Author Topic: Pokémon Sun and Moon  (Read 30197 times)

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Offline Oedo

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Pokémon Sun and Moon
« on: October 12, 2016, 10:05:06 PM »
We're less than six weeks away from launch and less than one week away from the demo. I'm assuming the news is only going to pick up as we get closer to release, but the hype is already super high for me. I've been set on getting Pokemon Sun between the two versions for a while now, but what about y'all?


Offline Wah

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2016, 10:10:44 PM »
I try really hard to be excited, but you know that it's just going to be a super-easy Omega and Alpha again.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2016, 11:34:13 AM »
after Gen 6 nearly killed all my enthusiasm for Pokemon, this has been marketed SO well that I am READY for Generation 7 pokemon. <3 I want these games SO much.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2016, 02:28:13 PM »
I'm excited too. X was my first game and I'm about halfway through Alpha Sapphire. I'm a big fan of what I've played so far. I've been inclined to get Moon from the start but I'm waiting to see how big a factor the time shifting is and how it is implemented. I'm hoping to buy on launch, but apparently I screwed up by not playing the AS demo and missed out on getting a Pokémon, so I'm trying to finish AS and get the demo in by then. I'll definitely get it within the timeframe for the Munchlax download.

Offline Mop it up

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2016, 06:18:32 PM »
I'm no fan so I buy the games only when they're cheap. That means I may not have a choice of version if one of them is not on sale or already sold out, but I would choose Moon if given the chance as night > day.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2016, 08:34:24 AM »
going to start a seperate thread for something...

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2016, 02:26:42 PM »
So far I've just played Pokémon games in single player mode and haven't used the trade features outside of the few times they ask you to in-game. I haven't thought much about gaming the system either. Is it viable to use Pokémon Bank or trades to get all three starters for a play through? I have a vague impression that trading isn't allowed until you reach a certain part in the game. I also haven't used Pokémon Bank much. I have a subscription and uploaded some Pokémon, but that was before I knew what I was doing, and haven't had any use for it since. I haven't tried to import anything from it yet. I like everything about Litten, but I really dig Rowlett's final evolution too. Would it be feasible to start a game, upload the starter to Bank, and then restart a new file to download it to with the additional starter? If not that, what about trading with a like-minded person using the same strategy of restarting a new file?

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2016, 06:10:23 PM »
well, they're not going to patch pokemon bank for Sun/Moon compatability until January, so... that should help your decision.

That being said, might I reccomend Wonder Trade or the GTS functions, which will return in the new Festival Plaza? Wonder Trade in particular spent most of the time during it's X/Y career flooded with the likes of Froakie, Fennekin, and Chespin from people breeding those pokemon.


Also, according to Ash Paulsen of Gamexplain, he got to play Pokemon Sun at a press event, and he got the Nintendo Rep to confirm to him that Poke'ride will be replacing HMs... especially given how seamless the implimentation is in the special demo, I have to say that this is VERY Exciting news.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2016, 06:49:54 PM »
That is great news. I saw that reported elsewhere but it seemed to based on inference and not direct knowledge.

Thanks for the tips. I stayed away from wonder trade so far because I wasn't sure on the etiquette. It sounds like I should look into the dynamics of trading.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2016, 08:26:45 AM »
there really isn't an ettiquitte with wonder trade. they don't let you interact with the trainer beyond you both setting up a pokemon to send out and then the RNG choosing a trainer to pair you up with and you go.  it's a GREAT way to get rid of your 9 boxes of breed fodder from when you were trying to use the Masuda Method to get your shinies. (I know. I am an insane person for that.)

That being said, people can troll you. I saw a funny story once of a guy getting a Machamp nicknamed... y'know, what, I'll link it here.

http://www.funnyjunk.com/channel/fucking-tumblr/Homo+matsuri/qtBTLdg/ Probbably Not Safe For Work.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2016, 10:41:22 AM »
I was thinking more along the lines of what minimum level of Pokémon you should offer up to Wonder Trade. I tested it out with a low level zigzagoon and got a 50th level drifblim in return, so I felt pretty guilty. Then I sent out a couple of high teen sandshrews because that's what was nearby and I only got common level 1 Pokémon back.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2016, 11:26:26 AM »
yeah, a lot of the time you'll get level 1 pokemon back because as I said, Wonder Trade is a GREAT way to deal with your breed fodder. there are also folks who will just catch Zigzagoon or bunnelby or something common en masse and wonder trade that.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2016, 12:06:56 PM »
I think part of my problem is that due to time constraints I haven't played around with any post-game features yet. I'm not sure I'm playing these games the "right" way to get what I want out of them.

What do you typically send out if/when you wonder trade?

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2016, 01:27:42 PM »
I have a good 9 boxes filled with Zorua and another 4 or so with Marvel Scale Dratini. to avoid this thread going on a tangent, feel free to PM me, Rygar. I'd love to give you some Pokemon tips, or even trade gen 6 stuff with you should you desire it!

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2016, 03:05:55 PM »
Thanks ClexYoshi, I will. Your steering me to PM is apropos given another current thread. As a new member, I'm still getting a sense of the place. I was hesitant to resurrect dead threads in the gameplay strategy sub-forum.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2016, 04:19:15 PM »
Thanks for making a separate thread about that extra information from the demo, Clex! I might end up reading it all before the games comes out anyway, but for now I've decided I'm going try to avoid as many details about new Pokemon as I can, given how many have already been revealed.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #16 on: November 08, 2016, 09:00:36 AM »
Bumping this thread to spread the news that I just edited the other thread for. The full games have leaked by 10 days. Pokemon Project members are in the process of performing the datamine, and someone has dumped the .cia file to 4chan for pirates to play through Pokemon Moon version. now would be a good time to get off the internet if you truly don't want the full spoilers to potentially pass your social media.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #17 on: November 09, 2016, 02:29:52 PM »
Yeah, seems like a good idea to avoid Twitter and a couple other places for a while. At this point it feels like so much of the game has already been revealed that I don't mind accidentally running into some details from these leaks though. 

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #18 on: November 09, 2016, 03:56:20 PM »
I personally chose to immerse myself because I knew there was no way in hell I was going in unvarnished. that, and when I play pokemon, I enjoy going in at least a little educated on what sort of pokemon I'm going to use or at least figure out what nature and moves I should be focusing on to get the most out of a pokemon. I can at least say I appreciate what Gamefreak has outwardly professed to do to combat power creep with direct mention to the Parental Bond Nerf, the various priority hate (bruxish, Tsareena, Tapu Lele), and some nerfs to long-standing mechanics, such as the demo demonstrating that you only lose 50% of your speed when paralyzed and not 66%. also, one of the most prominent sources of paralysis in the game, Thunder Wave, only has 90% accuracy now.

I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of these (as well as another mechanical change that I won't reference here) are directed specifically at Klefki.

Offline Wah

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #19 on: November 09, 2016, 09:54:45 PM »
I'm still scared from Team Skull and how the game tells you what's super-effective and what's not! That's completely the opposite of what I want!
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #20 on: November 10, 2016, 06:32:01 AM »
you only get the effectiveness chart if the opponent's pokemon has a Pokedex flag. for first time encounters, you're in the dark, and the idea is that once you can use a pokemon's seen flag in the Rotomdex, you'll have it's typing and the game will give you a nice little reminder.


if you're worried about the game's difficulty, Lucario... I first of all question why? but second of all say that you shouldn't worry. there's a couple of key things I've heard about that are in place that I think will probably make the game more interesting than X and Y were.

Offline Phil

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #21 on: November 10, 2016, 06:25:39 PM »
I didn't play X or Alpha Sapphire, despite owning them, but I'm excited for Sun. Should be a fun game.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #22 on: November 10, 2016, 09:34:52 PM »
I didn't play X or Alpha Sapphire, despite owning them, but I'm excited for Sun. Should be a fun game.

I feel you skipped a really disappointing Generation that near killed my love for Pokemon.

Offline Phil

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #23 on: November 10, 2016, 11:46:52 PM »
I've basically only been playing spin-offs since about SoulSilver.
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Offline Wah

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #24 on: November 11, 2016, 05:38:27 AM »
But i loved Soulsilvers and platinum's difficulty, it was hard but fair... can we go back to that please? I liked my hard NPC boss fights. XY was so god damn easy!
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #25 on: November 11, 2016, 06:01:04 AM »
Did you ever try the harder difficulty on BW and BW2, Lucario?

Offline Oedo

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #26 on: November 11, 2016, 01:46:08 PM »
Perhaps it's because I love these games more for the world of Pokemon and less for the technical or competitive aspects of it, but I really liked Pokemon X and Y. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire might be my least favourite entries in the mainline series though.

I am glad to hear that (from what you're describing, Clex) they're making a conscious effort to tighten up the technical aspects of Sun and Moon to ensure that all sides of the fanbase will be happy with these games. One more week to go!

Offline nickmitch

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #27 on: November 11, 2016, 08:55:12 PM »
I didn't play X or Alpha Sapphire, despite owning them, but I'm excited for Sun. Should be a fun game.

I feel you skipped a really disappointing Generation that near killed my love for Pokemon.

I thought it was really fun.  Like my 3rd fave. :(
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Offline Wah

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #28 on: November 12, 2016, 05:29:15 AM »
Did you ever try the harder difficulty on BW and BW2, Lucario?
Skipped 5th gen didn't like the Pokemon.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #29 on: November 12, 2016, 08:45:17 PM »
@Lucario To each their own...


@Odeo, Nickmitch Oh boy, where do I begin...? see, X and Y are great if you're into competitive pokemon. it's faster than ever to get your pokes ready to go, easier than ever to get 31 IV pokes, fix ability snafus in your breeding... Wonder Trade makes Dex completion so easy, and I love PSS, using hoarde battles for EV training, trainer customization, and the introduction of areas where you can hold a single direction to go in a circle for the purpose of egg hatching. O-powers are kinda great for that too. Friend Safari is a really cool idea in concept. I suppose I really love Goodra, Aegislash, Greninja, and Hawlucha's designs. oh, and battle Restaurants are great for grinding but immediatley got outclassed by blissey bases. too bad I boycotted ORAS. I also want to give shout-outs to the fairy type for actually being a really welcome addition to the meta that desperatley needed to make Poison better. 

That's where my praise ends.

in some ill-concieved manner to combat the EXP curve that BW/BW2 introduced, they put in a buffed EXP all and got rid of any sort of EXP splitting. this would be nice and all, but they also got rid of the BW/BW2 curve, which results in you getting showered in ExP. in spite of many ill-concieved attempts to rebalance my team because of stuff I'd get through wonder trade, I ended up rebreeding several times and I STILL ended up woefully overleveled by the time I marched my way up to the pokemon league. a lot of the NPCs are woefully unmemorable. the group of friends rival thing was handled poorly, the only reason I remember Team Flair at all is because Lysandre is possibly a more incompetent villan than Dr. Wily. The soundtrack is awful and X and Y is the first game in the series I chose to play muted because I refused to expose myself to the godawful Wild pokemon battle theme any more or the gym leader battle theme ripped straight from Tube Slider. the lack of new pokes was disheartening and disappointing, and I felt most of the new pokemon came at the expense of the one-generation focus on Mega Evolution, which... is another mechanic I could write a 7 paragrpah essay on how much I dislike. the fact that extra megas were added to ORAS and X and Y not getting a compatability patch to at least be able to interact with the new content of ORAS was unacceptable (don't tell me they couldn't patch the game, they issued a patch for a game breaking bug where you'd get stuck in the floor in Lumiose City if you saved and reloaded there). The roller skates were an ill-concieved concept that I feel caused more problems than solutions to the whole grid based map movement. there was a huge bait and switch with the ride pokemon. any routes involving Rhyhorn are unbearable. The Sky battle mechanic was incredibly pointless. because nobody at gamefreak knows out to code with system optimization in mind and they decided to make these rediculously overdetailed models that will probably look good on Switch, the game CHUUUGS and they like... only half-supported 3D, which... y'know, would be one of the big selling points of switching over from much better animated sprite artwork to 3D Models. The pacing of the campaign is not great, and the Post-game is non-existent. The Mega Stone hunt is a DUMB side-quest that is hooked to your system clock, the Battle Maison is the same battle tower content regurgitation, and the looker stuff was weird. there's a bunch of loose ends in this game too, like the little tiki statue you get from the hotels and the dumb creepypasta thing that has no point other than to make you question it. I also really dislike that this generation in particular gives you dominantly powerful pokemon about 4 gyms into the game for free in the forms of the Mega Lucario and the Latios/as. The Steel Nerf infuriates me because while I know it's a move that was made specifically to make Aegislash not ridiculous (Spoiler Alert: Aegislash is still ridiculous), I feel that it buffed Ghost types in a way that they really did not need. I feel in their type chart tweaks that they needed to make one or two more major adjustments to really make things right; Flying and either Ghost or Water. as it stands, Gamefreak keeps trying to cram defensive Ice Types down our throat (Cryogonal, Regice, Walrien, Avalugg, Cloyster) and they all end up terrible because Ice has 4 weaknesses and 1 resist! I can think of maybe... 3 pokemon period that feel more enriched by being Ice pokemon, and even then, that comes with the caviat that they are all used more or less as glass cannons because Ice is such an AWFUL typing.



All of this isn't even getting into me getting into WTF WERE THEY THINKING arguments with arguing about Mega Evolution, Gale Wings, allowing BellyJet Azumarill to be a thing, and nitpicking other underutilized and half-baked mechanics that seem to have had little thought put into how they would effect things.

Also, Mega Rayquaza and the laziness of writing that went into things like the Delta Episode and Hoopa Unbound just dropping random legendary pokes into hoenn for the lulz.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #30 on: November 13, 2016, 05:33:13 PM »
I can see where you're coming from on things like the depth of the post-game and hunting for Mega Stones being tied to the system clock. I wasn't aware of stuff like the drastically altered exp curve, nerfs to the Steel type, buffs to the Ghost type, or the fragility of Ice types though (at least not to the degree that you are). I know you've been pretty adamant about how disruptive you think Mega Evolutions are for the metagame and I'm in no position to necessarily disagree with any of that, but I really like Mega Evolutions simply because they're some of my favourite Pokemon designs. To my earlier point, I think things like this are where most our differences lie in how we feel about Pokemon X and Y.

I also liked A LOT more than just four of new Generation VI Pokemon designs and I loved the Kalos region for the most part, but I suppose that's really getting down to a matter of taste.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #31 on: November 13, 2016, 07:54:41 PM »
I just finished my playthrough of Alpha Sapphire yesterday morning. AS and X were my first Pokémon games so I have no other generation to compare them to. I enjoyed them both a lot and plan on getting Y and OR if they are $20 on digital at Christmas. So far I'm content playing them as just RPGs, so I'm definitely a casual fan, but still putting in a lot of hours. From that perspective, there are things I like better about both, and I think they complement each other well aesthetically.

I like the customization options possible through Pokémon Bank and post-game, so I'm in no rush to play through Moon. I just want to get it in time for the munchlax.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #32 on: November 13, 2016, 08:33:12 PM »
I hear you, Oedo. I realize that rant was... a little over the top, but something about gen 6 really soured me and it felt like a step back from what i feel were the best games in the series.

basically, the only other changes to the type chart that happened in X and Y besides the inmplications of introducing the fairy type and making that Poison and Steel weak, Steel lost it's resists to Dark and Ghost. Granted, Steel resists a laundry list of other types as is and fairy was added to this group of resists, and even without dark and ghost resists, it's one of the best defensive types.

Ghost now has dark that resists it in the wake of steel resist no longer being a thing, and the normal immunity. that's it.

the thing I was talking about with Ice defensively, is that Ice resists... Ice. it is weak to Fighting, Fire, Rock(!!!), and Steel. the problem with ice type is that it's fairly obvious that it was originally conceptualized as a compliment to water types to trade off some of their resists for a better offensive option, but as the game has evolved, Ice has easily been the most stagnant type. Sure, there are great ice moves and Gamefreak has VERY gradually given them support in the form of Hail (without getting into specifics, look forward to some more limp-wristed attempts to do this that I've heard about.), but it's just not good enough. most pokemon that are ice types are poorer for being ice type. unless you're wicked fast (Weavile) or hit like a truck and pack Ice Shard in your move pool (mamoswine), or you have some dumb gimmick (Cloyster, Walrien), being an Ice type is a bane and not a boon...

(also, the reason being weak to rock is devastating is because when you are weak to rock, you take a quarter of your max HP coming in on stealth rock instead of 1/8th. if you're x4 weak to Stealth Rocks, you take half coming in.)

Mega Evolutions... I feel restricted team building. a lot of them I actually like. they were targeted at pokemon who were popular, and my favorite megas were the ones tartgeted at pokemon that needed that little extra something to shine or the ones where you actually were giving up something when you mega evolve (Garchomp losing speed when it become Garchomp-M, Slowbro dropping an amazing ability in Regenerator to gain extra defenses.) and... quite a few megas pretty much lived or died on a gimmick, and some of those gimmicks would make for a stupidly busted pokemon. I mean, on one hand you are giving up your hold item slot, but it's usually the pokemon that are just made straight up better than any hold item could ahve provided that pokemon that ended up breaking the game like Salamence, Pinsir, Mawile, Lucario, Blaziken, Gengar, and... of course, Mega Kangaskhan, which they specifically released a Japanese Sun and Moon trailer to point out that they rebalanced because they messed up so badly in designing that singular pokemon.

The real sin though is that it took them exactly one game to break the one rule they established with Mega Evolution; that the mega evolving pokemon needs a hold item. although this doesn't really effect most of the main game, Mega Rayquaza doens't need a hld item. it gets the highest base stat total of any pokemon. All you need to mega evolve it is for it to know it's signature move, which is a flying type version of Close Combat, AKA the best fighting type move overall. Mega Rayquaza is a flying type without flying type weaknesses, but sure as heck still has flying type resistances and Same Type Attack Bonus. Mega Rayquaza hits like an ICBM weather it's using physical or special attack. Mega Rayquaza can use Life orb. Mega Rayquaza can use swords dance or dragon dance. Mega Rayquaza gets access to extreme speed, which is a normal type attack that hits hard, and outspeeds most other priority moves. it also happens to have pretty great defenses. and... let me reiterate; IT CAN HOLD A HOLD ITEM! ANY HOLD ITEM!

Mega Rayquaza is such a busted pokemon that the fine folk over at smogon university declared that for their self-imposed competitive balanced format that you cannot play Mega Rayquaza even in the banned tier, uber usage. no single pokemon can take two unresisted hits from mega rayquaza and live. the only reason it didn't dominate the VGC tournaments (and let's face it, it kinda did) was because Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre's attacks hit both of the opponent's pokemon stupidly hard instead of just one of them.



that's where i get to Z-moves. is is something that doesn't favor just a select few pokemon. There's probably going to be balance issues with folks ddoing Z-move explosion  given that the Z-move scales with the power of attacks (proven by the demo if you catch a pikachu in the catching mini game and give it your electrium Z Vs. the attacks that Kukui's Pikachu had), it probably means a lot of the use cases for Z-moves are either one-and dones to take out a single big threat on the opponent's team, or that there's (maybe) support moves like Extreme Evoboost that set up sweeps, which... passing stat boosts are already things the game has counters built in for, like whirlwind, Roar, and Haze. at the same time, it still gives effectively the same thing for the single player adventure of giving one of the pokemon on your team a chance to shine, even if it's normally not a super great pokemon.


Also, Rygar... did you enjoy that Greninja I sent your way? :3

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #33 on: November 13, 2016, 09:48:07 PM »
To be honest, I've kept it pristine for when I eventually get into battling. You talked about how opponent selection affects stats, and I thought I might throw off the balance you created fighting random wild Pokémon. I wanted to save it for when I have time to figure that stuff out. I thought it was kind of like using a signed ball to shag flies, so it wasn't ingratitude that made me not use it.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #34 on: November 13, 2016, 11:29:06 PM »
oh! sorry. I actually maxed that out so fighting any further enemy pokemon won't effect it's growth from it's current trajectory. my bad!

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #35 on: November 14, 2016, 06:45:58 AM »
Awesome, thanks, I'll give it a try this week.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #36 on: November 15, 2016, 10:43:13 AM »
Reviews are starting to come out today. while NWR's own is incomplete at the time of writing this forum post, I am looking forward to Mr. Kulafi's full thoughts. I think I may actually attempt to write a user review on Pokemon Moon after I've spent some time with it.

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #37 on: November 15, 2016, 04:48:36 PM »
Did you ever try the harder difficulty on BW and BW2, Lucario?
Skipped 5th gen didn't like the Pokemon.
Same here, except I came back to it while working on the Dex and Black and White are currently my favorite games in the series.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2016, 01:36:40 AM by pokepal148 »

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #38 on: November 15, 2016, 05:56:13 PM »
Black and White are currently my favorite games in the series.


^^^^^^^

THIS
« Last Edit: November 15, 2016, 05:57:47 PM by ClexYoshi »

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #39 on: November 15, 2016, 06:01:04 PM »
Did those concerned with the lower difficulty try the set (vs switch) battle setting? I was listening to a Pokémon centered podcast that suggested using that as the harder difficulty mode.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #40 on: November 15, 2016, 06:51:51 PM »
Oh, I always play with Set. getting free switches is a bad habit to fall into. in the end, if you REALLY want difficulty out of pokemon games, I really think folks should put time into the battle tower equivalent (Maison for Generation 6, Tree for Sun and Moon) given how extremely cheap those can go.

There's also folks who enjoy Nuzlocke challenges, which... I personally don't enjoy, but hey! go right ahead and invent self-imposed challenges for yourself! The thing about Pokemon and it's ease is that it doesn't have to be that way. I get that you're trying to design a game where you can have a near limitless ammount of party customization and you're trying to design an adventure that can carry a majority of that through without much hastle. as much as I loathe to make this comparison since it's become such a memerized thing, I'd say Dark Souls is similar in that fashion where the game has to be balanced for a number of variable fighting styles that could incorporate various magic, and a number of builds that vary wildly in effectiveness. the game has to be designed so that a boss or a section doesn't say... stonewall you for not having a ranged attack or for using a certain damage type that's not as effective. For Dark Souls, you still have to play smart and the game is still challenging and rewarding simply via merit of how the game and it's systems work. Simple things like tweaking trainer AI to switch when appropriate or employ some team synergy would go a long way in making that difficulty bump people so desire happen.

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #41 on: November 15, 2016, 07:37:36 PM »
Improved AI would definitely make battles more interesting. I don't see how much more they could increase the core difficulty either without risking accessibility. You know more about this than I do, but I'd expect them to be hugely focused on the Chinese and South Asian markets over the next decade.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #42 on: November 15, 2016, 08:14:05 PM »
one of the first things they announced with sun and moon when it got revealed was that it will be the first pokemon game officially released in both Traditional Chinese and modern Chinese. I think they mentioned that the day they first teased the games and mentioned that the new games would have Pokemon bank support with the Virtual Console games.


I still have my fingers crossed for Glitch Mews being compatable with Pokemon Bank.

http://lparchive.org/Pokemon-Glitch-Exhibition/ By the way, this is a pretty amazing read if you wanna get the full potential out of your Virtual Console copies of pokemon. Using this guide, I have a game that's comfortably sitting at 0 badges, 51 Pokemon caught, and saved in saffron city, ready to get even more pokemon from various trainers.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #43 on: November 16, 2016, 04:50:26 PM »
Cool, thanks for the link.

I was also thinking about the opening shots of the Super Bowl commercial. There is just so much potential revenue to be tapped in mainland Asia. I'm surprised Pokémon Go hasn't launched in South Asia yet, but I haven't been following close enough to know if that's because of objections by the host governments, or a company decision.

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #44 on: November 16, 2016, 06:20:36 PM »
On the almost-eve of Pokemon Sun and Moon, I think it's important to reflect on the series and consider some of the changes that have occurred, as I think it can help people identify what people like about the "phases" of transition that have taken place.

Red and Blue were experiments in establishing the formula. They featured a bit of exploratory freedom and held players back when it was important to do so. Gold and Silver refined this, adding welcome new mechanics like breeding, a day-night cycle, and a large post game with a climactic battle.

I want to lump Ruby and Sapphire into this, but the improvements in those games were an expansion atop the solid formula of GSC and felt superfluous in many ways. Running shoes were nice, but they should have simply been a standard travel speed instead. Double battles were new and added different strategies, but didn't change the way most trainers battled. Abilities and Natures were methods of diversifying Pokemon, but again- these added complexity only, with Natures hardly impacting the gameplay outside of hyper-competitive multiplayer. I'd argue one of the most important things this generation did was adding weather, but it was more of a switch that could be turned on and off. I'll also put Diamond and Pearl into this era, since it did even less, varying terrain for trainer traversal for the most part, aside from the very key physical/special split. What is so distinct about these games as a whole is that the box legendaries were meant to represent more and more ludicrous extremes in terms of power, and the plots- both in general terms as well as the plots of the villains- of these games centered around them. I call this the precious stone era for obvious reasons, and its highlights were more its remakes and third installments.

Black and White occupies its own section in the Pokemon timeline. Its increased "focus" on story and character, as well as the diversification of its character designs are a large turning point for the franchise. Its "soft reboot" in terms of Pokedex was important as well, and arguably the best part of the generation. But the mucking about with the experience formula and triple battles also made its enhancements the most convoluted yet, and I would argue that just because it took a risk with an increased story emphasis doesn't mean the story was any good. The issues I have with the region were largely addressed with its sequel, and the choice to have a story-based sequel shows how all-in they had gone with the idea.

That brings us to X and Y and Sun and Moon. In many ways, I see this next evolution as one of generational gimmicks- Mega Evolutions in X and Y, Z-Moves in Sun and Moon. There is now a heavier emphasis on story, but it's definitely more confined and not as ridiculous as Black and White. The format in how players traverse the region, and the regions themselves, have been more varied than ever, thanks to the improvements in graphics. While the gimmicks are another additional layer to combat, they are at least changing the way players choose their options within combat itself. I wonder if this gimmicky nature is going to be the standard for the series to come, or if there will be a drastic shift. With a series as iterative and long-lasting as Pokemon, I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter.

...Just my thoughts.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #45 on: November 16, 2016, 08:51:45 PM »
Mega Evolution definitely has it's success stories (The Kanto starters in particular) but there are a lot of pokemon who got Mega Evolutions who could gave lived without. (Lucario and Salamence come to mind in particular.)

Also Mega Rayquaza is just hilarious.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #46 on: November 16, 2016, 08:52:15 PM »
Evan, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on this franchise through this whole year.

For starters, I'd like to say I agree with quite a few little things, but i have to strongly disagree with your lumping together of Gen 3 and Gen 4.


For starters, Gen 3 brought in the current Effort system. under the old system, effort was just something you grinded out and maxed out, whereas it's a (admittedly opaque but profound) way of specializing your pokemon in conjunction with Natures. Generation 3 by and large gave you more reason than ever to have more than one of the same pokemon because it was possible to have such wildly varying pokemon. Double Battles are also the format unto which the Pokemon championships are conducted, and you'll find that the focus to pokemon better suited for competition in double battle is stark through the years. Also, weather was introduced in GS, but poekmon that took advantage of weather with abilities made structuring teams around them far more exploitable.

If NOTHING else, Generation 4 introduced the HUGE ability to internationally (and not be tethered to a Japanese mobile phone) trade and battle, which was a HUGE revelation for me. my whole entire view of Pokemon changed so drastically when I had the ability to play online. The Physical/Special split also was VERY important, as it allowed pokemon who used to be garbage offensively because of mismatched typing and stats to finally have cohesion like never before. Pokemon like Sharpedo, Kingler, Blaziken, Arcanine, Moltres, and Azumarill never made sense until the 4th generation. Gen 4 is also the first generation where ostensibly all the features introduced in the previous generation would carry over to the next one, which cannot be said for Gen 5, 6, and from what I've heard, 7.

« Last Edit: November 16, 2016, 08:54:10 PM by ClexYoshi »

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #47 on: November 16, 2016, 09:26:51 PM »
Ah, I completely forgot about Sandstorm and the like in GSC, my apologies. However, I would still argue that Gen 3 and 4 deserve each other because of how they transformed the metagame- the physical/special split is just as important a revelation as Effort Values, and online play increased the ability to experiment with teams. But many of the introduced mechanics in Gen 3 and 4 served to complicate the battle structure and gear it for a competitive audience- not a bad thing, mind you, but something to consider.

I know many people lament fewer amounts of new Pokemon being introduced in the past two generations, and honestly, I can't argue with them- but my counterpoint is that Game Freak has begun to become much more precise in designing Pokemon with very specific niche or gimmick, and when it works just right, as is the case with Aegislash, it creates a very unique addition that is rather inventive. What is more upsetting is Game Freak's reliance on tradition when it comes to generation tropes-early-route garbage normal types, the three-stage bug, a mediocre bird, etc. On the other hand, the lack of fossils this generation is certainly unwelcome. Should I spoiler that?
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #48 on: November 16, 2016, 10:58:23 PM »
you probably should spoiler that.


they shook that nonsense up a little bit with Diggersby and Talonflame being ridiculous. I also feel that the Generation 6 roster of pokemon deeply suffer from the emphasis on Megas.  There are great designs there, sure, but it's hard not to live in that mechanic's shadow.


The real shame with Sun and Moon that I feel right now is them not going NUTS on alolan formes. some animation aside, there's not a ton of modeling work to be done there. if you really wanted to work sun and moon as a device to sell those virtual console Gen 1 games as a companion, I would have went nuts and given a vast majority of the gen 1 pokemon that didn't get a mega or a Gen 2/ Gen 4 evolution an Alolan form. it would have served to pad out the pokemon quota out quite nicely without a huge ammount of tweaking done. Heck, given the Chinese leaks that came out and were mostly accurate claimed that at least at some point during development, Alolan Growlithe, Arcanine, Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam, Butterfree, Doduo, Dodrio, Nidoqueen, and Nidoking were all considered. actually, that was fake, but like... I feel like I would have loved those had they been among our final cast of alolan pokemon.

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #49 on: November 20, 2016, 12:40:55 AM »
I'm a couple hours in and really enjoying it. It's the first time a game in this series has really grabbed me in a long time, honestly probably since HeartGold/SoulSilver. My favorite thing is a really minor but really overdue tweak, when you catch a Pokémon with 6 already in your party it gives you the option to keep that one and send one of the ones you already had to the PC instead. That is really handy early in the game.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #50 on: November 20, 2016, 05:46:57 AM »
I'm a couple hours in and really enjoying it. It's the first time a game in this series has really grabbed me in a long time, honestly probably since HeartGold/SoulSilver. My favorite thing is a really minor but really overdue tweak, when you catch a Pokémon with 6 already in your party it gives you the option to keep that one and send one of the ones you already had to the PC instead. That is really handy early in the game.


there's TONS of quality of life improvements here that are no brainers. this is by far the best the UI has ever been in a pokemon game, and I would not say the same for say... X and Y or even my beloved BW. actually, HG/SS is where I'd say the last time the UI was this good.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #51 on: November 20, 2016, 06:34:01 AM »
How far into the game do you get trading functionality?

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #52 on: November 20, 2016, 02:51:26 PM »
I miss DexNav.

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #53 on: November 20, 2016, 03:42:20 PM »
Could this game have any more dialogue?

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #54 on: November 20, 2016, 04:58:18 PM »
I'm a couple hours in and really enjoying it. It's the first time a game in this series has really grabbed me in a long time, honestly probably since HeartGold/SoulSilver. My favorite thing is a really minor but really overdue tweak, when you catch a Pokémon with 6 already in your party it gives you the option to keep that one and send one of the ones you already had to the PC instead. That is really handy early in the game.

That's probably my favorite part.  Makes the first playthrough a lot better and Heal balls actually useful.
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Offline Shaymin

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #55 on: November 21, 2016, 07:29:18 AM »
Hit the point of running two new Pokemon-only parties. What's the going rate for a starter, or should I just wait until I get Ditto and send my Brionne off for gooey fun at the breeding center?

Also my Oranguru has no good moves and tends to die. Kind of like Harambe, actually.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #56 on: November 21, 2016, 02:46:08 PM »
Too soon, man.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #57 on: November 22, 2016, 04:05:09 AM »
okay, so... I've sequestered myself far away from this reality over the weekend, in a place where the President elect isn't sending angry tweets complaining about a broadway musical to deflect the fact that he just settled a huge court case where his school was found to be fraudulent... ah.


I do intend to do a user review when I'm done with this game. there's SO much to talk about here that I could write a wall of text in the middle of this thread and scare folks with the TLDR.

At any rate, I just made it to Ulaula island. I imagine my next roadblock for a day or two will come in the form of finding an efficient way to chain the ditto on route 10 in an attempt to get a good spread of them with as good of an IV spread as possible. By FAR the most research I've been doing into the game as I play is into the SOS mechanic, which I think is probably the most important change that Pokemon Sun and Moon bring to the table.


SOS battle has fundamentally changed how I approach wild pokemon battles. I'm much more willing to bring status around because if I can't KO a pokemon in one hit, I want to ensure it's not going to start SOS chaining. at the same time, my Decidueye has essentially become the Messaih of EV training, given his ghost type, his access to false swipe and his ability to to trap runners with spirit shackle. When the time comes for me to get off my lazy butt and do an actual smeargle for this purpose, it is very possible that Spirit Shackle will be a part of his moveset too.


The festival plaza is actually bad and makes me yearn for the Player Search System. it is EXTREMELY disorganized and I still don't fully grasp some of the mechanics or why it was chosen to work the way it does. Credit where credit is due; there isn't a particularly long load in between the festival plaza and the main game if you just want to like... hit up your stalls quick and hop out of the game. The thing that infuriated me about it is how user unfriendly it is when connecting with friends. they're basically mixed into a list with the riffraff and you have to sit there and update the list of plaza visitors repeatedly, until your friend appears. sure, you can VIP certain visitors to sticky them so you can access the offline version of their avatar that's commuunicated witht he global link website, but like... I don't know what you actually do with them other than maybe pay a buttload of festival coins to replace one of your stalls.

The stalls are also frustrating. you can only have 7, and they don't really tell you what exactly the stalls do before you plop them in and permanently delete one of your other stalls in the process. The thing that frightens me the most is that the Festival plaza will be the part of the game that dies when GF pulls the plug on the global link part of the game, and there's some pretty important stuff that can end up gated behind the festival plaza, such as once a day instant maxed EVs for a pokemon, all the bottlecaps for hyper training (the NPC that trades shards for Bottlecaps and the various Lottery stalls that have a chance to dispense them are Festival Plaza things) and just... it's bad, and basic features that were just on the touchscreen for X and Y are now in a seperate little area.

other than that, I'm loving this game, I'm loving it's pacing, I'm loving doing Donuts on my Ride-Lapras in the water.

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #58 on: November 22, 2016, 02:45:15 PM »
Apparently there's some save glitch that comes up if you save in a pokemon center so don't do that.

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #59 on: November 22, 2016, 04:33:52 PM »
Apparently there's some save glitch that comes up if you save in a pokemon center so don't do that.

Is it like the one in X and Y where someone gives you cement shoes when you save in Lumiose city and rendered your save unusable?

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #60 on: November 22, 2016, 06:15:40 PM »
It apparently makes your character model dissappear and renders the game unplayable.

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #61 on: November 22, 2016, 07:29:14 PM »
But can you have a Mon follow you around?

Offline Shaymin

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #62 on: November 22, 2016, 08:46:39 PM »
I wonder if the removal of the PC in that instance is a side effect of modding the save file.
But can you have a Mon follow you around?
Nope.
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #63 on: November 23, 2016, 12:17:16 AM »
Yeah, I'm going to be honest, I don't get the Festival Plaza at all. It's not transparent in the least, and I don't get why they did away with much more simplistic and easily accessible features instead of this convoluted mess.

I want to write a big, wordy think piece about how the reward system for the environmental design of this game is absolute garbage, but that will take time.


EDIT: Upon further research, I have come to realize that Poke Pelago is probably the better bet for EV training, as long as you stock up on Poke Beans. However, the removal of Super Training was stupid, and S.O.S. Chaining is certainly nowhere near as rewarding as Horde Battling. But that's Game Freak for you: Take one step forwards, and then in subsequent versions, take a step to the side, turn around, do a stupid dance and charge your Z-Power, and take two steps back.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2016, 12:30:38 AM by Evan_B »
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #64 on: November 23, 2016, 04:04:35 AM »
Yeah, I'm going to be honest, I don't get the Festival Plaza at all. It's not transparent in the least, and I don't get why they did away with much more simplistic and easily accessible features instead of this convoluted mess.

I want to write a big, wordy think piece about how the reward system for the environmental design of this game is absolute garbage, but that will take time.


EDIT: Upon further research, I have come to realize that Poke Pelago is probably the better bet for EV training, as long as you stock up on Poke Beans. However, the removal of Super Training was stupid, and S.O.S. Chaining is certainly nowhere near as rewarding as Horde Battling. But that's Game Freak for you: Take one step forwards, and then in subsequent versions, take a step to the side, turn around, do a stupid dance and charge your Z-Power, and take two steps back.

I'm in full agreement here. there's some straaaange design here. I don't necessarily mind the environmental stuff so much once I better understood how it is stoutland works in comparison to older Itemfinder mechanics.

One that really chaps my behind though is the strange choice in how they've chosen to handle egg hatching. Allow me to explain.

Every generation has gotten slightly better than the last about providing a better method for hatching eggs and aquiring them. usually, there is a long, straight stretch next to the daycare. Gen 5's wasn't as long, but was the requisite 128 steps for an egg to spawn on either trip, but also featured an NPC who'd flag you down when it had an egg ready for you. this I felt was REALLY good.

Gen 6 did away with the NPC flagging you down, but rather channging the direction he faces when he has an egg ready for you. much more subtle, and sometimes his direction would stay changed because he talked to you. there's a nice and long stretch of route by him,a nd then the center of Lumiose city could be flown to where they have a big circular area you can hold one direction and acumulate steps without having to change direction. combined with the hatching o-power and Fletchinder/Talonflame being a flame body pokemon that could learn fly, this was the most painless generation for hatching yet. ORAS even improved this a little more by putting a daycare on the island with the battle tower and putting a camera pan area to ride around all in the same zone!

Sun and Moon has a stretch of oute seperated by two load zones and with twists and turns, but no camera pan for holding one direction. as far as I have heard, there is no area in the game that features the sort of camera pan that would let you hold one direction on your circle pad either.

What they have instead is a little broken area in the fence right across the road from the daycare. you can only fit through on foot, but there's enough room in this fence to call a ride pokemon. while just holding against a wall will not give you steps, turning around atop your ride pokemon in this enclosure does. since it can't fit out the door, you hop on Tauros and proceed to pretend you're playing Mario Party.

because this totally won't break our circle pads or require more effort than simply holding one direction on the D-pad while being locked to the grid, nope!

the advantage is the Egg giving NPC is always in sight and she will do a little thinking/puzzled pose when she has an egg for you.



Maybe gamefreak will give out some totally swag gloves if the Pokemon Stars rumors are to be believed...? then scalpers can scalp them like they did with the Link scarves.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #65 on: November 24, 2016, 03:51:33 PM »
I’ve gotten to Ula’ula Island and, so far, I’m loving Sun for the most part. The Alola region is beautiful and I like a lot of the new Generation VII Pokemon designs, with Primarina, Ribombee, and the Midday Form of Lycanroc being my favorites so far. It’s cool to actually see their animations in Pokemon Refresh, which is better than Pokemon Amie for me simply by virtue of the fact that I can jump right into it after most battles and it makes more sense in the Pokemon game world now.

I’m with you guys on the user interface and the quality of life improvements; this is the most intuitive and quick Pokemon game I can remember playing from a functionality standpoint. A lot of features like Ride Pokemon (which is a great new addition in general) feel more easily accessible now. I’m used to having a text box show up when doing even the most simple things in a Pokemon game, but I like that I can jump right onto Tauros or Lapras’ back in an instant and be on my way in this game (which is not trivial considering how often we need them).

There are a lot of other gameplay changes that I like too. The Zygarde Cores and Zygarde Cells are a cool way to reward players who explore every part of the islands, assuming there aren’t going to be a few that you'll need to find with Stoutland Search (which would be kinda ridiculous) or are just extremely hard to find in general. I like the Trials and Grand Trials as the new Gyms more than I was expecting and I’m glad that (at least based on what I’m been told by Professor Kukui in the story) this game will continue the tradition of having an Elite Four at the end. I’ve seen a few people complain about wild Pokemon being able to call for help, but I kinda like it. It’s actually changing the way I play the game as well and I’m giving more thought to the moves I teach my Pokemon now.

The story has been a breath of fresh air up to this point, but the Aether Foundation is probably going to change that somewhat by the end. I was hoping that the focus of the story would remain on discovering Alola’s mythology, uncovering Cosmog’s origin, and participating in the Island Challenge, but I guess people want more out of these games when it comes to the plot.

Overall, this game has certainly delivered on the promise of being a fresh take on Pokemon for me and I'm really enjoying it so far!

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #66 on: November 28, 2016, 02:37:05 PM »
Just beat the main game. Final Play time is 86:39 with `142 owned Pokemon out of the 301 available in the alolan dex (there's actually more than that, but a strange thing I've heard is that they've decided to ditch an in-game national dex and instead build the National Dex into January's Pokemon Bank update.) quite a bit of why this took so long was me insisting I do things I probably should have waited to do but I'm stubborn. I also stopped making forward progression for long stretches to test and learn the boundaries of the SOS mechanic in depth.



I also broke one of my basic cardinal rules for any given Pokemon game and used this guy. as long as you do the prep before hand to handle what you want to do, the SOS chain mehtod of Shiny hunting is both effective and potentially provides pokemon that are outright usable provided you're using the Synchronize trick, which... I've heard is slightly bugged in SOS battle, which is not so good.

I think I have a pretty good idea about how I feel about this game as a whole. that being said, I need some post-game funtimes before I am willing to write a review, much like with Mr. Culafi here at NWR.

Offline rygar

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #67 on: November 28, 2016, 03:30:51 PM »
I received a shiny Evee in a Gen VI wonder trade a week or two ago. I thought I had misidentified it at first.

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #68 on: November 30, 2016, 05:11:45 PM »
Well darn, that was fast. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts, Clex.

I've started to drift off and fill out my Pokedex a bit after reaching Poni Island. I think the story is going in a pretty interesting direction though and, so far, avoiding the out of place, philosophical narrative I thought I'd get from Aether Paradise. If the driving motivation behind their actions ends up being that Lusamine and Guzma are just delusional fools who need some sense slapped into them, I'm cool with that.

I forgot to mention this in my other post, but I'm also really loving a lot of the music so far.

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #69 on: November 30, 2016, 07:34:51 PM »
The music doesn't quite reach the grand heights that Black and White and it's sequels reached but it's much better than the lackluster X and Y soundtrack by a huge margin.

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #70 on: November 30, 2016, 10:12:42 PM »
I liked X and Y's soundtrack, so I should be in for a treat. My BestBuy Black Friday eshop card is in the mail, so I should be visiting Alola soon.

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #71 on: December 01, 2016, 10:16:12 AM »
I beat Sun the other night, and am currently going through the post game.  I liked the story, I thought it was cute, but I was a little disappointed that I didn't battle the actual fusion thing at the end.  I didn't like the wild Pokemon calling for help at first, but since I've learned that it's the only way to catch certain Pokemon, I like it a lot.  It adds a lot of depth to the hunt and meaning into the ecosystem.  For instance, Sableye is said to stalk Carbink.  Well, if you find a Carbink and it calls for help, a Sableye might show up.  I think I'll hit up the Battle Tree for a bit before converting my current team into a capture team.  For this playthough, I went with all Ghost Types.  Didn't realize one of the Elite 4 would be Ghost as well, nor did I expect to have to battle the Dark Type Captain twice.  Overall, this is shaping up to be one of my favorite games in the series.  Easily top 3.
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Offline pokepal148

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #72 on: December 01, 2016, 01:43:36 PM »
I liked X and Y's soundtrack, so I should be in for a treat.
Considering you're actually getting good battle music I agree.

That Sun and Moon Champion Theme is godly.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 01:45:21 PM by pokepal148 »

Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #73 on: December 01, 2016, 08:37:12 PM »
The music doesn't quite reach the grand heights that Black and White and it's sequels reached but it's much better than the lackluster X and Y soundtrack by a huge margin.

^^^^^^^
THIS.



EDIT: also, posted the thread for my review in the reader review forum.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 11:25:00 PM by ClexYoshi »

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #74 on: December 02, 2016, 12:56:15 AM »
You liked the champion theme? I thought it was a bit too... traditional, if you get my drift?

I really didn't like Kuikui as a character much, at all. He came off more like Guzma with a positive twist- he never got to be a Kahuna, but instead decided to give them the finger by making his own Pokemon League and putting himself in the champion spot.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #75 on: December 03, 2016, 06:18:20 PM »
My favorite battle themes are probably the ones belonging to Aether Foundation member battle and Red and Blue's battle themes in the battle tree.

I've been loving the Ten Carat Hill theme since the demo had it, and I was caught off guard by how effective at setting the mood the themes for Thrifty Supermarket and Po Town are.

Offline nickmitch

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #76 on: January 03, 2017, 05:43:29 PM »
I've been playing more of this trying to complete my Pokedex.  Clex, do you still have the same complaint about egg hatching?  Because you can have up to 18 eggs going at a time in the Poke Pelago "incubating".  It turns the hatching thing from having to walk to just waiting and not even having to have the game on.  You also can reduce the time a bit with the beans that you get.  Seems like it'd be the easiest thing (in that you have to do nothing) even if it might not be faster.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #77 on: January 04, 2017, 05:27:30 AM »
I've been playing more of this trying to complete my Pokedex.  Clex, do you still have the same complaint about egg hatching?  Because you can have up to 18 eggs going at a time in the Poke Pelago "incubating".  It turns the hatching thing from having to walk to just waiting and not even having to have the game on.  You also can reduce the time a bit with the beans that you get.  Seems like it'd be the easiest thing (in that you have to do nothing) even if it might not be faster.

Passive hatching is fine and dandy if you're looking to just casually hatch a half-a-box worth of stuff. a lot of the time though, when I have my mind on breeding, I want to go through as many poekmon as rapidly as possible. That being said, there is something I have to report on on the breeding front!

http://puu.sh/sWIWz.jpg

This is a little complicated, but the general gyst of it is that provided the gender ratio is identical between pokemon and you decide if you are/are not going to use the destiny knot/Power items for the purpose of IV transfer that the game effectively determines your pokemon's personality value (a 64 bit value that determines... basically everything about your pokemon besides it's species and gender) FAR in advance. it's already calculated in the code! so, say... you hatched a Jolly Abra with it's secondary ability, Inner Focus from an egg, and it inherited it's mother's HP and defence while it inherited your ditto's Attack, Special Attack, and Speed. you then reset the game and instead put a Mudsdale in the nursery. Your new mudbray would be Jolly and have Stamina, with the same IVs inherited from ditto, the IVs corresponding to Mudsdale, and the original IV it generated in Special Defense would be the same.


Why is this useful?


Well, let's just say it takes a whole hell of a lot less steps to hatch a box full of magikarp then to say... hatch even a single batch of Dratini eggs.

I've also gotten used to the tauros rodeo in the fun pen anyhow.

Offline nickmitch

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #78 on: January 04, 2017, 04:32:55 PM »
So, you can basically run a test to see how the egg you really want is going to come out before hatching a more time consuming egg?  That's pretty cool, but might be too complex for my blood.

I've been playing more of this trying to complete my Pokedex.  Clex, do you still have the same complaint about egg hatching?  Because you can have up to 18 eggs going at a time in the Poke Pelago "incubating".  It turns the hatching thing from having to walk to just waiting and not even having to have the game on.  You also can reduce the time a bit with the beans that you get.  Seems like it'd be the easiest thing (in that you have to do nothing) even if it might not be faster.

Passive hatching is fine and dandy if you're looking to just casually hatch a half-a-box worth of stuff. a lot of the time though, when I have my mind on breeding, I want to go through as many poekmon as rapidly as possible.

That's fair.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #79 on: January 04, 2017, 05:10:27 PM »
By the way, Nick, what are you still missing? I may be able to assist you in some way or another.

Offline nickmitch

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #80 on: January 04, 2017, 05:41:03 PM »
Most of what I'm missing I can catch in-game or on the GTS pretty reliably.  The main ones I'd need help with are Pokemon that evolve from trading + item held and the Moon-exclusive UBs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #81 on: April 07, 2017, 04:04:25 PM »
Hey, quick update here! if you enter the code INTIMIDATE on the Mystery Gift > Recieve a gift > Recieve by code, you can get the Mawilite, Beedrillite, Audinite, and Medichamite that was locked to battle competition competitors before! it looks like this code will not expire, and hopefully the rest of the mega stones get a similar distribution that isn't timed


I'm certainly willing to wait a little longer for the remaining mega stones if i don't have to remember to sign up for battle competitions.

Offline Shaymin

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #82 on: April 07, 2017, 04:49:13 PM »
I'll put this here (partly for my own memory) but there's also a code for the Mewtwonites (X/Y): M2DESCENT
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #83 on: April 08, 2017, 08:43:51 AM »
Thank you, Donald. Also, stay tuned to this thread, since now the teases for Marshadow distribution is starting to happen.





For those who haven't looked into the details of this pokemon, I shall provide spoiler brackets for my thoughts on the matter.

While Magearna has a solid typing and a neat couple of gimmick sets with use of it's exclusive Fleur Cannon, it generally suffers from the general lack of speed Alolan pokemon in general seem to have, as well as an all over the place sort of movepool.


Marshadow on the other hand is an outright busted pokemon. maybe not to the degree of something like Mega Rayquaza, Primal Kyogre, or Primal Groudon, but we are looking at something that's Arceus/Pre-nerf Darkrai/Mega Mewtwo Y/Black Kyurem/Skymin levels of powerful.


Sporting the fabled Ghost/Fighting STAB combination, there isn't a type combination that currently exists in pokemon that doesn't take a neutral hit from Marshadow. Normal/Ghost would be the real only true type combination that would force Marshadow to have more coverage than things it would learn during level up. This also happens to allot Marshadow a semi-decent defensive suite as well, but Marshadow is not by design a tanky pokemon.

Marshadow's exclusive move, Spectral Thief, not only gets distinction of being the strongest physical ghost move (Giratina's Phantom Force is base 120, but takes a turn of charge-up) at base 90, but it has the disgusting and exclusive effect of stripping the foe of stat boosts FIRST, and THEN delivering the attack. this is a devastating attack. Only normal types effectively get to set up when Marshadow is present on the opponent's team. Physical sweeping stuff like Dragon Dance, Swords Dance, etc. are the obvious thing that make Marshadow devastating and run away with a game, but this also strips away something that sets up with stockpile, Cosmic Power, or other such increases. it hoses Moody pokemon even worse if they don't hit their evade bonuses right away. it hoses over Xerneas, or folks using setups like Z-Splash or Z-happy hour or just... all sorts of things. Spectral Thief is powerful, man.

Spectral Thief's power level goes up even FURTHER (and reinforces Smogon's Swagger ban with the whole Klefki nonsense) when you consider that yes, Marshadow has access to SWAGGER! how's about forcing a switch out of your foe, confusing whatever comes in, and then taking the attack boost with Phantom Thief? This is better than it getting Swords dance. and even if you DID feel the need to maybe set up yourself, it does have bulk-up access, but... really, c'mon, Spectral Thief is just... amazing.

Also, it has a Z-move variant.



Other than that, Marshadow is sporting a respectable Base 125 attack (Think heavy hitters like Gyrados, Heracross, Bisharp, Golisopod, Bewear, etc.) and 125 speed (there's about 24 pokemon if we're counting Megas and alt formes that outspeed Marshadow. it's faster than speedsters like Greninja, Noivern, Ribbombe, Mega Rayquaza, and really just... a lot of Pokemon one would think of as being quick!) and the technician ability, which it gets Pursuit, Shadow Sneak, and a couple of other neat things in it's TM Pool like Smack-down to take advantage of it, in case you thought maybe Skarmory was sounding like a half-decent counter to this thing.

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #84 on: April 10, 2017, 02:05:46 PM »
I don't know why they didn't make Marshadow available with the initial launch of the game, but either way, it's an absurd Pokémon that will be viable if only so that the ridiculous momentum shift in the current metagame can go die in a fire.

I honestly believe Ultra Beasts are the worst thing to happen to competitive battling.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #85 on: April 10, 2017, 09:11:44 PM »
I do suppose Marshadow can answer Pheramosa pretty nicely.

I know that VGC is mostly overrun by  terrain wars with Tapu Lele leading the charge on that, but I haven't been keeping up with Smogon since all the channels on youtube I happen to follow have pretty much switched over to almost exclusively doing VGC content, which is frustrating.

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #86 on: April 11, 2017, 12:25:04 AM »
See, I like the idea of terrains, and I think it's a logical sort of step, but I don't think they should have been relegated to the Tapus for the sake of them having a unique gimmick, because now every damn team runs them. Gen VII will hopefully be remembered as a generation that introduced a bunch of interesting gimmicks (Beast Boosts, Terrain, and Z-Moves I guess, even though I'm still not fond of them) that eventually trickled down to non-legendaries, because the over-centralized meta revolving around the Gen VII legendaries has been the main reason I feel no desire to develop a competitive team.
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Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #87 on: April 11, 2017, 09:55:59 AM »
the over-centralized meta revolving around the Gen VII legendaries has been the main reason I feel no desire to develop a competitive team.


see, that's funny, because that's exactly how I felt about Mega Evolution... except in the case of Mega Evolution, they decided to split the generation in half, and to immediatley give up on the very rules they had established for the mechanic a year later.

The Ultra beasts are just what happens if you take a pokemon's base stats and stretch them to logical extremes. the only one that is REALLY overly opressive is Pheromosa and MAYBE Celesteela? I mean...

Xurkitree and Kartana have big, scary offensive presences, but you can sneeze on Kartana and it dies, and Xurkitree is so ho-hum otherwise that it's revenge kill bait.

Nihilego is actually pretty fast and I love it's typing, but rock and poison get walled out by steel types and it just shatters into a billion tiny pieces the moment something tosses EQ it's way.

Buzzwole is all right but slow, and Guzzlord is such a lopsided pokemon that it's just outright unwieldly.


Tapus on the other hand, may not have the raw numbers, but the boosts their auto-terrain gives to their STAB makes them hit like a truck. Yeah, psychic might not be the best offensive type out there, but Tapu Lele's got enough offensive presence to where you can throw specs on it and even pokemon that resist it aren't feeling great about taking the Psychic or the Psyshock. I suppose the big difference between this and say... Kartana, is that Kartana's STAB choices aren't quite as good.


I mean, Mega Mawile and Mega Beedrill are in this meta, and they're basically the same thing.

Offline Evan_B

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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #88 on: April 11, 2017, 10:36:18 AM »
I was hoping that Mega Evolution would be expanded upon, seeing as there are a ton of Pokemon that could really use them. I suppose Z-Moves are a step in that direction, and their use among all different types allows for some flexible distribution. But even those two extremely oppressive Ultra Beasts (and I'd lump Buzzswole in there as well, with great typing) have over-centralized the meta game and forced players to consider counters. The problem, essentially, is that Z-Moves aren't interesting enough to avoid the real threat of the generation, which are Tapus and Ultra Beasts. Atop Tapus being the worst-designed Pokemon in a long time, they also possess low-risk, high reward abilities that make them essential.

Of course, this is a discussion of a relatively green metagame, which I'm sure will even out, or at least, have some interesting new strategies develop in the future. That Drifblim build that has become quite popular lately is a great example. But the intense focus on a bunch of new Pokemon that have unappealing aesthetics, unhealthy stat distributions, and exclusive abilities has turned me off of competitive battling completely. Unlike the series, I am not one to evolve with the times. Or maybe that's very much like the series.
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Re: Pokémon Sun and Moon
« Reply #89 on: November 27, 2017, 02:43:55 AM »
I'm happy about Pokemon Sun and Moon because it gave me a new list of favorite Pokemon but in terms of gameplay it felt lackluster. Now that Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are now available, it felt like the new ones are the complete version instead of the alternate story they are saying.