Topic: Pokémon Sun & Moon - Discussion & Speculation

Yeah Diamond/Pearl, while great, had a REALLY slow pace, to the point that they're hard to replay now. Platinum fixed some of the pacing issues, but even HGSS still had better pacing. Another issue was the bag, which couldn't be controlled via touch screen and had no skipping - you had to scroll through each item one by one with the d-pad.

DP introduced a lot of great features though, including the ability to trade and battle over the internet. That was a huge deal. The physical/special split was probably one of the most important changes in the battle system in the history of the series.

Yes, separating special from physical was the single best addition to the system ever.

It should've been that way from the beginning though. Some of those type designations made no sense, and it made many of the Pokémon completely useless in regards to their type and the moves they learned.

Example, ghost was a physical type (seriosuly) while dark (with mostly physical-sounding moves) was special. Hitmonchan could learn all elemental punches but why would you even teach it special moves?

FTFY.

Colosseum and XD did so many smart things that the main series games just refuse to do. Pokemon games are so, so much more fun with dual battles as the default. And catching other people's pokemon would be super fun if Pokemon hadn't made it the literal antithesis of the entire franchises' moral. Plus, it was great to start with Eevee in XD and have five separate options to evolve it (I still enjoyed Flareon even if its special attack stat was crap).

I guess Sun and Moon are sort of doing that with the midday and midnight forms, but it's not something you can choose during the game. Actually the version you buy determining your starter's final evolution is more of a restrictive choice than the typical starter pick itself.

I'd love to get a new main game where the default is double battles.

It's easily my favorite battle format.

It's quite galling, because you encounter a ton of area-effect moves in the singleplayer that you can only ever use four or five times outside of the battle subway, or whatever top of the pokemon center nonsense there is.

An elite four where each battle is a double battle would be pretty insane.

Hehe, when I played Colosseum the first time, I was so bad at them I lost every other battle. I never had money. It was still a lot of fun to figure them out and beat the game.

But it was also the first game where I trained a Pokémon to level 100. Umbreon.

Walrein meta.

Another thing I loved about XD was that, because you got every pokemon from snagging until late game, that game is inherently part Nuzlocke. Limited pokemon make for more fun as far as I'm concerned.

Surf was super useful. Too bad it was "nerfed" for doubles later.

Plusle+Feraligatr tag team is basically unstoppable in Colosseum.

I second this. It's the reason why Colosseum is one of my favourite Pokemon games. The battles were so much fun. Double battles allow for a lot more strategy. Even simple moves like Growl and Tail Whip suddenly had more use. Helping Hand was actually useful, simple combos like Protect + EQ were fun to use. I would love to see a game like that again. Imagine the strategies that can be played with gen 7 moves: Stuff like Grassy Terrain + Gogoat Grass Pelt and the likes. Besides, the game was also pretty difficult, yet despite that, you could train a Dunsparce and Misdreavus for your main team and still beat the game.

Guess I'm in the minority here, I don't really think the games should be more like Colosseum/XD. But then again, it has been at least a decade since I last played either of them, so maybe I forgot how good they were.

I don't like the idea of being fixed to double battles the entire game, but there is indeed a lack of double battles in the main games now where they should be more mandatory.

I really loved Diamond. It was the first, and only game where I completed the National Dex, and this before online event distributions and GTS really got into gear (I think), so there was an awful lot of running around the country and the game.

I've just checked the play time (and my totally modern Nintendo 3DS), and... ermm, 811:28.

I guess the games must've been pretty slow paced, eh?

Same here! (With your experience of Diamond) Although it doesn't count since at the time I was a kid with an Action Replay that had no problem cheating the Dex to be complete.

Nonetheless, I have a lot of fond memories of Diamond. Lots of cool new Pokemon such as Infernape and Luxray that as a kid I had never seen before but loved. But after recently comparing it to HeartGold and even the later Platinum, its age and sluggishness really shows.

And speaking of clocked hours, to this day I'm puzzled as to how I managed to get 1,000+ hours in White, despite not caring for Gen 5 much. Must have been from time accumulated while egg hatching...

The one and only time I bought a cheating device (gameshark for the gbc), it literally blew up in my hands after a few hours of use.

Well, it was more of a spark and smoke. But you get it.

During gen 4 I went through about (atleast) 8 action replays. I used to make my own codes but action replays never last, they eventually stop working for no reason. Powersaves which I use for gen 6 to clone pokemon and fix the clone's stats for competitive use works consistently.

One time I completely ruined my diamond version and had to restart the entire game. What happened was I used the walk through walls code inside a house, ran far, and then got lost and literally couldn't find my way out at all, and because of the graphical coding the house and door would just completely disappear like a void, making it impossible for me to find the exit.

Action replays were dark times, helpful but dark. Good thing powersaves makes your game's files on the PC for storage so you can revert a save if something goes wrong, and thankfully they don't break the game that hard with codes like free roam so the game isn't as corrupted beyond normal play.

Alolan Exeggutor learns a new move called Dragon Hammer:

Hm, crazy, Diamond is also the only Pokemon game in which I completed most of my Pokedex! Most of my Pokemon acquisitions were legitly caught/traded for. I only "cheated" with about a dozen of them (like the unobtainable Arceus), but they were traded over from an online friend who had no problem hacking their game. I never have hacked my games since I knew things could go horribly wrong. (I have done some glitches that were already in the game, like Missingno. in Gen 1)

At least the name sounds cool. Maybe they'll eventually start doing "hammer" moves for different types? We already have Wood Hammer. We could have a Thunder Hammer, Knuckle Hammer, Death Hammer, Hammer Time....

Guys, hear me out:

"Alolan Dragon Hammer"

I have a hammer move. It's Mod type.

Well we seem to have a bit of an info drought here. So to have something to talk about, what are some Alolan forms you guys want to see included in the games? _{(though I don't have a list of which are confirmed as not getting any)}

Personally I'd really like to see a Psychic type Golduck, as it just seems natural.