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

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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)!

FEATURED DISCUSSION: Official PokeJungle League Tournament

 

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

  1. 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.

    Reply

  6. 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)

    Reply

  10. 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

    Reply

  11. 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

    Reply

  15. 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?

    Reply

    • 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

      Reply

      • 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.

        Reply

  23. 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.

    Reply

          • 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,

          Reply

        • 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…

          Reply

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