NOTE: This article is based on facts and information currently available, as such it should be treated as purely speculation.
Each Pokémon game brings with it a new and exciting location to explore. The regions often set the tones for what we find inside; Hoenn for example set the tone for the exotic and diverse Pokémon that would be found within it by showing players a wide range of locales, from soot-strewn volcanoes to a forest canopy city. In Black & White Unova showed us that GameFreak was willing to take inspiration from other countries and Kalos continued that tradition in X & Y.
That leaves us with Pokémon Sun & Moon, the “new” generation of games coming this year. Where they will take place has not been announced, but we can put together some clues.
The new region is tropical…
In the initial reveal trailer a few design scenes were shown which gave us various hints about where the game may take place. Many pointed to a distinctly tropical location. The design for what seem to be villa houses have class ceilings (right). The Japanese on it says “glass here too”. Why have a translucent ceiling if not to enjoy some nice sunny weather? It wouldn’t be quite so nice if you were expecting to get lots of rain or snow.
Another building, which seems to be a resort, is decorated with numerous Water-type Pokémon and a prominent fountain in front of it. Also present is lots of lush vegetation you’d expect to see in a warm, humid climate.
…and may be an island…
Tropical climates conjure up images of exotic islands and it just might be where Pokémon Sun & Moon are set. Evidence is slim on this one and hinges mostly upon the tropical hints listed above, but there has yet to be a Pokémon game set exclusively on islands such as those seen in the anime with the Orange Islands. It could provide a much needed visual change to the series which usually populates the regions which cities connected by roads, caves and forests.
But please… if we do get an island game… let’s not make the water paths unbearable with too many random encounters, ok?
…which is connected to Kalos?
Unlike almost all other Pokémon regions, Kalos does not feature any human inhabited islands. This lends itself to a prime setup for additional islands being introduced into an existing region, such as the Sevii Islands and Kanto (FireRed & LeafGreen), and Humilau City in Unova (Black 2 & White 2). Pokémon Sun & Moon have not been confirmed to take place in an entirely new region, although we definitely know that it will, at the very least, feature new locations.
The Pokédex for Kalos is broken up into three categories: Central, Coastal and Mountain. What if there is a third “Oceanic” category in the next game? It seems plausible and would tie in with the existing differentiation between areas in X&Y’s region.
That’s all we’ve got for today’s speculation, but tell us what your thoughts are about where Sun & Moon might take place! Either way, we’ll find out within the next couple of months!
<3 PJ
FEATURED DISCUSSION: Grand Central Hype Station – Terminal S&M
I think the Hawaii suggestions are quite on point for now, until proven differently.
I hope seliver a bit more variety in the game play and distribution of location. Make us work more to get to locations and gyms.
I would really love a Belgrade based region one day and not at all cause I live here. It has such a great landscape. Rivers, bridges, hills, great architecture, buidlings. I really need to talk with Masuda to give him the rights to my suggestions. 😉
Honestly at this point it can 95% be said for certain that this region is located in some sort of tropical area.
I’m not very knowledgeable on the landscapes of the Pacific islands, so I don’t really know what I think it’s based on.
Hawaii or the Caribbean maybe.
I really hope Sun and Moon connect with the Unova region somehow. I don’t care how, but I need Mega Samurott
I agree 100%. I’ve been hoping for Unova mega evolutions for the starters since mega evolution was announced.
Kalos is shaped somewhat like a star. Maybe the region in Pokémon Sun & Moon will be shaped like a sun and/or moon?
You guys something that would be really cool and different imagine your battling a trainer and then your starter reach level let say 16 in the middle of the battle and it evolves like in the anime and your character says woaah Treecko just evolved or something like that just giving an example.
I’ve been hoping for that for a while
But taking into account that some people don’t want to evolve at a certain time, and just stopping the whole game to do the evolution sequence
It’s just full of holes and ifs
You’re right about that but still it would be really cool for that to happen.
They should add a setting option: In battle Evolution On/Off
There is potential for that, but as Earthen said, some people do not want their Pokemon to evolve. Also, the evolution process might have some difficulties being coded into the battles. I’m sure someone at GameFreak has thought of that, but got disregarded because of development issues.
There could be an option, like a choice to in-battle evolve (like mega), or to press B to cancel.
Gen 8 better be in a snowy region because I doubt we’ll have any snow in SM
A pokemon game set in Canada 😉
I would love that! I’m sure they’ll think of a way to pull off some kind of snow area… A mountain top perhaps?
So I cannot stop thinking of a potential Fire Ox/Bull Pokemon
I say this because of a lacking of bovine Pokemon outside Tauros, Miltank and Bouffalant
And I say fire bull because I can easily see a Bull Pokemon having a fiery temper so much fire actually engulfs it and fuels its attacks!
I say either Normal/Fire, Fire/Ground, Fire/Rock, Fire/Steel, or Fire/Fighting if it goes into a bipedal Minotaur
But easily a Speedy physical attacker with a pretty decent physical defense, very lacking in sp def and sp attack
As for attacks a wide array of powerful attacks like Horn Attack, Flame Charge, Stomp, Flare Blitz, Megahorn, Head Smash, Rage, Iron Head, Bulldoze, Magnitude, Work Up, Thrash and so much more
As for names, Pyrox, Infernox, Bullrn, Embull, something clever involving apoplexia (the part of the brain for anger)
Gotta hand it to you, I love these ideas
I am fond of my ideas too (ego stroking)
I’m going to second the minotaur!
It would make a Primeape look like a pacifist
Same
I’m assuming that the region is somewhere tropical, so an Ox makes sense. I just hope it doesn’t resemble Emboar. I would love to see the Ox become a Minotaur, that would be amazing. Still, I tire of seeing Fire/Fighting starters, so I would like to see Fire/Rock or Fire/Normal… anything that just isn’t Fire/Fighting.
Embull sounds like Emboar.
Cut me some slack, my naming has been kinda going downhill these days
My day has been ruined. 6 months of work on a game down the drain. It’s off topic but I am so upset about this. I just deleted the entire world in the game and my last back up was in February. So I have to cancel it because there is no way I can make that again. I was so close to release. It was next month. Late April. It was almost done.
Has anyone ever thought that the 6th gen was just a way to test 3d graphics, new mechanics and get the younger audience back into Pokemon?
And then this gen they will improve story, characters, and difficulty. I feel like they’ve been working on these games A LOT.
Similar to how gen 4 tested a lot of stuff, and gen 5 improved on a lot of other stuff. Except gen 4 had solid depth unlike X and Y.
What are your thoughts?
I’ve thought the same thing, though I do think xy has unnderappreciated story elements that do give it more depth than gen 4.
I agree 100% I feel like X and Y was rushed. Its least memorable Pokemon game for me.
I have ALWAYS thought this about X and Y. They seem like really rushed games with one of the worst storylines to ever take place. X and Y have a lot of “show” to them and not a lot of actual substance. However, I’m still hanging on to the hope that X and Y’s loose ends were purposeful–Especially if they worked on X and Y and then Sun and Moon at the same time.
Agreed. X&Y’s story is basically a copy of Gen 4’s…except Platinum did it better. AZ and his Floette was about the only depth I could find to the game.
Wonder how much the sneak peak will show on Sunday. I believe starters and Mascotts are a given but would wish a swift look at the Region as well.
I think Unova was the poorest Region to date. Had such a great design but wasn’t used at all. Could’ve been explored way better.
If anyone wastes as much time on youtube watching random videos as I do these days, then you’d see the extreme slew (sometimes sludge) of Pokémon Sun and Moon speculation videos that have appeared over the past month! They have basically nothing to go off of other than previous titles, yet all of the famous Pokétubers just keep pumping out speculation after speculation. It’s annoying really. At least wait until we get a substantial trailer for the games to start with all the speculation! Anyway, one of the most prominent and “agreed upon” speculations is about the region. It seems that every video is convinced that the new region will be based on Hawai’i or, at least, another tropical island location.
This speculation is based off of ONE image of CONCEPT art, not even a finalized game render. This image has two palm trees in it. That’s it. Two palm trees–big freaking deal! It’s not even finalized! Since it is a concept image, the palm tress might not even exist in the final location within the games. I also would like to argue that–assuming the location of that specific, grandiose building is a tropical one–just because a region has tropical locations does not mean the region as a whole is tropical! Sinnoh is mainly a temperate region, and it has a tropical island! Johto (in Gen 4) has a tropical location! Hoenn is mainly tropical, but not the entire region. Unova has a variety of climates within its region. We have to realize that Pokémon regions are the equivalent of a country within the Pokémon, and countries in real life can vary significantly in their climates and locations. Having some palm trees in one image does in no way attribute the whole region to be a tropical one. It may turn out to be a tropical one, similar to Hoenn. That would be cool. I’m going to love it no matter what. All I’m saying is that there isn’t enough substantial evidence to speculate on what the region is going to be.
However, I will say that I desperately hope it is connected to Kalos in some way. Kalos has such potential to be an amazing region. It’s got great locations, but they all end up being so dry and emotionless. I think if the region of Sun and Moon is linked to Kalos in some way, it would really help to revitalize Kalos, tie up some loose ends within the story, and make it more memorable.
i’ve seen a bunch of things that suggest it could be based off Hawaii. the general consensus does seem to be something tropical. That means i can abandon my hopes for appealing Ice-types… ah well.
Diamond and Pearl remakes seem like a given at this point, but there’s another Gen 4 game I wanna see them revisit – It’s been over ten years and two generations since we could see our teams on the TV screen so a Wii U game in the vein of Pokemon Battle Revolution would make me super happy.