Things We Didn’t Like About Sun & Moon

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Easily one of the best entries in the series, if not, arguably the best, Pokémon Sun & Moon has taken players by storm. And with only a month since its initial release it’s already broken sale records and danced its way into our hearts – but no game is perfect. Here are some things we didn’t like about our adventure through Alola.

 

The Rotom Pokedéx

Revealed as one of the first huge, new features of Gen VII in the early days of Sun & Moon’s prerelease the Rotom ‘Dex promised to give personality and new features to the age old Pokedéx. Instead we got an annoying, forgettable talking bottom screen whose dialogue was never really welcome or something we looked forward to. In terms of new features, it did give us useful pin point directions through the main story line and the Poké Finder (more on that later), but once you became the Champion Rotom didn’t serve any use other than giving very meaningless, repetitive commentary as your completed the Alola ‘Dex. And it’s completely baffling that they never made this new Rotom Form catchable and useable in battle. Overall, the Rotom Pokedéx was a fantastic idea to breathe life into such an old, unchanged device in the game, but its personality is much more suited for the anime where it’s a fully realized character, and for merchandise where it can remain as a mute, cute ‘mon to look at.

New Pokémon’s Low Encounter Rates

Pokémon Sun & Moon have some of the lowest and most exclusive encounter rates and locations for any Pokémon games released so far – being as low as 1% and 10% in only one place in some cases. For hardcore players, such as most of the people reading this, these low encounter rates are a welcome challenge and make completing the Pokedéx a little more fun and worthwhile. But for a lot of casual, younger players, its very, very easy to make it through the whole game without encountering a lot of Pokémon in the wild – even if you put in the effort to go and look for them specifically. Even though the Pokedéx is specific to what patch of grass you can find them in, it does not specify some special conditions, the inclusion of SOS Battles and other new encounter methods – making it hard not to rely on third party Pokedéxes to catch ‘em all. I can’t be the only one who spent a good hour just trying to find a Mimikyu, right?

Protagonists Being Numb to Everything

Chock full of several twists and turns, Sun & Moon had one of the best plot lines in the 20 years of the franchise. Encountering Ultra Beasts, meeting characters from games past, dealing with the Aether Foundation; as the story progressed we were left with face cracks of the centuries with each step we took into Alola – so why didn’t our in-game avatar react the same way? With very, very few exceptions the protagonist had the same aloof smile while everything was happening – no matter how sad, how dire, and how intense the situation was – Despite other characters around us having plenty of emotion and proper reactions. And, honestly, it was hard at times to focus on what was happening and to take things seriously when we had such a goofy, empty smile all the while. With Gen VII giving the most personal customization yet, even down to being able to choose the style in which you throw your Pokéball, it comes as a shock that Game Freak didn’t give our protagonist the ability to react to situations accordingly. Yes, Pokémon is famous for having a silent protagonist, but Red’s emotionless reaction to everything reads a bit better than an empty smile.

The Poké Finder

Another feature hyped for during the pre-release of Sun & Moon, the Poke Finder was marketed as one of the new aspects that came with the Rotom Pokedéx, and much like the Rotom ‘Dex it failed to dazzle fans. What most hoped would be a love letter to Pokémon Snap, turned into a very shallow, rather useless feature of the game. With the Poke Finder only working in a select few, pre-determined spots, the Pokémon and their poses being limited and repetitive, and no way to share the photos with other players, this in-game feature seems pretty useless. The only reason we’re still even bothering with it is to get that stamp on our trainer passport – and believe us, we’re just as unhappy with the amount of time we need to pour into it just to get it. All things considered, the Poké Finder was another great idea, but a poorly executed one.

General Lack of 3D and Touch Screen Use

Despite being on the Nintendo 3DS, 3D was completely removed in-game other than when firing up the Poke Finder (ironically, paired with its gyroscope capabilities, it’s quite possibly the worst place to enable 3D). Although several complaints about 3D causing slow down during battles specifically arose in Generation VI, and it never truly being well implemented in previous generations overall; its surprising 3D wasn’t utilized during important cut scenes at the very least. And, honestly, it’s a bit disappointing that Game Freak didn’t try to improve upon it, and instead decided to just remove the feature all together. One of the coolest features the 3DS has to offer is the 3D slider being so accessible and easy to use – letting you decide whether or not you want to enable the 3D. Some people don’t like it, some do, but just having the option is nice. And on a somewhat related note, Sun & Moon is a game that can almost completely be played using the top screen. Rarely is the bottom screen used and completely necessary…but perhaps that was intentional? Despite being a gorgeous game that pushed the system to the limits, Game Freak didn’t make the best use of the two defining factors and selling points of the 3DS.

Removal of Amazing Features From Past Generations

Sun & Moon took several leaps and bounds forward, but in the process of adding new features and expanding upon older ones, it seems like we’ve taken a step backwards in some areas. Horde Battles, although not a huge loss, was a fun and new battle style that provided a new challenge as well as an easier way to manually EV train and hunt shinies: however once entering Alola we found it completely removed. Moreover, the convenience of the DexNav, the PSS and Super Training is completely null and void now. Gone are the days of being able to easily tell if you’ve caught all Pokémon in the area with one glance – now you have to search the Pokedéx entry by entry to see if you caught ‘em all. Gone are the days of centralized EV training with Super Training – now you have to use in game currency across several different platforms to make your ‘mons the best. And gone are the days of being able to battle, trade and connect with other players with a single touch in the PSS, now we have to traverse through the awkward and troublesome Festival Plaza. And although the end result of all these axed features are still available by other means, how we went from everything being so seamless and convenient to clunky and complicated is beyond us.

No Side Quest Tracker

Despite being a staple in most RPGs, our quest through Alola really marked the first time in Pokémon where several NPCs gave us little side quests that spawned rewards if completed. A lot of these quests were as simple as catching a Pokémon and showing it to the NPC, and the money reward was definitely worthwhile, but as we traversed through the story some quests were left incomplete for a number of reasons. Now well into the post game, I have a desire to complete all the in-game trades and Pokedéx quests, but with no formal tracker I’ve forgotten where all these NPCs are, and what the actual quest was – once again making us rely on third party information hubs to figure it all out.

 

Despite these faults, Pokémon Sun & Moon’s wondrous region, story, characters, Pokémon and new features seem to completely eclipse any negative thoughts we may have about the latest entry in the series. What are some things that you found you didn’t like about Pokémon Sun & Moon and hope to see in the rumored Pokémon Stars?

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4,195 thoughts on “Things We Didn’t Like About Sun & Moon”

  2. I’d say the points I agree the most with are low encounter rates. the removed features, and the lack of range of emotion from the protag. The rest I honestly don’t have a huge problem with. I really can’t say Rotom dex bugs me that much. It’s sad that they couldn’t have made it more interesting, but it’s not like it really stops anyone from ignoring it. It’s not like it’s popping up on the top screen or anything. The low encounter rates of many of the most interesting Pokemon is a real pain. Not only is it tough just simply to find Pokemon to catch them in general, but it then makes it harder to even shiny hunt too. I really do wish they had kept at least horde battles. It was so great and fun. Also the old way of fishing was good too. I finally got good at it and now I can’t use my skills hahaha Finally I think my biggest problem was the lack of emotional range from the protag. It just felt off with all the crazy stuff happening around you and your character looking like a idiot that doesn’t realize what’s going on. I hope in Stars they fix that. All of it is really forgivable tho as I love these games so much.

    Reply

  3. Honestly half the things some of you say you didn’t like about XY is exactly what I love about them… sure S/M had a great story and some cool pokemon, but in my opinion XY will always be superior to them. My fav games are still.

    Gen2: HGSS
    GEN6: XY
    Gen 3 and 7: RS / SM
    Gen 5: BW
    Gen 1: FRLG
    Gen 4: idc

    Reply

      • XY Pros: Art style (I prefer XY graphics over SM) , clothing options (females are better in XY males are better in SM), Pokemon (I liked basically all of them), the region and gyms are fantastic, the story is there but minimal yes, champion is awesome, music is fantastic, etc

        SM Pros: Some cool pokemon, some good music, HGSS balls (kinda) and an amazing story, but sadly even though its great XY still achieves more things that I love.

        Also SM was simultaneously both hard as heck and easy as heck, one version I struggled so much, while in the other I breezes through.

        And I prefer the difficulty of XY because its seems much more steady than SM’s difficulty

        Reply

        • I will agree in terms of the fashion that XY offers more. As far as what you meant in terms of graphics however do you mean style or actual graphics? Because as far as actual graphics go SM were better. They had problems with frame rate, but that’s not the games fault rather it’s the 3DS’s for not be powerful enough. I you mean style are you referring to the model designs? Like do you prefer the chibi (shorter) models over the more realistic proportioned models? I will say that I like the design aspects and characters a lot of XY. I’d say however that they are very different games in terms of characters so it really is just a matter of opinion on that point. As far as difficulty I’d say I prefer SM more. Like you said it offered a harder challenge. Personally I’d rather have a game that offers some parts easy and some that are harder than a game that is consistently easy all around, but that’s just me.

          Reply

          • I mean I prefer the chibi style more.

            Also hard is fine but for pokemon I play it leisurely between my two jobs so I want an easy game that I can beat and then go back to and set up for competitive.

          • Gotcha I prefer the SM kind of models, but to each their own I guess. As for difficulty I’d say that Pokemon at the end of the day will never truly be “hard” in the story. In the end you can really just grind away/have EXP share on all the time to make it easy. I will say that grinding doesn’t make it “hard” just more annoying. In the end it’s all a numbers game rather than actually being challenging lol

          • ok but SM was the first game with a difficulty that almost required you keep the exp share on and still have it be difficult, and I don’t like grinding, grinding is never fun

        • Male clothing options are better in SM? Female clothing options are wayyyyyy better in both generations. Males get a lot less than females in terms of clothing.

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          • no i mean that the female options are better in XY than they are in SM and that the male options suck in both but are way better in SM than in XY

          • Oh, that makes sense. Honestly, I just miss jackets. It’d be so much better if half of the clothing options were tanks.

  5. I’d like to give my two cents about the lack of returning features. They intentionally do this to give each Pokémon game it’s own unique selling point. That way, you will have a reason to play ORAS over SM, for example, rather than only playing the newest version in the series. I think the series as a whole needs this kind of approach, because it’s so easy to say “it’s just another Pokémon game”.

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    • I disagree. I think making exclusive features is dumb. It’s 2 steps forward 1 step back everytime because something ends up being inferior. The story is what should be exclusive.

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      • I think if they did bring back all of the old features, we wouldn’t get so many cool new ones. Imagine having to code in the battle frontier, PWT, walking with pokemon, pokeathelon, etc. every game. On top of that, it’d be less special (but I won’t lie, I’d love it).

        Reply

      • Some features make more sense to keep in certain games tho. Also it has to do with how GF want to present the games. A feature may work well for one game, but not really with others. Also in terms of how mechanics work it takes time to figure out how to do things. I wouldn’t be surprised if GF spent the entire time form HGSS to now figuring out how they’d bring back walking Pokemon.

        Reply

        • I mean walking pokemon is just one of those aesthetic features that’s unimportant to return. But gameplay ones like the PSS and O-power is foolish to remove

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          • Ehh TBF o-powers felt kinda game breaking at points

            Could’ve at least gave us alt experience and money features tho

          • I’d say them taking PSS out is more of preparation for Pokemon games going to a single screen. There’s a reason the bottom screen touch capabilities were so little in these games. It’s likely due to the impending knowledge of Pokemon moving to the Switch which is very much a single screen console. They have to adapt somehow.

    • I get why they do it, but it’s such an awful idea. Why would I want to go back to old games when theres a new and improved game. So what it makes some games unique? it’s still fine to say “It started in HGSS” than to say “It was only in HGSS”. It’s not fun playing a guessing game with GF whether a feature will return or not. Build off past games, not build then breakdown and rebuild

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      • Now that I think about it, I think this is exactly why they make remakes in the first place. So they can slap a new coat of paint on an old region and give it its own modern “gimmick”.

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  7. Okay, how about what you loved about the games now?
    Too many to list, but these are a few that came to mind.
    – IV checker in PC
    – New pokemon are super high quality
    – Beautiful memorable region
    – CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
    – Great soundtrack
    – New pokemon low encounter rates (yeah, I liked this. I gave a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment for catching one)
    – Old characters returning with actual story (i.e. burnet and anabel)
    – Easier to obtain shiny charm
    – New shiny hunting method that can be done with almost any pokemon in the region
    – It broke the repetitive cycle that the previous games had
    – Champion title defense concept is super cool
    – Battle royales are super fun (with other players)
    – Pokepelago allows busier players to get certain advantages that they normally wouldn’t get

    Now tell me what you like! There’s way too much negativity in this article.

    Reply

  9. Starstorm… I think I understand why you don’t like Toucannon… Don’t get me wrong, I adore it.. but that is how I feel toward Passimian

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  10. This is what I have left to catch for the dex. Really not looking forward to Poni (planning to do the Tapus and UBs last).

    Alola Pokedex Remainder List
    —————————–
    AKALA
    ——–
    Marowak
    Bastiodon
    Carracosta
    Tapu Lele
    ————
    ULA’ULA
    ———-
    Tapu Bulu
    ———-
    Poni
    ——
    Snubbul
    Shellos
    Carvannha
    Wailord
    Scyther
    Scizord
    Murkrow
    Riolu
    Dragonair
    Tapu Fini
    ———–
    Other
    ——–
    Celesteela
    Guzzlord
    Cosmoem
    Necrozma

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  11. Beat Totem Vikavolt. Pretty easy with Minior.

    I also have one hundred thousand comments on this disqus account. I have no life.

    Reply

  13. Plumeria should have her own game, I want to know more about her. She was part of team skull but didn’t actually do anything for them, her motives were her own

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      • she’s a free spirit, she lets you go after all, thats like the only bad thing she does and even then, she’s probably doing it because she’s bored and has nothing better to do, and then after it all goes south, even though its implied she leaves team skull before everything hits the fan, she challenges the E4

        Reply

        • That’s literally still something she does for Team Skull

          She also shows up the first time to get revenge on you for her Grunts

          Even if she left them she still worked for them

          Reply

          • she cares about those grunts, we clearly got very different vibes from her, because every time she showed up she was more of an idividual than any of the other team skull members, even guzma the poser was all the same

          • Yes, and literally yes.

            She cares for her team, and is thus acting on their behalf. Regardless of how ‘individual’ she is

          • I don’t think you’re getting what I’m saying, and thats ok most people don’t, but ok whatever floats your boat its not really important anyways

          • you have to think out of the box, I don’t mean that she doesnt “actually” do anything for team skull, I’m saying that while she may carry out the orders they give her she is actually doing those things for herself because she is not a person that will do something she doesnt want to, which is why she straight up left the group when she no longer wanted to be part of what they stood for

  19. My only real issue was the lack of “shock and awe” world building. Everything was very nicely rendered but it also all felt very familiar. There wasn’t that magic moment of biking around the Eiffel tower and then going to a poke-cafe or going on a poke-cruise around lower Manhattan at sunset.

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  25. Idea I had
    Lemme know if y’all like it
    Clamperl gets two more evolutionary choices
    One where it becomes Water/Rock and stays in a shell which becomes much more fortified and defensive
    And one where the pearl transforms into a more offensive fighter

    Reply

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