Pokémon: Forget Ultra Sun and Moon, Core Game for Switch Announced

[OceansAndrew]

I just finished the grass trial, so you are ahead of me! 

I accidentally caught a shiny mudbray!

I wish there were more clothing options!

Festival Plaza is cool, I have a couple of the shops that level up your pokemon, which is pretty useful for me!

!

[The Damned]

Derp. I haven't posted the Magearna link.

http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/nows-your-chance-for-magearna/

There you go. You need to have become the champion to get it, though. Of course, I seem to be far behind everyone else, so it's entirely likely that everyone but me is has already finished the game, the dex, and their second playthrough.

[Gario]

34 minutes ago, The Damned said:

Of course, I seem to be far behind everyone else, so it's entirely likely that everyone but me is has already finished the game, the dex, and their second playthrough.

Only finished my first play through last night, actually. It's not a bad thing to just take your time on it, in my opinion - it's pretty enjoyable. It's not like the lion's share of competitive online play will start until the Pokebanks open up, anyway.

[Native Jovian]

You're good, man.  I'm still working on Y.

Just finished saving the world last night.  I laughed my ass off at how everyone was basically "well, now that the ancient superweapon that nearly wiped humanity off the face of the planet is dealt with, let's get back to the really important thing: POKEMON JOURNEY!  Those last few gym leaders aren't going to defeat themselves!"

[DragonAvenger]

I am just starting the third island now. Nuzlocke Lite run is going alright, boxed 4 guys so far, and have allowed one 'revive' due to the unfairness of 4 SOS helpers that also locked my 'mon in. But that's why I'm calling it 'Lite'

[The Damned]

OK, turns out I'm only on the third island. Not the last. I guess I didn't notice that last one on the map until now.

[Gario]

55 minutes ago, Native Jovian said:

You're good, man.  I'm still working on Y.

Just finished saving the world last night.  I laughed my ass off at how everyone was basically "well, now that the ancient superweapon that nearly wiped humanity off the face of the planet is dealt with, let's get back to the really important thing: POKEMON JOURNEY!  Those last few gym leaders aren't going to defeat themselves!"

I'll admit, this is one thing Sun and Moon handles with a bit more grace than the prior generations. Story integration with more consequence than just "being the very best" is tricky to pull off when you set out on an adventure that is defined by such a strict structure (eight gyms, elite four, champion). The structural layout for Sun and Moon is considerably more flexible, which makes for a more organic experience.

Still love XY, though - it's a great game, too.

[Miyakan]

Only just started playing Sun the other day. And due to very little time to play I have only managed to get my starter, (Owlett named Locksley.) and catch three pokemon in route 1. I like how they integrated story stuff before you even get your pokemon, and how they handled the whole pick your gender/name stuff.

[The Damned]

Welp, Poké Pélego just paid for itself.

http://imgur.com/llYcCRI

[BardicKnowledge]

42 minutes ago, The Damned said:

Welp, Poké Pélego just paid for itself.

http://imgur.com/llYcCRI

That's awesome!!

[Red Shadow]

i've only ever found four shinies, however three of them so far have been from this game!

first one was back in silver (gbc version, not heartsilver), i believe it was a dunsparce

 

so far in sun i've caught a shiny trumbeak while chaining for a castform, randomly encountered a shiny granbull while leveling up things to fill the dex, and the very first solosis egg i hatched turned out to be shiny. i havent even gotten the charm yet, i'm liking the odds i've been given here

EDIT: btw you can scan that magearna qr code every day for a quick 20 points, it just wont trigger the giveaway again

[Gario]

I'll have to pay more attention to that Pelego place, it seems. I've caught a number of shinys in XY while doing hardcore EV training with those group battles (they show up a lot more often in those, it seemed), but they don't have those in Sun/Moon, unfortunately.

[Red Shadow]

the SOS battles take that function for this generation. every time a pokemon calls for help you have an increased chance of encountering one with high IVs, its hidden ability, or shiny coloration

[Mirby]

SOS battles also double the amount of EVs you get per KO of called Pokemon. So if you chain the battle endlessly you can easily max out your EVs in a stat before long.

[Gario]

13 minutes ago, Mirby said:

SOS battles also double the amount of EVs you get per KO of called Pokemon. So if you chain the battle endlessly you can easily max out your EVs in a stat before long.

Correct, SOS battles seem to cover EV training fairly well. They also have an increased chance of shinys occurring, as well, and they provide you with the chance to get hidden abilities, too (again, much like the group battles in XY). I still enjoyed the big ol' 5v1 pokemon battles that you could get, though.

[Miyakan]

How far in do you start being able to do SOS battles? I'm still not past the first town. I'm only playing in my breaks at work for now so it is going to be slow going until christmas.

[Mirby]

After the first trial.

[Native Jovian]

Man, I played through enough of Sun to get to the first pokemon center so I could grab the items (and greninja) from the demo plus the event munchlax.

Holy crap, going back to Y after that is actually kind of hard.  Just little quality of life stuff makes a huge difference.  Being able to check move info in battle!  Being told whether a move is super/not very/normally effective!  A button to go straight to "use pokeball" instead of having to navigate through three menus first!  None of it is a huge deal by itself, but all together it's like night and day.

In other news, I feel like sort of a dick catching stuff in the pokemon village.  "Yeah, this is where pokemon go when humans have been dicks to them and they just want to be left alone.  Anyway, better bust out those ultra balls if you want to fill your pokedex."  

[Gario]

On 12/9/2016 at 1:08 PM, Gario said:

Correct, SOS battles seem to cover EV training fairly well. They also have an increased chance of shinys occurring, as well...

And I caught my first Sun/Moon shiny - a motherfuckin' Bagen. I was actually trying to fish for a lv. 12 Salemance with the SOS system, but I saw the shiny and temptation got the best of me. So I guess I settled on a shiny pseudo-Legendary... I think I'll live.

[MindWanderer]

You can check move info in Y, just hold L when you select the move.  I wish you could check ability info, though, especially on opponents, and especially especially when I've Traced them.

I think shiny's became more common in more recent generations in general.  In the course of playing Silver, Ruby twice, and most of Leaf Green, I think I encountered one shiny (an Oddish IIRC), not counting the scripted Red Gyarados. In Y, I already have a shiny Skiddo and I'm only on route 8.  That might be in part because I'm trying to complete the pokedex, and with the vastly greater variety of pokemon in this game compared to what I'm used to--7 or 8 in every new area, it seems--I'm doing a lot more grinding.  Plus my luck has been extraordinarily poor--in the course of trying to find a Ralts that didn't have a Trait penalty to Special Attack, which happened 3 times in a row, I caught a female Combee (3.75%) and a white-flower Flabebe (1%).  As a result, I feel like I'm grossly overleveled, and the only challenge is in catching pokemon without killing them.

[Mirby]

Yeah in Gen6 they doubled the rate of encountering Shinies. Whereas before it was 1/8192, now it's 1/4096. Increase that with the Shiny Charm and, if you're breeding for Shinies, using the Masuda method, you can increase it even more substantially.

[The Damned]

Finally beat the Elite 4 last night.

Now that I'm done with the main game, I do have some critiques.

Poké Ride pokémon could have been trimmed down.

I like the idea of ditching HMs, because it frees up your team and their move slots. Something that has been asked for since... like, gen 2? But I think they overdid it a bit with seven different pokémon to use, when half of that would work.

1. Lapras is slower than Sharpedo, but lets you fish on the water. Sharpedo is only really there to smash rocks in the water, but is also a lot faster than Lapras. Why not just let Lapras smash rocks as well (as evidenced by the fat is can learn Rock Smash since gen 2) or let us fish while on Sharpedo (something we have been able to do since gen 3)? Combine both abilities into one pokémon. Or, alternatively, just don't have rocks in the water.
2. Stoutland serves no purpose other than to replace the Itemfinder... which doesn't make sense. Poké Ride is about getting rid of HMs so your team is free to have full proper battling moves. Instead, have the Rotomdex act as the Itemfinder. It already can scan for things, so let it do that! Also, after the Elite 4, Rotomdex comments less and less, until he pretty much doesn't talk any more. He's just a map on the bottom screen. Give him the task of being the Itemfinder, and he's more useful again!
3. Tauros is fast while charging, but can't cross rocky terrain. Mudsdale is slower but is the only thing that lets you cross rocky terrain. For that matter, why is rocky terrain even a thing? There is only one spot that requires yo to cross it, and the other places allow you to walk around it. So Mudsdale is kind of forced on us. As for Tauros? Weeeeellllll...
4. Machamp should be the rock pusher and rock smasher. Machamp's pokédex entries and move pool (both the Strength and the Rock Smash HM/TM are in its pool) support this, as well as the various times in the game when you see Machamps doing stuff like breaking rocks.

That just leaves Charizard as your flying ride... and that's perfectly fine. Char is the OG flyer!

Four Ride Pokémon, four d-pad spots to assign them to. Simple and easy.

After the Elite 4, it takes forever to get to the ending credits.

Beating the Elite 4 was actually challenging. I spent a lot of time and healing items just barely getting through them, and then Professor Nippleshirt shows up and makes me wait even longer to get my sweet chair.

Buuuuuut then I get twenty minutes of cut scenes and a forced battle I wasn't ready for when Lillie drags me to face Tapu whatever. I ended up running from the battle just so I could end it faster. Also, I spotted several items during those cut scenes, including a Zygarde part, which I could not get, even though I was only a few feet from them. I still haven't be able to find those exact spots because I can't remember where they were. They could have paced that out better.

Poké Pelego is awesome and useful.

You saw my shiny Staryu before. That's awesome.

But now that I've gotten more beans and more pokémon, the other islands have unlocked and I've been able to start stockpiling all kinds of cool stuff. And it's pretty much automatic as long as you have beans, which you get for free by punching a beanstalk in the stem.

Facial expressions are a nice touch.

Seeing Lillie's fear and uncertainty gradually turn in to fierce determination made her very likable and human. But the player character needs more than just blankly staring.

During some of the more dramatic moments, the camera would pan over to me, and I look like a smiling psychopath.

Music is, once again, top notch.

Already got the soundtrack downloaded.

The new pokémon are pretty interesting and fun to use.

I used a giant water-spider to suck the life-force out of everything that didn't drown from it spitting water down their throats.

Final rating: pretty good / 10

 

[OceansAndrew]

I just finished the Ghost trial and I am having fun! 

I've managed to randomly catch 2 shiny pokemon, though one of them i didn't know was shiny until @DragonAvenger told me after the fact. They are basically her shinies anyways, I don't need them. 

I agree that the ride pokemon are getting a little out of hand, and I just got mudsdale and the shark. 

For me the most useful thing for learning how the game works is the festival plaza. I've done the type matchup trivia maybe 100 times trying to learn what is strong against all the different types. I'm still learning some, but having a pretty fast way to practice a lot of types is cool.

 

So far it is very fun!

[The Damned]

I'm trying to dig up all the various fan-compiled stuff that shows all the little tricks and tips for the game. It's new enough that all this info may not be common knowledge. Here's a few I've found.

http://imgur.com/a/Gu18x catching tips and trickscould be helpful until you can get your guys from XY/ORAS via PokéBank

https://imgur.com/a/EFOqs QR codes for scanning. Super useful for filling up that meter to get Island Scan.

I have seen a few others, but I'm always looking for more stuff like this. Any one else got some?

Also: Really, you think?

[Red Shadow]

you can actually scan any random qr code as well