So obviously it’s been a while since we had the last huge batch of Pokémon Sun and Moon information drop, and at the time that it did I was unable to talk about it due to some school commitments (particularly getting my story for one of our issues finished, an especially time-consuming thing since we’re officially on daily productions).
It’s really been killing me not to talk about this too, since there’s so much incredibly good stuff that we got to find out about in the update. Seriously pretty game-changing kind of stuff. With the game coming out in November I figured we were done getting really big surprise announcements, but clearly I was way off.
Even though I’m still really busy with homework and preparing for this upcoming week’s batch of newspapers, I still wanted to try and talk about Pokémon. If nothing else, it’s a wonderful stress relief for me in an honestly very stressful time, and there’s a theory I had running through my head that I teased in the last post about this that I’ve had plenty of time to think on and really simmer down the details.
So, if you’re down to hear me ramble a bit, check out what I’ve got under the cut. Personally I think it’s some solid stuff, even if the game could very easily come out and totally blow everything out of the water. That’s what’s fun about a fandom though, if you ask me. The period of time where everything is up in the air and thoughts are abound about every thing that pops up.
Once again I’m going to start this by posting the english trailer that was dropped back on the 6th. Yeah it’s kind of old news by now, but I figured I would do a sort of quick run-down of all the new stuff and my opinions on them before throwing it all together. It’ll be a real fast one-and-done ordeal since I’m sure everyone’s used to it all by now.
To begin, new Pokémon. And more specifically, Type: Null, the Normal-type chimera with battle armor as an ability. Known as the “Synthetic Pokémon”, Type: Null is a man-made Pokémon that was created to have the strengths of many different Pokémon, hopefully powerful enough to rival mythical and legendary Pokémon, according to the Pokémon website. While his name initially turned me off (since it’s pretty strange let’s be honest), the concept and potential lore behind this new guy is really quite something. He’s also pretty important to my theory, so more on that later.
Jangmo-o is another new Pokémon we learned about in this trailer. A Dragon-type with the abilities of soundproof or bulletproof, this “Scaly Pokémon” is supposedly a proud but humble warrior that trains in isolated places with its pack, according to its description off the website. He’s a pretty rad little Pokémon standing at just two feet tall, and I can’t say I disagree with the general consensus that Jangmo-o seems like our Pseudo-legendary Pokémon this generation. With something pretty well revered this way that has both immense offensive and defensive potential, it would be hard to disagree honestly.
Raticate image courtesy of Bulbapedia, Alolan Raticate image courtesy of Serebii.net
Finally, we have Alolan Raticate – naturally the evolution of Alolan Rattata. Though I say that, yet another new video that was released shows that certain Pokémon apparently become Alolan even if they evolve from their normal forms, such as Marowak and Raichu. While I don’t have too much to say about Raticate myself, I will admit that it’s so far the shining example of the divergent evolution model that Pokémon has been pushing through their Alolan form mechanic. For sake of moving this puppy along I won’t go into too much detail myself, but you can read up on both Alolan Rattata’s and Alolan Raticate’s descriptions to find out more about the territorial battles with the Yungoos line that led to this old Kanto friend becoming more nocturnal and evil. And fat, in Raticate’s case.
Serebii also believes that another possible new Pokémon was visible in the trailer, perhaps related to Cutiefly, but you can check the image they pulled right here to decide for yourself.
On the subject of the Rattata and Yungoos rivalry, a new mechanical change we found out about with this trailer seems to be the removal of the Day/Night cycle in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Or at least, that’s what I thought when I first saw that Pokémon Moon would be set 12 hours in the future compared to Pokémon Sun. Naturally, this would make it so that one game is set during the day while the other is set at night. However, as it turns out you won’t actually be stuck in perpetual darkness or perpetual daylight depending on what game you choose.
According to the Pokémon website, only some scenes are locked into certain times of the day and the rest of the game will still have a Day/Night cycle that will just be set at a different time depending on your version. This will also include differences in things like the Island Challenges, as Sun will have a fight with Gumshoos as a Totem Pokémon while Moon with have a fight with Raticate as a Totem Pokémon. On the bright side (pun slightly intended), for people hunting Mega Noivern like me, playing during the day will have the game’s clock set to nighttime and vice-versa. That way I’ll be able to see the dynamic lighting shifts later on at night, since I don’t sleep much lately anyway!
If you want to know more about the choices Game Freak have made in regard to the differences between Sun and Moon as game versions and as overall concepts, I’d highly recommend reading the remarks of game director Shigeru Ohmori, since they’re pretty powerful sentiments if you ask me.
Next up on the gravy train, and probably the most important part of this trailer for me and my boundless theorizing, we have the introduction of The Aether Foundation.
Images courtesy of Serebii.net
The Aether Foundation is an organization in Alola that cares for Pokémon that have been hurt. They have an artificial island in the middle of the region (the big white building on official pictures that I once thought would be the Elite Four’s locale, presumably) called the Aether Paradise, where they care for Pokémon and conduct research. Again, these guys are pretty vital to my theory on the story of Sun and Moon, so I’ll talk more on them later.
I will say now, however, that President Lusamine is probably one of my favorite characters introduced for Sun and Moon so far. She’s just so incredibly cute that it hurts, and it seems like she’ll be having a pretty prominent role in the story. Branch Chief Faba and Assistant Branch Chief Wiche both seem interesting as well, though I do have some personal qualms with the slightly shady looking man in the green sunglasses that I’ll get to.
Foundation members seem to be at odds with Team Skull, who are hurting Pokémon across Alola and following in the footsteps of the great Team Rocket by doing things like cutting off Slowpoke Tails to sell them off (I see that Gold/Silver/Crystal reference you clever dogs at Game Freak). The rival team also seems to have another prominent member, an Admin if you will.
Gladion, known as a Team Skull enforcer, looks undoubtedly rad as hell. He’s intense and angry, though his blond hair and the strange hand motions he does reminds me a lot of Owain from Fire Emblem Awakening. Or Odin Dark from Fire Emblem Fates. Don’t know if it’s a spoiler or not, but they’re the same character. Surprise!
Anyway, the main thing to note about Gladion right now is that his main partner is Type: Null, the chimera from earlier. How that ties into everything? Well, I think I know, but we aren’t quite done with this trailer yet.
Next up in the video comes two new mechanics to Sun and Moon.
First, Sina and Dexio return from Pokémon X and Y (where they were Professor Sycamore’s assistants and acted like strange super heroes when you stopped Team Flare in the Power Plant, for those that don’t remember) to introduce a Kalosian threat into the plot of Sun and Moon. They provide you with a cube that captures Zygarde Cores, which will somehow allow you to grow your Zygarde into its various new forms. Whether this means you’ll be allowed to visit Kalos again at some point during the game to capture the hexagonal dragon is yet to be seen, but even if you can’t it’ll still be an interesting little collection mini-game.
Second, a Pokémon Snap-esque photo mechanic will be appearing in Sun and Moon. While photo taking was around in X and Y, it was mostly just for your trainer to have pictures in front of prominent Kalosian landmarks. Now, you’ll be able to take pictures with your Rotom Pokédex of Pokémon roaming around in designated spots, pictures you can post online to let other trainers around the world see our work. Another fun little world-building mini-game, one which will likely serve to exaggerate the prominence of lush wildlife in Alola.
Finally, the video introduced us to the enigmas that are Ultra Beasts. Personally I prefer the dramatic reveal that they spoil in the Japanese trailer, but that’s not really the point. We don’t know a lot about Ultra Beasts other than the fact that they’re neither Pokémon nor Humans, yet they threaten the existence of both. According to the Pokémon website, they’re also being researched by the Aether Foundation.
In the time that it has taken me to get around to this post, there was also another new video that dropped for our viewing enjoyment. It’s clearly much more of a promotional video for the game itself with no serious amounts of new information, but it does a wonderful job summing up all the new things in Sun and Moon while showing off the absolutely gorgeous visuals of the game. Seriously, this game looks incredible. You can check it out here, and I’d highly recommend you do.
You’ll also find that a very familiar looking character appears in the trailer, perhaps the only new thing that it introduces. Professor Oak’s cousin will appear in the new Pokémon games, which makes a lot of sense if you consider that every Alolan form we’ve been getting so far are originally from the Kalos region.
Now that we have everything new out of the way, I figured I should remark on just how incredibly well all the new information and mechanics mesh with the rest of the games as we currently know them. Sun and Moon promises to be an awe-inspiring experience in every sense of the term, and I’m seriously counting down the days until it gets unleashed upon the world. Luckily Monster Hunter is here to keep me from driving myself too nuts with desire.
Since I’ve been teasing at it for just so long, I think it’s about time that I finally talk about my theory for how the plot of Sun and Moon will play itself out. It’s a pretty cumulative theory for the whole plot given everything we’ve received so far in different leaks and trailers throughout the months we’ve had since the games were first unveiled. Most of it, however, leans on things we found out about in the trailers I’ve been talking about throughout this post, hence why I felt I still needed to talk about the new content first.
This is all just my own theorizing and speculation, and I fully acknowledge that it could be totally wrong. I just think pulling together ideas like this is fun, and I’m hopeful that it at least holds weight in the minds of other fans like me. So, without further adieu, here’s what I think will be going on in the background of Pokémon Sun and Moon.
In their anger at not being included in the Alolan Island Challenges, in being called misfits and feeling like they don’t belong, Guzma and his cronies in Team Skull decided to develop their own ultra powerful Pokémon, hoping that they could rival the strength of the legendary and mythical Pokémon Solgaleo and Lunala: Emissaries of the Sun and the Moon, holders of extraordinary strength. If they can do so, they’d be able to truly show off how powerful they have become as a group and show the world the extent of their ability to destroy anything and everything. Type: Null was their first attempt at creating a chimera that could rival the gods themselves. This Synthetic Pokémon, following in the footsteps of Mewtwo and Genesect, is so powerful that it actually needs to be restrained with an obscenely heavy mask and can only be handled by an Admin in the organization, the violent Team Skull Enforcer Gladion. One thing I felt was interesting to note came from one of my friends, who told me that Type: Null’s Spanish name translates roughly to Code Zero. This suggests that perhaps Type: Null isn’t the only chimera that has been created…
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