Road to Sun & Moon — Two Hours in Alola: What We’ve Learned

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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

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1,275 thoughts on “Road to Sun & Moon — Two Hours in Alola: What We’ve Learned”

  5. “The protagonist’ father is mentioned”

    I like how this has basically become an in joke to the series. Like, “SPOILERS, you might have a dad.” I mean, it happened once before, only in the most epic way possible so perhaps they figured there’s no point in trying to top Norman. Seriously though, how about they switch it for one game and have a stay at home dad to hold down the fort?

    Reply

  6. What’s funny some of you are just like my friends at school

    Earthen- like my one friend who’s uhhh…. just gonna say heftier like him and they both are overlord like (they should have a war)
    Starstorm- My only female friend at my table (I have other female friends) who’s lesbian and loves Pokémon

    That’s about it

    Reply

  9. wait is the demo releasing at the same time for everywhere or is like Australia gets it when 12am for them then japan etc.?

    Reply

  10. gotta be honest, I don’t really care one bit about the 3d being atrocious in poke’Finder, because I never use the 3d anyways. I honestly don’t care about pokefinder at all either.

    Reply

    • I’m really looking forward to the Poke’Finder as it’s kind of like a throwback to Pokémon Snap 🙂 But yeah, the 3D is just unnecessary.

      Reply

      • I loved pokemon snap. its so weird, playing these games again as an adult, everything is super easy now. (mischief makers comes to mind as a game I remember being really difficult, nowadays I 100% it without dying once in like 4 hours tops.)

        Reply

          • It’s a game that I really wish was better than it is. There are some really fun mechanics and ideas in there, but overall the game is kind of broken…

      • I hope we get more local options in addition to more online options. I hated that if you play locally, you couldn’t choose any more than 4 songs in x/y ORAS. I really, really, REALLY want the option to choose different arenas to battle in. There’s so many wonderful backgrounds in alola (the oricorio trailer comes to mind) and it’d be a shame to only be able to use the one that looks like a MGS virtual reality mission…

        Reply

    • With you there when it comes to the 3D, never use it either I tried to a couple of times but it wasn’t something I really liked xD

      Reply

  12. I wish I could just sleep the entire day away just freaking once, I want nothing to do with tomorrow and just want the demo asap

    Reply

  13. Seeing as tonight’s theme seems to be ‘Fairy is asking questions despite the fact its nearly half three in the morning but maybe he just wants to pull an all nighter because it’s the school holidays?’, here’s a Q for you all!

    What’s your career aspirations?

    Personally, I want to be a dietician.

    Reply

  16. Alright Eathen is bored….gonna go to bed and see how long I can stay in my room until my parents yell at me to get out…

    Reply

  17. Yo this is non pokemon related but there are so many live-action movie adaptations in the upcoming years. I’m kinda hyped for it. PLUS DON’T FORGET THE LIVE ACTION POKEMON MOVIE!!!

    Reply

      • I’m keeping my expectations low for Pokemon but freaking Alex Hirsch is writing it.

        But when I meant live action adaptations I meant: Beauty and the Beast, Deathnote, The Little Mermaid, and more.

        Reply

          • I don’t have high hopes for that, they’d really struggle to top the original. They’re probably gonna CGI-gloss the crap out of it.

            At least it’s technically not a complete remake and more of a reboot, it looks like they’re having a different plot. Karen Gillan is a good choice, Dwanye Johnson isn’t too bad but I get tired of seeing him play tough guys, and Jack Black tends to be quite samey.

          • Yah but Kevin Hart. So hoorah.

            Lol I don’t have high hopes for that either. I was just naming stuff they are doing this year.

          • Never heard of him before, and looking at his filmography I’ve never seen him in anything either. I’ve seen him in precisely one thing and it’s something I desparately tried to bleach from my brain.

            Fair enough. It is kind of a shame though, Karen Gillan is good (in her own right, not just because of Doctor Who or that superhero film)

          • I’m guessing your not American right?

            Kevin hart is a very very funny comedian who is extremely popular here.

          • Nope.

            Depends on the style of jokes, most American humour tends to be crude, slapstick or juvenile from what I’ve seen.

            It wouldn’t be impossible that a non-American would know about him looking at the number of films he’s been in, but most of the stuff he’s been in are the sort of things I tend not to watch (e.g. the ‘scary movie’ line).

          • Sorry was in the middle of typing and it sent. But what I was dying is hit style is more self-deprecating. But he’s for sure funny. But Seinfelds still my #1 guy

        • Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid sound boring, Deathnote might be good. For the Pokemon thing, even if the graphics are awful, as long as they give Alex Hirsch free roam it should turn out ok (unless he’s just doing a rewrite of an existing script, in which case it’s going to be mixed).

          Reply

          • Beauty and the beast actually visually looks amazing. Plus Emma Watson plays Belle (she’s like, real life belle) and the characters look amazingly designed.

            I don’t know about Little mermaid.

          • Eh, I lost faith in Emma Watson after all the ‘him for her’ stuff. I’m half expecting them to change the plot since I’ve heard feminists attack Beauty And The Beast as an ‘allegory of rape’ story before (among other crazy allegations).

        • Oh, yeah some of those could be good. The live action Disney ones have been really good so far IMO, so much that they are doing many many more. The new Ghost in The Shell movie is worrying, especially if it is bad as it may set a new precedent which may well be followed by Death Note. Of course there have already been Live action Death Note movies in Japan.

          Reply

  18. Uuuuuuh

    Gonna keep them questions coming

    Hmm.

    Well, Pokejungle is full of colourful characters, so why not focus on colours?

    Answer three of these:

    1) Eye Colour
    2) Hair Colour
    3) Bedroom Wall Colour
    4) Least Favourite Colour
    5) Favourite Colour
    6) Colour of the last cat you saw?
    7) Main colour of your favourite Pokémon

    Reply

    • Here’s mine BTW

      1) Blue (outer) and Grey (inner) (Central Heterochromia bros, get on my level ‘w’)
      2) Brown
      3) Blue
      4) Green
      5) White
      6) White, Brown and Black (Friend’ s cat over Snapchat)
      7) Pink

      Reply

        • I see Heterochromia all the time, my neighbour has huskies and it’s really common in them.

          My sister also dated a guy with complete Heterochromia, too bad it was the only interesting thing about him :p

          Reply

          • I’ve never encountered a person with it to my knowledge, but I tend not to look at people’s eyes or remember their eye colours so it’s completely possible I knew someone and didn’t notice it.

            I have a birthmark on one of my eyes that makes it very distinct from most people but I won’t go into detail as to what it looks like because it’s too uniquely identifying 😛

          • Yeah, don’t blame you wanting to avoid being identifiable, I only divulged on my eyes because I know central Heterochromia is quite uncommon, but not terribly rare, especially among Caucasians (and I’m in Scotland, so of course I blend in :p).

          • Yeah, heterochromea is fairly well documented (full heterochromea is even a common anime trope), but I’ve never even heard of anyone having a mark like I’ve got, let alone having seen one on TV or on the internet. I can’t even find an image that’s comparable.

            My grandad is Scottish 😛
            And that certainly explains why we’re in the same timezone, we’re on the same landmass/island. (Assuming you aren’t on one of those small island off the coast of Scotland, though I’ve got a feeling most of those don’t have internet XD)

          • You know what that means?

            Yer a wizard, Pharry :p

            Eeeyup, UK represent :p

            I couldn’t cope living on an island, much too quiet and too much terrible Internet. I’m a mainland boy, born and raised :p

          • That was a horrible joke ; n ;

            I could manage it if the internet was alright, I don’t mind being isolated. Same. I’m semi-rural, half-town half-countryside.

          • I am a terrible joke :p

            See, I couldn’t even really cope with semi-rural, I’m a city kinda guy. I need to have that constant noise and change every day, although I do live in what is best described as a ‘micro sub-urb’ so it gets quiet at night.

          • I dislike noise and people, I like quiet and laidback life. There’s a town centre where I live, but I’m on the outskirts and live near a reasonably large open field/wooded area where I occaisionally walk. It’s still quite noisy though because I live near some reasonably important roads and people where I live like to mow their lawns and do DIY a lot.

          • Yeah, but I’m probably exceptional even for where I live, so that’s not unusual. Most people where I live are more town oriented, though that might be because they live nearer the town centre and/or have hardly ventured to any nearby villages.

            Yeah, English 😛

    • 1. Mood ring eyes. They transition between blue, grey, and green and any combination of those three.
      2. Ginger/blonde
      3. Slate
      4. Pink
      5. Emerald Green
      6. Uhhh… white?
      7. Too many favorites.

      Reply

    • -Brown/Hazel
      -Brown (Though I was born blonde)
      -Purple
      -I like all colours in the right context
      -Purple
      -Tabby, so sort of grey with brown bits… I can give a better description when she comes back from her stroll
      -Requires picking a favourite pokemon, which is too hard

      Reply

    • 1. Dark Brown (almost black)
      2. Also really brown (almost black)
      3. Really light beige
      4. puke yellow
      5. Green
      6. Brown
      7. Orange/red

      Reply

    • is this about us?
      1) Hazel
      2) Brown
      3) Off-white
      4) Yellow
      5) Light-Pink (close to white)
      6) shes sitting on me, a long haired tortoiseshell coat (brown, black, tan)
      7) don’t know if there’s more brown or pink on bewear.. my guess is brown.

      Reply

    • 1) Light brown with green rings
      2) Black as black can be (people have asked if I dye my hair)
      3) Some ugly yellow ocre colour
      4) a muddy green/brown
      5) Pink or Yellow
      6) Brown and White
      7) White

      Reply

    • 1) A deep Green
      2) Closer to brown than blonde, but isn’t fully either
      2) Eggshell blue
      4) Pink
      5) Blue/Green
      6) Gray? or Orange? One of my cats
      7) I suppose orange (Volcarona)

      Reply

    • 1)Blue
      2)Dark Brown
      3)Blue-ish (Uni room) White I think? (home)
      4)Don’t really have one
      5)Lime Green
      6)Tortoiseshell
      7)Green

      Reply

    • 1) Hazel..ppl talk about green ring but I don’t fukin care
      2) not fully black I have few red/bloned
      3) I am not sure of that but my bed made of woody bones
      4) I don’t hate colors but humanz
      5) Black
      6) Black
      7) Black

      Reply

  19. Allllllrighty bouys and gills, the next questions up are gonna tie back to Pokémon because I feel some of us forgot it’s a Pokémon site :p (myself included).

    1) Least Favourite Pokémon Of Your Favourite Type?

    2) Favourite Pokémon Of Your Least Favourite Type?

    Reply

  21. Just caught a 0 speed IV Ditto. Hoping I can trade it for a Non-English 0 Speed IV Ditto ready for Gen 7. Took around a box of Ditto before I found it. If only we could reduce IV’s with Hyper training too…

    Reply

    • It says it’s an Organ for Torracat, I’m guessing it’ll keep that, moving to a slightly less savoury area…( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

      Reply

        • It’s an expression meaning less respectful of ‘common morals’, in this case it moves nearer it’s pelvic area, thus becoming slightly more ‘sexualised’ when combined with the word ‘Organ’. It may be difficult to explain, especially if you aren’t a native English speaker (and even if you are possibly).

          Reply

          • savoury, (figuratively) Morally or ethically acceptable

            The complication comes from it being a multi-layered joke, in that it is supposedly ‘morally wrong’ to discuss such things in public.

            Or at least it used to be, the modern world doesn’t give a shit. (Self-demonstrating commentary XD)

          • Yeah, I don’t really like to be so overt with people who are pretty much strangers, I felt I was pushing it as it was :/

          • I have a similar issue every time I try to discuss the programming language ‘brainfuck’ in a serious conversation with people I don’t know and aren’t on the internet.

            On the internet, anything goes. Though that might be because I’ve been spending too long on 4chan XD

        • I recently recompleted the 3DS remake.

          In some ways I prefer it to its predecesor. It certainly had more atmosphere and was more macabre/spooky.

          Reply

          • I love majoras mask so much. I have a very hard time explaining It, so I can only re-direct you to the best game reviewer ive ever heard: Matthewmatosis over on youtube. he has reviewed a lot of games, id recommend giving him a listen.

          • I’d say it’s a mixture of the haunting music, the surreal world, the interesting colour pallete, the layered events and stories, the way the main event has deeply impacted the life of every single person in the world and that it feels like a living world because every NPC has a routine, plus the way their behaviour changes upon completing significant events.

            Nah, I never listen to reviewers, I only ever observe gameplay and make up my own mind, it’s the only way to be sure 😛

            And I never watch youtube videos involving a real person narrating/giving a monologue (unless they are giving a lecture about a specific topic) if I can avoid it.

          • alright. i’d say give him at least one chance, but I cant force you if you don’t want to. he goes into such a depth that is so unheard of of anyone ive heard talk about anything, and its wonderful. just thought it’d help people think about the games they play on a much more deep and complex level is all.

          • I don’t like listening to videos that are just people talking since 9 times out of 10 it would be quicker to read a transcript/article than to sit there and listen.

            I’m not trying to be disrespectful, anyone else probably would, but I’m not like most people when it comes to youtube. I only really use youtube for music, clips from tv series and instructional/lecture videos (e.g. about bezier splines or matrices).

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