Praise The Sun... and Moon - Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon

[CURIE]

No one's gonna mention how the professor is clearly Wattson with a tan and slightly different haircut? I'm betting there will be some post game dialog somewhere that reveals they're related.

Also adds more fuel to my theory of this game tying up ORAS' loose ends. I really want that to be true.

[Ironbound]

Wattson was never a retired Samurai though!

Also I just noticed that Mega Pyroar has a gem in its tail. Wonder what that could be?

[Masquerain]

No one's gonna mention how the professor is clearly Wattson with a tan and slightly different haircut? I'm betting there will be some post game dialog somewhere that reveals they're related.

Also adds more fuel to my theory of this game tying up ORAS' loose ends. I really want that to be true.

I already expressed my disappointment in this looking like a Hoenn clone..There's only so much one can do do make tropical regions not look like clones..

But hey, here's hoping they surprise us...

I just read on Serebii that apparently, europeans get the game 5 days later than everyone else...again..wonder what's up with that

Edited May 10, 2016 by Masquerain

[Godot]

for me I like the sun legend over the Moon. Also Dapper Owl Master Race.

Owl > Sealion > Oh look another cat

Also Shofu Broke the info down pretty damn well.

[Masquerain]

for me I like the sun legend over the Moon. Also Dapper Owl Master Race.

Owl > Sealion > Oh look another cat

Also Shofu Broke the info down pretty damn well.

I think Shofu mixed it up.. because the guy you see is your cousin who welcomes you to the region and takes you to the supposed retired samurai professor wattson clone who gives you the pokemon

[nepeta100]

team litten and sun for me all the cats

[laggless01]

If their equivalent of Moloka'I is filled with people that are dying of a horrible disease, that would be interesting...(it's a history thing)

[Spineblade]

One thing I found out is that, apparently in Hawaii, 'cousin' is used as a colloquial form of address for a friend. It could mean the guy from the start of the trailer (Kukui, was he?) might not literally be your cousin.

[Masquerain]

I somehow doubt that they'd suddenly make use of something globally known as a family relation in this way, but who knows at this point

[Ironbound]

I would pick Sun if I would ever buy a 3DS and spend money on buying Pokemon games. I'm only interested in the competitive aspect anyways. But yeah, the lion is cooler than the bat appearance wise, but I would not sleep on the bat either; could be the next broken threat.

And I agree with Godot; Rowlet gets fancy points for the bowtie. Is urw hope that it won't be shitty like Noctowl or Meganium. The fire cat is my bet tbh, because it may well end up a Tiger to follow tradition of the Chinese Zodiac yadda yadda, and a Dark/Fire Tiger would be awesome as hell. I will still love MwgaFoom though.

And please. BWARK wins all arguments.

[Ironbound]

Mhh... That's interesting, to say the least. I was kind hoping that that got would be the Mold Breaker and be the player's actual guardian instead of the usual Mom.

Also, if he is the Professor, then who is vacation Samurai, and vice versa?

[Masquerain]

Mhh... That's interesting, to say the least. I was kind hoping that that got would be the Mold Breaker and be the player's actual guardian instead of the usual Mom.

Also, if he is the Professor, then who is vacation Samurai, and vice versa?

We still have a mom or aunt, she's shown with a meowth beside her and looks older (and tanned skinned) . She could be our cousin's mom or our mom. We can pick our skin color so we could well be related

[Halloween]

im already semi-crying over the amount of surf we're gonna have to do. hopefully they'll introduce actual surfing as a feature and it'll go way faster than the fucking lazy front-crawl we've been exposed to so far

i'm buying moon. or, if they introduce a hard mode, i might get both just cause that's the kinda shit i wanna support

[Guest]

So my thoughts:

• This region feels like Hawaii. In turn, it feels a lot like Hoenn. I'm pretty down for that. However, it's not based off of Spain like people were saying, so I don't think my dreams of traveling to Kalos in the next region will be fulfilled. :[
• They overhauled the 3D overworld engine. Characters don't look like chibis anymore.
• I don't like the Sun legendary at all. Looks like a Pyroar mega evolution to me. On the flipside, I love the Moon legendary.
• the fucking grass owl
• The cat fire starter looks okay, but probably not something I would immediately settle on until I knew its third form
• The fucking grass owl.
• The water starter reminds me of Oshawott. Getting good vibes from this one
• THE FUCKING GRASS OWL. OH MY GOD IT'S SO CUTE I LOVE IT

[Godot]

Google searches what the owl might turn into. Apparently owls are seen as the follow...

A symbol of wisdom, i.e. Minerva, Juno, Athena.

A symbol of Good Fortune in some countries and a symbol of Misfortune in others. Greece thought of Owls as good luck, while Rome saw it as the latter. So if an owl appeared in one of their battles, it essentially said "Greece wins, no contest."

A symbol of death. Some people like Native American tribes see the owl as the overseer of the underworld and the afterlife.

A symbol of Marriage. If a woman dies unmarried, she will reincarnate as a Dove. If she dies Married, she reincarnated as an owl.

I don't think Bark the Sealion is based on anything outside circus performers, as for the fire lion... It might be a tiger like Viri suggested... But at the end of the day I don't care because it is the dullest of the three imo.

[Ironbound]

Praise the Owl. Praise the BWARK even more.

Praise Magnezone for blessing us with SM news on Magnezone Day.

Praise GF for giving us a Dolphin Pokémon in SM... Wait, what? They haven't yet? Then beat them up fling minced Darumaka poop at them until they do!

[Samalet]

The owl is called "Bauz" in German. I can't decide whether that's a terrible or great name, sounds a bit goofy in any case.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Sohn der Höhe

[Godot]

Apparently the starter and legendary leaks were legit.

[NickCrash]

Not even the children in the Japanese trailer like the Water abomination, and for a good reason. Do not be surprized when people pop up saying GF has run out of ideas. The only design in this trailer that I can tolerate is the Owl, and that because Masquerain and I already speculated about it and thought it was a cool idea (we thought it would be a wooden carving of an owl, but we didn't deviate much).

I have no problems with Hawaii, since the art looks improved, so cudos for that. The graphics go back to PC games of 2000 but that's also fine by me, since I enjoy them not being realistic. The animations look nice. The island is way too small to be the whole region, and the harbor at the bottom left assures we travel to more islands. What's a bummer is the coral reefs down right and further up, also to the right, that downright say we cannot surf outside the island to visit other habitable ones. Sure there will be trainers on the rocks we visit, but that's going to be backtracking to the first island after we get Surf.

About the starters themselves.

• Forest Owl better deliver as a fast attacker. I'm expecting the final evo to look like an Articuno-Staraptor mix breed, which in my head looks awesome. Grass/Flying has 5 weaknesses (Fire, Poison, Flying, Ice(x4), Rock), while only 3 resistances (Water, Grass(x4), Fighting) and am immunity to Ground. So even if it can take some hits from good dominant types, it can't serve as a well-made defensive pokemon. So if I decide to buy and play those games (perhaps not but I may be hyped enough), I'm giving the Owl a chance
• Future Tiger is not appealing enough. Sure it fits the Zodiacs, but I was expecting a Ram, and was sure we were getting one since we already have a Lion in Pyroar and 99% the Sun Legend was also going to be a lion. Too many felines for such a small place. Nevertheless, I also expect it to gain a secondary typing in Dark, with little hope for Electric, since those marks on its body may hint to scortch marks that lightning leaves when it hits a body. We'll see. I can't speculate anything about this one. It just better be good, and fast.
• Samurott's and Walrein's child born out of wedlock may as well face the darkest corners of my basement. The base form sets a new low for bad designs so that's an achievement on its own. Definitely not an Ice type, yet didn't come up to the expectations, since it will be hard to see this evolve into a badass part Fighting type that we all felt was coming. My optimistic side encourages me not to let go of that hope just yet, but if I were to pick between this and Chicorita, I'm not sure what the result would be.

Legends are... not enough. Normally you're supposed to project original ideas for the legendaries. After all, they are unique in their own non-competitive way and their appearances should show that they are special. Well, not the way I would describe Flipper (see above) as 'special', but you get my point. Sun Lion looks good enough and I wouldn't have any issue with that Digimon if it didn't appear like a Male Pyroar on steroids, essentially outshining its counterpart. The Moon Bat looks more appealing, but the design seems to include a lot of unneeded detail. Sure, people want to show off when they present their creations, but sometimes simple is best. Your audience doesn't want something that is 'optically heavy' as the eye cannot focus at any specific point you might want to emphasize on. Besides, I think the went this way to make sure you don't find similarities between this one and Noivern, YET ANOTHER pokemon introduced in the very last gen. It pains me that I have to quote Septa Unella for this: "Shame...Shame...Shame". Given GF's latest additions to the game, those two are jumping into Ubers in a shorter amount of time than it takes Nova to make a sprite of a just revealed pokemon.

[Samalet]

Legends are... not enough.

Agreed. I think they look overdesigned, I know it's a buzzword critique but I'm still a bit disappointed. Xerneas and Yveltal are two of my favourite mascot/legendary designs and I expected Game Freak to deliver the same quality again.

Can't say much concerning the starters yet, owl is adorable, cat is fine as well, if a bit bland and I don't really like the water starters look. But those things can still easily change, e.g. I hate Snivy, but love its evolutions, with Serperior being my second favourite 'mon. Fennekin was my Gen 6 favourite at first, but after I saw Braixen and Delphox... no thanks.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Sohn der Höhe

[Masquerain]

Not even the children in the Japanese trailer like the Water abomination, and for a good reason. Do not be surprized when people pop up saying GF has run out of ideas. The only design in this trailer that I can tolerate is the Owl, and that because Masquerain and I already speculated about it and thought it was a cool idea (we thought it would be a wooden carving of an owl, but we didn't deviate much).

I have no problems with Hawaii, since the art looks improved, so cudos for that. The graphics go back to PC games of 2000 but that's also fine by me, since I enjoy them not being realistic. The animations look nice. The island is way too small to be the whole region, and the harbor at the bottom left assures we travel to more islands. What's a bummer is the coral reefs down right and further up, also to the right, that downright say we cannot surf outside the island to visit other habitable ones. Sure there will be trainers on the rocks we visit, but that's going to be backtracking to the first island after we get Surf.

About the starters themselves.

• Forest Owl better deliver as a fast attacker. I'm expecting the final evo to look like an Articuno-Staraptor mix breed, which in my head looks awesome. Grass/Flying has 5 weaknesses (Fire, Poison, Flying, Ice(x4), Rock), while only 3 resistances (Water, Grass(x4), Fighting) and am immunity to Ground. So even if it can take some hits from good dominant types, it can't serve as a well-made defensive pokemon. So if I decide to buy and play those games (perhaps not but I may be hyped enough), I'm giving the Owl a chance
• Future Tiger is not appealing enough. Sure it fits the Zodiacs, but I was expecting a Ram, and was sure we were getting one since we already have a Lion in Pyroar and 99% the Sun Legend was also going to be a lion. Too many felines for such a small place. Nevertheless, I also expect it to gain a secondary typing in Dark, with little hope for Electric, since those marks on its body may hint to scortch marks that lightning leaves when it hits a body. We'll see. I can't speculate anything about this one. It just better be good, and fast.
• Samurott's and Walrein's child born out of wedlock may as well face the darkest corners of my basement. The base form sets a new low for bad designs so that's an achievement on its own. Definitely not an Ice type, yet didn't come up to the expectations, since it will be hard to see this evolve into a badass part Fighting type that we all felt was coming. My optimistic side encourages me not to let go of that hope just yet, but if I were to pick between this and Chicorita, I'm not sure what the result would be.

Legends are... not enough. Normally you're supposed to project original ideas for the legendaries. After all, they are unique in their own non-competitive way and their appearances should show that they are special. Well, not the way I would describe Flipper (see above) as 'special', but you get my point. Sun Lion looks good enough and I wouldn't have any issue with that Digimon if it didn't appear like a Male Pyroar on steroids, essentially outshining its counterpart. The Moon Bat looks more appealing, but the design seems to include a lot of unneeded detail. Sure, people want to show off when they present their creations, but sometimes simple is best. Your audience doesn't want something that is 'optically heavy' as the eye cannot focus at any specific point you might want to have as your main attraction point. Besides, I think the went this way to make sure you don't find similarities between this one and Noivern, YET ANOTHER pokemon introduced in the very last gen. It pains me that I have to quote Septa Unella for this: "Shame...Shame...Shame". Given GF's latest additions to the game, those two are jumping into Ubers in a shorter amount of time than it takes Nova to make a sprite of a just revealed pokemon.

Wellp, before having seen the final evos, I'm debating between owl and cat. Probably gonna decide after seeing the final evos. That water...abomination is going nowhere near my team (inb4 it gets the coolest final evo somehow)

All hope is not lost yet if we are going to visit more islands or still visit another region. Maybe they won't ALL look like Hoenn clones

I prefer the moon bat but I agree that there's a lack of "balance" between it and the lion.. I can't find a connection for them.. and really the lion introduced after pyroar was a really bad idea... since the trademarks are real pokemon, wonder what Marshadow will be. Hawaii comes with many myths of the stars so the third counterpart might be stars

On a side note, this might be a giant stretch but ..

Litten's symbol on the head may be alluding to http://symbolism.wikia.com/wiki/The_Leviathan_Cross

Thus, as widespread speculation goes, future firedark typing

If we follow the 3 philosophical principles theory, the other 2 starters may be symbolic of Mercury and Salt as Litten is to Sulfur. Sulfur is the element of the soul, mercury - spirit, and salt- body. This is really a long shot but if you REALLLLY graspatstrawslook into it, Popplio can represent the spirit, since it's a performer and that's usually aimed at lifting one's spirits. Rowlet has control of the body in that it can spin 180° ..and Litten.. well look at it, it looks like it has no soul and is about ready to take yours.

Even further graspingatstraws overanalyzing things, if we can find the sulfur symbol on Litten's head , maybe Salt's symbol http://www.organic-unity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Salt.gif can be more or less Rowlet's..beak? It's close enough... As for mercury, well .. http://www.organic-unity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/mercury1.gif this one's really .... warped but, Popplio has ears (the horns on the symbol) and its body shape is emphasized by its arms rather than legs so... if you really twist it, you can get the mercury symbol There doesn't have to be any real meaning to any of this but the prospect of starters actually symbolizing something was kinda nice

[NickCrash]

There doesn't have to be any real meaning to any of this but the prospect of starters actually symbolizing something was kinda nice

Or we have already passed on to the 3rd stage (bargaining) and we try to connect them to things we like to make them more tolerable.

This game is aimed at people of all ages. They will appreciate it when people realize the hidden messages, but when they include them, they usually have an NPC that explains them, usually by the 4th town. Starters aren't unique, even if you just get one of them, so a mystical backstory like this would be more fitting to the side legends, which we all know are included. XY had the only 3 not connected to each other in some way, so I'm hoping SM doesn't do the same.

[Spineblade]

I was looking through the trailer again, and I noticed a couple of things regarding battles.

First of all, we have trainers still visible during the battle. Now I can't be sure that this is certain, since it could be that Litten was just sent out, but I would guess as such. Secondly, is it just me or is Litten's shadow more pronounced than they are in Gen 6? They were generally more confined to the space beneath the Pokemon, if my memory is correct.

Unfortunately, in the next shot I noticed something horribly wrong.

The shadows of Litten and Rowlet are facing in blatantly different directions. I get that the shadow in front of Rowlet could be slightly weird looking, but...

Oh well.

EDIT: another thing I somehow forgot to mention was the lack of terrain circles at the Pokemon's feet! Could they have been forever abolished?

Edited May 10, 2016 by Spineblade

[Bearadactyl]

I'm rocking Popplio; it looks a bit goofy, but so does Mr. Mime and Garbodor; he'll fit in nicely on my team of misfit Pokémon, someone's gotta love them all. I think nostalgia is very strong this coming Gen, the amount of salt is honestly unnecessary. I'm fond of the new designs, across the board. If anything, I'm more concerned about the typing of the Starters and Legendaries than I am the appearance; the appearances are standard for the series.

I've also noticed quite a few comments about the new Starters looking childish. Reality check, this game is sort of INTENDED FOR A CHILD AUDIENCE. Remember old fans, Game Freak isn't solely attempting to appeal to YOU; they are trying to appeal to multiple audiences. And, yes, their child audience is a very big part of their audience base.

I like the direction we're going, now if only we get ahold of some Johto Starters and give them Megas I'll be happy.

[Masquerain]

Or we have already passed on to the 3rd stage (bargaining) and we try to connect them to things we like to make them more tolerable.

This game is aimed at people of all ages. They will appreciate it when people realize the hidden messages, but when they include them, they usually have an NPC that explains them, usually by the 4th town. Starters aren't unique, even if you just get one of them, so a mystical backstory like this would be more fitting to the side legends, which we all know are included. XY had the only 3 not connected to each other in some way, so I'm hoping SM doesn't do the same.

Well...... it's hard to deny that But it would be cool. There was something connecting the Kalos starters (the themes of knight, wizard and ninja + being 2x SE vs each other ) so it's still possible in some distant warped parallel universe. People around forums are pointing out a supposedly common store sign in the jap trailer that says "children left unattended will be sold as slaves". While that's likely a joke thing, imagine an evil team of cultists (yes, I'm still on that :[keepitclean]: ) that want to enslave children and sacrifice them to the sunmoon gods for some crazy ritual