On September 13 there was a Nintendo Direct. A rather long one, standing strong at 45 minutes worth of information regarding games of all shapes and sizes. Because of life being life I didn’t have the chance to talk about my thoughts regarding the Direct, but there was plenty of great stuff there. The new Kirby game looks really, really fun, as do the Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga remake, Fire Emblem Warriors and Mario Odyssey. Plus there’s plenty of updates coming for games like Splatoon 2, ARMS and Breath of the Wild on top of some interesting ports for games like DOOM, Sonic Forces and a remake of L.A. Noire.
One thing the Direct also addressed was Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon, and there were some interesting information dropped that I sort of regret not delving into. Necrozma’s role in the games was elaborated on a bit more, there was a new Z-Move for Lycanroc shown off that varies depending on which Lycanroc you have and they even told us that new Ultra Beasts will join the line-up of available Pokémon.
After all, now isn’t the time to be slogged down in old-new information, we have some new-new information to discuss! I mostly wanted to include that introduction as a filler for the gap in my informative timeline, as today I’m looking to talk about the brand new informational trailer that was released for the world to enjoy.
As usual, I’ll be holding my long-winded discussion below this read more line in case anyone’s looking to not get spoiled on Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon information. That may be counter-intuitive since I just spoiled the entirety of the last trailer right above this, but… That was a few weeks ago. I guess.
The last stop on my little tour of new things that were talked about in today’s Pokémon Sun and Moon trailer are the new mechanics that were highlighted. Both were first shown off in earlier reveals and leaks, but until now neither were really elaborated on all that heavily. So, let’s talk a little about riding Pokémon and Z-Moves.
While I made a post talking about the two new Pokémon unveiled for Sun and Moon just earlier today, it was pointed out to me that a brand new Japanese trailer for the game was released. This isn’t a reveal trailer like we’ve been getting either, it’s a serious made-for-TV “go buy this game” kind of trailer. There isn’t a lot of new features on display, but it does have some stuff in it that seems pretty worth looking at in my opinion.
Plus, I finally figured out how to embed videos in my actual post rather than just leaving a link, so this is a good opportunity to test that out too. Please enjoy this trailer, courtesy of Pokémon’s official Japanese YouTube page.
The first thing that really strikes me about the trailer is its general focus. From what I can tell, the serious push for Sun and Moon is both its beauty, accompanying the natural aspect that generally exists in the concept of Pokémon itself, and it’s continuation of Pokémon’s focus on childhood wonder, and being connected with friends. Granted, neither of these things is new for Pokémon as a whole, but there’s a special level of those feelings exuding from this trailer that I haven’t really seen in quite some time, even for the Pokémon X and Y lead-up material which seemed to be more interested in the international connectivity of Pokémon as a series.
For those of you who decided not to watch the trailer for whatever reason, I’ll sum it up in as simple an explanation as possible. A young boy, visiting a tropical location that I can only assume is Hawaii all things considered, starts Pokémon Sun and Moon as he’s arriving, much like the main character in-game is first arriving at the Alola Region. After losing a four way free-for-all battle royal to his friends, he becomes determined. He trains, he gets better at the game and he explores the region much like he actually explores the area it’s based on (along with the creatures that fill both worlds, of course). Eventually, through this personal growth and commitment, he becomes good enough to finally beat the friends that defeated him at the beginning.
To be frank, I think it’s an absolutely brilliant trailer. It perfectly reflects exactly what Pokémon as a series is based on and it shows it off in a wonderful, relatable kind of way. You can imagine the kid in the trailer is at least a real person, if not analogous to you, and that helps to emphasize that the series (now in it’s seventh generation of games) is, if anything, an even better reflection of childhood and all that accompanies it than ever before.
On top of that, it slyly shows off a bunch of the features and scenes of the game like a real tease, without providing too much explanation for certain things. The battle system, Pokédex and trading system are all shown off, providing the core that all Pokémon games have relished in from the series’ inception. It shows off the in-game environments, all of which look extremely well-polished and diverse, not that anything else was expected at this point. There’s a pretty heavy focus on the battle royal system to emphasize the interpersonal connectivity of Pokémon as said before, an idea that’s arguably more apparent than ever with Pokémon GO taking the world by storm.
You can see the new Pokémon from earlier today, Mimikkyu and Kiteruguma during the trading segment around 1:30. You can see your player character – both male and female – activating whatever bracelet they have on, which activates some sort of extra power in the starter Pokémon through flashes of colors and icons that don’t really clarify exactly what is accomplished through the act. On top of that, it seems a Pokémon-Amie styled grooming will be in the game, but it will perhaps be more complicated given the player can blow-dry their Pokémon. Whether this is involved in the game’s potential contest system, as seems to be implied by the dance moves and special battle effects around 1:20.
Also, there’s a pretty strong emphasis on riding Pokémon at the end of the trailer, one that shows off how you can ride Tauros, Lapras and Sharpedo in game. While Lapras and Sharpedo were technically ridable in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, they were just replacement models for the usual vague swimming Pokémon shadow with some slight changes like size and speed of travel. In the trailer above, it does seem like there’s something different about riding them in this game, which leads me to believe either they’re just special ridable over-world mounts in one area like Mamoswine and Rhyhorn in X and Y, or that using HMs could potentially be a very different experience depending on who we teach the HM moves in Sun and Moon.
So that’s just about all on how much I really liked this new trailer, but what do you think? Did it speak to you on as much of an emotional level as it did to me? Do you think the special features that were showcased in the trailer were more clear than vague like I interpreted them? Let me know in the comments below, as these details are especially the ones I love to have discussions and debate over!
From a Serebii post about a week ago, I was led to believe the next batch of Pokémon Sun and Moon information was to be released on July 1st. That’s why I was surprised when I heard about a collection of new potential Pokémon leaked onto the internet early (and I mean early) this morning when I was up probably too late for my own good. Some part of me believed it was potentially someone trying to capitalize on new information hype, so I decided not to talk about the Pokémon when I first saw them just in case they turned out to be fake.
But then, an official trailer was put out here with the new Pokémon as a headlining focus. Sure, it’s in Japanese, but Serebii does fill me in on some of the more important details, as far as things I could only vaguely grasp by looking at things like colors and animations.
So, let’s talk about this collection of… Admittedly strange Pokémon.
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