![]() ![]() Pokémon has always softened the fact that its fundamental concept amounts basically to cockfighting by presenting captured pokémon as loyal friends who share mutual love and admiration with their trainers while that still feels somewhat undermined by the fact that you'll end up with 100 or more captured and forgotten creatures languishing in a storage case somewhere, you do at least get to have more direct interaction with your current team of six. Grooming isn't an entirely new feature, I realize, and it's ultimately more or less optional if you don't really care to partake, but I honestly find it to be an essential part of the game this time around. I mean, there's only so much you can do to create player affection for a certain pesky pokémon that dogs you with constant random encounters every time you step into a cave (because Game Freak evidently believes that this annoying design element is part of Pokémon's inextricable charm), but nevertheless each and every creature in the bestiary has its own distinct battle animations and animations for the "pokémon care" mode wherein you can groom, pet, and feed your beloved captives to increase their sense of happiness and enhance their performance in combat.Īlola captures the feel of Hawaii - both the wild, tropical beauty, and the dense, modern cities. Not every creature here speaks to me quite like an owl wearing a bow tie and laughing privately to itself, but every single critter you fight and/or capture here demonstrates a similar level of attention paid to its presentation and personality. ![]() Once it evolves, it gains what appears to be floppy '90s skater boy bangs, which it preens before chuckling behind its wing when happy. Case in point: I went with the new grass starter, a rotund owl named Rowlet, and prior to its first evolution it's basically like going into battle with a Tumblr collection of GIFs featuring adorable birds wearing bow ties. Character designs feature more realistic proportions and a greater level of detail, the world finally feels organic rather than like an arrangement of square tiles, and the pokémon themselves demonstrate much more personality than ever before. ![]() While Sun & Moon doesn't mark the series' first foray into proper 3D graphics, the tech feels far more refined this time around. I suppose the impact would feel somewhat diminished if I'd played more than a few hours of X and Y versions, but as it is I've more or less leapt from, say, a SEGA Saturn level of technology and presentation to something that looks and feels for all the world like a lost, late-generation PlayStation 2 game. Still, while I can't speak to the experience the compulsive-breeder spreadsheet jockeys will have with Sun & Moon, I can definitely say that the newest Pokémon feels like a huge leap forward from the previous games. I don't care about EVs or IVs, and if we're being candid here, I still can't remember what Fairy-type is super-effective against. Instead, I've approached Sun & Moon from a more relaxed perspective. We don't have a voter's guide, but we will have a Pokémon Sun & Moon versions strategy guide once the game launches. Honestly, the full reality of that aspect of Sun & Moon won't become apparent until well after the game's launch, and our resident hardcore Pokémon fan Kat Bailey will definitely be dismantling and writing about that aspect of this new generation.įinally, some candidates we can truly believe in. This means, of course, I can't really speak to Pokémon's post-game content or the player-versus-player game. I fall very definitively into the former category Pokémon Sun & Moon is the first time I've touched a mainline Pokémon since Black & White 2. ![]() Pokémon players tend to fall into one of two camps: Casual players who pick it up occasionally and cruise through the story, and the ferociously dedicated types who pick up each and every iteration and do their best to dissect the competitive meta-game. ![]()
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