Topic: Pokémon Sun & Moon - Discussion & Speculation

@Octane: While I would love a huge game with a ton of regions to explore I have to agree with you. The file size for a game with every region would be huge and the development cost would also be ridiculous. In addition, Hoenn was just in ORAS and Kanto can now be played on the virtual console so we don't need those regions again. The most I could see them putting in is revisiting Kalos to do more with Zygarde and I think even that is unlikely.

I think that Kalos might be in Sun/Moon because we know there are forms of Zygarde that are not in X/Y.

GameFreak wouldn't be able to balance that many regions. Remember, they make the games for kids, so they'd never have wild Pokemon or trainers that are super strong under normal situations. Or do anything that would frustrate kids.

So chances are, if you add three regions to a single game a gold/silver situation will repeat, but worse. Where the first elite four would have Pokemon around level 30 and the wild Pokemon would still be in their early 10's to make it harder for you to grind.

This reveal makes me extremely nervous about where this series is headed because of the possibility that they're cutting Kalos short and leaving it unfinished. This would be a very bad precedent for the series and would serve to turn off a lot of fans that want meaty experiences or more fleshed out plots, and I could see a lot of them leaving the series over something like this. But I'm still holding out to see if I'm wrong about this and the game actually does have more content and gives Kalos the grand finale it deserves.

We don't know for sure if they will expand Kalos or not. But what we do know is that its a main game and that's all that matters.

Meaty Experiences? Fleshed out plots? Buddy, Pokemon had & has those from the very beginning. Its always the same old thing. Be a trainer, fight 8 gym leaders, cross victory road and beat the Elite four with the champ. How is that not a Meaty experience unless you want something that is beyond the main campaign?

Plots whether you like them or not are still the same old thing and was never the selling point for Pokemon no matter how hard they try to make it engaging. The only thing that they tried doing something different from the plot was in Black and White which itself is just a small expand unlike Gold & Silver where you beat the gym leaders and the champ from Kanto after beating Johto.

What I would like them to do for this gen is removing that stupid thing which requires you to trade pokemon inorder to make them evolve. I want to evolve my Haunter to Gengar but why can't I just do like how I did for Magneton evolving into Magnezone instead of having an item for Haunter to hold, trade it and get it evolved?

I understand the point of it when it comes to Clampearl evolving into either a Gorebyss or a Huntail by others trading, but there are too many of them that require trading to evolve them.

Infact, give something for those who can't trade for some reason have something else to do like a second quest that Gold and Silver did, not like what Black and White did.

@Socar Lol, Haunter doesn't hold an item to evolve, all you need to do is trade it. It's really simple, you go onto GTS and look for someone wanting to trade their Haunter for another Haunter. Bam, easy Gengar and you literally lose nothing, plus you end up completing the goal of another trainer.

Pokemon has always been meant as a co-op game that you play with your buddies.

Then they find a friend online to do it.

Most people on the gts only want to fill the pokedex entry.

Maybe to you. I for one, don't want to see them pushing out mediocre initial pairs all the time, I want to see more quality experiences.

That's exactly what I mean. The recent games have become extremely stripped down and there's less and less to do outside of the main campaign. They've made the region design linear so you can't really go anywhere but forward, removing the exploration aspect from the game. Post game content and replay value has been decreasing, especially in Gen 6. And XY completely lacks in extra features and side quests that would flesh out the game. I'm tired of seeing minimalist Pokemon games, RPGs aren't meant to be so shallow.

@Bolt_Strike: I really don't think this is going to hurt the series in any major way. I've been playing Pokemon from the beginning and I've never been in it for the plot and I don't think it's the biggest selling point for many other people either. As for being a meaty experience, that never has been and probably never will be an issue. There is still going to be a whole new region with 8 gym leaders to fight, then the Elite 4 after that and then some form of post game location. There is also catching all of the new Pokemon if you're a completionist. I have full confidence that Sun and Moon are going to be every bit as good as the previous games in the series.

I think @Bolt_Strike is overplaying the "exploration" aspect of the older games. I'm playing through Yellow right now and it's as linear as ever. The only type of exploration is trying to go through Rock Tunnel without Flash

Well, you can actually go around and do many things out of order without consequences. Specially after the rock tunnel. But even before you can trade for cut and skip vermilion city completely, and stuff.

There's also entire places that are completely optional, like the power plant and seafoam islands. And the roads to fuchsia city.

@IceClimbers: I think a part of the reason the older games felt more open may be because of how much younger many of us were when we first played them. For example, it took me forever to beat red when I first played it because I couldn't find Cinnabar Island.

Ok my bad that you don't need an item for trading but its still annoying that you can't get the complete evolved pokemon without trading. Its forcing me to enjoy less of the main game that I bought.

Assuming that Ken Sugimori is carefully designing the pokemon unlike how Black, White, X & Y ended up. I didn't like those games a lot mainly because of the lack of creative designs.

Speaking of Linearity, I would be amazed if at the start, you get to choose whichever gym you want to face instead of the usual a to b line. It would give a fresh new experience for Pokemon regardless of how it turns out.

This. Older regions had optional paths and areas, let you choose what order you did certain events, and had you backtrack to previous areas. From 5th gen on, you simply went from one city to another without any choice on where to go. The recent regions just feel way too scripted.

@Bolt_Strike: I guess this is just personal opinion but I never really cared for backtracking. Having to go through parts of the game that I've already played felt like a way to artificially lengthen the game, it makes the player cover more ground without making a larger region.

False sense of exploration there combined with nostalgia goggles. I'm pretty sure you're punished for doing things out of order by higher levelled Pokemon anyways.

Anyways, I wonder what the secondary types for the new starters will be. I might cry internally if we get another Fire/Fighting starter.

Backtracking can enhance an older area if done right. For instance, let's say you have a forest city, and when you go through your first time, you only have access to the Pokemon Center/Mart and a couple of buildings, about as much as a small town. Then when you get Cut, you can come back to the city and even more of it opens up and there's even more buildings, maybe some facilities or amenities, and a gym. Even though you're going back to the same area it's a completely different experience on your second time.

Not really, the first generation doesn't too unfair with the levels. Unless you actively avoid trainers and wild battles, there's always chances to keep up.

Of course, battling Sabrina right after Misty is probably not a good idea. So if you can't do something, just leave it for later.

The ones where they really messed up balance for a sense of liberty was in the second generation and their remakes. Mostly because non-gym trainers and wild Pokemon peak at the early 20's in Johto, and in Kanto the wild Pokemon are a joke.

All I want from new Pokemon games are new Pokemon, a new region, a new adventure, and quirky NPCs. I'm a simple guy, and I like simple things.

I play Pokemon as an Adventure/Collecting game with RPG mechanics.

Well hopefully Sun and Moon will be better than Sticker Star.