Starter Pokemon, Release Date Revealed for Pokemon Sun and Moon

[irish286]

Who ever is in charge of the esthetics of these pokemon needs to be fired... Rowlet needs his beak to be one color and moved down a bit. Popplio needs his clown nose and frill removed and his eyes moved up on his head a bit. Litten Is actually fine. Now I'm worried what their evolved forms look like...

 

[Scarim Coral]

I leaning toward the owl and cat at the moment. The water one look like it should had been Samurott starter form. I just realling hoping they evolved form at cool especially the owl (I never liked grass type due to them having more weaknesses).

Also after speaking to my mate (a Pokemon fan) she said she is getting Sun which make me getting moon then. It all depends which versions get the cooler exclusives.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

And people say call of duty is always more of the same. Gamefreak have been releasing the same game for 20 years now. Sure, they make it prettier and add some more mons but that doesn't change the gameplay at all. You can't tell me the idea of real-time battles hasn't occured to them, so why not make the same game but with instanced real time battles? It seems weird to keep the gameplay constricted within the same hardware limitations from 20 years ago.

Because the series has indeed undergone huge evolution over the years:

- Gen 2: Introduced day-night cycle, equipable items, pokemon genders, Shinies, breeding, split the Special stat into defense and attack, and two new types
- Gen 3: Natures, abilities, double battles, and contests
- Gen 4: Global Trade System, moves are now either Special or Physical,
- Gen 5: Global Link, Triple Battles, Rotation Battles
- Gen 6: Character customization, the Fairy Type, Mega Evolution, Player Search System, Poke Amie, Sky Battles, Hordes, and Super Training.

I probably missed a few, but just that alone shows huge evolution for the series. Gameplay is far more varied than just fighting. Furthermore, real time fights would ruin the series and throw out any sense of balance.

Anyway, of the three starters I'm most partial to Litten and then Rowlet (seriously, it's an owlet with a leafy bow tie). Of the legendaries, I'm leaning towards the Moon because it's just so ODD but fierce. I wasn't expecting Hawaii as a region since we already had Hoenn as a near-tropical region, still it is a beautiful place and I hope they take full advantage of Hawaiian mythology.

 

[RJ 17]

FIRE KITTY!
FIRE KITTY!
FIRE KITTY!
FIRE KITTY!
FIRE KITTY!
FIRE KITTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Hmmm, think I'll go with Litten as my starter when this comes out. :3

 

[xaszatm]

Another generation where they make it easy for me to choose a starter. Litten is the only one that doesn't look completely stupid.

I might be mistaken but I think I saw the player characters wearing different things, so might they be bringing back Trainer Customization? That would be fantastic; it was one of the best bits if X&Y. I'm excited to see what new things they bring with this generation but let's be real. It's a pokemon game, so I'm going to buy it on release and enjoy the hell out of it.

Holy crap, yes. Game Freak, here is my money, help yourself.

I really like the look of the game world, and I'm hoping that the Trainer Customization has made a return and been improved. I'm probably going to get Moon and Litten, though I'm still going to keep an eye on what the version exclusives. I am NOT getting screwed over again! My favorites always end up being in the one I don't get!

Good news! Trainer customization is indeed back in the game! It was shown in the Japanese trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon

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Also, the trainers look less chibi like and more human proportioned so that's a plus.

 

[RaikuFA]

The part that astonished me the most was the fact that Rowlet is Grass/Flying. I don't think we've had a starter that's dual-type right from the get go since Bulbasaur (and you could debate if that actually counts, because I'm fairly certain it wasn't dual-typed back when it was a starter.)

It was dual types. Tangela was the only grass type that wasn't also poison or psychic in gen 1.

 

[loa]

Here we go again.
Time to drip-feed spoil the entire fucking pokedex and spoil the main 2 legendaries on the freaking boxart so nobody can escape it.

 

[Orga777]

Well, right now I say it is Rowlett, but I will hold my choice till I see the FINAL evolution's of each. As for the legendary pokemon... They both look awesome! Not sure which one I will go with yet.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

[HEADING=2]PRAISE THE SUN! PRAISE BE TO GIANT SUN LION![/HEADING]

The fact this news was released during the current Dark Souls hype is golden. I got a text message earlier today from my SO who said "May the sun praise you today." and my response was "Oh you mean Pokemon Sun?"

Spoiler

Edit: I needed to...

 

[shrekfan246]

Turn based combat isn't really bad per s? (I play a lot of tabletop wargames and turn based rts, I have no problem with the concept) but the way pokemon does it is kind of boring, you can have the exact same tactical options in real time and also make it a little skill based. What's more, the problem isn't that they have turn based battles, it's that they've had the exact SAME battles for 20 years. They just seem to keep adding more of the same stuff.
For example, they now have I don't know how many new pokemon, and almost double the amount of types. But you are still limited to 6 pokemon in your party. Similarly, they keep adding new obstacles that require an HM (flash, cut, surf, dive, waterfall, rock smash, strenght etc), but you are still limited to 4 moves. These games have just been getting more and more stuffed with the same things, but ironically they have done very little to actually evolve.

While I don't necessarily disagree with the points about Pokemon movesets and the number you can have in your party, between various generations they've actually taken great strides to reduce HMs again and also reduce how much you need to rely on them to move around. Flash is no longer an HM and hasn't been needed for any real navigation since probably Gen III, Cut/Rock Smash are only ever required to pass through like, one or two areas each unless you want to hunt for secrets, Dive is only a world-map mechanic in the Ruby/Sapphire games (at least, as far as I'm aware; I played Black/White for about ten hours and didn't like them so I never played their sequels either), and Waterfall/Strength/Fly/Surf are of debatable use in combat (I don't care about the multiplayer, for the record, so).

The thing about how Pokemon's gameplay has changed is that most of it has changed behind-the-scenes, so to speak. A lot of it is stuff that only people who are heavily invested in the metagame will really notice or care about. For instance, the Physical/Special split in Gen IV. That was a huge change to the combat systems of the franchise, which completely redefined how quite a few different 'mons worked. But to the average person, it probably just came across as another one of the "same things" being "stuffed" into the games because it was another piece of information that you had to keep track of (bearing in mind that before that certain types were just defined as either Physical or Special anyway, and I don't think that information was ever presented to the player). Many Pokemon have also been practically entirely redesigned from a mechanical standpoint, largely to account for new moves but also just to alter their actual usability and what roles they're suited for. In Gen I, Bulbasaur didn't learn a directly damaging Grass move until level 13, and he didn't learn a decent one until well after he's supposed to evolve. Now, he learns the same move at level 9, and Ivysaur learns Razor Leaf a full ten levels earlier. Mega Evolutions as well, as much as they might crib from Digimon or Dragon Ball Z, have pretty drastically altered the playing field by giving quite a few different 'mons the ability to temporarily power up.

The Pokemon formula can work in real-time, yes, but at this point I'm not sure how you seem to expect that simply swapping over to real-time would "save" the gameplay (in your eyes, given the fact that many people are still perfectly satisfied with the turn-based combat Pokemon provides).

 

[Paragon Fury]

FIRE KITTY!

And probably Pokemon Moon.

And so now with the different versions we have;

Kanto - Japan
Johto - Japan 2
Hoenn - ?
Sinnoh - ?
Unova - US
Kalos - France

So now with Sun/Moon we have an Islander/Polynesia region.

Any idea what version Mother Russia will show up in?

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

FIRE KITTY!

And probably Pokemon Moon.

And so now with the different versions we have;

Kanto - Japan
Johto - Japan 2
Hoenn - ?
Sinnoh - ?
Unova - US
Kalos - France

So now with Sun/Moon we have an Islander/Polynesia region.

Any idea what version Mother Russia will show up in?

Hoenn and Sinnoh are Japan 3 and Japan 4, bro.

OT: Litten. Look at that fucker! It's adorable as fuck! I dont care its a walking oil spill!

 

[Floppertje]

snip

While I don't necessarily disagree with the points about Pokemon movesets and the number you can have in your party, between various generations they've actually taken great strides to reduce HMs again and also reduce how much you need to rely on them to move around. Flash is no longer an HM and hasn't been needed for any real navigation since probably Gen III, Cut/Rock Smash are only ever required to pass through like, one or two areas each unless you want to hunt for secrets, Dive is only a world-map mechanic in the Ruby/Sapphire games (at least, as far as I'm aware; I played Black/White for about ten hours and didn't like them so I never played their sequels either), and Waterfall/Strength/Fly/Surf are of debatable use in combat (I don't care about the multiplayer, for the record, so).

The thing about how Pokemon's gameplay has changed is that most of it has changed behind-the-scenes, so to speak. A lot of it is stuff that only people who are heavily invested in the metagame will really notice or care about. For instance, the Physical/Special split in Gen IV. That was a huge change to the combat systems of the franchise, which completely redefined how quite a few different 'mons worked. But to the average person, it probably just came across as another one of the "same things" being "stuffed" into the games because it was another piece of information that you had to keep track of (bearing in mind that before that certain types were just defined as either Physical or Special anyway, and I don't think that information was ever presented to the player). Many Pokemon have also been practically entirely redesigned from a mechanical standpoint, largely to account for new moves but also just to alter their actual usability and what roles they're suited for. In Gen I, Bulbasaur didn't learn a directly damaging Grass move until level 13, and he didn't learn a decent one until well after he's supposed to evolve. Now, he learns the same move at level 9, and Ivysaur learns Razor Leaf a full ten levels earlier. Mega Evolutions as well, as much as they might crib from Digimon or Dragon Ball Z, have pretty drastically altered the playing field by giving quite a few different 'mons the ability to temporarily power up.

The Pokemon formula can work in real-time, yes, but at this point I'm not sure how you seem to expect that simply swapping over to real-time would "save" the gameplay (in your eyes, given the fact that many people are still perfectly satisfied with the turn-based combat Pokemon provides).

Alright, but that doesn't change the core gameplay. If the changes are things that only people who are heavily invested in the metagame will notice, the game hasn't really changed as far as most people are concerned. Especially when it comes to pokemon, because using type advantage makes the game so incredibly easy that the stat changes don't really matter anyway. switching from turn-based to real time would be a far greater change. Finally, I wouldn't say the game needs 'saving', as it seems people are happy to play it as it is. I'm just saying it seems like a missed opportunity to not try to improve it in any significant way(and no, I wouldn't call the changes they made significant).

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Rowlet! So other than Tropius, are there any other flying/ grass types? I'm really liking the other two as well and I'm not really surprised to see a new Fire Cat Pokemon. Jibanyan is a fire cat after all and in Japan, that particular cat has been taking up more of Pokemon's lunch money than I'm sure it likes.

 

[Buizel91]

Cutest.

Starter.

Ever.


May just have to pick Rowlet, unless Popplio or Litten have good evolutions Rowlet is gonna be mine!

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I feel like they've just gone and tried to turn cute up to 11 with these starter pokemon. It comes across to me like when someone wants to make a cool character, so they make them as edgy and brooding as possible. There used to be a little more subtlety in Pokemon's cuteness, and more than anything else they looked like some sort of creature. Now they just look like mascots for Japanese products.

Have to say though, I think everything besides the new Pokemon in this game looks pretty good.

 

[Leg End]

Choosing Litten, buying Pokemon Solarcat Version and getting a can of spraypaint on my way to the store.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I really have a good feeling about Sun and Moon based on what we've seen so far. The further we get from the release of X and Y, the more issues I feel it had. Not a bad game by any means, but it's clear the battle visuals, and 3D visuals in general took a lot of the dev time, probably too much. Now that this is the third game made on 3DS, I'm sure they can focus on really making the game shine.(possible pun intended)

Getting Sun first for sure, but I'm still undecided on which starter I want to pick. It's a great starter set though, so I will probably be happy with any choice. Seeing their second stages will certainly help with choosing as well.