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
“The D-Pad is no longer used for moving in the overworld – movement is no longer gridlocked and only the analog stick is used”
Sads
“The sneaking up on Pokémon mechanic from ORAS has been removed entirely”
Half and half. Having to sneak up was annoying but it was worth it for the easy 3+IVs.
“3D has been removed completely from the game other than important cutscenes and the PokéFinder”
Fair enough, hardly used it anyway.
“In the two hours of gameplay, very few people got to the first trial, much less completed it”
Excellent.
“You are able to change your hairstyle in the first major city”
Long hair had better be an option. But good
“The local Alolan Pokédex is split into four sections – one for each island – similar to the Kalos Pokédex”
Slightly unexpected but a nice feature.
“Confirmation that you do get medals for completing trials”
Unsurprising.
“When a Pokémon evolves you see its entire evolutionary family on screen”
Interesting
“Poké Pelago and Poké Ride were not available in the first two hours of the game”
Expected.
“The early events of Sun & Moon take place over several days”
Interesting, sounds good.
“The protagonist moved to the Alola Region from Kanto and arrived via plane”
DAMMIT KANTO!!! ; n ;
“Early in the game the protagonist falls off a bridge and is saved by Tapu Koko”
Neat.
“There is a Tauros that blocks the road to prevent you from continuing on to a certain area at one point”
Ah, the classic RPG tropes 🙂
“You meet the first Trial Captain, Ilima, at the Trainers’ School”
Completely expected.
“The EXP. Share is given to you at the Trainers’ School and still gives experience to your entire team”
*switches it off*
“The Gumshoos trail is the first in the game”
I think that’s supposed to be trial but also completely expected.
you liked the grid locked movement?
I still used it from time to time, it’s nice to have that feature there because of nostalgia (among other things).
Heck, part of me still misses sprites.
I gotta say, I wasn’t a fan of some the animated sprites in gen v (at least the back sprites) of them looked awful sometimes. swanna is a good example that comes to mind.
I’m thinking more G4. G5 tried to be a hybrid and it resulted in an abomination because they did it half-heartedly.
DPP and HGSS were almost perfect.
yeah I really liked those sprites, definitely the cleanest in the series sprite-wise
In terms of 3D ORAS was an improvement over XY, but hopefully SM will be an improvement over ORAS.
G4 will always be the best sprite-based graphics. Before the switch to 3D I was hoping XY would be more like HGSS because HGSS was beautiful.
http://pad2.whstatic.com/images/thumb/b/b1/Get-the-%3F-and-!-Unowns-in-Pokemon-HeartGold-Step-2.jpg/aid2803474-728px-Get-the-%3F-and-!-Unowns-in-Pokemon-HeartGold-Step-2.jpg
yes, HGSS had such a… I guess “vintage” would be the best word to describe it. if only I could have made it so my lead pokemon was in their pokeball instead of following me, I would have liked that game so much more.
I wouldn’t really call it ‘vintage’, there are still a lot of modern games that use a tile/grid-based system because it makes the game easier to make and gives a nice feel.
Odd, most people really liked the mechanic. I think I know what you’re getting at though, the thing you send into battle isn’t always what you want following you.
This is why the other day I proposed a ‘mascot’ system where one pokemon gets designated as your ‘mascot’ and that pokemon follows you around but doesn’t necissarily go into battle, like what Ash does with Pikachu.
I meant the overall design and feel of redesigned johto. the abundance of warm colors, yellows, reds, oranges, the slow, relaxing music. I remember vividly the redesigned ecruteak, the sight of the tower bathing in the fallen leaves.
Yeah, it’s hard to put a name to that. I’d say maybe oriental or traditional Japanese, or perhaps compare it to an ukiyo-e painting. The bell tower path I’d describe as ‘autumnal’.
I guess I don’t mind it, but I would prefer that to be present. I generally don’t like to wear out that analog stick more than I need to.
Also without the d-pad how are we gonna hatch eggs now without looking at the screen?
maybe festival plaza?
Well festival plaza is circular but the problem with the analog stick still exists. Good luck making our characters go straight left or right especially when we aren’t looking at the screen. Get it wrong and we might get stuck on a corner. 😉
In ORAS I use the D-Pad to circle around houses or jolt back and forth.
I like the d pad for navigating small spaces where you want to pick up an item but don’t want to accidentally jump off a ledge. The stick isn’t very accurate for that kind of thing.
Same. It was a nice touch for the more accurate moments
Glad to see I’m not the only one aware of its uses.
“The D-Pad is no longer used for moving in the overworld – movement is no longer gridlocked and only the analog stick is used”
The people who destroyed their analog stick through Smash 3DS will be crying.
Yup, glad I’m not one of them.
I’m just gonna miss it in general.
my stick fell off, I’m not sure how. but its a simple fix so its no big deal.
https://twitter.com/RealShigeruM/status/787760028434501632
Oh, and: 37 days for us non-Americans.
why is that? ive always wondered but I couldn’t find an answer
No idea, all I know is we’re getting it 5 days later and nobody’s happy about it. It means loads of us are going to have to swerve pokemon news for about a week.
That’s why I’m half hoping there will be datamining, at least then everyone is punished.
I want datamining so I can plan a team. its not really a punishment.
It is for some who don’t want to know. It won’t bother me much if it’s only the pokedex that gets leaked and not the story.
The more I hear about people planning teams, the more I think I’m just going to wing it. Being prepared for everything will make the game too quick and easy, being unprepared will make it more of a challenge and might encourage me to use some pokemon I wouldn’t otherwise consider using if I was aware of there being someone better nearby.
Repercussion for the early leaks that happened in Europe, they want to avoid a leak before release.
That doesn’t sound legit, they’ve been planning a different release date for at least 7 months.
I hope it leaks in the US so they see that it can happen everywhere.
Only for Europe. Australia and Japan get it on the 18th as well.
Yeah, I don’t really like classing myself as part of Europe though.
Wasn’t aware Australia is getting the early date though, that’s weird considering they’re part of the commonwealth.
Yeah, that does seem odd. I’m guessing Europe is still getting punished for Italy and Spain leaking XY. Australia didn’t do anything :p
Italy and Spain should be punished, not all of us.
I don’t even think *all* of Italy and Spain should be punished – just the retailers who were wise guys. It wasn’t the whole country that did anything wrong 🙁
The retailers did, they got fined for several times the RRP.
Ha! Good.
It just sucks that anyone else has to pay for their mistakes.
Yes but, Canada also released early, they still get it the 18th. And that doesn’t explain why South Africa get it the 23rd.
:'( way to make me depressed..
It’s got to be said, America sometimes forgets us other people exist.
Right? idk get why its 5 days… why not 1 day later or idk… It just doesn’t make sense.. All of us get punished because some retailer fucked up xD
It’s because of PEGI, no other reason people give makes sense. If it was a punishment for leaking then Canada would be Punished too. And South Africa is also getting it the 23rd. South Africa use PEGI for Nintendo Games. In fact the only countries effected use PEGI, therefore, PEGI are the issue. Probably due to some sort of content in the games.
More likely PEGI’s system takes longer or they were late submitting or something.
I was just hinting at the fact almost nobody acknowledges that we’re getting it later when discussing how long until the game is released.
I must admit though, if I were in charge I’d be putting the other release dates back so that it releases for everyone at the same time.
I will likely be taking my leave in case of data dumps and losers that want to spoil the games for everyone. I just can’t wait to get my Rowlett ?
I want more new Pokémon
yeah!
Hmm, I wonder if Kukui battled the Kanto gym leaders’ Pokemon himself.
Less than 24 hours till the demo comes out on e-shop! SO EXCITED OMG
So, just wondering, will the Japanese get their e-shop demo at 12am their time, meaning we might start to see screenshots emerge on the interwebz in about 4 hours?
Maybe even sooner, it’s 8:53pm here in Australia. Just three hours to go.
Canada also released early, they still get it the 18th. And that doesn’t explain why South Africa get it the 23rd. So Europe getting it later just cause of stores releasing doesn’t add up.
It’s more likely the Rating System, PEGI, thast are the cause of the Issue.
*cries* By the time I start playing the game people will already have finished it
IDK if you guys have seen this Digital Spy preview ( http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/pokemon/review/a810712/pokemon-sun-and-moon-review/ )
but it offers up some weird tidbits. Claiming mainly that:
– Traditional HMs are gone, and the first one you get is Work Up. (?!)
– It refers to “The Seven Trials”…
Whether these are genuine revelations, or potential misunderstanding the mechanics because it’s a non-specialised news source… I just thought it interesting.
Seen it cope up several times, it’s clear that the writer isn’t actually interested in pokemon so they messed certain things up. The first point is supposed to mean “HMs are gone, but TMs are still around and Work Up is the first one obtained” and the second is probably the result of a miscommunication, (though it’s not impossible that there are only 7 trials).
Unlikely that there would be only 7 trials, if so, we know all the trial instigators (5 trial captains and 2 Kahunas). We know there’ll be 4 kahunas at the very least.
I’m pretty sure the Kahunas don’t have trials, only trial captains do. I could be wrong, but that’s the impression I got.
It depends what the trials are and how they’re classifying them, I think only 7 would certainly be possible, but it’s unlikely, hence why I think the article saying 7 is the result of a miscommunication. It could be 7 per island, it could be that someone told the reporter 7 out of nowhere and the reporter didn’t check their facts, there’s loads of reasons why it could have been misreported.
They do, it was mentioned when the Kahunas were revealed that the last trial on each island is called the Grand Trial and is a battle against the Kahuna
“The final trial on each island is called the grand trial. It is a Pokémon battle against the kahuna who leads that island. If a trial-goer succeeds in clearing this grand trial, he or she will be publicly recognized as having cleared all of the island’s trials and can move on to the next island.”-Sun and Moon official site :p
Haven’t found that before, but good to know.
I’ve heard tell that the demo for SM is 3.2 GB, which sounds like they may not have bothered to strip the data out. Let’s pray that most of that is zeroed out memory.
No, that’s the actual game. The demo is 400mb
Then bitbag has got it wrong.
http://www.thebitbag.com/pokemon-sun-moon-demo-release-time-file-size-expect/191743
They do. I’ve seen the source tweet from Serebii, he was comparing the file sizes of the download versions of the actual games.
Yeah, probably bitbag getting it wrong, idigitaltimes is convinced it’s 400MB. That’s still nearly 0.5GB so it could be the entirety of the Pokedex.
Guys, we know the day that we’ll receive the demo, but we don’t know the time. How are we going to know?
Staying up all night and waiting patiently 😀
Serebii mentions that Europe gets it late morning, I’d assume the same in each timezone.
Ah, I finally actually have an excuse to get up in the morning for a change.
Oh, thanks, for the info. That’s good for people from Europe, just like me.
Wait a moment does “late morning” mean 7 a.m.?
It’s intentionally ambiguous.
Noon is 12, morning is usually 6-12 but can be earlier depending on your definition.
I’d assume ‘late morning’ to be 9, 10 or 11. 7 is still early as far as I’m concerned.
aw i wont get to play until i get back from school ://////
Gotta love 4chan somedays, so full of crap:
Just finished playing the demo for my journal’s review
Heres the deal
>you are randomly assigned to be a boy or a girl every time you play
>the
demo takes place in a city called Loloa-Talekiai City. There’s a huge
tower but you can’t enter it. The music is a fantastic blend of
traditional Japanese and Hawaiian
>Team Skull has taken a coup on the town
>using
one of the starter middle evolutions at level 29 and an Alolan Pokemon
(I got Ninetales, someone I know on another site got Sandslash) you
fight a few Skull Grunts
>didnt see anything new. Would have said Alolan Muk but thats revealed already
>in front of the tower is Guzma. Kukui gives you Greninja to fight him.
>Guzma
has Ariados and the evolution of Salandit, Toximodo. I cant post
pictures for obvious reasons but best way I can describe it is it’s
HUGE, on all fours, and has lava veins all over its body, with a huge
purple sac on its back glowing and pulsating. Its Special Defense is
nasty, it took a few hits even with Ash-Greninja to take it down.
>after you beat Guzma you get to keep Greninja and you can explore the town.
>you can transfer all the money you have and a daily bonus Kukui gives you to Sun and Moon. I got 5 Poke Balls today.
>you are also given entrance to a route outside of the town, Route 11.
>there are randomly chosen trainers there that change every time you load the game
>You won’t be able to evolve those starters, there is no exp.
>i
saw 2 new Pokemon in the grass of Route 11. Alolan Drowzee which is
Ground type, Its covered in mud and looks to be asleep all the time like
Snorlax, and Lumungi, looks to be an evolution of Morelull which can
also be found. It looks like a mix between a weird tentacle monster and a
old samurai with a straw hat. Its still tiny but it glows.
>one of the trainers you can fight has Pikipek’s evolution, Pekipekka. Its just bigger and fiercer.
Thats all I got folks! Enjoy
“didn’t see anything new”
*proceeds to discuss new things seen*
Is this true?
I’d be very surprised if it was.
‘However, the Nintendo Download press release for Europe has just been released and within it, it has confirmed that the demo is to come in “late morning” in Europe.’
Oh, poop. I was so looking forward to tonight, sitting up until midnight and refreshing the eshop. *grumpy face* 🙁
Tomorrow morning? Damn yes! That means I might be able to download it before I head out to uni and can dive in when I get back home 😀
OMG Europe’s getting it tomorrow so lucky! I wish Canada could be considered European, not *gags* ‘North American’.
…?
Is getting the demo early (I don’t see how that’s early) worth getting the real game five days late?
….?
Pretty sure everyone’s getting it at some point to tomorrow 😡
Oh I thought everyone else got it the 19th.
I’m okay with most of this stuff. I’m alittle surprised they took out the sneaking up feature from ORAS. I figured they would’ve made a better version of it in S and M but oh well. I just liked it for the egg moves and 3 IVs
CONFIRMED: The demo includes Pikachu on your team, you’ll be able to use Pikachu’s Z-move and you get to battle Plumeria as well (Serebii)
Ugh, I want to use NEW pokemon.
Ehh Ash-Greninja is sort of new 😛
It’s to allow you to use Z-Moves, the big feature this Gen.
And I mean, it is the mascot.
Looks like they’re adamant in not showing Plumeria’s second Pokémon (we see she uses two, including Golbat, in what is most likely the first battle in the actual game), so hopefully it’s a sign GameFreak won’t be stupid enough to leave the irrelevant data in.
Also, the demo-Pikachu is level 40. So I’m assuming we’ll be playing midway through the game.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be at any point in the game, it can be a completely structured experience.
Has Japan already gotten the demo? Do we have pics?
It’s not even the eighteenth in Japan right now, not for another three hours :p
Although I feel it may be an international release seeing as Europe isn’t getting it at midnight.
u_U
With these Screenshots, there is Plumeria (correct me if I’m wrong pls) and that kinda gives more credibility points to that leak that Pharap copied from 4chan. I don’t know, just saying. (And im sorry about my english).
Link please?
How will ability bond affect Greninja? If it keeps protean and gets a 100 stat boost it can end up in the AG tier.
Battle Bond’s Ash-Greninja’s main ability now so goodbye Protean~
like anyone would even use Battle-Bond when Protean is clearly better
I hope that when it transfers Protean is taken off and replaced if it’s from ORAS or XY
Battle Bond replaces Protean. But my guess it’ll have a significant stat boost (attack and speed imo) to make up for that.
Yes!!!
I wonder if Ash-Greninja will have the same moveset as its anime counterpart? So Water Shuriken, Double Team, Cut and Aerial Ace?
I’m going back to the days when Exp. Share didn’t exist for my run through Moon. As awesome and convenient it is to gain experience for your entire group, the cost of convenience is too high. I think that’s why I didn’t enjoy X and Y because it was too easy to level. With it being too easy to level I didn’t stick around areas where I should have dedicated more of my time to. Plus Gym Leaders became a breeze. I remember the only challenge I had in X and Y was Mega Gardevoir during the League and even then it wasn’t all that difficult. Maybe I just want what BW had: The illustrious hard more. 😛
I wish it went back to being a held item and maybe post game you could get it upgraded to give your entire team Exp.
They’d be better off just moving it to post-game, they don’t need to turn it into the single-item-form now because we have lucky eggs for that (the sole reason I don’t mind Pelipper being horribly common).
I wish that they bring back the difficulty settings Gamefreak had implemented in B2 and W2, but let it be accessed earlier on in game. That way, players who want a hard challenge can be satisfied with what they put up. I too felt that way about X and Y. It was ok to me, however, the games were bland in the way for me to actually get a “run for my money” type of gameplay.
This is really late, but I feel like it should been Path to Sun & Moon, making it it’s own thing. That way we’d have Journey to X & Y, Road to Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, and Path to Sun & Moon.
i think maybe you should of mentioned on the last part where sun it’s gumshoos but in Moon it will be Alolan-Raticate since they are by day/night. that just screams exclusive pokemon to me.
So…looks like we’re in the dark on the Pokédex until the whole game comes out?
https://mobile.twitter.com/JoeMerrick/status/788196789719601152