill, had six Dragon Dances up, and then continued to use nothing but Dragon Dance while the Azumarill slowly whitled its HP and the E4 member's potion stock down to zero.  Had it used Aqua Tail once, at most twice, it would have killed the Azumarill and proceeded to wipe the rest of the team out.  

That would go on to be the first time in the series history I made it through an Elite Four on my first try without massive preparation.  In fact I went in deliberately underpar and still came out with the win.

Oh, and don't even get me started about how they gave Steven a Mega Metagross, one of the scariest Pokemon to face in the entire game, and then had it spam Giga Impact, a move that ensured that if you could live a hit you'd be assured a win (heck even if you couldn't, just sack something off and revenge it).  Not only did the dev team decide to give it a terrible moveset (Meteor Mash used twice is more powerful than a single Giga Impact.  Think on that for a second, Metagross's signature move was ignored for a less powerful one), they then had it programmed to spam said move over its stronger moves.  


And yes, for those not in the know Meteor Mash (and Zen Headbutt for that matter) are stronger than Giga Impact.  There's a reason nobody uses the recharge moves competitively, the damage output of attacking twice almost always vastly outstrips the move, and you aren't locked in to boot.  Case in point Meteor Mash.  Base 90 power, is boosted by Same Type Attack Bonus adding fifty percent more power to the move taking it up to a whopping 145 base power, can use type advantages and has a ten percent chance to boost the attack stat by fifty percent, used twice and it's basically 290 base power, almost as powerful as Explosion and far more powerful than Giga Impact.  Zen Headbutt is only slightly weaker, but has a chance to flinch, and still massively outweighs Giga Impact used twice.

Giga Impact on the other hand is base 150, cannot hit for SE damage, and leaves you unable to move for a turn.  

So what could have been one of the single scariest and most memorable bosses in the entire franchise ended up being the single easiest Pokemon to KO in the entire game.  For pities sake Winnoa's Altaria was tougher.  Dwell on that for a second, a standard Altaria using Cotton Guard was tougher than the entire Elite Four and the super boss of said Elite Four.

The AI in gen six wasn't much better in the post-game battle facility either.  I only won my 50 battle streak because the boss decided to use a Ground move on a flying type.  Think on that for a second too, a post-game facility designed for the more addicted and skillful players had AI so bad it used a move that couldn't even hit the opponent.  


Gen six was designed to be a toddlers RPG.  From the unchallenging enemy team design (there were, like, two threatening fights if you nuzlocke the game) to the hilariously bad AI to the spoon feeding the player ways of becoming overpowered.  The previous gens are kids games, make no mistake, but they were Pixar RPGs, a friendly challenge for younger kids and a fun time for older folks.  Gen six was basically a Teletubbies RPG.

I thought the demo was fun, although was vaguely disappointed that you have to release all the Pokemon you catch in the catching challenge (I caught a Pikachu!). Also not sure I like that there's a little note under each move telling you whether a move is super or not-very effective against your opponent. It makes me think it'll cause battles to be more mindless.

I like Jangmo-o and Hakomo-o, though. And have you seen the new Alolan form revealed in the demo? Hilarious. But stylish.

I am mid-demo - trying to drag it out, if I'm honest. I've also... set it to French. It's fun enough but I am not feeling fulfilled yet. There's still time, of course, but it doesn't feel like that much has changed since Gen 6.

Wait, no, new favourite thing from the demo - this line:

Spoiler:

I've finished the demo - a decent half an hour or so. I like the music, probably because it reminded me of Super Mario Sunshine at points. Thankfully, the 'Mon I've seen in the demo are 'Mon I've seen before, so that's a plus. I quite like the new enemy team as well - equal parts goofy and menacing.

Rum Rapture wrote:

I thought the demo was fun, although was vaguely disappointed that you have to release all the Pokemon you catch in the catching challenge (I caught a Pikachu!). Also not sure I like that there's a little note under each move telling you whether a move is super or not-very effective against your opponent. It makes me think it'll cause battles to be more mindless.

I like Jangmo-o and Hakomo-o, though. And have you seen the new Alolan form revealed in the demo? Hilarious. But stylish.

Actually I recall that not showing up on all of my opponents, Pikachu when I found one for example I recall not having the little effective words under the move. I think it's just for Pokemon you've seen before, fitting in with how the dex registers all new Pokemon and fills in their basic info. Don't quote me on it though, my memory could be failing me!


On that note I want to say I love the new in-battle UI!

Also anyone else forgo riding the Tauros just so they could hear the town music?

Someone else has finished the demo! I like the item that you were given to use in the main portion of the demo, that there seems to be more of an ecosystem for the 'mon in the wild, and the French pun 'Sheauriken' for 'Water Shuriken'. That aside, it didn't feel that much of a leap between Gens 6 and 7; certainly not as much as between Gens 4 and 5. There is, of course, a massive fully-realised game to follow that may well prove me wrong.

Thought it was a okay 10mins or so, nothing earth-shattering just more Pokemon.