Pokemon Sun and Moon have been out for over a week now, and I've been able to have more than my fair share of playtime with the game. And I'll be (not even the close to being) the first to say that this game has managed to meet, or maybe even surpass, the amount of hype leading up to it. With so many new features added, there's a lot to do and a lot of things to keep you immersed in the game. Now, of course, with the new comes both good and bad, but let me preface the rest of this article by saying that the negatives these games have are heavily outweighed by all the positives. I wouldn't have over 60 hours in under a week in the game if I didn't think that it was a good game. But anyways, here are the best and worst parts of Pokemon Sun and Moon.
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SOME WORDS, AND SOME OF THOSE WORDS ARE SPOILERS, AND SOME OF THESE SPOILERS ARE PRETTY BIG. BE CAREFUL.
Good: The story!
Pokemon Black and White are widely known as some of the Pokemon games with the best story. I used to share this opinion, but I might need to play those games again to make sure, because Sun and Moon might be my new favorites.
When you're first introduced into the game, your only quest is to go beat the island trials since you were chosen by Tapu Koko, one of the island deities. Simple enough, sure, I'll do that. But as you go along this quest, you get involved with Team Skull, a band of misfits that like to take pokemon from other trainers. OK, yeah, I've seen this before, in almost every other generation. But then you're introduced to the Aether Foundation, headed by President Lusamine. Oh boy. It was pretty obvious from the reveals that these guys would be evil also, but Lusamine's character development is insane.
Since the first time you meet here, she's got this weird smile and she just feels... off. But then, you begin to see her for who she is; a power-hungry beast that only cares about things she enjoys. On top of the main story, there are other side-bits that really help shape up the Alola Region. From hints at Guzma's (the leader of Team Skull) sad and abusive past to befriending the anti-hero Gladion, there's a lot of substance in this game that the past couple of games were lacking.
Bad: The difficulty ramp.
One of my biggest fears for this game was that it would be too easy. Well, yeah, it was to an extent. The game started out ridiculously easy. To put it in perspective, at one point in the game, you're given an item called the "Exp Share" that lets your entire pokemon team get experience points after a battle rather than just the ones that participated in it. I turned it off as soon as I got it and the first half of the game was still too easy.
Woah, hang on. The first half? What about the rest of it?
The second half of the game got to be pretty difficult (by second half, I'm also including the post-game extra bits). I had to adjust from completely stomping teams to having to grind out wild pokemon battles for experience just so I could be on par with the trainer at this level. While this challenge was welcome, I feel like the game should have decided if it wanted to be too easy or difficult, not switch between both.
Good: The pokemon!
WOAH, A MOVING PICTURE! Yeah, initially I didn't want to have all pictures and then one or two GIFs, but I couldn't resist showing off one of my favorite new pokemon in action. To be honest, a lot of these pokemon have such amazing animations and look so much better in-game than with a still picture. But anyways, the pokemon of this generation are all phenomenal (except Dhelmise, see following).
Pictured (GIFed?) above is Oricorio (Baile form), a bird from Alola that changes forms based on the island it was captured on. It has 4 different styles, one per island: Pom-pom, Hula, Baile and Sensu. This pokemon has so much detail put into it, with the whole form-changing shenanigans, it has to be special, right? Nah, a lot, and I mean a lot of pokemon from this generation have their own major quirks (except Dhelmise) that make them all unique.
Just to give you a little bit of insight, I'll describe my team without their names so that you can see how cool these pokemon really are: a hooded bird that uses its wings as a bow, a bird that will never stop dancing, a lonely monster hiding under a cloth that looks like Pikachu, a meteor that cracks open to reveal a bright interior, a sea urchin that's really, really mean to Corsola and three weird stumps with glorious blonde hair trailing behind them. And none of them are Dhelmise.
Bad: Dhelmise.
I love Pokemon based on inanimate object. Two of my favorite pokemon are a keychain and a chandelier.
BUT WHAT IS THIS??? This thing is an anchor, seaweed and a steering wheel with one eyeball. Oh, and it's a Grass/Ghost type. Oh, and its ability boosts the power of Steel-type moves.
...
I don't like Dhelmise.
Good: Extra features!
Pokemon has really been stepping up its game with extra features for a while. With customizing your trainer, Pokemon-Amie and Wonder-Trade in X and Y, we had a lot of new toys to play with. Well, in Sun and Moon, we have trainer customization, basically Pokemon-Amie (now called Pokemon Refresh), and Wonder-Trade again! But on top of that, we have things like Poke Pelago and the Festival Plaza to drain our free time even more so.
Poke Pelago is a place where the pokemon in your PC boxes can collect beans to feed your pokemon in Pokemon Refresh, grow berries, find rare items, train, relax and even find new pokemon! The Festival Plaza is your own little hub where other trainers' avatars show up and you can talk to them and gain FC, which lets you buy things in the shops you have running in your plaza. These shops range from cafes to theme parks to dye shops and more. There's so much more to do in pokemon than just battle now, and I love it.
Bad: Calling for help.
You're fighting a wild pokemon, and you manage to get its health really low. One more hit and then it'll be gone. Oh, wait, oh no, it's calling for help. Oh, another one showed up. Well, that sucks. Maybe I can just throw a pokeball to catch the weak one and it'll be fin—oh, nope, you can't throw pokeballs when there's more than one pokemon. Alright, I'll just kill one of them and then the other one, easy. It's basically already don—and it just called for help again. Wow.
This dialogue happens more often than you think. Pokemon can now call on other wild pokemon for help, and it creates some pretty frustrating players. The one thing all of my friends and I can agree on with this game is that this is the most annoying mechanic in the entire game and we'd all be better off without it.
The thing is, even with these good and bad things, this game is still amazing. All the goods overshadow the bads, and it makes Pokemon Sun and Moon one of the best, if not the best pokemon game in the series. Now, that might just be my opinion, but I entice you to go out and play the game if you haven't! Even if it's not your favorite, it'll still be an enjoyable experience. Just don't catch Dhelmise and you'll be fine.
