Hands-On with the Pokémon Sun & Moon Demo [UPD]

Hey everyone, the Japanese Pokémon Sun & Moon Demo is out now and I’ve begun playing! I’m going to be updating this post so please REFRESH to see new updates.

At the very beginning you’re asked to choose the language. Like before, this is not an option that can be changed later. The music is awesome.

You slowly zoom into the map and up to your house. As the door opens it switches you come out and check the mailbox. It’s a letter from someone asking about how their Greninja is doing… but they forgot to write their name. Who could it be??

Mom come out and reminds him that they need to go to City Hall to change their address. Apparently ‘alola’ means hello in Alola.

While they register that you’re a new arrival from the Kanto region you’re free to poke around the City Hall. If you try to exit, Hau will stop you. He agrees to show you around town.

Right outside, Team Skull will stop you (amazing music) and they’ve got some great hand gestures going on. You go right into a battle with one.

You face off with Greninja versus the grunt’s Yungoose. After being defeated they threaten to tell their ‘big sis’ (Plumeria).

Hau is then ready to show you the Pokémon Center. If you try to access the café, the woman behind the counter will tell you she’s just looking after the place and the owner will be back in “about a month” (haha).

After Greninja is back at full strength, Professor Kukui will greet you outside. He asks you if you’d like to try a trial and agrees to hold one at Ten Carat Hill.

Poking around town before I go; one NPC mentions a famous female Alolan golfer named Kahili who is traveling, but may return. Another mentions that you must be 11 to start the island challenge in Alola, older than in other regions. There’s an area to find wild Pokémon before the challenge, but you have no Pokéballs. I’ve seen Rockruff, Yungoos and Pikipek.

There is also a police station and malasada (dessert food) restaurant.

Kukui will meet you at Ten Carat hill, so you need to walk there to catch up. You’ll have to walk through grass, fending off wild Pokémon, as well as battle a trainer (if you’d like).

To start the trial you get the Pokéfinder (Rotom Dex). You must take a picture of Jangmo-o and its evolution. Sometimes the Pokémon can be startled and attack!

Once you’ve gotten all 3 pictures you exit the cave to find a Totem Pokémon: Hakamo-o. It seems that totem Pokémon receive a buff, in this case Hakamo-o’s Sp. Def was raised. During battle it called an ally Pokémon, Rockruff.

After defeating it, Kukui will run out and give you a Z-ring as well as Electrium Z. Hau brings Team Skull back to you and it’s time to face off with Plumeria using a Z-move!

That ends the demo, but if you start again from the title screen Kukui will give you the Poké Rider tool so that you can page Tauros.

Update: Alolan Dugtrio has been found within the demo! And some new prominent characters were shown in the trailer at the end of the demo (most likely Trial Captains)!

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1,293 thoughts on “Hands-On with the Pokémon Sun & Moon Demo [UPD]”

  1. How long will the demo be available for? I have to wait until friday to get a battery for my 2ds, really don’t wanna miss out on this. . .

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  2. Love the new Pokemon Centers Everything, especially the healing process. And it seems Ash will Finally turn 11! I knew he looked older, n his clothing is much more modern and mainstream

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  3. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

    WTF
    Water Shuriken is now Special
    Edit @ 02:37: Battle Bond also boosts Water Shuriken’s strength
    The trial is to photo two Jangmo-o and two Hakamo-o, one of which is a Totem Pokémon
    02:46: Z Move Power varies depending on the base move. Gigavolt Havoc from Thunderbolt is 175 base pow

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  4. Man the data miners are coming in fast. It seems that they’ve already revealed two more trial captains at least, and one other person who might be a trial captain or a Kahuna. And since I don’t know how to post those spoiler tags, aI’ll leave it at(assuming these are real), Earthen will likely be both very happy, and very mad with one of them.

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  5. So what do you guy’s think of Z Mopves.. it’s almost as powerful as using the same attack twice at once. I’m assuming it takes on sp of physical based on the move too.

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  6. Some speculation.

    Alright, I think we have a good guess of where the ground and flying trail captains are, both being on the west most island. You can see the Ground captain in front of a black sort of mountain, which matches the one on the southern island, and we clearly see the flying one on the Whalelord boat in the harbor of the island. The ghost girl still eludes me

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        • lol Can’t afford to pay taxes.. Trump is total trash. Truely a morally bankrupt human being. But it’s so annoying listening to people who don’t understand how accounting and taxes work shit on wealthy people because they take large deductions. They still pay more taxes than you and I.

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          • Im so glad I live in canada so Im not 100% affected by the joke of a candidate they have, that being said if he gets in the world will collectively sigh

          • HELP US. WE HAVE A FRAT BOY WHO NEVER GREW UP AND A CHEATING GOLEM RUNNING. WE NEED TO GET BERNIE BACK. PLEASE SEND HELP TO DE-LEGITIMIZE THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY WHICH WAS UNDENIABLY RIGGED. DOES THE CANADIAN MEDIA TALK ABOUT THE WIKILEAKS?

          • I try not to say much more than that for my opinion on the elections you guys have, that being said its kinda your own countries fault bernie isn’t there is it not… in canada we have a 3 party system, you guys really need to do away with the two party BS

          • I KNOW RIGHT!? The fact that we have to pick the lesser of two evils every election makes no sense. Hopefully this election will make us wake up and realize the system needs reworking

          • I personally don’t think there is a lesser. She has no moral views on people’s lives she doesn’t know personally and he is a man without class and or respect for people other than ones like himself

          • I’m Hoping if Trump does win that the INSANE amount of pressure from the EU and the like cause him to be Impeached.

          • Weren’t they dropped because she Manipulated James Comey who from my understanding probably would have slammed the hammer on her for political reasons but didn’t and defended her by saying she’s too dumb to know the meaning of the word CLASSIFIED?

          • the Republican Party’s plans are the problem, because Trump would probably be run out of Office for Tanking Foreign Relations. Hillary’s Malleable enough that progressives can just cock block her from stuff like the TPP which she Says she’s against but we all know wants so Obama is Whoring himself to get it so she doesn’t.

          • Actually there is evidence that proves the DNC WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE NEUTRAL were working with Hillary, and Evidence showing that the poll results were modified for her since there was always deviation in Hillary’s favor

          • if thats true, which I try not to read to much into things like that, your country has some issues… little corrupt there

          • and the Media doesn’t give a damn. Has the Canadian Media Said anything about Wikileaks, or the Wikileaks War or Whatever is happening now?

          • Canada follows everything you guys do but canada as a whole hates trump more, even my crazy father who always thinks the most outrageous candidate thinks trump will pretty much destroy the world. But as for wikileaks pretty sure those have been confirmed false. Canada doesn’t get into the secret politics of it all if there is any, but trump is upfront about all his awful stuff so its hard to ignore

          • Them being Russian leaks is what sounds false, WTF does russia have against her, they can mold her just as well if not better than trump since she’s Stable. the Emails are Likely Real as the Clinton Campaign isn’t actually Denying them as far as I know, only Paying the Media to Ignore them.

          • lol Not trying to turn this into a pissing contest, but I wouldn’t move to Canada even if Trump did magically become president. I value economic freedom quite a bit and by the website I go by for that scale still ranks us higher than Canada. Also, except for people getting caught up in the hype, everyone and their mom knows Trump won’t win. He’s entire movement is counter-culture so by definition he isn’t the norm. He was able to get the GOP nomination because the voting base was split. But look at Bernie’s counter-culture appeal in a primary with only 2 choices. He lost. Same will happen with Trump. In a two party system a counter-culture candidate will never win, for better or for worse.

          • no, he lost because someone manipulated Electronic voting machines which could mean he won despite the superdelegates.

          • He wouldn’t have won even if the super delegates weren’t a thing. Hilary still had more normal delegates. lol But I guess that’s the cool thing for the counter-culture candidates and supporters to shout about right now. “It’s rigged I tell ya! Rigged!”

          • I just wish people in politics were honest and good people. The truth is people like that don’t survive in that world. It’s sad but true. I almost wish I was English. Their people Atleast have some say in national decisions. We have none over here it feels like anymore.

          • did you see the Statistics? ACTUAL STATISTICIANS SAID THAT THE DEVIATIONS WERE ABNORMAL AND COULDN’T BE ERROR DUE TO THEM ALWAYS BEING IN HER FAVOR, AND ONLY WHEN ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES WERE USED, AND THERE WAS SUPPRESSION OF PEOPLE ABLE TO VOTE.

          • You do realize that almost all media sides with the Democratic Party so believing any news station is pointless as they are almost always highly biased towards one party or the other.

          • I don’t watch or read anything from any specific news site/station. I typically wait a long time before commenting on news as I try to wait and get as big a picture as possible. I’m neither liberal nor conservative so most places’ biases work against my own 50% of the time so I’m always very aware of that.

          • must be hard not actually getting real news down there, I cant even imagine. That being said… everyone knows fox news are just plain mean

          • I’d move to New Zealand or Singapore if I ever moved. But USA would have to drop out of the top 20 freest countries before I do that. Right now we’re 11.

          • It’s in the top 5 freeist places in the world. 🙂 Sadly I have too many relationships and opportunity here to just start from scratch on the other side of the world. Also I hear their internet sucks. xD But by golly I’m gonna visit one day at least.

          • Well as a white male who has had every social freedom he could ever really want afforded to him, I focus primarily on economic freedom which is important for human kind’s development. But people are too invested in the status quo. People fear change and capitalism’s creative destruction isn’t always taken to well because it actually expects people to evolve and change and try.

          • well technically he lost so much money that he doesn’t have to… and that caused Bernie to draw up something to Fix that Dumbass Loophole … Vote Hillary, then just plaster her government with progressives so she can’t do anything or wait until some Crazy takes a pot shot at her.

          • I would prefer Kim Kardashian and I hate her. He is a pig and she has a long history of her friends committing suicide once they get involved in court cases involving her. Xd

  7. The biggest news so far to me (I know it’s weird), WATER SHURIKEN IS NOW SPECIAL! ^_^ Wtf were they thinking before in Gen VI?

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    • I was thinking Water Shuriken Night Slash Acrobatics and Ice Beam/ some physical ice move with a Flying Gem that never came to pass because gems didn’t come back.

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  8. ok so about the ghost trial captain The purple haired ghost girl is very clearly the ghost trail captain, her bracelet must be her trail emblem thing. She appears to be in a weird luminescent cave or dome place with a structure made of bones behind her maybe she is located near the graveyard on the 3rd island

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  9. From 4chan. Apparently people have tried datamining, but anything not revealed in the demo was replaced by Pikachu and it’s stats! I hope this is true! It would seriously stop data miners from making some major leaks. We can thank Pikachu for keeping S/M special.

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      • exactly. I like knowing all the mons in advance to plan my team, but the experiences we go through together need to be a surprise.

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    • We know that Apparently the Aether Foundation Made a Clone of God, Eldrazi are Invading Hawaii, and Guzma’s Angry he Couldn’t be a Trial Captain or Something and is taking it out on everyone.

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  10. ok guys if you do not like spoilers well get off the internet lol. Joe was wrong, it wasn’t scrubbed enough everything is in the demo according to rumors. So info will be coming.

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  11. I’m trying to get the demo but I don’t see it in the eshop. It said I was available at 7:00 PDT… but it’s still not there. Anyone else having this issue? You

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  12. Uhhgggg I don’t wanna have to leave. These have been the most fun months I’ve had on PokeJungle and I hate that I have to leave in fear of data mining. Tomorrow may be my last day here for a couple months if what Joe said was true and it really wasn’t scrubbed enough

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  13. Wait. Imagine if GF had put fake data on the demo knowing that it would have been datamined. Imagine our face when the game are out and there are 80 new pokemon, 75 already revealed.

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  14. So…I know he has probably called it quits and may have left because of the spoilers, but could someone somehow tell Earthen that there are rumors on some sites that Alola Dugtrio is Ground/Fairy (read on Bulbagarden Forums).

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  15. I think the biggest issue with data mining is that were not going to get much info on new Pokemon with Pikachu replacing their data. I do not expect a lot from this data mining as a whole, but I certainly do not mind the new information!

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  16. Looks like things are a LOT crazier than I thought they’d be. I guess I have to stick around here tonight. Did anyone bring snacks?

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  17. Team’s still busy cracking the format, probably won’t have anything significant until it’s available for everyone
    -@NWPlayer123 on twitter

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  18. “Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now.”

    Seriously, the Pokémon community is EXPLODING and I love every second of it.

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  19. I’ve never been this hype. Not with XY and Megas. Not with ORAS and Hoenn in 3D. Guess everyone’s inner fan came out tonight, and that’s a sight I’m truly happy to see :”)

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  20. I really need to get some sleep and focus on my midterm in the morning, so please save any info revealed and let me know when I get back (most likely played the demo when I do)
    Night guys 🙂

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      • It’s hard to know exactly, the way he said it is ambiguous, like It could be they have split evos, or the rumors that split evos are fake, I wish someone would just post the dex and we can confirm it finally

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          • all he said was ‘split-evo’ when the OP was asking if the leaks were fake or if the split evos were fake. I dunno, we need solid confirmation at this point to know for sure.

  21. So where is the best place to look out for leaks, I don’t really use twitter so I don’t know who to follow, and 4chan just seems to be full of way too many trolls. If someone could help me please!!

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  22. I can’t wait to see what kind of explanation the Pokemon website comes up with for Alolan Dugtrio. It will be something for the record books.

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  23. As far as the final evolutions for the starters go, Joe essentially confirmed them for real after someone asked about “split evolutions” on Twitter. As if we believed otherwise.

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  24. According to some 4-chan peeps, the dex should be posted by 1am (the next 20 or so minutes)

    Keep in mind, when it does leak, it will only be of the pokemon’s shinies, as the normal models were all changed to pikachu, but the shinies weren’t changed.

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  25. If datamines come tonight, this will be the largest leak season we’ve ever had. Final evos, the Riddler, various 4chan leaks and potential datamines will make these the most spoiled games to date xD

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  26. Not sure what to do when the game’s dumped. Leave and isolate myself for the next month? Or revel in our new knowledge as a result of GF’s foolishness xD

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  27. listen, just like college paper, if you going to post grounbreaking spoilers, we need academic scholar resources, atleasr 2 in APA style

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  28. According to Kaphotics, the next upload of leaks will be in 3 hours (thats when he’s posting the next video). Many believe it will the full pokedex leak (well their shiny forms anyways).

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    • Same. But I really think that that’s it. There are so many things that seem pretty frustrating but I think its pretty much done. Unless some things were scrubbed and we only have a little bit un spoiled.

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  29. Omg what happened to poor dugtrio x)
    How long is the demo? I’m only playing it later (just woke up) and gotta study today.
    And I reeeally hope they leak them all! I’m ready for the pokedex

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    • You mean like how they slapped on a tan and long hair and called him “Alolan” Oak? Don’t be surprised that GameFreak is running out of ideas.

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  30. Ok so here’s my team now
    -Popplio3
    -Mimikyu
    -Alolan Ninetales/Lycanrock day idk
    -Lurantis
    -Salandit I Guess. Here is hoping for one more evolution
    -Oricorlo Electric

    I sill say that Marshadow is adorable and will probably get an “evolution” in eclipse

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  31. ok I’m back on this page now. I saved as many images as possible incase they become difficult to find. but man, there are some strange and rude people that come to this site I haven’t ever seen here before.

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  32. So what we’ve learned from the leaked moves is that they’re trying to make it harder to spam Pixilate Hypervoices and priority moves.. cool

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  33. Wow if this are all the new Pokemon we’re getting I’m not gonna lie I’m very disappointed even with the Alolan versions ?

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  34. I have the self control of a dead goldfish

    1) Salandit evo is on point son
    2) Popplio3 is real, Yasss
    3) Ribombee and Komala not evolving genuinely disappoints me, but especially Komala. Part of me is praying there’s a few Pokémon that got completely scrubbed, but that’s probably just denial.
    4) If all those Tapus are Fairy this Gen is as close to perfect as it could be for me

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  35. I guess I’ll put down my final team I guess
    Beltigre
    Lycanroc
    Mudsdale
    Wimpod’s Evo
    Maybe Bewear or Crabrawler evo….
    Kommo-o

    I still have no idea what that Pressure Gauge Anchor thing is gotta say I feel quite bummed that my Ground/Fighting type will never be….a reality, and the rest are just lackluster

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  36. BTW, the ‘Snowman/Yeti’ from the Chinese leak appears to be Crabrawler’s evo, a literal yeti crab.

    The dolphin appears to be the ‘Poni’ Guardian but I personally see a swordfish or another pointy fish.

    And anyone got any type Predictions for Marshadow? Methinks Dark/Fairy or Poison/Psychic

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  37. does nobody care about spoiling things for people who don’t want to be spoiled? I saw all the datamined material but I know some people don’t want to see it yet.

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  38. LOL I won’t lie I came into this gen expectng the level of X&Y, so I didn’t over hype myself at least Pokemon number wise. Though I’m glad that my expectations were met and then some with the designs of most of these pokemon. Kinda of bummed theyre a lot of standalone pokemon.

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  39. Sirenade
    Bewear
    Salandit
    Tsareena
    Ninetails
    I’m thinking either anchor guy, a lycanroc, or drampa. theres so many cool pokemon this gen I’m having a tough time choosing.

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  40. I don’t get the UBs. They’re so overdesigned that it’s actually hard to tell where they start and where they end. (and the fact that they are most likely catchable boggles my mind even more)

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  41. My absolute last hope for a Ground/Fighting type is that Tapu Tauro it could not be a Fairy just because Tapu Koko is doesn’t mean they’re all are

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  42. Very nice, it’s as if the game has been released with all these new pokemon. I am not 100% happy with the new pokemon but what can I do? No need for whining because it won’t change anything. The best part about this demo datamine is I can finally choose my team.

    Litten 3
    Lycanroc
    Kommo-o
    Wimpod 2
    Slandit
    Alolan exeggcutor

    Don’t care about type coverage

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  43. well, its 5 am here. I’m going to lie in bead hoping to get drowsy while I analyze these ultrabeasts and see if I can make a connection to anyone else. heres a thought: What if looker had a connection to the ultra beasts?

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    • why? i feel like a lot of them are great. as i mentioned in previous articles (since they got deleted or something lol) they are opening up to new memes which is adapting to the audience of pokemon or even video games in general. also keep in mind we are still in the year of the anniversary of pokemon so its a way to celebrate. revisiting kanto pokemon and changing them in an unexpected way. the alolan pokemon are new, just different versions of older pokemon

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      • There are some I like but some feel so lazy and uninspired. They had so many great options, even if they were only Kanto pokemon, but wasted them by changing the colour or adding hair. They definitely chose the safe option in terms of design and typing for some.

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  44. can someone post the original rumored concept art for the starters… for some reason I’m very happy with how litten evolution looks in game but i can’t figure out why my opinion changed.

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          • THe man thing is to have the starters stand out more and give them more character. Each of the starters, the quadraped seems less favoured than most:

            Gen 1: Venasaur
            Gen 2: Meganium
            Gen 4: Torterra
            Gen 5: Samurott

            The other starters seem to have a lot more personality or character to them or were favoured overall.

            Gen 6 and 7 are the only gens to not have quadrapedal starters. That being says, the starter seem to be overall like for the personality, character, and archetypes.

            Note: Gen 3 is also an exception: All the starts seem to be like across the board. The being said Swampert is similar to Typhlosion where its both Bipedal and quadrupedal.

            Note 2: This is just an observation and an opinion lol

          • That ur opinion not the fans opinion check the top 20 pkmn again and u will see ….fan just hate it them at the beginning ( Greninija is the best example…..Character and personality r belong to human actually.

        • Water starters do the opposite. I think next gen should have a water starter standing up after Swampert, Samurott, Poppulosity, Greninja in game is always on 4 legs,

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        • I mean, from Charizard it is clear they didn’t wanna make quadrupedal fire starters… they even make Typhlosion stand up on its hind legs…

          I’m not saying it’s a good move, maybe there’s a memo at Gamefreak HQ that fire starters have to be biped…

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        • Let’s assume OU. Well if you run Special Water Shuriken, you don’t run Hydro Pump which is a huge loss of power. Also you need to have Gunk Shot.

          So the moveset looks like: Water Shuriken/Gunk Shot.

          From here it’s a matter of choosing coverage moves. Low Kick for steels, Grass Knot for other waters (not named Rotom Wash), Ice Beam for dragons, Hidden Power Fire for Scizor and Ferrothorn…

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  45. I have a US Ds, and I can’t seem to find the demo on the eshop, any ideas?

    Side note: I live in another country but I have the DS set to an american location as well as my account being american.

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  46. Alright, so what types got treated well and what types didn’t? Keep in mind this is proportional to the Pokémon amount so something along the lines of four new Ground-Types isn’t ‘badly treated’ compared to past Gens

    Treated Well

    Fairy
    Grass
    Bug
    Normal
    Ghost

    Treated Poorly

    Steel
    Ice
    Dark
    Poison

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  47. I’m so thankful that I have just the right amount of fairies this gen to do a mono run but I am truly sorry to the other type enthusiasts (mainly earthen) that you guys got the short end of the stick this gen. <3

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  48. Wow…right when I decided to go to sleep because I thought the Pokedex leak wouldn’t happen soon, it started leaking like 10-20 minutes after.

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  49. I can really accept everything about this generation except the Ultra Beasts. I still don’t see the point of them being included. They’re so overdesigned to the point it almost hurts.

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  50. Am I disappointed by the low amount of Pokemon? Yes. Do I think the ‘dex is incomplete? Yes. Does generation 7 possibly have one of the strongest designs for its Pokemon? Yes. I’ll leave it at that.

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  51. There are several NPC’s that hint towards new things within the demo and how many days away that is, so far I have found:
    1 day – guy outside pokemon center
    5 Days. – Woman in bottom left corner of city
    12 days – Pikachu man in town hall
    18 Days, – Dock Police
    24 days – ship woman in the port

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  52. I caught a Rockruff in the Pokemon Catching Contest, and I didn’t want to give her back. She’s got my scent now and her mother will never take her back!

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  53. So did anyone else run into Lillie today? I asked her who she was was. The other option is what’s in her bag! She talked to her bag and asked it a few questions before turning towards you. She then gets freaked out and says she’s working with Kukui with her Pokemon and runs off! Pretty cool!!

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