#maybe it was an event 'mon in xy even

[front-facing-pokemon]

[crystalelemental]

“megazardx2: Level cap? What, Level 100? And what would qualify as good postgame content for you if not a battle facility?“

Remember FRLG, when you had the whole Sevii Islands exploration with new mons to explode and a stronger league rematch?  Remember in DPPt, when you got an entire island to explore after the main battle, and the increased challenge of the league?  Remember in BW, when the postgame was like, the second half of the region?  Or BW2 going back to the early routes of BW1?  That.  That’s the good postgame.  Where it’s just...more content.  Even XY had the Looker Bureau stuff, and SuMo at least had the Ultra Beast Task Force events.  They kinda ran out of steam, and didn’t really increase the challenge of the league like prior gens, but it was something.  Galar...okay listen, they had a postgame with the dingus brothers, but god I hate that segment, so I’m particularly harsh to it.  You get Gym Leader rematches in Paldea, but not a league rematch, and as you expressed, the tournament thing isn’t exactly a good substitute.  But at least since Gen 6, there’s nowhere new to explore.  There’s stuff, maybe a little event, but nothing robust, and thus no final goal to achieve.  To take it all the way back, no Red to beat.  Even the Battle facilities don’t do anything, because you beat the head of it, and then what?  Well now all the random battles are like Legendary Pokemon and harder fights but keep going for the streak for no real reason!  It just doesn’t feel like anything substantial happens anymore, but because they have internet connectivity, they’re pushing the idea of keeping the game relevant via DLC and these dumb raid events.  But the raids suck, and DLC is honestly more fun when you just start over and integrate it normally.

I’m not saying you should hit level 100.  I actually think Hyper Training was stupid for making that a requirement.  I don’t think anything in the game should require level cap, let alone be damn near impossible even with level 100 without specific counterpicking also at level 100.  I think level 100 exists to be a stupid goal to hit on accident because you were engaged with other stuff.  When it becomes a requirement, it sucks.  Because now there is literally nowhere to go.  When you make a run of the stronger leagues in previous games, you still gain something.  Money from the wins you got, experience for the things you knocked out.  What happens when you lose at a raid, like, ten times?  You’ve sunk an hour of your life for literally nothing.  You gain.  NOTHING.  It’s the same with the Battle facilities.  What do you get from failure?  Literally nothing.  You need to win seven times in a row to get a pittance in BP, when the stuff you need is super overpriced.  And the battles are hard, and don’t give EXP or money, or anything at all.  So when you fail it’s all just gone, start from scratch loser.  I hate it.  I hate being forced to redo something for no reward.

[my-pokemon-rambling-blog]

I personally think Cynthia is overrated. I like her as much as the next person, but I think she’s overhyped. I played DPPt, and, yeah, she was hard, but is she worthy of having a whole section of the fandom worshipping every step she takes? No. I can’t really speak on the manga counterpart because I haven’t got to those chapters, so I’ll talk about the anime. I think the anime opened up a lot more of her character. She likes sweets. She is indecisive, warm, gentle, etc.

I heard about what happened in M8 in JN, but I myself refuse to watch JN until I find a subbed version for it because I like sub over dub. As for my very heated opinions on JN, I think M8 added on to my strong disliking of JN. I think I like BW more. As for the handling of Cynthia, I think we needed more time with her to really understand why she decided to retire I guess. Idk if it’s stated explicitly or I’m just pulling info out my ass. I think Cynthia is okay in the anime. Honestly, all the champions kinda suck in the anime imo. Diantha is probably the best out of all them.

In PMEX, the only side game I played other than Go, Cynthia gets way too much treatment. I saw there was an Aura alt for Cynthia. I will say, I am VERY biased since my no. 2 fav character is Riley. Like, do you know a character who is heavily associated with aura? Riley! No! It’s Cynthia! Uh?!?!? No? Riley fits the bill perfectly. It would’ve been cool to see Riley debut in PMEX through that event or smth idk. I’m not up to date with Masters.

I also think Cynthia is an easy scapegoat for people to hate characters. That doesn’t make any sense at all. What I’m saying is Cynthia is used to explain why people hate certain characters. For example, people meme on Diantha for being super easy, which is fair. What I don’t think is fair is to compare her boss fight to Cynthia. Cynthia is one of the hardest trainers in the series period. Comparing Diantha to the likes of, idk Lance(?) would be an easier connection.

Coming back to the M8, I heard of discourse about Cynthia vs Ash. As for the match itself, I think 1) that matchup is bullshit. 2) Steven or Iris should’ve fought her. Maybe Alain. As for what I’ve heard, I heard people say it was sexist that Ash won against Cynthia. I personally don’t see it. Cynthia, a woman, lost to a boy. Therefore it’s sexist doesn’t make sense to me. Don’t get me wrong. I think Cynthia losing to ASH of all people is stupid, but I wouldn’t go so far to call it sexist. What I will call sexist is if all the female trainers lost round 1, but that didn’t happen.

When I think of strong trainers, I think of Whitney, Norman (because I was a stupid kid), Winona, Sabrina, Morty, Lenora, Steven, Elesa, absolutely no one in XY, and Red. Cynthia too, but those trainers come to mind first. Cynthia is strong and tough to beat, but is she on the levels of Steven Stone for me personally? No.

Also, I think Volo’s character actively fails in regard to Cynthia. Like, Volo can’t really stand without context of Cynthia. The theme doesn’t make sense, nor the team without Cynthia. And I get that most if not all of P:LA doesn’t stand without context of DPPt, but I think all the characters stand on their own without their descendants as context. All but Volo, and even Cogita for that matter. Who is Cogita but a woman who lives in fuck off some where in Hisui? Well, she gives directions to legendary mons! Other than that, what else? Nothing. Kamado was a cool guy. He had a fear of Pokemon due to traumatic experiences in the past. He’s protective of the town he calls home. That is somewhat of a far departure from Rowan. I want the same for Volo.

[imthepunchlord]

My Hopes for DPP Remakes

February is almost here, and its very, very, very likely we’ll be seeing Diamond Pearl remakes. I am very wary thanks to ORAS (Emerald is my favorite so ORAS was a disappointment) and SwSh just... doesn’t look good. Didn’t look finished and didn’t seem worth the price they’re selling for. 

So DPP, I am very wary for. 

But, my hopes and what I would want, on the off chance it will be really good: 

- Platinum incorporated. Or even, ideally, just release one game, a full on Platinum remake instead of 2 versions. With the price being 60 USD, doesn't really warrant releasing 2 anymore as that gets really pricey. And people can now keep multiple files on the Switch unlike older games. And no Platinum episode. I think I'm the odd one out but, I didn't enjoy the Delta episode at all. 

- Bring back mega evolution and primal evolution, don't bring back dynamaxing. I personally loved mega evolution, it really gave some nice boosts to pokemon who needed it, and it could be made to be more common so its not too OP and they can always tweak like, friendship is supposed to be key here, so maybe have your pokemon for a while and when it reaches a certain level of friendship, it can mega evolve. Though don't give Cynthia Mega Garchomp. There’s also a Primal Dialga that could be used! Dynamaxing I actually don't hear a lot of good things about, and its not one I really like. I do like some of the Giga designs though its weird to me that its not till the dlc that you can Gigamax your pokemon, you gotta catch that Giga form in the wild. 

- Include some Wild Areas. This is a feature I really like from SwSh, though could've been improved upon, like having some pokemon interact with each other, filling up the open world a little more, and giving some more activities to do. And include multiple Wild Areas not just one. Have them be unlockable as you continue your journey. 

- Difficulty settings at the start of the game. These games can mainly be for kids, but they really need to acknowledge that older gamers play as well. 

- Walking and riding pokemon. Particularly being allowed to ride your own pokemon. I'd even be fine if this was saved for Wild Areas exclusively. Let’s Go was fun allowing riding pokemon, but Kanto has a lot of small corridor routes so, I couldn’t really ride my Rapidash or Arcanine to the fullest. And Charizard was limited as I couldn’t fly all over Kanto, just stuck in that one area. 

- Improve on Lucas/Dawn, who were kinda bland in the old games. Improve them like how Wally was improved in ORAS, but don't improve them like how they tried with Brandon/May, they were made annoying with the instance of fRiEnDsHiP. 

- Unlockable legendary/mystical events. I want to play and discover Darkrai or hints of Darkrai and go seeking it out on my own time, whenever I want to. Ideally these discoveries could be made available after a certain badge amount but I'd be fine with it being post game.

- No more Kanto starter. It’s getting a little old seeing Kanto starters being brought in twice. If we have to bring in another set of starters as gifts, how about Jhoto starters? And they can finally get some megas alongside the Sinnoh! 

- Sinnoh regional forms. I’d be suuuper intrigued to see some Sinnoh forms, ideally not Kanto mons. 

- Include more fire types. 

- Let Dawn wear pants. Sinnoh is cold, why is bare legged in this cold region???

- Please don’t shove Lucario in my face. Thanks to XY, I got fed up with that pokemon fast. 

- Be allowed to skip cutscenes/dialogue. 

- New game + that allows nuzlocke runs and randomizers. It can be set up that you can’t trade any of the pokemon you get. Just something fun to do and bring players back to replay, cause personally, I prefer playing the game than the competitive online battling. 

- Make XP Share optional. Allow us the option to turn it off. 

- Change up idle animation. We got the same idle animation 3 generations in a row. Switch it up a little. 

- Accurate sizes. That Wailord hurts to look at, and DistantKingdom on Youtube really shows off what the proper sizes should be. Do a roaming camera cause the over the shoulder look is not working for these games. 

- Be aware that this is a 3D game, not a 2D, cause as DistantKingdom said, Pokemon plays like its still 2D, but its not. If you really want to keep that 2D animation and movement, then go back to 2D. Games like Octopath Traveler prove how pretty the pixel games can be, and they had some really amazing feats with BW and BW2 visially. 

[cinnamon-bunni]

Title: Please Don’t Leave Me

Fandom: Pokemon XY

Relationships: Sycamore/Lysandre

Rating: T

Word count: 6734

Summary: It was easy to feign all these emotions; to pretend to care, and say the right words and do the right acts at just the right time. He had fun doing it, too. "Professor, Calem and I are going after him--he's in Geosenge right now! He's gonna activate the Ultimate Weapon!” Sycamore gave a nod. "You kids go on, I'll catch up!" And as the kids ran out of the building, Sycamore couldn't help but give a small, devilish grin, and followed the kids. This was going to be interesting. In which Sycamore is apart of Team Flare from the very beginning.

Read it on Ao3!

I am so happy that I finally finished this!! This is a Flare!Sycamore AU fic, so be prepared for some feels in this. I love this AU so much, I am so happy that I’m able to share this. This is, lowkey, probably one of the best fics I’ve written so far, it’s defiantly my favorite that I’ve written so far. 

I hope y’all enjoy!

“So, I’ve been thinking recently.”

Sycamore looked up from his textbooks, and met Lysandre’s eyes, a smirk forming on his face. “Oh, so you’ve finally started to think? That’s a first.” He laughed when Lysandre threw a pillow at him from the bed that he sat on. He turned back to the books and to the desk that was covered with different textbooks, papers, along with an empty mug that used to have coffee in it, and his laptop that was very close to overheating.

“No, I mean...I’ve been thinking about things. I’ve also been reading up on about the king of Kalos from three thousand years ago, about the Ultimate Weapon and all of that, so that had me thinking-”

“Wait, let me get this straight,” Sycamore interrupted, turning the chair over to face Lysandre. “So. Instead of doing, I don’t know, studying for the upcoming finals, at least helping me studying because I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna flunk out, or hell, even working on that one project of yours, the Holo Caster or whatever, you decided to read about some event that happened three thousand years ago, that honestly probably doesn’t matter. Pourquoi?”

He gave a small chuckle. “I just found it interesting, was all. The reasoning behind it. He originally made it to restore his pokémon’s life. But then, he changed it into a weapon, and destroyed both sides of the war that was going on. And it got me thinking...what if I were able bring back the Ultimate Weapon?”

“And why would you want to do that, chèri? ”

“Well, maybe I could-” Suddenly, cutting him off, Lysandre’s phone went off. “Just my alarm,” he mumbled, turning it off. Checking the time, he gave a sigh. “I should probably head back, I have classes in the morning.”

Sycamore gave a sigh. “Sad, I really wanted your help with studying.”

“Augustine, you never study,” he said, grabbing his coat. Sycamore only answered with a shrug. “Anyway, I’ll have to tell you about my plan another time.”

“Maybe we could talk about it over dinner,” Sycamore proposed, a cocky smile on his face.

“What, like a date?”

He gave another shrug. “I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you.”

Lysandre gave a smile, hand hovering over the doorknob. “Alright, a date it is, then.”

~~~

“Lys, I’m going to fail Pokémon Biology!”

“Good evening to you too, mon cher,” Lysandre greeted. Sycamore gave him a glare, and walked past him, entering the apartment.

“I’m gonna have to kiss my dreams of becoming a pokémon professor au revoir, because it’s not happening!” he said, shrugging off his coat and hanging on a nearby chair, leaving him with just his black skinny jeans, and blood orange dress shirt that had the sleeves rolled up. “I mean, unless I pass this class, which won’t happen, I’m gonna lose the chance of getting this job.”

“If you wish, I could help you study after dinner,” Lysandre suggested. Sycamore brushed his poofy hair away from his eye (his hair was long enough to just rest above his eye, which he usually didn’t mind having it there, but at that point it was just getting annoying--he was debated whether or not if he should just start pulling it up into a ponytail).

“Yes, that would be very helpful, Lys. Now, didn’t you say we were going to continue to discuss your idea over dinner?”

“Yes, dinner should be done in a minute or two. You can just wait at the table, I’ll be there with the food in a bit.” Sycamore gave a single nod, and took a seat at the table. As he waited, Sycamore grew more and more uncomfortable. He always did, in a social situation like this, even if there was only one other person.

“So,” Lysandre started, snapping Sycamore out from his thoughts, as he placed the plates of food down, “about my idea.”

“Ah, yes. You’re idea of bringing back an old weapon to destroy the world,” Sycamore joked, opening a bottle of wine.

He gave a chuckle. “Yes, well, about that. What if the king of Kalos had the right idea? Of destroying and restarting, to create a new, better, more beautiful world.” Sycamore was silent, and Lysandre took that as a sign to continue. “The world is full of evil and disgusting things, is it not? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just get rid of it? To just...restart everything, make the world beautiful like it once was.” Lysandre stopped, waiting for Sycamore to say something. The longer the silence was, the more worried he got. Did Sycamore not like the idea?

“I--never mind Augstine, it was-”

“I’m in,” he said, interrupting. He gave a smile. “What, did you seriously think that I would let you do this alone? Besides, the idea is certainly interesting, I can’t just not join in on it. Though, It’ll probably have to be on the back burner for a while, I should probably focus on my work for now…”

“Oh yes, of course. I don’t expect you to just drop everything for this idea of mine, you should work towards becoming a professor.” Lysandre paused, and took a sip of wine. “Your blue dress shirt, I like that one better,” he said.

“Hm?”

“I prefer that over your red one,” he reiterated, “it brings out your eyes and your natural beauty more than this one.”

“First off, this is blood orange, not red. Second of all, I like this shirt, a lot more than the blue one.” Lysandre gave a hum, and took another sip of his wine.

“Nonetheless, I’m happy that you’re joining me on this. I don’t want to push too much onto you, especially since you should focus more on your studies. Besides, I also need to work on my own studies anyway, as well as the Holo Caster. I suppose I could do some research during my free time…” The rest of the date went smoothly, Lysandre talking about his plans, and ending it with him helping Sycamore out with his studying. He hoped that Sycamore would focus more on his studies--he would hate it if he flunked out of the class, or even lose his dream of becoming a pokémon professor. Though, he seemed more interested in Lysandre's ideas than actually studying.

“Tell me more about this Ultimate Weapon, chèri,” he said, closing the textbook.

Lysandre gave a sigh, reached over, and opened the textbook. “August, you need to focus. Finals are coming up, and we should probably get to work.”

Sycamore gave a groan. “I would rather not, though. I wanna talk about ton incroyable plan.”

“We’ll do that after we’re sure that you’ll get a passing grade on your finals,” he said. Sycamore gave a long sigh, but didn’t say anything to refute. He instead actually started to study, with Lysandre there to help him stay on track and not get distracted. Once he had felt confident with the lessons, did Lysandre leave.

He was happy that Sycamore was focusing on his career. His own goals could wait, he just wanted him to be happy and to work towards his goals.

~~~

Sycamore mainly focused on Lysandre’s plan more than his work. He just barely passed, but he didn’t mind that much. He slowly started to shift to working on the plan with Lysandre more and more, rather than work at his studies (the only reason why he still did it was because Lysandre didn’t want him to give up being a professor).

When he did become a pokémon professor, he was actually ecstatic about it (it reawaken the spark within him of why he even wanted the job). He still always made time for Lysandre though, spending lots of time in his new café that he had got, talking about the Ultimate Weapon.

It almost felt weird, how he was able to do his normal work as a professor, and take care of pokémon, while later talking and planning the end of the world, to keep all beautiful things preserved, then act as if he never planned and talked about it during the next day. It was almost like he was living two lives of sorts--one where he was a charming professor, and another where he planned to destroy all the evil of the world. All it was was acting--acting as if everything was normal, and that nothing was going on in the background of everything. He never did care about most of the work that came with being a professor; sure, he loved working with mega evolution and pokémon, but everything else--the paperwork, the conversations with people--he didn’t care about. But all he did was pretend, and act as if he did care, as if everything was fine and normal about him.

The more Sycamore and Lysandre talked about it, the more real this idea became. The idea of using the Ultimate Weapon became more and more real by the day. Lysandre even put a secret laboratory underneath his café, and talked about hiring or creating a group to help them (Team Flare was what he wanted to call it). Sycamore had once talked to his sister, Diantha, about it--he was just so excited about the idea of it, he wanted her to get on board. So when she got angry and confused, and told him that she honestly didn’t like his boyfriend, that she didn’t trust him, Sycamore was upset, to say the least.

He hadn’t talked to her since.

Soon, Lysandre made Team Flare a reality--many grunts, a good team of admins, a few scientists, and of course, Sycamore leading it right by his side. They even made the secret base in Geosenge; the town where the Ultimate Weapon was going to be. Everything was going great for the both of them--Lysandre had a nice time running and spending time in his café, Sycamore loved his work surrounding mega evolution, and the both of them loved working together, slowly getting closer and closer to their goal.

They were getting so very close now, and Sycamore couldn’t wait.

~~~

“Wow, this place is very...red.” Calem and Serena entered Lysandre’s café, mostly just because they were exploring the city, but also to escape the cold and snow that had started to fall. They found one café that they hadn’t gone into yet, and when they learned that Lysandre owned it, they were interested. The two were surprised to find Sycamore there, though.

“Professor Sycamore?” Serena asked, causing him to look over his shoulder. He sat at one of the stools at the counter, cup of coffee in front of him. He still wore his white, pristine lab coat, along with his signature blood orange dress shirt.

“Oh, bonjour, kids! What are you two up to?”

“Oh, we were just exploring around,” Calem explained, “and we saw this café that we’d never seen before, plus it’s owned by Lysandre, so we decided to check it out.” Sycamore gave a nod, taking a drink of his coffee.

“I see. Well, I usually come by this place once I’m done with work. It’s a pretty quiet café, nice to just relax, or get some extra work done. Why don’t you two join me, and take a quick break? Have a drink to warm you up from the cold.”

“Yes! I would kill for some hot chocolate right now,” Calem said, immediately sitting down at one of the stools next to Sycamore. Serena just gave a nod, and sat on the other side of Calem.

“Two cups of hot chocolate, please; for the kids,” Sycamore ordered, the woman behind the counter giving a nod, getting to work on the orders.

“So, this place is owned by Lysandre, huh?” Calem asked, looking around the place. Sycamore smiled, always happy to have the chance to talk about him.

“Yes, he does. We used to go here all the time, back when we were in college, spending our free time here, usually for studying, catching up, or...dates,” he said, the last part quieter, “it was just a nice place to be. Then, next thing I knew, he made the Holo Caster, and then bought this place.” “Why did he even buy this place, anyway?”

Sycamore paused, trying to think of an answer--it wasn't like he could just tell the kids that the main reason was so that they could have a secret base and laboratory where they could do all of their work and planning. “I’m not sure why he bought it,” he said, “it was a huge surprise to me, to say the least, but I was still excited about it--I was allowed to stay after hours, so that was nice.”

Serena gave a small thank you when she was given her mug of hot chocolate, and took a tiny sip of it. “Lysandre feels...weird. Like he’s hiding something,” Serena admitted, making Sycamore pause, just for a second, but continued the act.

“Yeah, no offense Professor, but Lysandre gives off some weird vibes,” Calem said, blowing some air onto his drink to cool it down. “I mean, he radiated these vibes as if he like, runs some weird cult-like thing or something that’s obsessed with making the world beautiful again and preserving beauty.”

“He did seem a little obsessed with that when we were at that café with Diantha,” Serena said, giving a nod. “I mean, it’s a little concerning just how much he talked about it.”

“I mean, it’s interesting, is it not?” Sycamore asked. He knew that he probably shouldn’t go into this, and he should just keep pretending and nodding along; but he couldn’t help but talk about it. “The world is full of evil, wouldn’t it be nice for it to...just be gone? Just have the beauty of the world?”

“I guess,” Serena said. “But you can’t really do that. How would someone even go about doing that? Is it even possible to get rid of only the evil, or would you have to get rid of the beauty as well? Then that would be destroying everything.”

“Well, I don’t think that you can just get rid of evil, y’know? Like, it’s always gonna exist. If there’s beauty, then there’s evil. Isn’t that how that works? I’m pretty sure that’s how it works, anyway--there always needs to be both, not just one.”

Sycamore looked down at his drink, using all of his strength not to argue. He couldn’t risk raising suspicion; he couldn’t let people know that he and Lysandre were working on the plan. He couldn’t let the kids know--as much as he hates to admit it, even through all the acts and pretending to care, he had gotten attached to all of the kids, especially with Serena and Calem. He would hate himself if he ever got the kids involved in any of this.

Serena, finishing her hot chocolate, slid the mug over to the other side of the counter. “We should probably start heading out and get to Anistar.”

“Yeah, I suppose we should,” Calem said, giving a small sigh. “I really don’t wanna go back into the cold…” Finishing up the drink the two gave a smile and their goodbyes to Sycamore, leaving the café. He sat there, still sipping at his coffee, and couldn’t help but think of the kids’ words. Were they right? Would they be able to get rid of all of the evil, and only have and keep the world beautiful? Or would their plan fail…?

Sycamore shook his head, clearing his thoughts. No, he had no time for doubts, not now. They were too far gone, he couldn’t back down now. Lysandre needed him, he couldn’t back out of it now, especially if he was one of the main leaders of Team Flare.

He finished up the coffee, and promptly left. He walked back to the pokémon lab in a quick pace; only having a dress shirt and lab coat wasn’t good in that sort of weather. But he didn’t really notice the cold, all he focused on was going to the lab and continuing to plan. They had to act fast, the kids were too smart.

He had to finish up and start the plan, and fast.

~~~

Sycamore had gotten good at acting.

"Professor Sycamore! Professor!" Sycamore looked up from his work, and over to the entrance, where Serena and Calem were, running in.

"What? What's wrong, are you kids alright?" he asked, feigning concern.

It was something he picked up on from his twin. She was always good at acting at a young age, and he just learned from her.

"It's Lysandre, he's-"

Now Sycamore was actually paying attention. "What? What's wrong with Lys?"

"He's the leader of Team Flare."

He was almost as good as his sister; if not more. While she was able to act for the camera, he was acting all the time. Pretending to care, pretending to be surprised by certain things.

"W...what...?"

"Professor, I'm so, so sorry."

It was easy to feign all these emotions; to pretend to care, and say the right words and do the right acts at just the right time.

He had fun doing it, too.

"Professor, Calem and I are going after him--he's in Geosenge right now! He's gonna activate the Ultimate Weapon!”

Sycamore gave a nod. "You kids go on, I'll catch up!"

And as the kids ran out of the building, Sycamore couldn't help but give a small, devilish grin, and followed the kids.

This was going to be interesting.

~~~

Sycamore had arrived at Geosenge a little after the kids did. He wasn’t sure why Lysandre had started the plan without him there, or even telling him, but that was fine. He was sure that he had his reasoning. When he got there, he had to pause, a smile forming on his face when he saw the Ultimate Weapon. He had never seen it before until now.

And it was absolutely beautiful.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Right now, he had to focus. Entering the elevator, he couldn’t help but get excited by the idea of using the Ultimate Weapon. It was finally happening. When he finally entered the Secret HQ, he walked down the hallways, heading for the main control room. He then found one of the admins there.

“What’s been happening?” he asked, continuing to walk.

“Actually sir, I was given direct orders to-”

“Yes, well, now’s not the time,” Sycamore interrupted. “Where’s Lysandre and the kids? When is it going off? Did we use the power from Xerneas yet?”

“No, sir. The kids, Serena and Calem, stopped and captured the pokémon. They are currently battling Boss to get you out of here right away.”

He paused in his tracks, and looked over to the admin. “What? Calem and Serena are fighting Lys and he wants me to leave? No, I’m going to help.”

As he continued to walk down the hallway, she followed. “Sir, it was a direct order that I-”

“And I’m giving you a direct order to leave me the hell alone so I can go help him!”

She grabbed onto his arm, stopping him. “Sir, you need to leave right now. Boss’s orders are higher than yours; you have to go, and I will use force if I have to.”

It went eerily silent, Sycamore giving the admin a cold stare. As afraid as she was, she knew that she couldn’t back down. “Let go of me,” he said, slowly and quietly that sent chills down her spine, “or I will make sure that you will regret everything that will come afterward.” He pulled his arm away from her grip, small scratches on his arm from her nails. He rubbed his arm, and sent her a glare. “I’m going to help him. I don’t care who I have to hurt, I will have this plan go through.”

He continued to walk down, his steps echoing down the hallway. The admin gave a quiet curse, knowing that Lysandre wouldn’t be happy about this.

~~~

When he had entered the room, the other three in there didn’t even notice. It was two versus one--Lysandre versus Calem and Serena. Knowing that Lysandre wouldn’t be able to beat them alone, he was quick to call out his Blastoise, and use a powerful Hydro Pump on Calem’s Delphox.

“Good job, Blastoise,” Sycamore praised, happy to see that the delphox had fainted. Calem had quickly returned his pokémon, and turned around to face him.

“Professor Sycamore?” Serena said, “what are you doing?”

Lysandre’s eyes widened when he saw him there. “Augustine, why are you here? I told the admin to-”

“Yes, yes, she tried to get me to leave,” he said. “I’m pretty upset as to why you would want me not to be here--it was our plan, I was supposed to be by your side. But I suppose that that doesn’t matter anymore; I’m here now, and that’s all that matters.”

“Professor, what’s happening?” Sycamore gave a small chuckle at Serena’s question--he knew that she was a smart kid, she knew what was happening. She just didn’t want to admit it. Calem, on the other hand, could only stare at him, sadness clear in his eyes--Sycamore’s felt a small stab through his heart when he looked at the young boy’s eyes, but ignored it.

“Children, I really am truly sorry for what is about to happen,” Sycamore said, “but I’m afraid that I cannot allow you to stop us with our plan.”

“How long?” Calem asked, his voice small, but filled with emotion. “How long have you been working with him, pretending that you didn’t know and leaving us clueless, only pretending to care about us?” Serena put her hand onto his shoulder, as if to try to calm him down.

Another pain through his heart. “I--I care about you kids so much,” Sycamore said, “I promise you my dear boy, I truly cared about you and the others. It was wonderful to watch you kids go through your journey, I was rooting for all of you throughout the entire thing. So please don’t think that I never cared about you or Serena or any of the others, because that’s not true.

“I’ve been working with Lysandre since the very start. I...know that you two will never forgive me for this, and I understand that. As much as I hate that I did this to you two, I’m afraid that I can’t let you get in the way of our plans. We’ve got too far to be stopped now. I won’t let you two stop everything we worked so hard for.”

“Augustine…” Lysandre said, voice low. “You shouldn’t be here. I thought-”

“And I thought we were supposed to work together until the very end, but clearly you thought differently.” He gave a sigh, and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter right now. What matters now is making sure everything goes according to plan.”

“We won’t let you do this,” Serena said. “We’ll stop you!”

“You keep on fighting Lysandre, I’ll take on the professor,” Calem said, taking out one of his pokéballs. “Let’s go, Jolteon!”

The battle with Sycamore was a lot more difficult than Calem expected. Dealing with his Venusaur was harder to deal with than the others, but his Mega Garchomp was the real problem. He didn’t have any pokémon that would be effective against it; all he had left was his Absol. Quick to pull out his Mega Ring, Calem knew that the best strategy was to Mega Evolve his Absol, then...hope for the best. Because he honestly wasn’t sure how he could really win this battle. Serena, on the other hand, was having a better time than he was. Lysandre’s Mega Gyrados was easier to take care of than expected, her Chesnaught and Mega Lucario dominating the battle. Serena turned around when she heard something, and saw that Calem was cheering as Sycamore’s Garchomp fell down, fainted.

Returning his pokémon, Sycamore gave a tiny scoff, refusing to meet the kids gaze, eyes trained on the ground. “Professor, please! You two don’t have to do this!” Serena said, “we can figure this all out, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

“But it does,” Lysandre said, then gave a sigh. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe we can’t make this world as beautiful as we planned. Our plans to rid of all the evil was flawed from the beginning. But it’s too late now; the weapon will still go off with the little energy it has from Xerneas.” A few moments later, the ground shook.

“We--we have to get out of here,” Calem said, looking over to Serena. “‘Rena, we need to get going, now.” He turned over to Sycamore. “Professor, you’re coming with us!”

Sycamore was quickly rushed past the kids, over to Lysandre. “Lys, les enfants are right--we have to get going. The place will come down once the Ultimate Weapon goes off!”

“I know, Augustine.” Sycamore honestly couldn’t understand how Lysandre could be so calm at that moment. The ground under them shook once more, the Ultimate Weapon almost ready to go off. “I’m staying here.”

Sycamore’s eyes widened, quick to grab his hand. “What? Chèri, we don’t have time for jokes, we need to get going, right now.”

Lysandre was quiet for a few moments. “I still prefer the blue dress shirt,” he said, rubbing his thumb against the fabric of the dress shirt, the blood orange color now dirtied from the dust. Sycamore gave his hand a small squeeze, and gave a small smile that was full of dread, just wanting to leave the area. Lysandre looked over to the kids. “Calem, Serena, please take Augustine out with you. I...don’t want for him to get hurt.”

“What? No! Lysandre, you’re coming with us.” Lysandre pulled Sycamore into a hug, placing a kiss on his forehead.

“Please go,” he murmured into the bangs of his hair, holding him close. “I don’t want to see you hurt because of me.”

Calem grabbed onto Sycamore’s arm. “Professor, we need to go, right now! Lysandre, please, just come with us!”

“I’m afraid not,” he said, with a shake of his head, letting go of Sycamore. “I was the one that started this, and I shall stay until the very end. The building shook once more.

“The weapon’s gonna go off any minute!” Serena called out, near the exit of the room. “We need to get going!” As Calem started to go over there, he was surprised to see that Sycamore wasn’t fighting back; he just let him practically drag him over to the exit, and over to the elevator. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Sycamore started to pick up the pace, always looking over his shoulder, just wishing, hoping that maybe Lysandre was following right behind them.

Every time he looked back, he saw nothing.

By the time the three of them got outside, the Ultimate Weapon was about to go off. They got back, watching behind the stone arch at the entrance of the small town. The Weapon started to glow, and sent out a giant, bright red beam into the sky. They watched it as it pierced through the clouds, and after a few moments, it came crashing back down. They braced against the stones, feeling dust and debris hit against them, as the ground shook. Sycamore looked over, and watched as the Ultimate Weapon fell underneath, back down from where it came. He had to say, it did certainly hurt, to watch all of his--Lysandre’s--hard work go to waste. Everything they planned, everything they worked towards, was gone in a flash.

Once the ground stopped shaking, and everything was eerily quiet, he felt a tug on his sleeve. “Professor, we should probably get going now,” Serena said, Calem giving a nod from the other side of the archway.

“Just--just one moment, please. J'ai besoin d'un moment seul, s'il te plaît.” Serena paused for a few moments, then gave a small nod, letting him go. Shakily walking over to the giant pit that was in the middle of the destroyed town, he couldn’t help but look down into it; staring down at the pitch blackness, he felt tears well up in his eyes. Falling down to his knees, he felt the tears roll down his face, as he kept repeating the same images in his head over and over again. The plan was lost. He had failed what they planned to do for so long.

He had failed Lysandre.

~~~

When it was official that Lysandre was dead, Sycamore felt his world shatter around him.

He was able to keep his title of professor, but he wasn’t sure how; people hated him, everyone did, so why they let him keep the job was a mystery to him. He could never focus during the day, though. His mind always went back to Lysandre. It was hard to work, barely ever getting anything done. He really couldn’t focus on anything anymore.

Team Flare was gone, but he didn’t care about that. He stopped going to Lysandre’s café--it wasn’t even his anymore. It belonged to someone else, and he didn’t dare to go near the place; it would only bring back memories.

Sycamore never saw the kids--he didn’t want to see them. He didn’t want to face their judgement against him and everything that had happened. He didn’t talk to his sister, either; Diantha was always calling him, more and more by each passing day, but he never answered. He didn’t want to admit that she was right, that what he was doing was bringing him down a dangerous path--he didn’t want to see her judgement, either.

So, when there was knocking at his door, Sycamore was a little surprised. He assumed that they didn’t want to see him, either; he knew that most people were angry or hated him for what happened. Why were they different?

When he opened the door, he was met with a kind smile from Serena. She wore a fuzzy, winter coat and scarf, and held a small box. “Hey, Professor! It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you, I wanted to see how you were holding up.” Sycamore looked around, noticing that it was only her.

“Where’s Calem?” he asked.

“Oh, he’s currently busy right now, but he’s coming over soon!” She shifted her weight one foot to the other, still giving a kind, but somewhat anxious smile. “Is it alright that I come in?”

“Oh--yeah, yeah of course, dear,” he said, immediately moving out the way, letting her in. He closed the door behind her, as she took off her boots, that led a small trail of snow when she walked in.

“I hope you don’t mind that I came over without any announcement,” she said, taking off her scarf and heavy jacket, leaving them on the nearby coat hanger, as well as placing down the box on the dining table, along with her mittens.

“Oh, it’s--it’s fine. Please excuse any messes, I haven’t had any time to clean up.”

“Professor, your house is lovely! Besides, I don’t blame you--wasn’t like I gave you any heads up about me coming over.”

“Thank you, Serena. And like I said, it’s fine,” Sycamore said, giving a small smile. Though, Serena could tell that the smile was fake. She’s seen real smiles from him before--he always had the brightest smiles when he talked about mega evolution, or his work with pokémon--but that smile, Serena knew it was fake, that he was feigning happiness. Even his eyes, that once used to be full of life and practically sparkled, now seemed dull. His wavy hair was more crazy than usual, as if he hadn’t brushed or combed it. But the most notable difference she saw was the outfit. He always wore his blood orange dress shirt, it was rare to see him wear something different. But now, he wore a deep blue dress shirt that was crisp, as if he hadn’t worn it in a very long time.

Serena gave a smile, just hoping that hopefully the visit would help cheer him up. “Anyway, I brought you something!” Opening the box, she revealed many macarons, each row of them a different color. “I made them myself. Well, Calem helped a little,” she admitted. “I know that your favorite desserts were macarons, and I also remember that you were a fan of sweeter flavors, so each different flavor is from different, sweet, berries. There’s Pecha, Mago, Kasib, and Wacan!”

He stared at the sweets for a few moments, then gave a true, genuine smile as he brushed his hair away from his eyes. “Oh, Je vous remercie, Serena. I don’t deserve these--I don’t deserve you, or Calem. You two are so sweet.”

“No, Professor. After everything you’ve been through you definitely deserve these.” There was a knock at the front door, making her pause. “Oh, that must be Calem,” she said. “Help yourself to one of them, I’ll go get the door!” Before Sycamore could say anything, she already left, heading towards the door. Sycamore gave a small smile, and grabbed one of the pink macarons.

The sweetness of the pecha berry was wonderful to him, he missed the taste of it so much. Sycamore loved pecha flavored sweets, they were always one of his favorites.

“Professor, Calem’s here!” Serena said, making Sycamore turn around. Calem gave a friendly wave, as he took off his coat, which still had some snow on it.

“Heya, Professor! We brought someone else here, too,” he said. Before he could ask, he saw her walk through the door. She gave a small, friendly smile, as she took off her pink peacoat and her purple mittens, leaving her with just her white dress, that had pink fur trimming. Her light brown hair was neatly styled, fluffy and wavy hair not in her face, but neatly brushed into a side swept bang style.

“Bon après-midi, mon cher frère,” Diantha greeted. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Sycamore stared at her, almost not believing that she was actually there. When was the last time he actually saw his sister, his twin , in person…? He hadn’t even talked to her since their fight, much less seen her…

“Hello, Diantha,” he greeted, voice shaky, not entirely sure what to say.

“...We’ll just let you two talk,” Serena said. “C’mon Calem, I forgot, I need to pick up some things at the grocery store--we’ll come by later, okay?”

“I never even got to eat a macaron…and I just came in, too,” Calem said with a sigh, but grabbed his things, and left the house with her, leaving only Diantha and Sycamore.

“Your shirt,” Diantha commented, after moments of (slightly) awkward silence. “You’re wearing the blue one.”

“Oh, yes, I am,” Sycamore said, looking away from her gaze. “I...guess I just wanted to wear something different, y’know?”

She gave a small nod, going over to grab one of the macarons. “I’ve always liked this one better, anyway. Better than that blood orange shirt. It brings out your eyes.”

Sycamore paused.

“Your blue dress shirt, I like that one better.”

“Hm?”

“I prefer that over your red one. It brings out your eyes and your natural beauty more than this one.”

“August? Are you okay?”

“I--yeah, I’m fine,” he said, taking a deep breath, and gave a shaky smile. “I’m completely fine. I just…” He felt his sister’s arms wrap around him, giving him a tight squeeze of a hug. He slowly wrapped his arms in return, tears threatening to fall.

“I’m sorry about all of this, August. I should’ve reached out to you earlier, and not have waited until something like this happened. I know that you were close with Lysandre, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Tears were starting to fall, as he let out a tiny sob into her shoulder. “I loved him so much, Dia. If I hadn’t gone with the plan, maybe if I saw the flaws to his plan in the beginning, then this wouldn’t have happened. If-”

“Hey, no. None of that right now,” she said, cupping her brother’s face, and brushing the tears off his cheeks. “None of this is your fault, and you know that, mon frère cadet. You can’t blame yourself for this, I know Lysandre wouldn’t want you to do that.” He didn’t say anything, as he shook her off, wiping the tears away from his eyes.

“I think...I just need time by myself for a while,” he said, grabbing the box of macarons and sitting down on the couch.

Diantha frowned. “August, you haven’t talked to anyone in days, you’ve barely even been going to work. I really think you should talk about it-”

“Diantha, I really don’t want to, okay? Maybe another time, but not right now.” “If you don’t talk about it now, then when will you? You have to talk about this at some point!”

Sycamore gave a small huff, and took a bit of one of the wacan macarons. “You know, when you say that, ‘I know Lysandre wouldn’t want you to do that’, how would you know, hm? It isn’t like you’ve ever met him before.”

She took a deep breath, not wanting to lose her patience with her brother. “Augustine, if he cared about you--and I know he does; you never let yourself fall this hard for a person unless they share the same feelings--then I know that he wouldn’t have wanted you to suffer, or to put the blame on yourself. He would’ve wanted you to continue your life, and be happy.” Sycamore didn’t say anything, just continued to eat on the macaron. “Please August, at least talk to me.I know that you’re hurting, and I want to help you.”

Sycamore gave a sigh. “Please, Diatha, could we continue this another day? I just...need a break today, and just rest.”

She gave a sigh. “Fine,” Diantha said, finally caving in. “I’ll be back tomorrow, okay? We can eat dinner together and catch up; it’s been a while since we did that.”

He gave a small smile. “Yes, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’ll have to plan a special dinner then,” he gave a small chuckle, “actually, it’s been a while since I’ve even eaten anything proper…”

“Well then, I guess we’ll have to make sure that that changes tomorrow, huh?” Checking the time, she gave a small sigh. “Listen, I have to get going. But I will be here tomorrow for dinner, six o’clock sharp, okay?”

“Yes, yes, alright,” he said, getting up, and giving his sister a hug. “I’ll be sure to clean up and make food for you to eat. Restez en sécurité là-bas.”

“I will,” she said, returning the hug. “Prends juste soin de toi, please.”

“I’ll try.” Diantha gave a nod, heading for the door. Once she had her jacket and mittens, she gave her twin one final hug, and left. Sycamore stood there for a few moments in silence, then gave a sigh. He was more tired and drained from the whole interaction than he thought--and even though he didn’t really want to admit it, he was happy that his sister and the kids visited.

Laying on the couch, he stared up at the ceiling, thinking. He knew that he had a lot to do the next day--cooking the food, cleaning up the house--he knew he should get a head start on these things, but he was too tired to. When was the last time he got proper sleep? He always had a cup of coffee on him, and the closest thing he ever got to sleep was a small one-hour nap, but that was interrupted by a nightmare.

Once he had closed his eyes, drowsiness swept over him quickly. Sycamore gave a soft smile to himself, holding onto the smallest hope that he would be able to get some decent amount of sleep.

Maybe then things would start to look up for him.

[doubleddenden]

You know its absolutely amazing how maybe a week ago Pokemon had done everything right. They had a badass knight raven, they had MOTHAFUCKIN WOOLOO WOOO and they had kaijus, interesting characters, and the wild area.

Now its practically in the gutter lol. I am a fanboy but yikes. They messed up. I wouldn't be shocked if they decide to add the rest of the pokemon they took out as a patch, but game freak is very stubborn and probably won't. They'll include all of them as a selling point in the next one tho, bet on that.

So since it's okay to talk about it now without getting death threats, we need to chat. I've actually had my grievances with Game Freak for a while and did defend them a bit, but no more.

Since 2013 they've shilled gen 1 with mostly gen 1 megas until the Hoenn remake where they still made more Kanto megas, and refused to make Alolan forms that weren't Kanto pokemon

They took out battle frontier in oras because Masuda thought mobile games would compete with it

They dumbed down LGPE because he seriously thinks mobile games are more competition and to appeal to fans that dropped after gen 1. Even with the shitty catching controls he calls it his magnum opus. What.

They've consistently refused to design at least 100 new pokemon for gen 6 and 7, probably 8 if we're being realistic. No, megas, variants, and forms do not count or else each unown and Arceus would be a separate pokemon.

While I enjoyed ultra sun, it should've been dlc.

LGPE also limits you to 153 pokemon, 2 of which you need shitty Go for.

Introduced walking with your mons, took it out, then added it back. And probably took it back again

Megas and variants are still cool. Refuse to make more and blame art block for no mega Flygon instead of hiring someone who CAN make one

Took out events where you got actual story and lore and actually got to fight and capture these legendary and mythical pokemon in favor of handing out codes or going to gamestop or just being HANDED these mythical beings because MASUDA thought the Azure Flute was too complicated

And while we're at it, some other grievances

2019, Gyrados and Steelix have to be dynamaxed to be close to their accurate sizes. Hmmm.

2019, these "better, more intricate animations" still has Scorbunny hopping once or twice to use Doublekick when Stadium and Battle Revolution had actual movements for the moves

2019, still no game like the beta footage for Battle Revolution where Groudon hyperbeams a battlefield and HALF OF DEOXYS APART.

2019, (at least as of now) we're still tweens (BW and XY being 16 and 18 if there's any exception) with the same faces and bodies and halfassed customization options for our trainers. Most fans that play are in college or older, or at least late teens. Just saying from my own experience. The character customization should allow us more freedom with that to look older or different.

Yeah, it's time to start calling them out for it. Space ain't an issue when you can use system and SD storage space or patch shit in, and ESPECIALLY an HD system that rivals the PS4 and Xbox One. Maybe instead of prioritizing a gamble that may or may not make it like Town, you should focus on your bread and butter! Just sayin!

I'm actually going to wait this time around to buy used because I can't justify paying $60 and more for games and services that won't even allow my favourites in after beating the elite 4. And I definitely can't justify Home simply because of this:

The only place Home can send pokemon to is SwSh. Everything else is one way to Home.

If SwSh doesn't have your favorite in the pokedex, its stuck in Home until they decide to make a compatible game for it. That's not fair to the consumers.

Bank will eventually stop service. At that point, if this issue isn't fixed, you either leave your pokemon collection in Sun and Moon/Ultra, or you imprison them in Home until they decide to include them. Also not cool.

Balance is bullshit for an excuse. Just ban Landorus, MegaQuaza, The Tapus or anything else you want to get rid of from competitions, but let us have them in the game.

They keep saying "we're working very hard to do X" and using all sorts of buzzwords but if this is too hard for Game Freak, maybe give it to someone who can take it seriously! I'd be down to see Sakurai or Monolithsoft try making a Pokemon game. Or give it to the Dragon Quest guys at Square Enix or the Digimon Story guys at Bandai Namco to let them make phenomenal games.

Listen, before you tell me to off myself for this or call me names, we deserve a better pokemon game. We deserve creators that don't just phone it in or are afraid to try anything new after piracy and ice cream/garbage "ruined" gen 5 apparently (it absolute did not btw and anyone who thinks so are fuckin morons).

This is the minimum requirement every pokemon game needs. The MINIMUM.

ALL POKEMON SHOULD BE AVAILABLE IN THE DAMN GAME. This doesn't mean they have to be caught! Doesn't mean there has to be a national Dex either! Sun and Moon didn't have it but had all 800+ pokemon in the files, and they were 3ds games! $90 billion, make it work.

At least 100 original pokemon that are not alternative forms or variations, none of which are legendary or similar. $90 billion company. Hire more artists.

That's it! If you can't even do that, then give it to someone who can. Simple.

When you get down to it, there's a reason #bringbackthenationaldex trended and the treehouse video plummeted with dislikes.

"We're making this game for long time fans" was a lie I guess.

Rant over.

[le-pokerus]

My thoughts on Sun and Moon

So after a couple of months collecting my thoughts, I finally have written a list of all the stuff I liked and didn’t like about Pokemon Sun and Moon. It’s a long one, so I’ve made it nicer for your dash. (Also heavy spoilers).

Okay imma split this into four sections to make it more organised: 

things I liked about the game

things I didn’t like about the game

things have mixed feelings or am impartial about the game

things that I personally would’ve liked.

Things I liked about the game:

The silliness. In an interview with GF somewhere they said they wanted the game to focus on the fun aspect of Pokemon, so from weird dances to silly expressions and team skull not being taken seriously, I think they nailed it.

The Island Challenge! Despite really liking gyms, I thought the Island challenge was a cool thing that suited alola well (until a certain point, I’ll talk about that later).

Alolan forms. Regional variation is something I found really cool and gave some pokemon (only some) a nice twist (despite some awful forms).

The evolution music. Specifically when a pokemon evolves to or from and alolan form, giving the music a nice Hawaiian-esque sound was a little thing I liked.

A story line that doesn’t involve trying to control a legendary pokemon and using it to try and take over the world (or something like that). Yes all the previous games did it a bit differently and for different means, but by X and Y it was a stale story line and I’m glad they changed it.

Z-moves. Despite them being a bit OP at times, I quite liked them and thought they introduced a nice new battle mechanic.

Apricorn balls. Although you can only get one of each, it was nice them bringing them back even a little bit.

The new graphics. Despite really liking the graphics style of 3rd, 4th, 6th gens, I actually liked the graphics of sun and moon and it made them feel like a modern game.

Island Scan. I am a sucker for new ways of encountering pokemon, pokeradar, rustling grass, dexnav, I love ‘em. Island scan is also great, albeit not perfect and could’ve been improved, it was still a cool thing, and allowed me to catch the johto starters which is always great.

SOS battles. Speaking of new encounter methods, SOS battles not only allowed you to chain for more powerful pokemon, and increase your chances of a shiny, it also allowed you to find pokemon you couldn’t usually catch in the wild, e.g. salamence, snorlax, mereanie, lucario (although lucario was a pain in the arse due to riolu knowing fucking final gambit).

The Alola League. Pokemon leagues were always something that were just there and had been for ages, I loved the fact that the league was formed whilst you progressed and you became the first ever champion. I also liked how you defended your title against a small roster of different people rather than one (although I would’ve liked maybe another new elite 4 member instead of loads of island kahunas).

Team Skull. Honestly one of my favourite villainous teams, they’re silly and stupid and no one takes them seriously, 10/10.

Lillie. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Oh my god Lillie is a great character, the way she develops as a character throughout the story line is really well done, and the way she stands up to her mother towards the end is great, and when she leaves is a really sad moment and actually something not done before in a pokemon game.

All the other characters. From Hau to Professor Kukui to Gladion to Lusamine and the Guzma, sun and moon had great characters whith very different personalities and personas. Most of pokemon games, the characters are just there, there’s very little back story or real personality, but sun and moon went so far into these things that honestly it makes the game worthwhile just for them.

The mini map. Having a mini map was cool and made traversing the map easier so you don’t get stuck looking for something in the wrong place.

The music was pretty cool as far as pokemon games go, more memorable than XY but still not as good as previous gens in my opinion.

Magearna QR Code. One of the main problems of pokemon is events that only run for certain times making events such as the aurora ticket, oak’s letter, and genesect impossible to get without cheating in older games. Making Magearna available by a QR code that will never expire makes it so even fans in the future picking up these old games can get this mythical pokemon without hacks and honestly have a better experience for it.

Gridless. Due to limitations of old consoles, pokemon games have stayed to a grid like overworld, and even up to xy and oras they seemed to stay like that. Now don’t get me wrong I really like the grid like map etc. but sun and moon changed that and I love it. It really does make alola seem like a real tropical island based region, and really does change the whole feel of the game.

Added to the pokedex! I like how after evolving pokemon or breeding pokemon, or getting pokemon as gift or through trade that the data for the pokemon is added to the dex on screen, something that i’ve always thought previous games would benefit from.

Things I didn’t like about the game:

The Island Challenge! Wait didn’t I already do this one? Yes I did, but they fit on both good and bad lists (but not mixed feelings). As I stated before, I like the island challenge it was a fun thing that really made sun and moon different. HOWEVER, it just stopped, like the 1st and 2nd islands were great, they had cool challenges and cool leaders, the 3rd island sorta died down, and by the 4th island it had stopped, like it felt as if GF had given up by then, it was just hey there’s one challenge and theirs no trial captain or kahuna, and it’s just 3 straight battles. At least with gyms you were always guaranteed them, there was always a gym nearby and always one to challenge after the main story, but up until the pokemon league I was like where’s the next challenge and then when i got to the league I was like oh, there isn’t one.

Zygarde. Zygarde and its cells did fuck all and was basically just a gimmick.

The Rotom Dex. Oh god where do I start? This thing just doesn’t shut the fuck up. It always has something to say even when you’ve got nothing left to really do. The markers on the map killed the exploration aspect, the unnecessary commentary when you register a pokemon to your dex. Making it difficult to touch the mini map, cuz for some fucking reason you tickle him instead.

The A button. Having the press the A button every god damn fucking time you want to go through a door. Who’s idea was this? There’s no point, it just makes the A button whittle down faster, it should have just been left at walking into it automatically makes you go through.

Fishing. Only being able to fish in certain spots. Stupid idea. 0/10.

Legendary evolution lines. Didn’t like that cosmog evolved into the mascot legendary (through another legendary). Like legendaries are supposed to be these really powerful pokemon that are just there, they’re supposed to have been created like that, not evolve from another pokemon.

Unbreedable evolutions. Speaking of legendaries evolving, I dislike that fact that cosmog and type: null evolve, are not able to breed, and are only available once, it makes a living form dex (my main pokemon quest) very difficult to complete since i have to own another game and go through that story as well to have all the evolution family.

All legendaries are shiny locked. Who’s idea was shiny locking? Not that I’m gonna hunt for them but the off chance of encountering a shiny legendary was always a cool one.

The PC boxes. XY/ORAS PC boxes were great, they were quick, easy to use, and simple. SM boxes were slow, clunky and had some unnecessary changes. They also had very little space compared to the previous gen, despite adding 81 new pokes, they only added two boxes (60 mons), meaning that a living form dex is almost impossible to have on one game.

The Battle Tree. For myself, a filthy casual, the battle tree is impossible. Unless you have made/bred a competitive team, you cannot progress at all. At least with the battle maison they had tiers, so gaining battle points wasn’t tedious. but with the battle tree, there’s just one tier and it’s the worst. You only get one BP for battle (if you win) and you need 1000 alone just to get the mega stones (which are only available there. All I can say is, thank god pokebank gives you BP.

Post game was shit. Again, the post game was lackluster and the looker missions were just doing the same thing a few times with little point to it.

The ultra-beasts. The Ultra beasts, despite being a “massive threat” didn’t do anything at all and were just catch fodder. They also just don’t fit into the pokemon universe (yeah I know they’re from a different universe, but from a franchise point of view, it’s like a halo character in a my little pony universe).

The battle scenes were slow. Too slow from encountering a wild pokemon to being able to battle it.

Surf encounters. Is it still surfing if you don’t use HM03 Surf? Regardless, the encounter rate for pokemon while surfing is ridiculously small, like you do multiple laps of a a pool of water and hardly encounter any at all.

No National Pokedex. Seriously every game has had a national dex in some form (gen 1’s dex was basically national, gen 2′s was national in a different order, ruby/sapphire got one after trading with firered/leafgreen/emerald) like why have they removed this feature? Yes bank has a national dex as of the update, but sun moon doesn’t get one making it more difficult to sort pc boxes, and it means pokes not in the regional dex don’t get a dex entry for sun moon (maybe this’ll get fixed in the future (much like ruby/sapphire was)

Legendary battles. I’m a fan of interacting with the overworld sprite to battle a legendary, however for almost every legendary in sun and moon there isn’t one: the tapus, you interact with the shrine; and the ultra beasts and necrozma are just in the grass, idk it just makes them feel weird.

More than one ultra beast. One weird thing sun and moon did was make more than one of some ultra beasts available, I get that there are more than one and it would make sense for more than one of some to come through, but when you have 4 kartana or 4 pheromosa in your box, it just makes then feel less special.

Event only Z-Crystals. This is tentative since it may be changed in the future but much like as stated before event only stuff is annoying for those who pick this game up in the future. So the snorlium-z and mewnium-z won’t be available to some players and since z crystals are an important thing, it’s kinda annoying.

A small loan of $1,000,000. So after beating the looker missions, you get rewarded with $1,000,000, although this is very nice and means you don’t have to grind for money, I feel it’s a bit too much and makes it so there’s less to do post game.

No auto save after elite 4. Just an annoyance really, all games have saved after the elite 4 and it made me lose some progress cuz it didn’t save. It also doesn’t repeat the credits and send you back home which i liked about the other games.

Experience gain. The way of how experience is calculated has been changed back to the shitty gen V method, where the lower the level you are from your opponent the more experience you gain. This sounds good in theory but the highest levels are 59 in the wild and 63 on the elite 4 which makes getting your team to level 100 or evolving some pokemon very tedious. The only reason it worked in gen v was cuz they had audino literally everywhere and they give a fairly high amount of exp, but there aren’t really any high experience giving pokemon in alola at all.

Things I am impartial or have mixed feelings about the game:

No HM’s. Although having no HM’s allowed me to finally have a six party team (which i definitely used to make sure I have type coverage, 3 fairy types is the way to go), I just missed them and only getting fly and surf post game was annoying since I always have them on my main mons.

Pokepelago. I liked a lot of aspects of pokepelaga, growing berries was made insanely easy (and better that way) gaining evolution stones and rare items was so much less tedious unlike super training, hot springs were cool, levelling up pokes was an option if you wanted. HOWEVER, the pokemon capture method is complete bs. so sometimes a wild pokemon will appear, and when interacted with mohn will say come back tomorrow to see if it likes being here or whatever, but it’s complete chance there is no way to affect if they stay, sometimes they will just disappear for no reason, honestly it’s stupid and reminds me of the awful safari zones in gens 1, 3 and 4 *shudders*.

The Batte Royal. It’s a really cool concept and adds something new to battling but it makes the game lag on all devices and it just feels too short, instead of ending when one person loses all their pokemon, it should’ve been when there’s only one player left and then add up how many pokes were knocked out by each person.

Things I personally would’ve liked:

More previous gen legendaries. Yes, I am aware you can already get 8 legendaries in the game, but there are currently 61 legendaries and mythicals, therefor I would’ve liked to have seen maybe a couple more from those gens, just so it doesn’t feel so secluded. This may also make another case of ORAS where they just added a shit ton of legendaries to make them available in that generation due to xy’s appalling legendary selection, so if they are to make them all available this gen then they might have too many in the next game.

The bicycle. Although there is poke-ride to replace the bike, it’s not the same. the bike has more maneuverability, and the fact that I have to constantly get on and off my poke-ride to get into small places due to their stupid collision boxes is something the bike would fix.

Nebby. Wait it’s not what you think! I love nebby, it’s a great character and has great memes. What i disliked was that after nebby turned into the version mascot, we kept it, yes I get that the player has to get it somehow, but I feel nebby should always have been with Lillie not with someone who met it a few days prior, I think the best way to have done it is if you’re given like a cosmog egg or something (but I guess you had to battle the mascott so idk).

Less spoilers. Not necessarily about the game itself, but GF revealed way too many pokemon prior to sun and moon. One of the biggest things I looked forward to when SM was announced was discovering new pokemon (i’’d never had a game at release so I knew them all prior) unfortunately GF decided that was not happening and showed almost all of them before the games came out, making me lose out on this experience.

A safari zone. No not the crap ones, the ones like gen 6. I would’ve liked a somewhat safari zone where you could catch more pokemon outside of the alola dex, and it would’ve been awesome if you could catch regular versions of the alola forms too.

A post game island. Sun and Moon didn’t add any new places, everything was available to explore before the elite four and i would’ve liked to have a couple of new islands to explore, I’m not talking about another huge island, but maybe just a couple small islands with maybe like a town with cool things on (like the above mentioned safari zone).

Sidequests. Yes this is a common thing for people to want from pokemon games. But sun and moon really lacked things to do rather than the main story. Really the only thing to do is the Battle Tree which is only post game and is awful, or the battle royal which is cool but laggy and over too quickly.

In Conclusion

Great, not perfect, but a hell of a lot of fun, would highly recommend. 8.5/10.