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SPOILERS! Sun and Moon In game experience thread
- Thread starter TheMantyke
- Start date
Okay, fairly late to the party since I've been fairly busy these days, but I've managed to complete the way to the Pokemon League and here are my thoughts on Sun and Moon (I played Sun).
Pokemon Sun and Moon were a lot of fun to play. Probably the most fun I've had playing Pokemon since BW2. It takes the original feel of the older games of the sense of adventure and the game is arranged in a very engaging way. I also like how they tried to deviate from the norm for once (moving away from the standard 8 Gyms format), and took a nice twist with the island challenge and the trials were pretty fun. The Totem Pokemon, especially the ones in Akala Island, were pretty damn hard though (Salazzle, Wishiwashi, and Lurantis were horrifyingly difficult, especially the latter with freaking Solar Blade at that point in the game), but I liked being challenged for once, especially compared to how shockingly easy XY and ORAS were (which honestly left me dissatisfied at the end of the day). The trials were frustrating, but nonetheless fun and challenging. The AI in this game is surprisingly good, and very much meant to go hardcore on the player and they force you to either go really item heavy or use pretty careful thinking to defeat the battle, not just going guns ablazing and annihilating everything like in XY. Sometimes it can get too hard though, especially if you don't run the EXP share, as I found myself rather underleveled for the E4 by the time I approached the League with no Exp Share on (I had to raise my party up around 3-4 levels or so from 44-46 to 48-49 to make the fights remotely reasonable), so there are issues with the difficulty curve though, especially if you don't run EXP share (which is basically this game's "Challenge mode" for real).
The plot definitely isn't the best ever, and has holes in it that prevent it from being superb, but Pokemon games have never had remarkably great stories to begin with so I can excuse that. However, it definitely feels a lot more polished than in X and Y, and is fairly close to being as good as the Gen 5 duology's story. There's interesting characters with a decent amount of depth to them and there's development from a lot of them in the plot to the point where I can feel connected to them in a sense. I like the approach they took with the box legends this gen, instead of Solgaleo/Lunala being haphazardly thrown into the game like Gen 6 (or Gen 3/4 for that matter too), I like how they make the box legend appear throughout the story (Nebby), and so you sort of begin to build a connection to Nebby throughout the plot and it becomes surprising that you meet it initially as a Cosmog, but then it's revealed that it evolves into the box legend. It's not the best executed, but it's a nice twist from the previous "box legend suddenly appears out of nowhere, now let's catch it!". Overall not perfect by any stretch of imagination, far from it really, but it's definitely more polished than X and Y.
The region, and the art style and graphics are fantastic, and definitely much improved from the previous generation. The region looks very great. I love the variation of the four islands, and there's some interesting throwbacks, such as Malie City giving off a Johto-esque atmosphere. It definitely feels like a unique adventure and it's very fun to travel throughout Alola's four islands and face the trials and such. The Pokedex is definitely quite varied with a lot of Pokemon from previous generations showing up, so you have a lot of options to play around with and take on the game with various kinds of teams. The new Alola forms of certain Kanto Pokemon are hit or miss, since some are nice (Alola Marowak is pretty darn good) while some aren't all that great, and design wise some are hideous (Alola Raticate), but they're nice to have nonetheless and add some new variation to some old, pre-existing Pokemon.
Z-moves are pretty cool, though it seems Sun/Moon took the X/Y approach of adding a new gimmick to battles with Z-moves this time instead of Mega Evolutions. Although Z-moves are definitely fun to toy around with, though from my experience they should be used very sparingly as opposed to Megas, since they can either be worthless or get an important kill depending on how well you time the usage of them. Nothing too special but they were a fun gimmick to toy with in some of the important battles.
Overall an enjoyable experience. Not the most perfect game ever, but Sun and Moon are definitely much improved from X and Y and feel a lot more polished in comparison. It was very engaging for me to play and I found myself having a lot of fun throughout it, even if it was frustrating at times. I'd say it's the most engaging Pokemon game I've played since BW2, especially after how lacking X and Y felt in my eyes. It's definitely a new twist in the Pokemon series and twists things up in a nice way from the original, standard formula that has been going on for years and breathes new life into the series. They're not perfect games, but they definitely show a good deal of promise for where the series could go later on down the line, and it's a lot of fun overall and I had a lot of fun playing it.
Pokemon Sun and Moon were a lot of fun to play. Probably the most fun I've had playing Pokemon since BW2. It takes the original feel of the older games of the sense of adventure and the game is arranged in a very engaging way. I also like how they tried to deviate from the norm for once (moving away from the standard 8 Gyms format), and took a nice twist with the island challenge and the trials were pretty fun. The Totem Pokemon, especially the ones in Akala Island, were pretty damn hard though (Salazzle, Wishiwashi, and Lurantis were horrifyingly difficult, especially the latter with freaking Solar Blade at that point in the game), but I liked being challenged for once, especially compared to how shockingly easy XY and ORAS were (which honestly left me dissatisfied at the end of the day). The trials were frustrating, but nonetheless fun and challenging. The AI in this game is surprisingly good, and very much meant to go hardcore on the player and they force you to either go really item heavy or use pretty careful thinking to defeat the battle, not just going guns ablazing and annihilating everything like in XY. Sometimes it can get too hard though, especially if you don't run the EXP share, as I found myself rather underleveled for the E4 by the time I approached the League with no Exp Share on (I had to raise my party up around 3-4 levels or so from 44-46 to 48-49 to make the fights remotely reasonable), so there are issues with the difficulty curve though, especially if you don't run EXP share (which is basically this game's "Challenge mode" for real).
The plot definitely isn't the best ever, and has holes in it that prevent it from being superb, but Pokemon games have never had remarkably great stories to begin with so I can excuse that. However, it definitely feels a lot more polished than in X and Y, and is fairly close to being as good as the Gen 5 duology's story. There's interesting characters with a decent amount of depth to them and there's development from a lot of them in the plot to the point where I can feel connected to them in a sense. I like the approach they took with the box legends this gen, instead of Solgaleo/Lunala being haphazardly thrown into the game like Gen 6 (or Gen 3/4 for that matter too), I like how they make the box legend appear throughout the story (Nebby), and so you sort of begin to build a connection to Nebby throughout the plot and it becomes surprising that you meet it initially as a Cosmog, but then it's revealed that it evolves into the box legend. It's not the best executed, but it's a nice twist from the previous "box legend suddenly appears out of nowhere, now let's catch it!". Overall not perfect by any stretch of imagination, far from it really, but it's definitely more polished than X and Y.
The region, and the art style and graphics are fantastic, and definitely much improved from the previous generation. The region looks very great. I love the variation of the four islands, and there's some interesting throwbacks, such as Malie City giving off a Johto-esque atmosphere. It definitely feels like a unique adventure and it's very fun to travel throughout Alola's four islands and face the trials and such. The Pokedex is definitely quite varied with a lot of Pokemon from previous generations showing up, so you have a lot of options to play around with and take on the game with various kinds of teams. The new Alola forms of certain Kanto Pokemon are hit or miss, since some are nice (Alola Marowak is pretty darn good) while some aren't all that great, and design wise some are hideous (Alola Raticate), but they're nice to have nonetheless and add some new variation to some old, pre-existing Pokemon.
Z-moves are pretty cool, though it seems Sun/Moon took the X/Y approach of adding a new gimmick to battles with Z-moves this time instead of Mega Evolutions. Although Z-moves are definitely fun to toy around with, though from my experience they should be used very sparingly as opposed to Megas, since they can either be worthless or get an important kill depending on how well you time the usage of them. Nothing too special but they were a fun gimmick to toy with in some of the important battles.
Overall an enjoyable experience. Not the most perfect game ever, but Sun and Moon are definitely much improved from X and Y and feel a lot more polished in comparison. It was very engaging for me to play and I found myself having a lot of fun throughout it, even if it was frustrating at times. I'd say it's the most engaging Pokemon game I've played since BW2, especially after how lacking X and Y felt in my eyes. It's definitely a new twist in the Pokemon series and twists things up in a nice way from the original, standard formula that has been going on for years and breathes new life into the series. They're not perfect games, but they definitely show a good deal of promise for where the series could go later on down the line, and it's a lot of fun overall and I had a lot of fun playing it.
I'm going to just keep this short, and list the pros and cons later.
But Pokémon Sun has been one of the best games of the series I've played in years. Some of the battles are interesting and challenging, and it has been a lot of fun training the various Pokémon I have, whether caught in Alola or brought over from previous gens.
The graphics/visuals/details are far and above that of Alpha Sapphire, and if makes we wonder what is next to come, which I'm sure Game Freak is already working on.
I am currently about to soft-reset for Solgaleo (and I guess since there is no guide, I'll just aim for an Adamant nature, and patch up the IVs with Bottle Caps).
But Pokémon Sun has been one of the best games of the series I've played in years. Some of the battles are interesting and challenging, and it has been a lot of fun training the various Pokémon I have, whether caught in Alola or brought over from previous gens.
The graphics/visuals/details are far and above that of Alpha Sapphire, and if makes we wonder what is next to come, which I'm sure Game Freak is already working on.
I am currently about to soft-reset for Solgaleo (and I guess since there is no guide, I'll just aim for an Adamant nature, and patch up the IVs with Bottle Caps).