Pokémon Sun and Moon

As a loyal fan of the Pokémon games all the way back to Pokémon Red and Blue, Sun and Moon’s release was always going to be for me one of those must have, day-one release titles. After months of teasers, hours of speculative YouTube videos, and minutes of wait time at the midnight release I managed to get my hands on a copy of Moon. Finally, it was time to see if all of the apparent changes made to the tried and true formula of Pokémon would work within the seventh generation’s release.

It’s made apparent, early on in the game, that Pokémon Sun and Moon is a story based release with lots of narrative in the lead up to choosing your starter Pokémon. This was a welcome surprise, as the main stories in Pokémon games of late, had been lacking in depth. Once you begin you hit the ground running; having saved the mysterious Pokémon Cosmog, befriended Lillie, met Professor Kukui and attained your starter, you’re then encouraged to explore Melemel Island and attempt your first trial. A whole lot is packed into the first few hours and none of it feels forced. While dialogue feels a little text heavy at points, selecting the fastest text option fixes this minor irk of mine.

With the removal of certain Pokémon staples such as HM’s, bike riding, and Gym leaders one could easily say this is a risky move for the series, which has always rested on familiarity to draw in its old players and allow new players to insert themselves into the series with little difficulty, however the risk has payed off big time. HM’s were always a nuisance in the way they always took a space on a players move set and if you wished to remove them you needed to see the memory challenged move-deleter. But with rideable Pokémon such as Tauros, Sharpedo, and Charizard HM’s (and bikes for that matter) are a thing of the past – and players couldn’t be happier. As for the removal of gyms leaders; well I believe the trials are a welcome change to the classic “8 Gym Leader” trope and have enriched both game play and character development with Captains and Kahunas getting more screen time, granting players the chance to connect to the game in a new way.

Connectivity in between players in Pokémon has always been very important and while it has made leaps and bounds with applications such as “wonder trade”, o-powers, and friend safari, I felt like the new application, Festival Plaza, takes a step back and makes things a little more difficult to connect with players already on your friend list and encourages players to be more bold and add unknown players from all over the world. That’s not to say it’s a failure, but personally I preferred X and Y’s simplicity and ease of use to connect. Festival Plaza does achieve connecting people with its selection of mini games, interesting item stalls, and training arena’s, and has me visiting every day to gain points to increase the variety of stall options.