Pokémon Sun and Moon Demo Coming on 18th October, Starter Evolutions and More are Confirmed

The demo is out on my birthday. The evos are amazing but Rowlet's is the best.

Loving the look of the starter evolutions so far! Hopefully we get the final designs soon.

Thank Arecus Game Freak didn't screw up Rowlet's evolved form.

Looking forward to the demo. I am thinking more from this that NX will be a 2017 reveal.

@Pokefanmum82 I agree about Dartrix. It's hilarious and cute. Brionne is just toooo cute for words.

Those evolutions are really good. I hope that they do indeed share the Rockruff thing of having two final evolution designs.

Rowlett is definitely my starter. Cute and well designed. The other two are great too, just Rowlett is much better

I'm suprised. With Nintendo and big demos, they usually like to send them only to randomly selected people in their email like it's a crappy sweepstakes.

Hopefully the demo doesn't get hacked and the full game leaked like the ORAS demo.

YES JOIN AVENUE RETURNS KIND OF

Although I usually go for water-type starters on my first playthroughs, I don't really like the look of Brionne, so unless the final evolution can redeem it, I may be switching to one of the others, and if the leaked artwork is genuine (it's looking more likely) then I may well go grass-type.

Rowlet: evolves

"This is who I am mom it's not just a phase."

I'm a super excited 30 year old! Go team Litten!

So so so soooo hyped!

I've expressed my concern for Pokémon's overkill in this new Gen in the past, but something I'm loving are the expressions and character being integrated into some of these newer Pokémon designs. Dartrix is the latest example, and ticks every box!

And is it me or will Popplio be this generation's Bulbasaur (sorry to all the Bulba lovers out there!)?

Love these evos, especially Rowlet's! x3 Still holding my breath for new mega evos, though ...

@DragonEleven Fellow water trainer here. Also a bit worried about the water starter still. The leaked final form isn't bad, but I'm not holding my breath yet. Showing the middle evolutions though... ugh, what mid-evo is ever exciting? They're the awkward teen phase most of us barely tolerate. Dartrix is proof of that.

Also, sorry, but I don't like Ash-Greninja. Unless it means Ash is actually in the game, it doesn't make sense that our trainer has a pokemon mimicking the look of another trainer. Makes me feel like Greninja cheated on me ;(

@SM4SHshorts What do you mean? Do people not like Bulbasaur? I thought everyone loved Bulbasaur and its evolutions. Venasaur was really useful on a sunlight team back before weather got nerfed.

Thank God Mega's are still a thing.
My shinies still have some use.
I still hate them tho... dumb idea in the first place.

Love the starter evolutions.

But what was the point of confirming that Mega Evolution is returning? Wasn't that just a given? Showing us three new megas in their place would have been preferable.

I'm not usually a fan of mid-evolutions, but I really like Litten's and Popplio's. I'm curious if this supports those "classified" full evolution leaks from before. I'm also really happy to hear about a demo. They're really going all out for this game and I'm very much looking forward to it.

@BlatantlyHeroic I'm talking about the 90s. Sure, you had your Bulba enthusiasts, but if we're being real it was more or less all about Team Red vs Team Blue. I think both time and the evolution of the competitive scene has shown more love to the Saur family

@wiggleronacid To go along with those leaks, there were also hints that the starters and Rockruff all shared the same secret. We later find out Rockruff's secret was having different evolutions depending on the game you buy. It stands to reason that it will probably be the same for the starters.

When I get ash Greninja I'm gonna kick the crap out of a MEGA Charizard X

So....... Pokemon Anime is canon to the games now? How does that work? >.>'

I was already team Popplio but even moreso now. I mean Brionne is literally the Pop Star Pokemon. The leaked final evo is pretty much confirmed for me.

I literally screamed 'Nooo..' when I watched the footage of Ash-Greninja. Isn't that supposed to be exclusive to, I don't know, Ash? Keep that in the anime, oh too late.. .-.

@GeminiSaint From what I've heard, it's explained in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.

So excited for Ash-Greninja. This game just keeps looking better. I am hyped for the demo!

So this "unconfirm" the previous leak of the final evolution?

@Grumblevolcano Why? The promotion for this is handled by GameFreak and Pokemon Company, nothing to do with NX.

Ooh...these three make the gen 5 starter evos look pretty in comparison. Just when I'd gotten used to their funky and lackluster designs. Hopefully Rowlet's final form will look better.

@GeminiSaint

Well there is Pokemon Yellow. ^^

@KickButt_Gaming

Bushy eyebrows are a Way of Life.
It does kinda remind me of the Great Owl from Secret of NIMH, if you've ever seen that movie.

Looks like Ash-Greninja might finally be able to have a champion as a partner afterall.

Even Demo, will Pokemon Moon take a time 12 hours difference with our real time ?

Cool! I can use that to see if I want the game or not. I swear I have the same relationship with Pokémon as I do with monster hunter. I want to like it because it is popular but it never pans out for me.

I'm loving that Popplio Evolution! Also wow Ash Greninja made it too! If we're able to soft reset the nature on him in the demo then he should be a really good competitive Pokemon. Especially thanks to Hyper Training.

Looking pretty good. Some of the new features:

Z moves
Hyper training
Battle Royal
Poke finder
Pokémon refresh
Festival Plaza
Poke pelago
Island challenge
Friendly competitions
Alola forms
Ultra beasts

@Gauchorino stated back on May 11, "Again, it looks like a money grab, having so little new differences from the last generation or even from the last 4 generations."

I wonder if he stands by those words or if he'd care to admit that he rushed to judgment and then indiscriminately attacked me for challenging him?

Will there be a code for the special demo version? If so, how will one be able to obtain it? (Please don't be obtainable by going to a store...)

You do realize that the leaked final evos are basically confirmed now, right? Hoping for a split evo like Rockruff

Hype! I love demos!

This IS exciting. I haven't played since Diamond/Pearl, but this is winning me back.

Ash-Greninja. Nope, I think I'm going to be cancelling that pre-order.

the omega ruby demo was boring and pointless, i hope this demo is better and will actually convince me to buy my first pokemen game.

I can't believe no one has mentioned that Mega Rayquaza will be an even bigger god with Z-Moves. It will be awesome!

@SM4SHshorts I mean I lived through the 90s and heard nothing of that. I picked Bulbasaur and in school it seemed the three were pretty evenly split. Sure that it just wasn't around you that no one liked Bulbasaur?

They acted like Mega Evolution is just a throwback - will there be new megas? Are you only able to Mega evolve in a certain part of the game? Are megas not going to be a constant in the series? This honestly gave me more questions than answers.

Also owlet becomes an emo teen. Still sticking with Litten.

Good to see Mega Evolution confirmed. Poke Pelago is an awesome idea, giving our boxed Pokemon an actual use. Festival Plaza is basically Join Avenue, Entralink, and Wi-Fi Plaza had a baby.

The starter evolutions look cool. Still haven't decided who I'm gonna pick though.

Not a fan of the middle forms for the starters, but the real travesty is Ash-Greninja, and not even having the decency to give it a name that isn't dependant on a character that doesn't even appear in the games. Tying the games to the horrible cartoon is a bad move. Also don't care about all the mini games they're pumping in. I'd rather see actual story or post story content like Battle Frontier facilities (which probably won't even happen).

"Greninja has fully bonded with you, so now he will take the appearance of a completely different trainer!"

I don't really care about the Ash-Greninja thing so aside from the demo I will just not use it cause that's pretty much the best way to handle not liking it.

NNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
IT CANT BE!
POPPLIO WAS GOING TO BE MY PARTNER!!!
NOOOO!! : (

First the bowtie and now the hair?

Rowlet confirms to me that Game Freak are 11th Doctor fanboys....

Popplio and I are gonna make a great team!

I absolutely cannot stand the Ash-greninja thing... it's not a mega evolution so... what is it?! Do we really NEED another way of "evolving?" This game is feeling so bloated with so many new ideas shoved into this and some of them aren't even good. Ugh.

I like her middle evolution so I'm still sticking with Litten as my starter for now.

Please don't be Fennekin, please don't be Fennekin.

@gloom I think it's just a one off thing that won't become the norm and has no bearing to the game story. It's like the special Pikachus or other wacky one off Pokemon. A gift to fans, nothing more.

So what everyone's saying is that Ash-Greninja lost to a Mega Charizard X in the anime?

Told my nephew there's a Pokémon Sun / Moon demo coming later this month... he said, 'ask Nintendo can I just get it tomorrow'. Lol he's Pokémon mad at the minute, can't wait for this.

Hope the best for Sun and Moon!!!!

Ash Greninja is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Still excited though. Also it seems like starter evolutions based on time has been deconfirmed. Looks like we'll be getting Nacho Beltigre after all.

@gloom I literally only signed in today just to say how much I hate Ash Greninja. The fact that it exists in the games saddens me. First world problems, I know.

From those starter evos, Rowlet is still my favourite. Litten jumps up to my 2nd favourite, and Popplio drops down to my least favourite.

I kinda dislike anything to do with Ash being in the games, so I'll just grab the Ash-Greninja then banish it to the PC box forever.

I don't really know what an Ash-Greninja is? Looks just like an ugly Greninja. I'll get it though of course.

Eh, I think I'm still sticking with Litten. Torracat looks pretty cool, Dartrix is okay, but Brionne...ugh.

I'm also glad that Mega Evolution was confirmed, though I thought it would be silly if that was removed in these games.

@Ogbert in the anime Ash has a Greninja that became so close to him it has this special evolution (Ash Greninja) that is meant to sorta resemble him and when it gets hurt, Ash feels the pain too.

@Kalmaro Aww thanks for thinking that about me, I won't disappoint you <3

@LegendOfPokemon I'm pretty sure Megas and primal forms won't be able to do Z moves, even if Mega Rayquaza doesn't require items to mega evolve.

@roy130390 poor frog is going to need some counseling after Ash ditches him to go to his new region.

@ShadJV oh right. Sounds kinda awful but I guess it's cool for fans of the show.

@CosmoXY Your harassive obsession with me is getting you reported.

@Gauchorino I've looked at your report, but on its own I don't see it as abusive. Unless you've been misquoted, you've got to expect people are going to remember what you say in debates and bring it back up when more information becomes available.

I'm not aware of previous issues between you two - can you be specific about earlier incidents? If so I'll take a closer look.

@gcunit He just had a problem with me disagreeing with him.

@Gauchorino I take it that means you don't care to engage in a civilized discussion then. Got it.

@Gauchorino @CosmoXY OK, I can see there's a bit of history between you two from earlier on in the year at least.

@CosmoXY - gloating/goading is not cool. It's evident Gauchorino doesn't want to continue the debate you had about this game, so please stop linking him to your posts if it's not going to be a genuine attempt to build bridges. Leave him/her alone unless you're going to play nice. If you continue trying to make digs at Gauchorino then we will have to consider it as harassing behaviour and take further action.

@gcunit Thank you very much for your response. I take no issue with the content of my comments being criticised. It is because CosmoXY has repeatedly personally attacked me and harassed me (through mentions and slander) even after I asked and warned him to stop doing so, simply because he did not agree with my views of the time. I would have been fine having a civil conversation with him or anyone else about the topic, and I thought my first reply to him in the comment section where this began indicated that, but he has since carried his personal grievances against me to several other comment sections as well. I would be glad to cite to you all the exchanged comments between the two of us and his later slanderous mentions of me so that you can make your own judgments, but as to not take up any more of this article's comment section with unrelated discussion, is there any way to privately converse with you about this?

EDIT: Thank you for resolving this!

@Gauchorino Not within the bounds of the site, not unless you report another post and paste in links to all the others in your comments on that report.

You're welcome to email me at [email protected], but obviously that's my private address and has no connection to NintendoLife.

Bear in mind though that I'm not in the habit of taking action retrospectively against stuff. CosmoXY has had a warning from me now, so anything in the future is relevant, but to an extent the past is the past, so going to the effort of dredging it all back up is maybe not going to be worth the effort at this stage.

Hmm... if the final evolutions of the starters vary between Sun and Moon, then that makes me hoarding the starters at the beginning a whole lot harder. XD XD XD

Ash-Greninja...cool idea bringing it to Sun & Moon but I would have like it better if we got to battle Ash as a secret boss or something, you know? Like you beat Ash and then he gives you his Greninja like how Battle City Tournament rules were in the Yugioh anime. You lost the duel, you lose your rare card. You lost to Ash, you lose your strongest pokemon [but of course if you lost, You reset your game in a heartbeat!!!! XD]

Those communication features is step up from Pokemon Platinum stuff. Very nice and cool call back.

Pokemon in the PC will actually do something!!! HYPE!!!!

Does anyone know if more info of Sun and Moon will be out b4 the games come out in November or this was it? [excluding leaks of course.]

@gcunit Good to know, and I greatly appreciate your offer to email you outside the bounds of your employer, but I won't bother you any more about this unless the issue arises again. I have no desire for CosmoXY to receive retroactive punitive action, but I will show you past comments of his and mine if you need supporting evidence for my report (though it sounds as if you've already taken a look at least a few of them). Since you've already warned him about this, I see no need to show you them at this time.

Thank you again for your fair moderation and your willingness to communicate about this.

Go watch Pokemon XY&Z people. It's really good. I can just tell most people here haven't seen it.

Other than that, the Festival Plaza seems to be the long-waited sequel to B2W2's Join Avenue!!!

I'm actually most hyped for Ash-Greninja. The XY&Z anime has been really good, and Ash-Greninja is part of that. For all the naysayers out there, just watch (from 14:00 on) this link: https://youtu.be/mLLO2mFy4MU

Edit: Make sure to turn the volume on, the battle music is awesome!

@ShadJV
That kind of begs the question... Pikachu has been with Ash way longer than Greninja --or anyone else, period. I don't think any of Ash's pokemon is closer to him than his Pikachu. How come there is no Ash-Pikachu?
(not that I'd want that. I'm just questioning the anime logic here, that's all)

Sure are a lot of people whining about Ash-Greninja. It's people like them that made the Pokemon anime switch from the awesomeness that was XY&Z to the more childish Sun & Moon anime; maybe it'll be good, but XY&Z was something special, and it's a shame we'll lose all that progress.

Brionne looks just like the Alchemic symbol for Mercury.

@MetaRyan

I agree, it's a shame people are pointing to the league final and saying XYZ is not worth watching. That's basically one of the very few mistakes XYZ ever made, and people conveniently ignore all of the amazing things the XY/XYZ anime did, like the character development with Ash in XYZ028, the entire Team Flare arc, that near-masterpiece of a Team Flare finale (blows anything similar that the Pokemon anime attempted previously out of the water), the Ash-Greninja vs Mega Sceptile fight, the Mega Evolution specials, etc.

@GeminiSaint that's the question alright. I mean, the "evolution" triggers with an exceptionally strong bond and hasn't triggered for any Pokémon for hundreds of years... Ash is closer to his Greninja than any trainer in hundreds of years has been to their Pokémon? Closer to that Greninja, which he's only had for one league (Kalos), than his Pikachu, which he's had his entire journey? The series has constantly obsessed over his bond with Pikachu. Not to mention The Pokémon Company is so obsessed with Pikachu they make at least one electric rodent every single gen without fail, I see no logical reason for Ash Greninja to exist and not Ash Pikachu... still, as much as I'm baffled by its existence, I honestly am fairly indifferent to it, the whole bond pheromone thing is pretty silly (especially considering they picked one Pokémon, a random starter, to use it with and not just make it a whole category of mega evolution)... I'll get the thing from the demo and probably never use it and let it sit in a PC box like most event Pokémon I get.

@Angelic_Lapras_King. ( Looks at design of Looker ) Tennant says hi. But yes I can see their similarities.

@ShadJV @GeminiSaint Well, the anime can explain that by saying that not all pokemon have that kind of form hidden and it's only something discovered in a few species, or that it can only be achieved after they get their final evolution, something pikachu doesn't have, just like with megas. They can also attribute it to something that could be unique in a pokemon (I mean that even among Greninjas, the one Ash got is special) and yet it's unknown how certain pokemon get that ability.

Don't get me wrong, the anime logic is definitely flawed, but the lack of Ash-pikachu isn't that hard to explain in my opinion.

@roy130390
Well, those are good points. Though, unless the anime has addressed this (which I don't think it did), it's still just "headcanon".

Contrary to popular opinion, I think Dartrix is by far the worst looking middle form, which is a shame since I like Rowlet the best out of the base forms. I think it has an ugly face and an absolutely terrible haircut (feathercut?) from either the 50's or the 80's. Hopefully the final evolution redeems it.

So now that Ash-Greninja is game canon, can we please have the Crystal Onix from the Orange Islands be retconned as a translocated Alolan Form?