32 days until Sun & Moon release!
Some of our older readers maybe remember our Journey to X & Y and Road to Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire countdowns back in 2013 and 2014. Now, we’re back with Road to Sun & Moon!
Recently, Nintendo invited several people to their San Francisco offices to preview and play the first entries in the 7th Generation of Pokémon – and although Nintendo put an embargo on a lot of what these lucky few got to see and experience, some details about the games have surfaced. For your ease and enjoyment we’ve compiled a list of the biggest new details from multiple people that got the opportunity to play through the first two hours of Pokémon Sun & Moon. The sources of all this info have been linked to the bottom if you’d like to see the articles and videos in full.
Pokémon
- Several players confirmed that they saw new Pokémon and Alolan Forms, but aren’t allowed to go into detail
- About “10-15” unique Pokémon (both new and old) were encountered in the two hours by trainer battles and in the wild
- Original Formes of Alolan Forme Pokémon were not encountered (i.e. Players only encountered Alolan Rattata, not Kanto Rattata)
Mechanics
- The D-Pad is no longer used for moving in the overworld – movement is no longer gridlocked and only the analog stick is used
- Default speed for movement in the overworld is now running, not walking
- The sneaking up on Pokémon mechanic from ORAS has been removed entirely
- Not as much noticeable framerate slow downs in general as there were in the previous generation (i.e. in battles with animations turned on)
- 3D has been removed completely from the game other than important cutscenes and the PokéFinder
- The 3D apparently does slow the frame rate down in cutscenes, but not as bad as it did in Gen VI
- However the stereoscopic 3D in the PokéFinder slows down the framerate to a very irritating and extremely noticeable degree`
General
- Sun & Moon is fairly fast paced and throws you into the adventure right away. Players note how you’re able to catch and battle Pokémon and Trainers well before a formal tutorial
- In the two hours of gameplay, very few people got to the first trial, much less completed it
- Reward money is plentiful in the Alola Region
- You are able to change your hairstyle in the first major city
- The local Alolan Pokédex is split into four sections – one for each island – similar to the Kalos Pokédex
- The player has a WiiU in their house – not an NX 🙁
- Confirmation that you do get medals for completing trials
- Several trials must be completed before challenging the Kahuna of the island
- When a Pokémon evolves you see its entire evolutionary family on screen
- Poké Pelago and Poké Ride were not available in the first two hours of the game
- Tackle has reportedly been lowered down to 40 basepower (as opposed to Gen VI’s 50 BP)
Story/Characters
- The early events of Sun & Moon take place over several days
- The protagonist moved to the Alola Region from Kanto and arrived via plane
- The protagonist’ father is mentioned, however you do not meet him in the first two hours
- Early in the game the protagonist falls off a bridge and is saved by Tapu Koko
- Prof. Kukui previously battled the Indigo Gym Leaders while researching Pokémon moves in Kanto
- Before choosing your starter Pokémon Lillie gives you a mysterious stone which is revealed to be a Z-Crystal later on
- However, they did not get to use Z-Moves or Mega Evolution in the first two hours
- After deafting Hau a second time, Hala gives you the Z-Ring
- There is a Tauros that blocks the road to prevent you from continuing on to a certain area at one point
- You meet the first Trial Captain, Ilima, at the Trainers’ School
- The EXP. Share is given to you at the Trainers’ School and still gives experience to your entire team
- The Gumshoos trail is the first in the game
Sources: GameXplain, IGN, Gamespot, Nintendo Insider, XGN, VG247, Metro UK
Are any of these new details making you rage, or possibly even more exciting for the release of Sun & Moon? With the demo coming out in a mere two days we’re finally all going to be taking our first (albeit limited) steps in the Alola Region. And with that comes the possibility of leaks…stay tuned!
//ozymandis
Awesome!
EARTHEN NEED NOW
I NEED IT TOO!!!!!!
I’m going to miss the sneaking. I did love sneaking about.
Well they don’t want to make the same mistake ORAS made, so they are definitely keeping it quiet, because they want to surprise us big
Why was sneaking a mistake? That’s like, the only thing I remember from the ORAS demo. Never got the hang of PokeRadar chaining, but I can DexNav chain for hours at a time.
Thank you so much for compiling all of this information! It must have taken awhile to scrounge up all the details! Thank you so much!
PS: Father is mentioned… https://66.media.tumblr.com/d590fa9b9519fbb1c5a796c8d1becedf/tumblr_ny2suzWVSw1qfjfoyo1_400.gif
My pleasure! Thanks so much for reading!
Well if there’s no sneaking, I’m guessing the Dex nav feature won’t be returning. Shame.
Yay! Easy to digest Sun and Moon information
Also
“The 3D apparently does slow the frame rate down in cutscenes, but not as bad as it did in Gen IV”
Gen VI you mean?
“Early in the game the protagonist falls off a bridge and is saved by Tapu Koko”
Oh boy Mortal Danger
Kids today need to understand the true dangers of bridges.
I mean, in ORAS, I had a great time riding my Mach Bike back and forth on the suspension bridges in Fortree Town because no one cared enough to stop me. Pokemon sets such unrealistic examples for safety for children! X’D
Im not too happy with the exp share. I just wish there was an option to use on only one pokemon instead of the whole team gaining exp.
It’s the fastest way to level up your team, i wonder if they going to bring back horde encounter?
I understand that but honestly it had a huge role in the difficulty, or lack there of, in XY and ORAS.
Are horde encounter returning?
But any RPG that allows grinding is inherently easy if you just grind long enough it doesn’t matter if the Exp Share is on or off.
If you think there’s a detail we missed be sure to let us know down here and link us to the source!
Are they talking about the demo?
no, because the demo will have Ash-Greninja and they got to pick starters, it was more of a preview
just asking, a 2 hour preview
HUGE NEWS!! Masuda has autographed fanart of the leaked starter evolutions on an event in Milan. He added “we haven’t even revealed these guys yet! (rf) https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f5b6c2e13da214e9ba1aeb7f8c00ca29b76c5563dd27517a2ae1b9c62d9d908.png
(rf) https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ffda3babed2174d442e0327dee1f4374285988482ef092bc3d18fac6ee1ab2c7.png
Again rf https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de861b419877126c0b2cfc1cffd03e82e4db99762eee980c993947a0c1c58149.png
I think the final evolution starter might turn out to be real, i don’t mind if they do.
No shit sherlock 😉
Hey man, not cool, also the other people don’t assuming it’s real because they don’t like the design
“We haven’t even revealed these guys yet!” – Masuda, 2016
When everyone thinks you’re salty they got leaked, but the leaker has already been dealt with and there’s no more bad blood.
When you said Dealt with, for some reason I imagined them on the chopping block and records they ever existed erased
I wonder if someone will leak the grave site.
Sounds like Masuda took the situation pretty well. He apparently even laughed at the fact that the guy said his friend had some fan art for him lol
I don’t like seeing Mr.Masuda in this situation ….. he think he was clever in fact he was extremely rude ….u should be more grateful for this man human.
Masuda was clever or the fanart guy was clever?
I wouldn’t have dared take fanart of the leaked starters for Masuda to sign.
I’d say it’s neither clever nor rude. Definitely mildly humorous for the person giving it to him to sign. I doubt Masuda was upset. They’ve been leaked for months now. He knows people know. He’s probably just happy a fan liked them enough to do fanart.
The leaks of the starters’ final evolutions just a few weeks after the starters’ actual reveal is by far the most unprecedented leaks of all time.
Man……..I can’t wait until I’m two hours into Alola lol
I was pretty worried at first bu this just made me 10x more excited! NO MORE HOLDING DOWN THE DAMN B BUTTON
I’m honestly probably going to hold it down anyway out of habit
I still tap a and b when I’m trying to capture a pokemon
Now that it seems the leaked starter evos are fully confirmed, I’m glad I picked Rowlet. Sick of these Fire/Fighting starters. A real pity, because I really like Litten.
I thought it was going to be fire/dark?
Really? If thats the case I will pick Litten in Moon
They have not confirm what their type are yet except for rowlet final evo, but not Litten or Poplion.
I mean none of their final typings have been confirmed yet. But its assumed it will be grass/flying, fire/dark and water/fairy based on what they are
True, but hope for the Fire/Dark type for Litten’s final evo for I like more then a other fire/fighting AGAIN.
it is a fire/dark
SO EXCITED!!!!
I’m even more excited! Because it seems that game is more like a RPG where it actually takes a while to level up go to different areas. It offers a lot of excitement and makes me feel more accomplished when I finally get to my destination!
is this a reboot..
To quote many of the people who’ve played the first 2 hours of Pokemon Sun, “It’s anything, but a reboot. It feels like a celebration of all that Pokemon stands for and that in and of itself is much more commendable than a franchise reboot.”
Several players commented on how this definitely wasn’t a reboot, but a celebration of all things Pokémon with them building upon everything they’ve created over the past 20 years!
Remember, “it all comes together” 😉
So excited! Two more days! Also quick question? For people in different time zones will they get the demo earlier? Or is it releasing world wide on November 18th on the japan time zone?
Most likely by timezones tbh iirc its how it works with the full games when downloaded digitally.
Do you think there’s still any hope for traveling to Kalos in Sun/Moon, or is that highly unlikely at this point? I just want a good post game 🙁 I’d settle for Battle Frontier. Battle Maison is boring af.
One can always hope 🙂
I honestly think that one leaker was correct in that we will create our own league, probably from the trial captains, I can see it in the post game being able to call on 4 or 5 of them that have a way stronger team that you can go back and battle whenever you want
we might go back to kalos, since the file size of sun and moon is 32 GB and 26,176 blocks
Yes, it is encouraging just how huge the file size of the games are. Even if there isn’t Kalos, I’m sure there will be far more to do than in X/Y.
true, maybe we might go back to kalos, or we might not, but all i know is, this game better have a good post-game, i don’t want it like XY and ORAS post-game all over again
I liked the 8 island rumor.
The main four leading through the regular game, and then four more opening when the “Elite Four and Champion” are defeated.
where did you hear that rumor?
A youtuber made a video on it after it was posted here to PokeJungle. August 16th if you go to the Rumors category. Some of the things listed there have been confirmed or are teetering confirmation.
3.2 GB, not 32 GB lmao
That’s still really large.
Yup, but expected when you consider the graphical overhaul, bigger overworld and the switch to 3D models for everything.
my bad, i meant 3.2 GB, i was typing too fast
OH GOD I’M SO PUMPED!!!!! I can’t wait for the games to come out! Tomorrow we may be getting info from the data miners so we’ll be rolling in info from tomorrow on lol
but the demo isn’t out until tuesday?
But Japan is serveal time zones ahead of both Europe and USA.
True, but 9am on Monday for most of the world is 12am Tuesday for Japan. So assuming the demo goes live at midnight Japan should have it tomorrow for us lol
I hope, but i think gamefreak won’t make that same mistake they did in ORAS
HypehypehypeHYPE! Jeez I want these games so bad! So excited to see what other Alola forms they haven’t shown off!
This fan-made evolution of Rowlet looks so much better than Dartrix. I still can’t fathom how Dartrix goes from THAT to the epically amazing Robinroot.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqKFYDBWcAA30Zc.jpg
Eh. Agree to disagree.
I do like this better than Dartrix, but I still think Dartrix is a decent design. You can’t say it doesn’t have tons of personality.
I love the design, but it just rubs off on me the wrong way.
That’s because it’s got sass 😛
Dartrix is the embodiment of sassyness and fabulous. Take the hatrted elsewhere XD
Dartrix is much better…..It’s not easy to find character like that.
Dartrix is the bomb.
The Fab Squad. Credits to the amazing artist!
http://t00.deviantart.net/aoyv4Dg03AgXtUZe51lTbu3EuOU=/fit-in/700×350/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre06/d6b8/th/pre/f/2016/278/0/a/0af0aa4b7fef52d6dd1ca3321a550463-dak01wg.png
OMG EVEN BRIONNE LOOKS AMAZING
Brionne has always looked amazing. 😛 I wish Popplio was that light blue color with tufts of white instead of that atrocious shade of blue.
I swear, these three embody every cliche clique:
1. Brionne: the singer, performer, and overly obsessed with pop culture individuals and the, “Popular girls”
2. Dartrix: the f*ck-boys or the rich, sassy people
3. Torracat: the athletic people and the, “bad guys or girls”
1. The basic white girls (and the Japanese equivalent of that)
2. The preppies
3. The juvenile delinquents (Japanese yankee)
Go back to Tumblr and take your teenager race talk with you. Please.
It was only a joke. I was on Tumblr but left it for a reason. I was mostly going on what I’ve seen on going to a preppie college, Kamikaze Girls + anime, and being related to a bunch of basic white girls.
Tumblr really isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Just stay on the right tags and blogs and stuff
As someone who can also get carried away with their active distaste for Tumblr… I think you made the wrong judgement call here bud.
Thanks. Those are just stereotypes, and I figured Japanese stereotypes would be different than American ones.
Litten-Torracat my boi is Soo Lit <3
The only Pokemon I genuinely dislike is probably Jynx
It’s origins does leave a bad taste in one’s mouth.
Oh my! Well, hellooooooooo! *rf*
http://orig15.deviantart.net/a47b/f/2016/278/7/2/dartrix_personification_by_jgu112-dak13cy.jpg
*Hurls a brick at his stupid smug face*
I love this kind of stuff
I have the feeling the father is Ash…
Dude. That’d be kinda epic though.
Mabye only the child of Ash can use Ash-Greninja?
I hope so!
My friend thinks it’s Giovanni. If that’s true, I want a Silver cameo.
Can also. But wouldnt Ash be more logic with Ash-Greninja?