Poll: What Do You Think of Pokémon Sun and Moon: Special Demo Version?

The demo itself is about what I expected. I'll have to check in with it, though, to keep receiving gifts. Pretty good.

What I'm more disappointed with are the dataminers who don't respect the game and devs enough to keep the unrevealed stuff secret.

I wish there was a way to actually catch a few Pokémon and keep them in your team outside that minigame. Not asking to transfer or anything, just have something to collect and train until Nov 18th.

I didn't expect them to do this, but the demo feels useless to me unless I can catch and keep Pokemon. If I knew nothing about the game, then this would be a nice surprise. But I already knew most of the things going into the demo.

Also, the totem bosses don't seem like they'll be very difficult...

Though it's not a big gripe, it is sad to see the frame rate dip from time to time. Other than that loved the Tauros ride, battle info, music and general map layout

Not yet. I hate having a data cap now.

I liked the demo, but I felt it could be more as well. As an introduction to Pokemon, it certainly was better than the ORAS demo, but it still didn't explain the Pokemon catching aspect of the game (which is the most important), didn't explain type match-ups (but at least added a new mechanic to show if it a move was effective or not) and a too simple trial. At least it did show off the new trial system, Z-moves, an an intro to the more important characters in the beginning, I think. I felt the demo could at least have a bit more padding by not giving you such a strong Pokemon right away, maybe have you level it up some, or give more incentive to playing smarter in battle. Your Greninja has double team, and you have potions. You have access to a Pokecenter as well.

I liked it, the graphics were amazing but no 3D is a huge bummer for me.

For a demo, it was decent. It showed off the new mechanics like pokemon riding very well.

I thought the demo was pretty stupid.

Partly because I've never been a Greninja fan, but mainly because of other things - the sectioning off is awkward (makes sense to limit your space in a demo, but the way it's done feels really forced and obvious), not being able to catch and keep Pokemon is a real sour note (the capture contest even says "you can add them to your team!" but then you just release them when you leave the contest? what a waste), and it feels like way too much space with little to do (which will be different in the main game, but it seems to me they should have chosen a smaller city or section of a city if they weren't going to let you do anything there).

And as an introduction to the series (say a curious kid picks up the demo having never played a Pokemon game), it's such a mess. You start with a Pokemon that one-shots everything in the "main" part of the demo? You get Pokemon that you then have to give back ten minutes later? Type advantages are only explained through small text next to moves? There's a capture tutorial (which is useless since you can't keep anything) but no battle tutorial? It's a really messy introduction to the world, and I honestly can't understand, at any level, what Gamefreak was trying to accomplish through this demo.

THAT SAID. The small glimpse of Alola and the new engine and mechanics gets me crazy excited for the full game. It's a crappy demo, but my gosh the region is gorgeous and full of space to play around in, the quality of life improvements are really exciting, and ride Pokemon taking away HMs is a godsend. I'm really looking forward to November 18th, even if I won't be touching this demo again unless one of the timed rewards coming up in the future is a truly special exclusive (don't care about Ash-Greninja or any Greninja so not transferring it).

I don't think it was quite as good as the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire demo, but overall it was a nice little demo to hold me over until the full game comes out.

Mine is a "sure have"/"like it" combo.
My only issues are the fact the game saves automatically, as well as... well... the lack of 3D. Which is kind of stupid.

I feel that a tutorial would have been great for the newcomers to Pokémon. I liked the graphics, music, and location setting.

Also, no 3D. Not a biggie, but would have been nice.
And Team Skull are brats, lol.

I think it was a great detail from Gamefreak that you are able to catch the Hanson in the game for those hardcore fans that always wanted to kidnapp them when they were popular. Now you can please both the fans and the Hanson without hurting anyone.

I was never a fan, but I'll definitely catch one and call it Mmmbop.

@TadpoleSHero Agree on all accounts. I don't think it manages to convey the idea of what the game is at all. I'm still having fun with it, even if it feels incredibly artificial.

The music seemed really quiet on my 3DS XL speakers. They need to crank up the volume. I hate the whole "restart your system" when you quit the game from the home menu. It's Smash Bros all over again. Running around with your character seemed kinda stiff. I don't like the auto shifting camera angles. I'd rather have manual controls with the camera.

I find it odd how the game, regardless of which model you play the demo on, doesn't have any 3D effect. I could understand the 3DS and 2DS, but does the New 3DS have to be 2D?

@TadpoleSHero totally this. The demo had a lot of good things but I felt pretty underwhelmed playing it, totally killed my hype.
Although I'm not that stupid to judge the complete experience fro that lackluster demo.
Just a thing to consider: If the trials are gonna be like the one in the demo then... I'm gonna miss gyms a lot.

I sadly cannot download the demo since the 3DS can't connect to my school's wi-fi. I'll have to bring my 3DS to my friend's apartment next time I go so I can use their internet!

@whiffy5 I played on a New 3DS (XL), and it was all 2D except for the Poke Finder, unfortunately.

Super-effectively short but a free special Greninja is cool... even though it is always Hardy and Timid

I can't download it without a NNID.

To be honest, I actually didn't know there was anything beyond the "totem" part of the demo until I read it here. Once it started showing scenes from the upcoming game, I just closed it out. I guess I should've known better after the ORAS demo, but flashing up that trailer right after some dialogue made me think that's all there was.

Will I be less disappointed playing the other stuff? Time will tell, I guess...

only thing i hat is that we can't use the plus pad to move and have to use the joystick but thats cause my little joystick is broke.

Haven't downloaded it yet, once I get some free time I'll try it out.

I enjoyed it. I wish you could get up and running in the real game that fast. Starting a new Pokemon game is torture at the beginning while it gives you a babies' hand holding session on how to play.

I like it, it's not life changing or anything, but it's interesting enough.

Very disappointing I thought for sure Gamefreak would have added 3D Effect and would've fixed the frame rate issues.

Seriously, who thinks this is a poor effort? It's a free demo that even gives you reasons to revisit it later on and take stuff to the full version. And the walking feels so much better than thay old grid system

Eh, got other games to play.

It was really poor. You can't even keep any of the Pokemon you catch.

This game is most certainly not "fantastic"

How disappointing it is that there is no New 3DS special features. I wish there was more of a reason that I got the system for. Oh well, it's not like I wouldn't have bought a second 3DS for multiplayer anyway.... :/

A demo is just a tease and that's exactly what it did to me. Of course it's great and I am left wanting more. Pokemon is amazing.

Don't understand why there is no 3d on the new 3ds hyrule warriors had the option there sure it made it a bit more laggy but at least it was there im going to pass its a shame cause all the camera angles look like they was going to have it but pulled last second when the professor puts his hands up and says somthing about 4 pokemon around you can hardly see his thumb from the lack of the 3d feature

@LegendOfPokemon Same here. It's a shame that us New 3DS owners have to suffer too.

@whiffy5 it really is it should of at least ran at a nice smooth frame rate on the new 3ds

My main complaint. Why can't I use the D-pad to move???

It was good. I have some small gripes that will probably stay in the full game (no d-pad, awkward camera in that one town) but this made me excited for the game.

The demo is ok. It's functional, and it gets the point across, but I just wish there was one legit tough fight or just some string of endless stuff to do like ORAS.

@Gridatttack Because you can assign Tauros (and I assume other rideable PokéMon) to the D-Pad, allowing instantaneous access to the PokéMon. Since these supposedly replace HM's and the bicycle, it'll be handy to be able to call them with the push of a button.

Nintendo are really kicking themselves in the butt with not releasing NX details. I'm certainly NOT going to buy a New 3DS until I find out whether the NX has backwards compatability. I'd feel like a real idiot if I bought a New 3DS for Sun and Moon... then the NX came out a few months later and can run the games BETTER. :/

@allav866 Should be an option to being able to toggle that.

I don't mind pressing Y and selecting the rideable pokemon.

@Jayvir The only thing they really give you is the "catch as many pokémon as you can" game, this gives you different things to transfer over like nuggets. Not sure if I can get more than one nugget... but it'll certainly come in handy!

No 3D is a massive dissapointment for me. Greninja is a bit too much and I feel, this is made mostly for Pokemon Go player
I wont't buy it anytime soon.

Truthfully, the demo brought my overall hype for the game down, though I don't see that as a terribly bad thing. I was probably getting a bit too hyped, honestly.

For me, the pros were:
Movement feels better than ever. I think running just feels good.

The graphics in general also feel a lot more modern. Walking around a town with a moving camera, being able to talk to NPCs from any side, it's the little things like that.

As far as visuals go, the battles are great. Nice camera, cool hud, flashy move animations, character/trainer entrances at the beginning of the battle etc.

By far the best part of the demo for me was the sound. Some of the new tracks are great, like the main field you're in, and the trainer battle theme-- holy smokers that's incredible. I agree with what someone else said above though, the volume could be louder. Also, ambient Pokemon noises being heard all over is brilliant. Such a simple idea, but I find it incredibly immersive.

The cons are a lot of little things, but that said there were still a lot. I agree with what most people have said so far, but what stuck out to me the most were
Greninja being your only Pokemon

Trial Challenge was pretty uh... short, simple, and kinda lame.

Even though the visuals in general are really good, the textures look like they're straight out of a PS1 game. I'm hoping maybe that's just because of compression to make the demo smaller? I don't know.

Pressing A to open doors is a bit of a strange choice to me since you've been able to walk into all doors in the other games.

And overall there's really just not much to do.

Still excited for the game, but ultimately this demo was just kinda bad in really most ways, especially with how much information has been mined from it. There's still an entire month to go before it comes out... Honestly the demo probably shouldn't have even been made.

I personally loved the demo and I have and played Red, Yellow, Black 1 and 2, Alpha Sapphire, and Y.
I think it's a step in the right direction for all of it. Personally, Alpha Sapphire and Red/Yellow were the only ones I thoroughly enjoyed (and I think that's due to the heavy inclusion of the original 150) but this makes me all excited for Pokémon again!
Really excited for this and happy with how this is turning out.

I d agree though with some of the comments here, like the lag in that one battle (you know which one it was I'm sure) and lack of 3D (which for me is nowhere near a deal-breaker; I hardly ever use 3D so I can conserve as much battery as possible.)

Anyway, color this guy happy and excited. Can't wait to play the actual game!

Where's the "It's decent/okay."
NL? The hell. Where's my options.

@Gorlokk don’t get your hopes too high about the textures, remember Pokémon is one of the biggest games ever, it needs A LOT more than 721 models, each one of them with their own animations, textures and more, they really need to sacrifice something to pull that off.

The bigger the Pokedex, the more impressive these games become, I still don’t know how they manage to make a game that looks better than a GCN game (Take a lot at Greninja’s model and compare it with any other pokémon model from Gale of Darkness) in such a small card with all those assets, all that information, that huge world, sound, music, and more and make it run in a 3DS, it’s amazing what they do.

@Laki2 @Gorlock I agree with you Laki, considering that X&Y were meant to be pushing the 3DS, it's a miracle that we've had such a decent graphical upgrade and a much more dynamic camera for Sun and Moon. Although the length of the demo is quite short... I'm pretty sure they didn't want such a large file size no one with a stock SD card could have both the demo AND the game on their card.

I'm still pumped for Sun and Moon, just hope an NX version isn't announced within a month of buying!

I guess the quantity of content in the demo is to be expected, but I still hoped for something longer-lasting like an Etrian Odyssey Demo.

I wasn't really thrilled by it. The game looks better than X and Y but it's nothing to really write home about. The music didn't stand out to me either.

I hadn't seen the dragons but I wasn't impressed by their designs, and the pokefinder was more limited than I was expecting considering I had heard it compared to Pokémon snap a lot.

I'm not even a big fan of Greninja fusing with an anime character who isn't canon and should have been replaced years ago.

But what do I want for nothing I guess, I'm sure I'll love the games anyway.

no 3D = no buy

It doesn't really blow me away or anything, but it's about what I expected. It's definitely nice to see what the game will look like on my 3DS.

I liked it, it demonstrated the new features and such nicely. Though I think as a demo for those new to the franchise giving them a massively overpowered, fully evolved starter from a different gen might not be the best representation of the game.

Apart from that my only gripes were the lack of 3D, was really hoping they'd solve that, and the odd moments of low frame rate. I'' on a New 3DS and during the final Totem battle the frame rate dropped significantly at times.

Finally got to play it. It's all right, but as others have said, there's really not much to it and it's disappointing that you can't keep the Pokemon you catch. It's serviceable, but not anything special.

Not that thrilled. Graphics is good, but no 3D and a very confusing experience for people new to the series. I find that last part odd, cause right now I believe a lot of people will be interested in playing, due to the popularity of Pokémon GO.

Love: The town music, Trials, Alola, Professor Kukui, dashing around on Tauros
Meh: Only being able to use Ash-Greninja
Dislike: No manual saving, no way to buy items, some very pixelated textures and jaggy edges

I thuoght it was good. Not great, but good.
I love the fact that you can do stuff only in certain days: you have more than one reason for coming back, from time to time.

Only major iussue I had was with the catching minigame: ok, not keeping the pokemon you caught is fine, but Greninja oneshots pretty much anything. It was a terrible way to make you learn about the basics of catching pokemon if they canot be weakened, most of the time.

I felt the demo was about right for what it should be, not to short or long and was able to give you an idea of what the final product would be like.

I've noticed a few people have had issues with frame rate dips, personally I have not experienced this, I can only assume it's because I am running it on a New 3DS so has a bit more power to keep up.

I only had 2 issues with the game:

1, I don't enjoy the music, not sure why, it just doesn't appeal to me.

2, In XY/ ORAS we had great arwork of rival trainers when loading into and out of a battle, this has now gone and been replaced with an in engine sequence which doesn't look so nice.

Seeing the trainers during battle is such a minor thing but I love. It also makes customizing your trainer a lot more interesting. I would have prefered to start out with one of the new starters, but Greninja wasn't that bad. Riding Tauros was dop though. The new Pokemon models look fantastic and everything being measured correctly greatly enhances the experience. Overall this feels like the first real 3D Pokemon game on a handheld. I'm looking forward to the full release

Edit: Forgot some minor framerate drops during doublebattles on my standard 3DS. It's not a huge problem though

I could never get into the pokemon games. Recently I thought about giving it a try. The villains, team skull I presume, really turned me off so I think I will give pokemon another pass. Whatis odd though, I played the yo kai demo recently again and while I hated it the first time round I absolutely loved it this time. So much that I ordered the game. Who knows maybe my time with pokemon is yet to come.

It's a nice little tease, although I'm not sure if I would buy my first Pokemon game based on it, if I were a first time player.

I don't mind the leaks personally. When I first played Red, I too already more or less knew all the monsters, because of all the kids at school trading Pokemon cards and stickers + seeing the anime first.

I like it a lot. The demo did what it was supposed to do. Introduce me to the changed mechanics of the game. It offered me more than the OR/ASAP demo did.

I thought it was a good demo overall. I pretty much treated it as an indicator of what the game was going to be like more than anything else.

One thing I love is the presentation, they're taking it further on from X/Y. Everything feels more dynamic with the way the camera works and the more realistically proportioned people make it feel a little closer to playing the anime.

I'm loving the Hawaii-inspired setting. It's a breath of fresh air and is displaying a new visual palette for the series. And the soundtrack is great so far, with a lot of instrumentation to match the new setting as well.

However, it might just be the demo, but I'm a little concerned the full game might be a little too easy. I'm not really a fan of the game pointing out which moves are effective and which ones aren't. And the picture sections felt a bit extraneous. Just give us Pokemon Snap if you want to do Pokemon photography!

And as others have said, I'm a little unsure about some of the Pokemon designs going forward.

Even so, it is what it is. A taster. And I'm looking forward to playing the full game.

@Shepdawg1 Couldn't agree more. It's like a claim-to-fame for them. No respect in my opinion.

My YouTube and Twitter feeds were spammed yesterday. It's a shame, as the more people that find out about it, the more it's easily exposed to those who don't want to know.

I saw the final evolutions, by complete accident, of Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio. Devastated. It's almost as bad as the leaked Ryu trailer for Smash Bros. Let's hope something similar doesn't happen for BotW. I can imagine finding out about its final boss/ending/plot twist before it even graces a UK shelf.

I'm surprised there is quite a lot of negativity in the comments, I thought the demo was great! It feels like a great evolution of what Pokemon should be, the dynamic camera, the updated character models, the fantastic music! The region looks great (and from the video at the end of the first part, very diverse as well), it seems to be well written so far (the mysterious old man cracked me up when he introduced himself) and I think Team Skull has the potential to be one of the best 'evil' teams in the series. I don't care about the lack of 3D (no more 5fps when its active!) and Greninja is one of my favourite Pokemon so having a totally awesome version to carry over to the main game is great. I will check back on the other days to see what the special items are and i'm hoping for maybe another Pokemon to transfer, a special Z crystal, a boss fight and something else! The first guy outside the Pokemon Centre gives you 10 Pretty Wings today if anyone is wondering.

@Tsurii what the heck? Why single me out if others here are saying the same things as me, or complaining much more about the demo? Get that crap out of here.

I just thought... has anyone tried using the capture challenge to evolve one of the new Pokemon? It should be possible, albeit a bit tricky as you'd need to keep switching Pokemon... but might give an additional reward.

How do you know the full game won't have 3D? If this is a demo, they may not have wanted to spend time working out depth etc for the 3D function.

It's alright. I hate that you can't move with the D-pad

@Prizm That would only apply to a 2D game that was being converted into 3D through layering of the image... with a 3D game it would basically just be a case of adding another camera.

It's just a demo, all I want to see was the gameplay working, 10 min of playing was enough for me.

No 3D, abysmal framerate, and absolutely terrible "English". This demo has actually made me have second thoughts about getting the game.

I loved every bit of it. I just kinda wish that I could've kept the Rockruff I caught in the Pokemon Catching Challenge, but the demo did specifically say you can transfer Greninja, it didn't mention other Pokemon you caught as well.

Demo ISN'T OVER YET!! If you talk to certain NPCs they mention certain events that will happen in certain days. For example a guy said he'd give me something tomorrow and when I went to him tomorrow he gave me 10 pretty wings. And there are other NPCs that mention 5-12-18-24 days if I recall correctly. So keep the demo and keep checking it now and then, you just might be surprised!

Also for those who say the demo doesn't showcase much, it shows how the overworld is much more realistic compared to previous Pokémon games. Even those silly ledges that you jump through loook awesome and they blend in rather than sticking out in the map. Cities are much more complex rather than just a few houses next to each other! You can also find tall grass in more realistic areas like unattended gardens of some neighbors, or the sides of the roads, it looks beautiful AND contains Pokémon! Also the way they placed palm trees around the world is also great, I'm hoping for a side-quest to find some Exeggutor between those palm trees, it'd be fun!.. Also it shows how much the battles are improved, by clicking Pokémon on the lower screen you can see the stat changes they got in the combat and you can see if your attacks will be effective, super effect, etc. and that's also awesome. Overall the demo gives an idea about how awesome the games are gonna be with all these changes, and it'll keep the content coming in the upcoming days.

It feels too much like the other two games released for 3DS which imo were underwhelming. Pokemon just seems to have lost its magic when it went full-on 3D, again this is just my opinion.

It's not bad by any means, but it's just not up to the levels of greatness I'd expect.

Things that bug me about it:

No C-Stick or camera support,
No 3D whatsoever,
Frame drops -despite no 3D- (especially on the camera bits in that cave!),
They've taken out the sneaking from ORAS...why?
Oh, and the town isn't very well designed?
Also, going through fences into gardens shouldn't require a loading screen imo (although not a huge deal)

It was a kind of baffling demo that I feel didn't offer a very good crosscut of what you can expect from a Pokemon game. I mean, I'm not sure who it was for at all. Existing fans are already buying the game anyway and new fans wouldn't be lured in by that demo.

The most interesting part of the Pokemon games is catching and training your own Pokemon and that is tucked away in a sort of mini game after all the main content.

I definitely enjoyed it 100% at first. But then I guess that excitement faded once I figured out no one had anything interesting to say, the trial was far too easy, thanks to the hax that is Greninja and fact that catching pokemon occurs post demo.

On the other hand, Team Skull were hilarious and definitely brought the fun into it for me, and trying out the Z-Move really spiced things up for me. Especially so when I recalled that Greninja can also use it...

Overall, the experience in it's entirety has been okay, but it's a demo. And a demo can never be compared to a full game. As long as you like past pokemon games, you're guaranteed to like Sun and Moon. Just gotta keep an open mind and accept that this demo is only supposed to keep us wide-eyed until the full release next month.

Also, I hate data-miners. I've now got to avoid youtube and everything else on the internet just so I can enjoy the games at the level I expect.

@DragonEleven I'm actually planning on trying this today. I'll let you know how it goes. Pikipek is supposed to be our Pidgey this game so I would guess it evolves before 30. Shouldn't be too hard to level him up once or twice.

@Indielink Rockruff and Yungoos should be possible to evolve as well... most early-game Pokemon evolve by the time they reach the mid-30 range, so they likely will as well... and day/night seems random each time you start the demo, so both forms of Lycanroc could be achieved on different attempts.

@Gridatttack I agree, I always use the dpad

@JBDD
Same. My biggest complaints also no Saving way, very pixelate some objects (Especially the clouds) and some jagginess. Well, still demo but..... they need to fix some things.

@Sveakungen
What do you think about Pokemon Sun / Moon demo so far compared with Yokai Watch 2 or 3 ? I heard Pokemon games somewhat confusing for some peoples...

I think I'll be back for this poll after a couple of days. It seems there's still content that's received on other days.

never played a pokemon game for a long time and that omega alpha demo was terrible and boring in my opinion... now that i tried this its actually pretty decent, there are frame rate issues on battles sometimes and from i remember the pacing is much better than the omega alpha demo... idk if the problem is that im using my base 3ds xl but theres blocky textures and some pixelated graphics during battles which is ugly..

I'm a fairly new Pokemon fan, and I actually thought the demo was quite fun. It was enough to keep me playing for a long while, and I am excited to use Greninja in Pokemon Moon. I also thought it was neat that Game Freak put different events that will happen at certain days leading up to the game's release.

@Anti-Matter Yo-kai is way ahead of Pokémon in most respects. Graphics is better, lore is amazing and like the concept. Of course Pokémon have way more monsters to catch and a bit more tactics involved. I think both are confusing, but a lot of people ignore that and just do the collecting part, straight on.

@LegendOfPokemon
Finally, other people who like the 3D.
Ever since the lack of 3D was revealed, I was surprised at how many people are saying that nobody uses it.

@Aramadon I always have 3D on when I play XY/ORAS; even though it isn't supported in most of the over world, it makes battles (and other parts of the game) so much more immersive. The frame rate drops don't really bother me 😛

I haven't played a Pokemon game proper since Diamond/Pearl due to the franchise's repeitive nature year after year. This however, looks to be the overdue step forward that'll win me back. I'm in!

@Aramadon I don't use 3D but appreciate some people do, the problem is that running a game in 3D takes up more processing power. X&Y was already really struggling to handle 3D so much they had to limit it to battles... Sun & Moon have improved the graphics SO MUCH yet again and people are complaining that there is no 3D AND the graphics aren't good enough!!

Gamefreak are pushing the technology to it's limits, I think some people are being a little bit unfair, especially when there are few games getting close to what Sun & Moon are doing.

Pokemon really needs independent camera support. I'd also prefer a way to zoom out, or some sort of city overhead feature so I don't constantly loose my sense of location withing a city. Since I can't just look directly in front of me into the distance, it's easy to get disoriented.

It seems like that'd be a simple feature to add, but maybe its more complicated than I'm giving it credit for.