The Nintendo E3 event has just finished the Pokémon Sun & Moon segment and with it (along with a newly released trailer!) we’ve got a tonne of new features and Pokémon for the games. Read on to find out more!
New Pokémon
Pikipek/ツツケラ (Tsutsukera) – Woodpecker Pokémon – Normal/Flying – Keen Eye/Skill Link Abilities
Pikipek has two evolutions.
Yungoos/ヤングース (Yangoose) – Loitering Pokémon – Normal – Stakeout/Strong Jaw Abilities
Grubbin/ – Larva Pokémon – Bug – Swarm Ability
New Abilities
Stakeout – The Pokémon’s moves can deal twice the normal damage to any Pokémon that switch in or enter the field mid-battle
Soul Heart – Magearna’s Sp. Atk raises by 1 each time another Pokémon in the area faints. This is a new Ability—one that can be put to good use in battle
Battle Royals
“In a Battle Royal, four Trainers are jumbled in battle together, but the rules are simple.
Each of the four Trainers chooses three Pokémon and sends one Pokémon into battle at a time. The battle is over at the end of any turn when all of the Pokémon of one Trainer have fainted. The players are ranked, and a victor is declared based on the number of Pokémon each defeated and the number of Pokémon each has remaining in play.
While these rules are simple, they also allow players a new way to enjoy Pokémon battles—one where many new strategies may be born, as each player must try to predict who will attack whom, or weigh acting to save a player who’s in a pinch in order to aim for the number-one position!”
Nintendo Treehouse Information Write-up
- Junichi Masuda is the producer of Sun & Moon, whilst Shigeru Ohmori is directing
- Sun and Moon were chosen as the names of the games as the sun is the source of all life on our planet, and they want the two new games to feel as though they are teeming with life
- Solgaleo and Lunala are the emissaries of the sun and the moon respectively. They will play a legendary Pokémon role like we’ve never seen before
- Zygarde and its forms will appear in Sun & Moon in a “special” way
- The starters received special attention in their movements. They wanted them to look super cute in game. They are also meant to be universally relatable and easy to understand – Grass-type is green, etc
- The climate in Alola is extremely warm, as such character designs are reflective of this in that they are lightly dressed, especially compared to older characters
- The bracelets the trainers are wearing will be discussed at a later date
- The playable character is new to the Alola region
- Old Pokémon are present in the game. Ledyba and Caterpie are available early on in the game
- There is a new lighting engine in the game. This new engine allows the time of day to be reflected in changing light conditions
- The camera is much more dynamic in battles this time around
- The battle interface is now more user friendly. Players can find information buttons displaying detailed information on each move, in addition to this tapping an icon can display the stat changes to both your own and your opponent’s Pokémon
- The Pokédex has been redesigned in order to really encourage Trainers to complete it
- When the player begins to approach an area where another trainer is likely to battle, the screen becomes vignetted in order to create a sense of drama
- All trainers have unique actions and emotions thanks to the 3D
- Each island in the Alola region has a Guardian Pokémon
- Players will battle their rival Hau early on as part of a festival that is meant to kick off both of your own Pokémon journeys
- Popplio learns Disarming Voice at Level 8
- The games feature a new Battle Royal mode
- Trainer customisation makes a return, more will be discussed at a later date
Actually, there’s actually a new article, but it actually seems to be actually nothing in terms of actual new info for now. And I actually gotta go home to verify if I can actually find the actual info entries of Iwanko and Nekkoala in the actual Japanese Pokemon website. (And actually translate them.)
Just in case no ones said it, but Magearna’s signature reminds me of the ultimate weapon as its a flower cannon. Also her ability is powered up when other Pokemon faint, like how the ultimate weapon powers up by taking the lives of other Pokemon
Hm, never thought about that last part somehow. Good catch.
Hmm, that does sound interesting… but I think i read flavor text somewhere describing the soul heart ability (as one can also deduce from the name) as evoking feelings of determination in Magearna to fight for the fallen pokemon
Pikipek final evo will be steel/flying
Yassss!
I would like that a lot actually..and it’d make sense if its beak evolved to be like a drill of something.
Omg this would be uhmazing!!!
Ikr?! I feel it’s almost confirmed, what with its beak and while the move it uses does sound like bullet seed (which’d go awesomely with skill link) “bullet” could also imply steel
My thoughts on the new pokémon:
Yungoos: When I saw it, I was like “that feel when pokémon is referencing your ecology lectures”. Then I saw the dex description, and it became clear GF were not just taking into account the fact that there are mongeese there, but also the backstory behind they’re introduction. I love it when gamefreak go all the way with real life inspirations, and I hope we get a few more Hawaian endemic species (preferably ones that weren’t introduced hahaha). I love how just like in real life Yungoos were introduced to control another pest, but then became one themselves. No mention of it being a mistake though. Because in real life introducing diurnal mongeese to eradicate nocturnal rats is a textbook case of why you need to think a wee bit before doing that sort of thing. Well in any case it says they’re everywhere so that introduction can’t have been too good for Alola.
As people have said it’s a nice justification for it’s commonness as the starting “rodent”. I thought Iwanko was there to fill that role, but in retrospect he is rock type so that would have been unusual.
I love it’s cartoony design and massive teeth, it’s very appealing and not too overdone, it just works for me. I doubt the Donald Trump resemblance is intentional, but in any case it”s hilarious. I wonder what type it’s evolution(s?) will have?
I feel we will indeed get a form or rat counterpart (or maybe something else, but I honestly doubt they’d go the snake route again as we already have zangoose and seviper). Maybe, as some have said, we’ll get a pair of regional mammals?
Pikipek: Came out just as I expected, and it’s a pretty damn flawless design. Nothing much else to say, it’s description is typical but well though out, and I hope it’s evolutions are cool. I wonder what type we’ll get? I doubt it’ll be normal/flying.
Also can we take a moment to appreciate that it’s french name is Piccasaut? (Pic-assault, but read it in a french way to get the dank pun) I love when localisers do this kind of thing.
Grubbin: Love it that we’re getting something different from just a caterpillar this time. Tbf there are million of insect species so it’s only fair there are many caterpillars, but I feel Scatterbug’s design was weak and uninteresting, at least a first glance. Also a large proportion of these millions are coleopterans, so it’s nice to get an actual beetle grub. It’s a great design, relatively simple, relatable to the real life inspiration, yet appearing pokémony and able to defend itself. It reminds me of trapinch a lot, but that’s just because of huge mandibles and digging tendency. It’s nothing like a rehash. I’ve gotta say I’m not too turned on (heheh) by the bug/electric typing it’s heading for, but I’m eager to see it’s evolution’s designs. I hope we get a cool new beetle.
Other thoughts:
-The battle royale mode looks amazing, can’t wait to use it with my friends, we’re a very convenient group of 4 pokéfans. However I’m frustrated but not surprised at the irritating typical Game Freakish choice of making the battle end the second one fighter is out. Now I know the alternative is stalling, and it’s a perfectly viable and strategic battle type option to go with… BUT WHY NOT LET US CHOOSE??? We could have both first man down and last man standing!! Porque no los dos? Is it so hard to make battle rules customisable? Gamefreak tend to make them customisable to some degree, but never go all out, as with many things, and it’s so infuriating!
-Also I noticed Ledyba’s pokedex entry has some info that doesn’t seem to come from any previous game (the part about each one having different spots). Are we getting new pokedex info for old pokémon rather than just the usual rehash? As a huge fan of the pokedex/biological angle, I think that would be amazing!
Overall I’m extremely excited for Sun and Moon. The overall feel, design aesthetic, the new battle interface, the colours, the region… It’s extremely appealing to my tastes. Also pretty much all the pokémon have had excellent designs thus far. The only on I’m not a huge fan of is Magearna, but I’m warming up to it . I just hope we get a number of pokémon closer to BW than XY ( I think it’s unlikely, but the whole “teeming with life” and “loads of rare pokémon” ethos is encouraging), and some cool new megas.
And please, please. No Synchro. Don’t complicate things further…. Unless it’s literally just a way of giving a boost to any pokémon, as single one on your team, with no form changes. That I’m increasingly warming up to, as it could allow for people to use their favourites more. I just don’t want something that confuses things further than mega evlolution already being a thing.
My bet is that the rat that Yungoos was introduced to deal with will be the electric rodent of this region
The reason why Battle Royal ends when one player is defeated, is so no one has to sit idly and do nothing except watch the other players and wait for the battle to end. It’s a genius move, in my opinion.
I’m not really criticising that they went with that option, I’m just extremely frustrated they didn’t give us a choice. Both possibilities make for great competitive possibilities, but as usual GF, for reasons known only to itself, isn’t going the full distance. IMO genius sounds a little hyperbolic for what pretty much amounts to lazyness, hahaha
Ah, I see what you mean. Well it costs money to give you what you want, so they just stuck with the smarter scoring method.
Myeh, I think both options would have been equally good. And the fact this one can lead to frustratingly short battles with lots of scope for not getting to use your strategies is quite disappointing. Though obviously the other option could lead to severe stalling abuse…
I do think the justification that the losers wouldn’t have to wait is a bit weak if you consider that’s already a thing in multi battles, but obviously those wouldn’t work if you got eliminated from one player losing.
In (real) Multi, the eliminated player still has an investment in the battle: to see if their teammate will win. In (real) free-for-all, the losing player only waits for the game to end.
I believe it’s a limitation in the design of Pokemon’s multiplayer in general, where when one player disconnects, the session is over. I’ll have to give that this is the lazy part, where it is smart of them to have the game mechanic to turn it into an excuse for ending the game when a player is defeated, since they’ll probably just rage quit instead of waiting for the end of the match.
If I were to play in online battle royal, my anchor would be an incredibly tough and frustrating setup sweeper like Suicune or Gliscor.
“Each island in the Alola region has a Guardian Pokémon ”
what if each island and guardian represents one of the four elements:
earth, water, fire, air? just thinking haha (avatar much)
That might actually be true. I read that each island’s name is the Hawaiian word for red, green, blue, and yellow, respectively. So, it would be fire, grass, water, and electric.
I’m pretty sure that grubbin will become an Argentinian Ant. Why? They are known to eat electric wires and also they are some colonies in Hawaii!!!! They have cause many problems in several places around the world because of their love for electric wires. Also that swarm ability grubbin has gives an extra clue because Argentinian Ants are known to have the biggest ant colony in the world.
Yungoos possible evolution.
Not bad
I sense that it will be only four more months until November (as it’s July at the moment). Of course, I do know how fast time goes; before I know it, November 18 will arrive, and then Pokémon Sun and Moon will be here… 🙂