#maybe it was an event 'mon in xy even

[front-facing-pokemon]

[silvermeww]

The other day I had to go out shopping with my family, and while I usually hated shopping for once, I have found some pretty funny Pokémon merch (or rather, bootlegs).

(Under a read more because it is very picture heavy)

I mean, nice try but I know that’s a Mimikyu lol /j

Wait… Lego Brock? What’s next to him? What is happening—

Literally the first thing I see after DP Brock is OG Gary. Nice.

JAMES??? Are you okay?? Please speak to me!! Also is that supposed to be a rose? I actually thought it was a sceptre right until I started posting this lol.

IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE DAISY?? SHE ISNT EVEN IN THE ANIME??? HELP???

Anyways, after this fun run I realised that there was the back of the box that shows all of the characters available and I’m just here to say that I wish I never saw it.

Ash: My brother called him bold and yeah, I’ve got to agree

Pikachu: Not his Pokédex number but I’ll let it slide.

Misty: #notmymisty (Why is her hair like that???)

Bulbasaur: Could’ve put this guy first. Also okay, this seems to be an OG thing here…

Brock: Still stuck in Hisui I see. It happens to the best of us.

Daisy(?): Had to get some girl rep I guess

Squirtle: #notmysquirtle Get the sunglasses if you’re going to be bootleg

Eevee: It’s crying out in pain, I can just hear it. How did they massacre your design that badly???

(Me: Okay, who is this rando??? …Wait, it couldn’t be…)

It’s Leon. Yeah. He lost his cap and ended up in this strange dimension with the rest of everyone. Also his hair may be cut down to shoulder length, I can’t tell.

Professor Oak: Yeah his hair went disco, he’s still in the 1970s having the time of his life or something. My sister thought he was a girl lol.

Charmander and Pichu aren’t bad ig, but the latter is a bit unexpected at this point.

James and Gary are There. Gary at least got the canon family so I can’t be too mad. James, however, is stuck with the last two of the pack imo, Gengar and Snorlax (Gen 1 who get GMax and a Mega/Z Crystal respectively… also just very well known mons) and now I’m scared if it’s an allegory for Meowth as a big cat and Jessie being dead or something. Or maybe I’m just reaching.

ALSO. Each part they have works into making a Dialga and Palkia, so there’s that. Maybe that’s the reason why they are all badly made and have been summoned to the White Space. Someone make a fanfic about it.

Further on my quest to find a small gift token for some people in a class I teach, I came upon this curious thing.

Me: Oh boy, I can’t wait to see what stickers they would make out of the XY series! Hopefully there would be some good ones out here.

(My sister: That keyhole is for the Master Class)

The stickers:

Wow, I totally remember May being there! Also I’m pretty sure it was DP that had the 10th anniversary but idk (Advanceshipping real?). Anyways I love how there is so much AG and then we get Togepi and Piplup coming in. And OG Ash. And Cyndaquil. And Phione. And my personal favourite Pokémon Rumble Charmander.

But

But perhaps the next page will give me what I want, right?

Wrong! Deoxys movie sticker be upon you!!! No, seriously, how did they get that as a sticker? I love the rep though, just wished we had all of the other characters too ngl to complete the pic. My brother loved the second Ash on the bottom pic, said it looked very smug, and honestly imagine using that sticker. For what occasion would it be most useful?? Also miscoloured OG Ash on the third row from the bottom my beloved, more 3D pics, Skitty in a Contest stage, DP Ash?? And Birch merchandise (we need that around here). Now there is one more sticker page left (it repeats the same pages afterwards), and I honestly gave up hope. And I was right to, but still, look at this lol:

The only Lucario you will ever get. That Croagunk one with Chimchar at the back. That one Ranger from that one Ranger’s special (I think the Deoxys one???). And of course, we can’t forget Shedinja.

So yeah, it was definitely a pretty eventful shopping day. I couldn’t get a picture of it, but there was this holographic picture in a frame that had Pikachu changing into different Kanto Starters, and another frame from another shop that flashed with Ash and the gang from multiple series (got jumpscared by XY help). Idk but that existed lol.

[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.

[trivial-pokemon-ramblings]

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. 

[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.