More Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Version Exclusives Revealed

by

Pokémon games always divvy up the monsters you can catch between versions, but we haven’t known much about the exclusives of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon… until now that is!

A Japanese promotional leaflet has shed more light on just what Pokémon you might have to trade from a friend.

Pokémon Ultra Sun

  • Dusk Mane Necrozma
  • Turtonator
  • Passimian
  • Alolan Vulpix
  • Tirtouga
  • Houndour
  • Rufflet
  • Cottonee
  • Cranidos
  • UB: Burst
  • Buzzwole
  • Kartana
 Pokémon Ultra Moon

  • Dawn Wings Necrozma
  • Drampa
  • Oranguru
  • Alolan Sandshrew
  • Archen
  • Electrike
  • Vullaby
  • Petilil
  • Shieldon
  • UB: Assembly
  • Pheromosa
  • Celesteela

Now that we have a longer list of exclusives, are you swayed either way?

Supporters

Nick F

Smearg

Foil Island

Conglome NERD

alcremie sundae

Radiant Blutle

Zachery

Dragoniteo

Austin John Plays

Help support our work by becoming a Patron on Patreon! Swadloon Platoon members and above will be added to our site supporters list!

1,027 thoughts on “More Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Version Exclusives Revealed”

    • Meh I had a thought on when one of Ash’s Pokémon might evolve…

      What if when Ash goes to Ula’Ula he loses to Nanu and it gets him upset, then Ash and say Litten go and train, then during the rematch it evolves into Torracat (or whatever Pokémon he uses)

      Just a theory, but I feel its very likely to happen (Ash always has a losing moment where he needs a rematch)

      Reply

        • That was just an example, I think it will more likely be a new Pokémon he catches

          I assume Wimpod if he gets it
          And just because it would evolve on Ula’Ula doesn’t mean they won’t stretch the series out to include the whole AF and Skull and Recon Squad arc (Heck they might have like a 10 to 15 episode thing just to visit the UB worlds)

          Reply

    • Nope, none of his Alolan mons strike me as close to evolving. But Bounsweet kinda evolved out of the blue and I could see Deci & Tsareena happening where Deci’s super serious besides when it’s surprised and when its crush on Tsareena manifests

      Reply

      • Litten started to be more competetive lately, with a kind of rivalry between him and Lycanroc. That kinda stroke me, as Littens aren’t that competetive, It seems more like a Torracat feature.

        Reply

        • I think it’s just the standard cat and dog rivalry but I can see Litten at least evolve once so that the size difference is lessened

          Reply

  6. The Marine Tube was easily one of the best parts of BW2. I love how well they ultilized the 3D in this area (like the Mantine and Basculin swimming by seemed very natural). And also the music is so perfect in describing the underwater world. It’s mostly an unknown place for us humans, basically alien, and this theme just describes this beautiful, yet captivating and mysterious environment you traverse through.

    Reply

  8. Also the theme for the Humilau City Gym is just… so satisfyingly peaceful. It’s one of my favorite Gym themes in Pokemon.

    Reply

    • They make mistakes. Like everyone. They’re not incompetent, they’re human. Saying that, that was a very very very dumb mistake.

      Reply

      • I honestly wouldn’t even call this a mistake. If they’re done with the mechanic then they’re done with it. Sure it was an amazing enhancement, but at the end of the day it’s their game and they can do what they want. People just need to get over this small stuff. Just because the new games don’t have their favorite mechanic anymore doens’t automatically make the new games bad.

        Reply

          • It’s not a mistake if they don’t want to do it anymore. I loved Dex Nav, but at the end of the day it’s their choice like you said. They may not feel the same way about it as you do.

        • Star, I 100% agree with you. I wish I could say it on all your comments but I truly do. GF isn’t listening to us fans you play every game they rather pander to kids and genwunners

          Reply

        • This was a single decision they made. It was a wrong decision, but don’t act like you didn’t enjoy Moon because of it. And No, it wasn’t ”UNIVERSALLY PRAISED”. Many people liked it and that’s it. Just like many people wanted a Hub World in Oddyssey. But Nintendo decided not to add it. They’re both mistakes. That’s all.

          Reply

          • Except in Odyssey the game was already so good that no one really cared that there isn’t a hub world. Plus the worlds are so big and filled with stuff that you don’t really need one

            But in Pokémon, this feature had no reason to be removed and has nothing o make up for the fact that it isn’t there so it just feels like empty space where there should be something there

          • I can assure you there will be people Who will care that there’s No Hub World and won’t enjoy the games as much. Just like they are people who liked Sun/Moon a lot and didn’t care that there’s no DexNav

      • Not really?
        You find rare Pokemon easier (helpful when trying to find rare alola Mons)
        You can find Pokemon with hidden abilities
        You can find Pokemon WITH EGG MOVES
        You can find shinies easier
        Having a bigger Dex is the more reason to have dexnav. It may ‘irrelevant’ But most people would still want it back

        Reply

          • Island Scan’s mistake was being on a cool down with no way to speed it up

            I literally would’ve taken battle points or play coins to speed it up, or even shorter cooldowns. It’s so poorly implemented.

          • But it’s not even that useful. You can’t do anything except find a Pokemon that is otherwise unavailable. If it always had its’ HA or could be SOS hunted for IVs or Shininess it would actually be somewhat good. Even then DexNav is still better except the sneaking function can be tedious and annoying, especially for the ones that move around like in caves or on water. Neither feature is perfect, but island scan is a poor replacement. Much in the way Festival Plaza is a poor replacement for PSS and Join Avenue.

    • They’ve never given us good reason for why they take out certain mechanics. This isn’t anything new. What they really need to do is just be straight with us and say “We wanted to do something else. We’re done with Dex Nav and it was just meant for ORAS.”

      Reply

        • How so? They’re the ones making the game. If they don’t want to do it then that should me more than a good enough reason. It’s like if someone liked a very specific picture you drew or art style and then constantly complained whenever you wanted to do something else or update your style. It’s up to the creator to decide what’s valuable and what’s not. Love the Dex Nav for what it is in ORAS and look forward to future mechanics they’ll eventually create later on. Maybe one day they’ll bring it back, but for now it’s not up the fans to decide what the creators should and shouldn’t do. If you like the game you like it and if you don’t then that’s fine too. They don’t HAVE to do anything.

          Reply

          • Because it made the game better? Using your art style analogy, if I saw that someone used a technique that made their art so much better and then they proceeded to avoid doing that like the plague, it makes no sense and their art isn’t as good as it could be.

            Removing a feature that improved the experience of the game is senseless

          • It made a small part of the game better. I will say again that loved Dex Nav, but at the end of the day it’s not the biggest part of ORAS. You’re acting like ORAS wasn’t worth playing unless it had Dex Nav in it. It’s a fun thing that people can use, but in the end it’s not a feature that we NEED. A thing I think they really messed up on was the step back in communication features. The PSS was a WAY better feature than the Festival Plaza. Now THAT was a mistake on their part. There are still plenty of fun mechanics in SM to use. The lack of Dex Nav doesn’t change the over all quality of the games. The games themselves need to be good first in order to bring value into the side mechanics. If you’re playing a game for a single small feature that has nothing to do with the story or main gameplay then that’s your business, but getting all upset over one single feature and ignoring all the good things is a bit short sighted imo.

          • Dex Nav at least gave it sort of a leg up from Emerald which is just a more enjoyable experience to me.
            It also game incentive to compete the dex which is one of the few things to actually do in the post game.

            It just makes no sense to take it out especially when we have full maps for every area in the game already

    • If it was announced that Pokémon became completely owned by Nintendo and Game Freak no longer worked on the series I would be more excited for that than Sinnoh Remakes.

      Game Freak doesn’t know what they’re doing

      Reply

      • I think they do know what they’re doing. You just don’t like the direction they’re taking the side mechanics. XP

        Reply

      • You know GF are the people Who created Pokemon, and made many great pokemon games? You know that that’d be taking away many people’s work of their lifes?Cause it kinda sounds like you forgot that

        Reply

        • They were basically an indie studio that lucked into having Nintendo back them.

          They used to be good but ever since gen 6 they have repeatedly make some of the worst decisions I have ever seen

          Compared to other Nintendo games, Pokemon lacks the polish, expert game design and lastability. Mario Galaxy will always be a more enjoyable experience than Pokémon X and Y because of the work put into that game to make it as good as possible and not to meet a deadline

          But now there just has to always be a Pokémon game. Doesn’t matter if it clearly isn’t finished.

          Game Freak just wants to work on mobile games to bad. They were so hesitant about the Switch. They might as well just leave the series to Nintendo so they can work on mobile games.

          Reply

          • ‘Used to be good’

            Fam, Pokémon has always had the same level of effort put in. The original games had poor balance and a bug load of glitches. In original versions of RS the game would freeze if you use common attacks. The ‘best developed’ game in the franchise, B/W, suffers from a short linear main game and has some of the most controversial designs in the series. It was also notably the least innovative games mechanics wise (bar GSC) and was their second time using the DS. They were also not in a rush to change platform because they were riding on a dying console and the changes from DP to BW weren’t as large as XY to SM in a graphics sense. 3D games also require more effort.

            It’s also when people notably started complaining about the series becoming easier. And they were the games to remove in depth side features such as the Battle Frontier, walking Pokémon, and in depth non-battle activities.

            I understand that you disagree with GameFreak’s choices and you have every right to criticise them but pretending that they’ve become worse over the years is a load of bull. They’ve always been this ‘bad’ , it’s just that it’s become more apparent as fans become older and more willing to be critical of things they like and GameFreak is more open in communication.

          • Gen 3,4, and 5 are an absolute joy to play. I’m not going to pretend that they’re perfect but they were extremely fun and outside of BW had so much to do after you beat the game.

            Gen 6 had almost nothing to do after and Gen 7 was a slog to play through after the first time because of the amount of cutscenes and dialogue

            I just don’t see that same level of love and dedication in the gameplay as I did gens 3-5

          • See, here’s the thing. Gen 3 is incredibly boring for me. Love Gen 4, but the grinding required is even more tedious for me than the cutscenes in 7 are for you. You said you’ve played through HGSS easily a good few times, it’s the same for me in SuMo.

            HGSS has the worst levelling curve I’ve ever seen in an RPG. Gen 5 started removing pretty much all features unrelated to battle and imo were too short to enjoy sometimes (BW) – or in the case of BW2, had bad uneven pacing. GF have always been lazy developers who cut corners.

            You have some critiques I share. The cutscenes don’t bug me as much as the grinding, but yes, skipping is a standard that they should’ve implemented by now. Even just speeding cutscenes and text up would be great. You know how I feel about Gen VI. But I think Gen VII had as much love and effort put into it as any other game bar maybe BW because that’s probably the most polished game in the series. But like, a lot of this feels subjective. I don’t see many of your issues with Gen 7 whilst I see issues you don’t with HGSS. Well, at least we both agree XY was a travesty.

          • I agree with gf being lazy these days. But fairy is right. Pokemon has always been this way. It’s just that after 20 yeats we’re tired of it. Ruby and sappire/Diamond and pearl don’t really have that much content. It’s their 3rd Versions that made them good. Gen 6 was pretty bad, but I’d rather play that than gen 1. And SuMo may have a lot of dialogue and story, they were trying to make a game with character building and when i first played sumo it felt it had effort put in it way more than gen 1,2 or 3.

          • Sun and Moon were great. One of your favourite mons is from Gen 7. Megas are from Gen 6. The pokemon from Gens 6-7 are mostly great, the games have great characters. And if you didn’t notice, the games were never polished. And people and critics didn’t care that much. Pokemon team is smaller than the teams that make Mario and Zelda, so it’s No wonder they’re not as perfect. And also, do you really think Nintendo makes No mistakes? GF are doing What they can. And it’s a job they love.

            If GF was as bad as you say they are, you wouldn’t play Pokemon. You wouldn’t be here.

          • Fam a few good characters in a game and a few good mechanics doesn’t mean someone can’t criticise the creator.

          • Everything is open to criticism. If you don’t like the criticism, ignore it. No one is forcing you to White Knight GameFreak rn

          • “The games were never polished”

            First off, bullshit. Play Gen 5. They totally can polish a game but they chose not to. Still Nintendo does it so much better it’s an insult to compare them

            “Sun and Moon were great” It had good elements but they don’t come together to be greater than the sum of its parts. The plot is good, but it takes up WAY too much tike where you could be playing the game. (See Ultron’s comment yesterday about being an hour in without even seeing a Pokémon center yet)

            The new Pokémon were great but were all hindered by stats and/or abilities

            The region was beautiful but there isn’t much to explore. It gives the illusion that there is but most of the optional areas give you no incentive to explore them.

            I like Sun and Moon but they are so buried in flaws that it’s hard to ignore after thinking about it for more than a minute.

            “The dev team is smaller”

            Uranium’s team was two guys and they made a better game. No excuses.

            “do you really think Nintendo doesn’t make mistakes” No? When did I say that? Thy make mistakes but their games are usually so damn good. They’re the best in the business. Game Freak makes so many f*ck ups that seem so hard to miss that it is almost amazing.

            This isn’t a black and white thing. This isn’t “game Freak is good because they made Pokémon”. This is “they are losing their touch and Nintendo could take the series further because they take risks and they have visions of games while understanding what makes them better.

    • Dexnav was broke af for in game runs and tweaking it so early game Pokémon don’t get OP moves would’ve been far too much hassle for a game that is releases annually with occasional gap years. Considering we still have methods of higher IVs, increased shiny chances, and Hidden Abilities, I don’t think the Nav is as necessary anymore. As well as that, breeding is easier than ever so IVs and egg moves aren’t as big a deal as they once were anyway. Yes, it had some useful functions that should’ve been maintained in some way, such as letting us see if the wild Pokémon is holding an item, but I’m not crying over a function that has been replaced in many ways that are better balanced for effort/reward.

      And if a Pokémon is rare, it’s rare for a reason. Being able to force an encounter with one is kinda counterproductive.

      Also, I think this is definetly out of context or partially mistranslated, because USUM has the second biggest Pokédex out of all the games so far (it goes up to #400, Necrozma) which is second to only XY. USUM does have a huge variety of Pokémon already, meaning they did put effort into making a variety of Pokémon available.

      Reply

      • Wait. So are you saying. “Things are easy, lets not make it easier”
        LOL, what’s wrong with making things more accessible?? What if I dont have a parent that can get the move? Do I have to go through the trouble of looking through all my games?? Doesnt it make it easier to just catch it with egg moves? Or IVs. Wow catch a mon with bad iv’s and pretty even MORE times just to get right IVs
        With that logic why even have sync nature? We can just pass on ability with everstone.
        I dont want to spend 2 million years trying to find a rare alola mon that shouldnt be rare, plus it just makes it more fun anyway! Let me hear 3 people say they rather hunt for 20 mins for a 1% chance pokemon than dexnav for about 5 minutes.
        Again what does amount of variety have to do with whether dex nav should be in the game?

        Reply

        • The picture you just shared was a statement all about variety. GameFreak was talking about availability when they were speaking about DexNav.

          What you need to understand is that GameFreak has to balance competitive and in-game. The reason things are rare or hard to do in game is so it doesn’t mean you can steam roll the game. That’s why certain Pokémon are rare (as well as to contribute to the collection aspect of the game, because if it was easy to find everything there’d be a lesser sense of accomplishment).

          There’s a point where accessibility and difficulty come into conflict. This is where a lot of issues stem from. It should be hard to get perfect IVs, natures, movesets, because it stops you just using them from steamrolling the game without putting effort into getting these things. You can murder ORAS with a Taillow thanks to DexNav.

          And its not like the competitive aspects of DexNav have been replaced. Egg Moves are easy af now because you can teach Pokémon any move in their level up movepool with the move reminder. High SOS chains can get you great IVs. However, both these things are now more difficult to accomplish in game before the Champion, and whilst they’re not as easy to do with Nav, are still relatively simple due to these new features.

          DexNav has had functions replaced with other features which are better balanced for the game.

          Reply

          • But why does it matter the difficulty of the game through Dexnav? It’s not like anyone is forcing you to get perfect IV taillows with the best nature and best ability and egg moves. Individuals make the choice themselves if they want to keep on a chain long enough to receive a pokemon with high egg moves. If you want to use a high IV mon with egg moves it’s YOUR fault not GF’s. It’s like using Pokemon Amie/Refresh and EXP share(gen6). You can make your pokemon have 5 hearts, and unreasonably unfair in game Pokemon and super overlleved, but you dont have to. Also a rare pokemon doesnt mean that pokemon will help more in game? There’s so many uselessly rare bad Alola pokemon.

            in dexnav reach a unreasonably high level in game when you are chaining high, so it’s not like it’s super easy to access anyway. The ability have access to these eggmoves are amazing because it saves a bunch of time when competitive breeding and such.

    • GF just shouldn’t do interviews because instead of letting everyone think they are fucking idiots, they always open their mouth and prove us all right. I despise modern GF, such incompetent and lazy developers.

      Reply

      • I mean they’ve always been pretty lazy. If they had their druthers they’d still be making dubious looking pixel art

        Reply

      • > Implying GF hasn’t always been lazy

        Fam they’ve been leaving irrelevant data in the files since RSE, made the mechanical molasses known as DPPt, and have streamlined first versions drastically since BW. It’s been going on for over a decade, it’s just more apparent now.

        Reply

        • I don’t give a s**t what files are left in the games data, or how bad they are at programming, at least back then we still got games that gave me what I love, a battle frontier, a 2nd region, a Pokemon World Tournament. We’ve had 3 sets of 3DS games and not one of them has offered anything remotely close to an engaging post-game.

          Reply

          • Plenty of older Pokémon games have lacked an engaging post game before. RGBY and RS are the absolute biggest offenders of this, but it also comes down to opinion. For example, I find Kanto in the Johto games boring asf because it has no narrative, the wild Pokémon are drastically underlevelled, and the only interesting thing there is an overlevelled superboss. That’s just my opinion.

            Yes, I agree the post-games of XY and SuMo are shockingly bad. I just don’t pretend GameFreak hasn’t always been this bad because whenever there has been a good post game it’s because it’s a game reusing a bunch of assets meaning they can afford to make a good postgame. GameFreak have always been lazy and they pace and manage themselves poorly.

          • If after Breath of the Wild they released a game that’s just like the first Zelda but without the modern improvements that have been made over 30 years, people would be upset.

            Yes that has happened, but we are at a point now where we know they can do so much better and it isn’t acceptable anymore

          • The thing is though their games have always fluctuated in quality – and whilst this is purely my own opinion – we’ve never had ‘BOTW’ quality Pokémon games before. HGSS and BW had glaring issues of their own, and whilst I think BW is the most polished game in the franchise I’d heavily disagree with it being anywhere near BOTW in magnitude or intuition.

          • It was a example.

            In this case, we have Platinum, HGSS and B2W2 which have so much to do after the E4 that it’s crazy. White 2 lasted me from the day I got it up to X and Y’s release.

            Sun and Moon lasted me a month.

            We know they can make these expansive post games but the refuse to.

            (Hell, Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky has a better body game than all of the 3DS mainline games combined)

          • The thing is, and what I’d argue, is that all of those games are using assets from games before them. They had more time to develop their post-games and that’s a whole other issue (GameFreak going for quantity over quality, which they should stop doing and hopefully will stop doing after they make the switch to console).

            If say fairer comparisons are DP and BW. Decently sized post games, nothing groundbreaking but still good. But post games have never been good in completely new GF games (GSC reused a ton of assets from RGBY). Their quality is something they need to improve for sure, but it’s not like this is a recent development. They need to step up their game from now on but they’ve been consistently mediocre until now.

          • Yeah the first games have almost always been horrid. But for all those first pair pieces of trash, we got Emerald with a Frontier and gym leader rematches, we got Platinum with a Frontier and gym leader rematches, we got HGSS with a 2nd region, gym leader rematches, and the Platinum frontier, we got BW2 with the PWT. The 3DS games haven’t even given rematches, and just keep bringing back a rehashed Battle Tower.

            But even with those games, it honestly points to an even bigger issue. I just want rematches and a good post-game facility to be a mainstay from now on instead of having to depend on an enhanced version, especially now that the price is gonna be jacked up again. I’m worried about Pokemon Switch because I honesty do not feel like spending $60 for the half assed first games.

          • I think USUM will resolve a lot of issues, or even just have an amazing main story. Even though it’s not where fans want that effort, it still shows GameFreak is putting effort into these games. I just hope they either add a new mode to the battle tree or something like the PWT because the Tree does get stale after a while and Royale can get irritating with the lag.

            I agree. The issue is the development time they give themselves. One or two years a game is released. They need to slow down. Make games with more substance. Then make it biannual or even triannual because fans won’t be annoyed if they fill it with actual substance.

          • If this was harsh I apologize, but I’m just fed up with not having a single player battle place to enjoy and engage in now that IV breeding and competitive is a LOT more accessible now. I’m sick of battle tower clones, I want diversity.

          • It’s fine, it’s fine, I do share some of your views and I find it really great of you to apologise for something you think you done wrong. I didn’t think it was too harsh and i can’t blame you for getting frustrated when it’s a franchise you feel passionate about and when there’s… Certain people who seem to be not grasping the argument as a whole.

        • Okay I’m sorry I’m somewhat defending GameFreak here but this isn’t a good argument. Liiiike for example. You can like content and dislike the creator.

          Reply

          • You know that the people who make the designs and the people who implement the mechanics and gameplay are different people right?

          • Then Why do people say ”Modern GF is lazy” and not ”People Who implement features for modern GF are lazy”

          • Because when someone says

            “I hate modern game freak”

            That is short hand for

            “I hate the game design decisions that game Freak has made recently and their over all quality of work is not the same.”

        • What the hell are you. Are you some kind of freaking puppet gf controls? What you just said makes no sense at all. He like deci but he doesn’t like how gf unnecessarily removes features. I can’t believe there are fools like you who will defend gf to no end. Yes you like the games, but since your a fan, a consumer, the whole reason a company is making money in the first place, can’t you be allowed to criticize. I hate modern day gf but I still regularly play showdown. So what?

          Reply

          • So do I. I despise them. Not everyone is a brain dead fan. People are allowed to criticize and dislike. He despises them as game developers,as a compny, HE DOES NOT despise the people responsible for the desigs.

          • That’s also modern GF. A company isn’t a single being, it’s a group of people. That includes the deigners.

          • Everyone else seems to grasp the concept here but you. You are taking something so literally to try making a defense, and it’s laughable.

          • I think you’re being a bit harsh calling him stupid. He’s not stupid, his opinion is. I don’t think his opinion is worth your frustration

    • I mean, yeah it was useful but finding shinies, Pkms with egg moves and with hidden abilities are so easy rn that Dex Nav isn’t really that necessary anymore. Even if i’d like something to find rare Pkm more easily, I think that they’re supposed to be hard to find that’s why they’re rare idk.

      Reply

    • Honestly, there is no excuse for removing features at all.. DexNav was really cool, and it makes no sense ro remove it. Same goes for other stuff like walking with Pokemon, A good postgame facility. Gamefreak is just plain stupid.

      Reply

          • Yeah I was just meaning the 3DS games. Also many overworld ‘mon are stationary and I assume ride Pokemon work differently since you move at the same pace and they are limited in number.

  14. I would have liked more version exclusives between the 2 games. Also, I am a bit upset that the SM ultra beasts are still version exclusive but I can understand why.

    Reply

    • There are prolly more exclusives they haven’t announced yet. I find it hard to believe they’re introducing 100 new (to Alolan anyway) Pokemon and they added barely any to the exclusivity list.

      Reply

  15. The luckiest thing just happened in Black 2.

    I was fighting Marlon’s level 51 Jellicent with my Level 48 Serperior, and I set up a Growth the previous turn. Then I unleashed a Frenzy Plant (boosted by a Grass Plate)…

    And the thing lived on 1 HP. While I know that Jellicent has a great Sp Def and HP, what followed was just so lucky. His Jellicent fires off an Onimous Wind and gets all the stat boosts. Then it proceeds to sweep through almost all of my team (save for Arcanine and Magnezon). Then I barely survive a Scald with Magnezone and manage to fire off a Charge Beam for a victory.

    While this was so lucky, I’m actually kinda glad this battle was hard at the end. When I first faced against Marlon 4 years ago, he was such a pushover for the 8th Gym leader, so it was nice to see that he was a bit of a challenge.

    Reply

  16. Alright peeps it was fun debating with ya’ll, but I have errands to run. It’s nice that we can have civilized conversations on this site. At least I hope they’re civilized lol I never try to be mean with my words, especially when talking about this kind of stuff, but sometimes I can see that my words get out of hand. That said if anything I’ve said during the course of our discussion got to anyone I apologize. That said have a great day and I may be back later . PEACE AND LOVE!

    Reply

  17. NGL I’d love it if GameFreak even slightly experimented with the battling system like… Make doubles the main game format? Let us carry around one or two more Pokémon?ler us have one or two more moves per Pokémon? It’s a shame they’ve never even tried to tweak the battle system heavily since Gen IV. Fairy types, Megas and Z-Moves are just expansions and changes to existing factors that ultimately do change the system but not in a way that particularly feels fresh or new.

    Reply

    • Maybe it’s because they think the battle system is “perfect” and that a heavy change like the ones occurred in Gen IV could “ruin” the competitive scene, which is so big at the moment that they won’t risk drastically changing it.

      Reply

      • I just hope the move to console inspires them to shake it up a bit. These games are by nature going to take longer to develop and thus gives them a longer timeframe to enhance them.

        Pokéswitch in particular will likely have a whole gap year of development (I do not see it coming in 2018 at all, and if it does I think it’ll be late November/December) so it’ll hopefully be good. It’s also going to be inheritly less accessible because the switch is more expensive and les portable, which might actually be a good thing because this’ll inspire them to create heavier games that are less consumerist quick playthroughs and go for more in depth development.

        Reply

    • Gen 2, 3 and 4 brought the biggest changes. Gen 2 with hold items and Dark and Steel types, Gen 3 abilities and natures and then the Physical/Special split in Gen 4. After those I kind of feel they struggled with where to go forward, or maybe felt they had perfected the system so didn’t want to do much else beyond adding new items and abilities. Megas and Z-moves are after all glorified items.

      Reply

      • You’ve hit the nail on the head for me. Whilst I’d give Megas a bit more credit we haven’t really seen substantial changes in a good while.

        Reply

    • I would LOVE Doubles to be the main game format. I had so much fun in the totem battles, and it shows GameFreak can be very creative in the different doubles strategies.

      Reply

      • So much abilities and moves are doubles only as well! And they feel so useless in the main playthrough :/

        I think the Orre games set a good example as to how double battles can prove to be a great format for in game. It’s already their official competitive format so they see its merits.

        Reply

      • There are so many moves and abilities that only have use in doubles anyways that it confuses me why they don’t use it at all.

        Playing doubles in certain tourneys a couple years back got me to experiment with weird combinations like the pledge moves.

        Reply

        • Imagine getting the choice of two starters because you need two Pokémon for doubles and then the Pledge moves would actually be useful

          Reply

          • And triple/rotation battles! That was a a mixup in gen 5. But you can count on your hand the amount of times that was used in game. Granted a game where the main battle style is rotations sounds horrific, but I just want them to utilize their own new mechanics more

          • I don’t think those styles should ever be the official formats but they should at least utilise them in the games a few more times. BW2 was kinda on the right track with that but were still a bit too far away.

          • Oh Definitely in game only, but still could be used a bit more
            I was so mad to find out the Chili/Cilan/Cress werent later gym leaders and triple/rotation battle style. It was literally the perfect time to do that. Just so much missed oppurtunities with GF.

          • I don’t mind them not having it in their first match because I like their gimmick but like

            They should’ve had a rematch with a triple battle. Where they abuse the Pledge moves. Imagine how cool that’d be

        • Exactly! Combination moves! There are more abilities that play roles in doubles than in singles. We can see a cool combination move mechanic which would be INCREDIBLE. They just need to think outside the box more!

          Reply

          • I remember when I was first really getting into Pokémon when I got HGSS. I would turn in the anime whenever it was on TV and I always wished I could tell my Pokémon to dodge or use a move that somehow interacts with the attack the opponent is doing.

            Or like in the DP series where Dawn would have her Piplup use Bubble Beam then freeze the bubbles

            There is so much potential they are scared to tap into

          • What I will say now is that combo moves is a feature I can easily see going wrong so it’s not something I’d particularly like, demand for, but if they can implement it right it’d be amazing.

    • I definitely do agree! IDK what they are afraid of. Their games will almost always sell amazingly. So they need to take way more risks. Lately, when they do make big changes they hardly stick with it.
      Like I agree fairy types are still big, but Megas? We cant even tell if they are gonna keep doing megas. Z- moves may be the topic of discussion now, but mean absolutely nothing next gen. They just need to make something inventive and stick with it!

      Reply

    • Although I wouldn’t mind changes to the Battle system, i really don’t have any idea what they could do with it without completely altering it.

      Reply

  18. Well since we have been focusing a lot on the negative side of the interview that Game Freak gave, I wanted to illuminate something else that may be interpreted as more positive. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1dce9b7a318c1cab7ca6ee4457d9e7972f9cab897e4e1b25af1b52bf8f4197d1.jpg

    So this strongly alludes to a battle facility in the festival plaza. This is something that both the USUM wishlist and the rumors that the Chinese Riddler was backing both said. So this factoid further reinforces the veracity of these two rumors. This makes me a bit more excited because I can feel more confident in the likelihood that we will get new Alola forms as was mentioned in both sources and for the RR plot which will probably be amazing.

    Reply

      • It all depends on perspective, I already know from what they have shown that I am going to enjoy these games very much. I am excited for what these rumors are promising and do believe them to be true, but will I be dissapointed if they don’t come to fruition. No, because I am not saying that they are fact. There is a fine line in believing in the veracity of information, and putting forth an investment in it-investing is what will lead to disappointment.

        Reply

      • Well they have been known for their weird wording when they want to be ambiguous on things, such as when they said there will be new Pokémon in the Pokedex after the USUM reveal trailer which led many people to question and debate for months whether that meant an expansion of the Dex with old Pokémon or an actual addition of new Pokémon into the Dex.

        Reply

  19. fehhhhhhhhh I’m bummed, my little Puggy is acting so quiet and reserved today and it’s bugging me, normally she’s chipper and active but today she’s just very quiet and that makes me worry

    Reply

    • Because it’s flashy and generally looks better to be honest. People get bored with all 18 Z-Moves, imagine how boring it’d be with just one.

      Also, STAB and Type match ups. Unless you mean that the Z-Move would match the users type but it’d still be hard to make not boring

      Reply

    • Because making them as little varied as that won’t make them nearly as exciting, unless they just add more signature Z-Moves to compensate

      Reply

  22. I just think about how boring it must be to work on Pokémon.

    Imagine working on the same series with such little changes to the mechanics of formula and such little room for truly new and unique ideas for 20 years…

    Like, Mario Galaxy had a sequel because there was just so many ideas they still had and wanted to try. I want a Pokémon game like that where it is just so filled with unique things to do. But they have just put themselves in a box

    Reply

    • To be fair, it’s only the battle mechanics that seem boring to work on. The other members (character and Pokémon designers, especially) probably have a lot of fun because of how much freedom they have.

      And to be honest, the battle designers may be the sort of people who are completely content with the system and that’s possibly where part of the issue is.

      Some of our better games have come from times where lesser known GF members have stepped in, or when GF weren’t involved.

      Reply

    • I think only the technical stuff tbh, because I bet they have fun designing towns, Pkms, introducing some gimmicks, composing the music, searching for inspiration based on the region they’re making etc

      Reply

      • Seconded that opinion on the development of new Pokémon. It seems like a time consuming but fulfilling activity for those who enjoy designing these new critters. I mean there is confirmation that they were actually making UB Burst back before SM was released. It makes me wonder if they can find the time to play the finalized version of the games that they make since they are probably already finishing up on designing the Pokémon for the 8th generation at this point.

        Reply

    • I think there have been enough changes over the years to keep the game developers busy, and interested. I mean think about the number of systems they’ve had to develop for, the game engines for each new generation. I’m no tech expert, but surely that’s enough to maintain interest. Really only the cores mechanics have remained the same.

      Sure they could do other stuff with Pokemon, and they have done through other titles like mystery dungeon and various platform games, but the core series will always have the same base mechanics.

      Reply

  23. So kinda off topic (but I think some people need a bit of off topic, like moi :p) but what’s your biggest fandom outside of Pokémon?

    Reply

Leave a Comment