![]() ![]() ![]() X & Y took steps away from this, but Sun & Moon feel like the culmination of this intent.Įverything looks better, moves more slickly and feels more. For lack of a better term I'd describe my impression of Pokemon for a long time as stodgy it stuck to the tempo laid out in the original almost uncompromisingly, and that sometimes made the games a little slow and plodding by modern standards. There's lots of little quality-of-life improvements like this. "When I imagine what the console Pokemon game I dreamt about around the Gamecube era would've looked like, the image in my mind is remarkably similar to Sun & Moon." When a Pokemon evolves it shows their evolution path on screen, letting you know that you've either topped out the evolution path or have another mystery evolution to go.Īnother touch, a favourite, is how once you've discovered a Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses your moves are marked if they'll be effective or not on your opponent in the same-as-ever turn-based battle menu. When you catch a Pokemon you're given a Pokedex percentage not just for the entire land of Alola but also for each of the game's islands, allowing you to more accurately track if you've caught anything in a given area. The areas feel like they open up more quickly than previous games too, making skirting around rivals easier. When you get to a point where you're about to be in the line of sight of a rival trainer the screen narrows with black borders top and bottom to warn you - it's almost Metal Gear esque. To get reductive about it, the characters now look more like they do in the Pokemon anime, and that's no bad thing. What we have instead now look more like typical anime characters, but with that increased sense of detail comes an ability to tell stories more through animation and the like.Īll this is personified in the decision to now constantly have trainers standing behind their Pokemon while in battle: the characters are now detailed enough in their design that they belong there. Again, the games have gradually tended towards this look but this marks the end of the more chibi-style characters that the series started with. The cutscenes betray a generally improved sense of style and presentation across the board. Over the years Pokemon has gone more down this path with Pokemon being tied into the world's creation myth and all sorts, but this is the first time it's felt intrinsic to the game from minute one. ![]() I'm forbidden from discussing details of the scene, but it seems to drop a lot of mysterious hints at a larger plot than 'become a Pokemon Master'. So the game opens of course with the typical spiel and gender choice from this game's Professor, for instance, but it also opens with a full-on cutscene that feels unlike anything the Pokemon series has ever really attempted before. The theme for my time with Pokemon Sun & Moon is familiar but not. With that noted, here's my headline takeaway from two hours with Pokemon Sun & Moon: This entry has grabbed me more thoroughly in its opening hours than any other Pokemon game in years. This was true for Black/White, X/Y, and even the remakes of Gold/Silver and Ruby/Sapphire, games I originally loved. I completed the following two generations and the remake of Red, but by the time we reached Black & White I fell into what's been a rut for several games now: Buy them, enjoy around the first half of the game, lose interest. I played it religiously, and the same was true for Gold and Silver, my favourite entry in the series. It was a holiday present (to keep me quiet, no doubt). Whenever I'm covering a series with such an enormous lineage I feel the need to establish where I stand with it, so: I remember getting my copy of Pokemon Blue vividly. "This entry has grabbed me more thoroughly in its opening hours than any other Pokemon game in years." This is what Pokemon is really all about. I lived and breathed Pokemon Go for a little while, producing page after page here on the site - but a little time with Pokemon Sun & Moon was a sharp reminder and wake-up call. That's how it's captured such a large audience. Pokemon Go is basic, but it's also decent. ![]() That's the future of Pokemon apps and bite-sized games for a ludicrously broad audience, its core concepts stripped down to the bones. With the wild success of Pokemon Go, it'd be easy to think. This might be the Pokemon game to properly drag me back into the fold. ![]()
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