Pokemon Sun & Moon

[radiofloyd]

Played nearly three hours of this (Pokemon Sun) this morning, the last half hour or so was spent goofing around in the "Festival Plaza" which kind of the online hub of the game. I'm not sure if I'll bother much with online. This is the first Pokemon game I've played since Diamond and Pearl. One new addition is that you can care for your pokemon after battle - i.e. use a brush to brush off dirt, use a hairdryer to dry wet pokemon. You can also feed your pokemon berries. As ridiculous as these sound, they're not major negative on the game.

 

The game world (Alola) is obviously modeled on Hawaii. The music is kind of Hawaiian/tropical island vibe. In general I would say the music is listenable but poor when compared with the soundtracks of the earlier generations. Of course I've only heard a small fraction of it, and only for a few hours.

 

The graphics...well they're functional and pleasant. The 3DS is obviously a bit of an awkward middle ground capability wise. But 3D (in the old sense, I don't think the game contains any actual "3D" elements) offers things that the old top down 2D view doesn't, so it's still a nice world to explore. The Pokemon look nice, although battle animations are still pretty limited.

 

I always felt that Pokemon games had great writing, especially the NPCs, in the style of games like Dragon Quest or Earthbound. It's too early to tell whether Sun and Moon have retained that charm. But it's nice to see they still use the same old trainer descriptions like "lass".

 

But overall, it's Pokemon. You run in the tall grass, a random battle starts and you have no idea what pokemon is going to appear. Your pokemon levels up, and you have no idea if it is going to learn a new move or evolve. You come to a new area and you wonder what pokemon you can catch there. It's as addictive as ever.

 

Also, there are multiple language options so I could theoretically replay the game in Japanese, which is cool.

 

[HandsomeDead]

I like the new forms of gen 1 Pokémon more than I thought (never thought I'd get attached to my Alolan Ratatta).  It really makes the early part of the feel fresh, and I generally think the selection of monsters hanging out in the opening area has a nice variety.  Also, they seem to be improving the moves Pokémon start with to make fights more interesting from the get go. 

 

Weird thing I noticed, though, thinking about under the bonnet of these games:  I noticed moves that have a 100 hit rate do miss in this, even if a debuff hasn't been used.  I wonder if the speed stat now has some accuracy / evade properties?  I just noticed this when Quick Attack missed three times in a row one fight.  Not sure how I feel about it. 

 

But I'm enjoying it a lot.   I like the odd little attention to detail like the Hawaiian wave you do when you great people and what happens when you stroke a Ghastly or Grimer.  And the events that you take part in make it feel like the freshest Pokémon game since the original so I'm pretty excited to play more at this point. 

[radiofloyd]

Up to ten hours now and I'd like to say that it was in ten sensible one hour sessions but it was more like 2 or 3 marathon sessions. This game is so much fun. I was a bit harsh on the graphics and music on my first post, it's a really nice looking game and the battle animations are a bit better than I gave them credit for. The music is pretty good too.

 

One slightly annoying thing is rather than having a day/night cycle, the game matches the time of the day to when you play. So if you play at night it's always dark, which is kind of shitty for anyone with a job or that goes to school...in other words, most people.

 

Does anyone know, is it possible to connect with your friends in this game to battle and trade? Seems ridiculous if this is not the case. If there are Pokémon I need to trade to evolve I don't want to hand them over to a stranger.

 

One thing I've noticed, I don't know if this is specific to Pokémon Sun, a console problem, or just my imagination, but the brightness of the screen seems to change fairly regularly. Anyone else had this with their 3DS?

 

It's amazing how far the Pokedex has come since the original 150. How many types there are (I've never seen a Fairy type Pokémon before) and especially how many dual-type Pokémon there are. Things were so simple once... The vast majority of the Pokémon I've seen seem to be either new or from the Red/Blue or possibly Gold/Silver generation (I barely remember Gold/Silver) but I definitely don't think I've seen anything yet from Ruby/Sapphire or Diamond/Pearl. Never played the later games so I don't know the Pokémon from those.

[DisturbedSwan]

7 hours ago, radiofloyd said:

One slightly annoying thing is rather than having a day/night cycle, the game matches the time of the day to when you play. So if you play at night it's always dark, which is kind of shitty for anyone with a job or that goes to school...in other words, most people.

 

I believe in Moon the time is shifted forward 12 hours. 

[HandsomeDead]

21 hours ago, radiofloyd said:

Does anyone know, is it possible to connect with your friends in this game to battle and trade? Seems ridiculous if this is not the case. If there are Pokémon I need to trade to evolve I don't want to hand them over to a stranger.

 

I've just been rooting the menus, they're always really obtuse for a game that has a young audience, but it doesn't seem like you can connect with existing friends.  No idea why (well, I sort of do) but previous games had this option so i have no idea why the removed it.

But the options available to trade with randos are pretty good.  No-one can screw you over as you can set perimeters beyond the particular Pokemon you want (like level and gender) so before Pokemon are swapped.  I've just done this today and now have most of the Pokemon that evolve on trade alone.  What I can't see being as good is when it comes to pkmn that need an item to go along with the trade to get them to evolve, and you can't set any item perimeters for that: like, I couldn't make sure the Scyther I wanted also had Metal Coat so it would evolve into Scizor on trade.  So you need trust-worthy buddies for those kind of trades, still.  So that's when trading over the internet with friends is needed.

 

Oh and the Fairy type got introduced in X/Y because before that point Dragon Pkmn were getting too big for their boots and needed slapped down a bit.  They do that same thing Dark/Steel did to the OP Psychic type from gen 1.  I've still not incorporated one into my team, properly because I don't 'get' them yet.

 

Anyway.

 

I'm actually much further in because I've been ill that last three days so I've been curled up in my duvet with this and made some mad progress.  I have hit a bit of a sticking point now just before I leave the third Island.  This Island's boss just has a team that really fucks mine over.  I didn't realise how bad my team is against Dark types until I got this far in, and even the one pkmn I have that is good against them is kinda shit at this point; I'll explain in a spoiler far anyone wanting to keep it surprising:

 

Spoiler

The Fighting type I'm using is Crabrawler; it is a crab with claws like boxing gloves... it rules.  Well, it did, early on.  But now I'm further in and it still hasn't evolved so it's stats aren't up to par anymore in a few ways (speed and special defense are woeful) and I got fed up of waiting for it to evolve and checked out if there was anything special I had to do and of course you do.  You have to level it up in a certain part of the map, a part you get access to near the end of the game.

 

But no, I am loving it, though.  It is the Pokemon game I've wanted since I realised I didn't want to get eight gym badges again all that much.

[radiofloyd]

12 hours in now and I've caught a few Pokemon on the second island. I've been playing this a bit differently to previous Pokemon, rather than using the same small number of Pokemon and over leveling them, I've been trying out all the pokemon I've caught, with more of a focus on completing my pokedex than having any particular core team.

 

By the way, the brightness issue, it wasn't my imagination. The 3DS has a setting called "auto-brightness", when i disabled it the screen became much brighter (it was literally likea light being switched on) and stayed that way, thankfully.

[illdog]

I'm just not feeling this game. Its so fucking hand holdy, I know they often are but I've just finished the first trial and I still get interrupted every 10 seconds by some cunt trying to tell me something. Or at least that's how it feels 4 hours in.

 

My other gripe is the Pokemon I've been getting in the wild grass. They've almost all been Gen 1 apart from Youngoos, that bird and Smeargle. I want some of the other 20 billion fuckers please.

 

I've just unlocked Route 3, I'm hoping things get better. I feel like they're just adding stuff for the sake of it just because they feel they have too. I honestly don't want to brush my Pokeymens or feed them fucking biscuits. Fight, heal, evolve, repeat.

[illdog]

Of course it got better after I posted a whinge. New Pokemon, Taurus, next Island.

 

Shut up.

[radiofloyd]

Nearing twenty hours with this, not very impressed with it.

 

If you asked me whether to recommend someone play the original Red and Blue on the Gameboy, or this, I'd easily recommend Red and Blue.

 

Everything in Sun and Moon that wasn't in Red and Blue only makes the experience worse - Poke beans, berries, Refresh mode, mounts, Z-moves, pokemon calling for help (kill me now), Festival Plaza, the Battle Dome, the QR scanner. The myriad of pokemon types they have added (over the years) haven't really added anything to the experience. The same goes for pokemon balls (it kind of sums up the problem this game has when you quickly end up with 50 different types of pokemon balls, and the original Poke Ball itself is only useful for about the first two hours).

 

There isn't rhyme or reason to the collection of Pokemon in the game - or how they introduce them to you. A huge chunk of the original cast are still here. Jesus I'm playing a new pokemon game, I don't want to be catching Zubat, Caterpie, Rattata, Meowth, Slowpoke, Magnetite, Spearow, Goldeen, Magikarp, Machop, Grimer, Ghastly...I did that in 1999.

 

It's laughable that Eurogamer labelled this "Essential". "Tearing up the rulebook but bringing back the fun". Yes the game has made changes (replacing gyms with trials) - but the core of the game, the adventure, has been poor. In Red and Blue when you came to a new town, there were quests to complete, there was depth to the game. This has been all fluff so far.

[HandsomeDead]

20 hours ago, radiofloyd said:

If you asked me whether to recommend someone play the original Red and Blue on the Gameboy, or this, I'd easily recommend Red and Blue.

 

Don't sit there with a straight face and say that you goof.

 

I don't know when you last played a gen 1 Pokemon game but as someone who is also slowly dabbling with Yellow as I play this I can't help but strongly disagree that the gen 1 games are anywhere near as good as more recent entries.  Like, I get that Sun/Moon doesn't have some of the openness of previous games, I but that on the switch to 3D as I feel X/Y had a similar issue.  But the first 10 hours of gen 1 Pokemon is still using Scratch on most things until you get a Kadabra that can use Psychic (or as many Pokemon as you can get to learn it) and just stroll right through to the end.  Oh, and Ice Beam.  You just need those two moves.

The progression is just so much better now... like, dramatically so.

 

And on top of that the quality of life improvements go such a long way in more recent titles from how you deal with your inventory to the speed of the battles.  Gen 1 feels like such a slog, and even in new titles there is plenty of room for improvement.

 

I enjoyed (enjoying) Sun quite a lot but if I were to think maybe more objectively I'd say Black & White 2 have more fun stuff in it and feels like a choca Pokemon game but I would never recommend gen 1 to someone now.  I wouldn't want someone to hate me so much afterwards.

[radiofloyd]

It's probably been 12 or 13 years since I last played Pokemon Red, so I watched a couple of youtube videos to remind myself.

 

 

 

I would wholeheartedly recommend someone play this over Sun/Moon.

 

While watching the first video I noticed the reference to Stand By Me which was cool.

 

http://legendsoflocalization.com/qa-does-japanese-pokemon-reference-stand-by-me/

 

[HandsomeDead]

You see, I really couldn't give two shits about a cute reference.  In fact I think cute references are the blight of videogames as they are used as a crutch for actual storytelling.  They make you feel smart if you get them but they are creatively kinda void in a lot of cases.  I would prefer it to stop.

 

I've always approached Pokemon games as gameplay driven vehicles and that's why I just can't rate gen 1 games as nearly as good as it's successors.  That's where the fun times are.

 

I do like the innocent yet at times dark tone the games give off, and I'm sure that continues in even the most recent entries.

 

 

I just can't see them any better on a gameplay, systems or storytelling/world reason at all.

 

If someone asked me about a Pokemon game; I'd tell them to get the most recent.  If they were a pain in the smart arse gamer; then probably Black/White 2.  The gen 1 games are an important part of pop culture, and should be respected as such, but they are not to be returned to... Unless you really want Mew.

[radiofloyd]

I can see you feel strongly about it. I'll have to download Red from the eshop sometime and put my nostalgia to the test. But not before I play through X & Y as well. 

 

Ive just noticed that the original Gold and Silver aren't on the eshop which is a shame.

 

 

[HandsomeDead]

Random bump.

 

I've decided to do a Nuzlocke run of Sun.  If you don't know what that is it's a bunch of self-imposed rules that make it pretty difficult.  

There are a number of variations but rules that are largely followed are:

When a Pokémon faints it's dead and you release it or have a graveyard in your box and you can't use them again.

You can only catch the first Pokémon you encounter when you get to a new area or route.

Theres also a rule that makes you nickname a Pokémon with the idea it makes you more attached you you perishable buddies.

And when you white/black out after a fight and all your carried Pokémon are defeated it's then end of the run.  Game Over.

 

I've also added playing the game on 'set' mode which doesn't allow free switching after you defeat a Pokémon when a trainer has multiple Pokémon.  This is also common in Nuzlocke challenges.

 

 

I'm already on my second run, actually, because I monumentally fucked up my first one and wiped out on what is probably the first mildly challenging opponent, so that's embarrassing.  But I went through this game's damn early process again...

 

I'm not too far in the run.  But it does make the game a lot more tense in some of the most normally inconsequential fights, and praying for a good first encounter.

I have still lost two Pokémon so far but do now have a full team of six at least.  Let's see how many stay alive.

[Maf]

I’ve started playing Ultra Sun and am 3 hours in. I haven’t played any of these games since they come out, but things I remember liking about them are still here. I think this is one of the nicest worlds Pokemon has had. I think the characters are relatively good and the story well done. Cutscenes are really great. The Pokemon are pretty cool and the game looks really good for a 3DS game. I like the music, too. Not hearing a lot of it because playing whole YT is on the iPad but it’s cool enough.

 

The big criticism I remember people saying about this game is how slow it is. I think it’s not that it’s slow. I sort of enjoyed the pace of it for the first hour. It was all introduced pretty nicely.

 

The problem is how hand holdy it is. I’m nearly 3 hours in and every screen is another NPC making me go look at some bullshit. I just did a bit where I was forced to go to the beach where there is some surfing mini game. Then Team Rocket (equivalent) turn up and harass the Pokemon. I beat them and an NPC goes “Thanks for that! Come back later and you can play the surfing mini game!” What the fuck was the point? Just leave me alone. 
 

If it was slow it would be repeating it self and dragging everything out. It moves quite nicely, it just seems like there’s a never ending feature list they want to show you all at the beginning of the game. You want go surfing? Want to take pictures? Want to make berries? No, bitch, I want to catch Pokemon 😭
 

Maybe I’m just having bad luck or SV made it too easy, but the catch rate is weirdly difficult in the game. I paralysed a lv7 Pokemon while it had red health and it took nearly 20 attempts to catch it. The start of this game just has shit loads of Dark types as well. Not really a negative. Just strangely limited