Pokémon Moon (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Each and every entry, save for the remakes, features an entirely new region for players to explore and following this tradition, Pokémon Sun and Moon has the players exploring Alola, an archipelago made to reference Hawaii as its source of inspiration. This seems to already start a trend of simplifying certain things so as to make them more easily approachable for newcomers. Having the whole world divided up into smaller islands that can only be explored in a specific predetermined order displays a level of hand holding higher than in previous episodes, and it can easily be imagined that this is meant to ease Pokémon GO users into the experience of a fully realised mainline Pokémon adventure. More proof of this is that the very first location, Melemele Island, showcases mostly Pokémon from the first generation of games, which are the only Pokémon that players can capture in the vastness of the real world with the phone or tablet in hand.

Alola showcases lush, tropical surroundings, dotted with little hamlets and modern towns, populated by easygoing, light-hearted folks wearing their stereotypical Hawaiian kind of garments, which should at least warm up the heart of those in the Northern hemisphere considering when those games are being released. The main story can be completed rather rapidly, all things considered. Pokémon Gyms, as leaks before release had already revealed, are completely absent this time around. Rather, the goal this time is for the protagonist, a former Kanto resident who just moved in with their parents, to tackle the island challenges, each of which involves facing several trials, leading up to a battle against the island captains. Every time a trial is completed, the character receives a Z-crystal corresponding to a move-type. After that's done on one island, the hero, or heroine, faces with the Kahuna of the location, a sort of Pokémon expert who specialises in one type of Pokémon, and he or she will in turn award the player with another Z-crystal.

Exploring all of Alola and collecting all the Z-crystals leads up to the foundation of the first Elite Four of the region in which this adventure takes place, and the ending of the game. Since the adventure is so linear, it can be breezed through rather rapidly, but naturally most will want to "Catch 'Em All!" since that's still by far the main objective outside of the story driving the gamers forward. Then, the most hardcore crowd will also want to be "the very best" by capturing, trading, raising, and breeding the most powerful set of Pokémon in order to battle against others online or in local multiplayer, wirelessly. Online features have indeed remained much the same compared to the last generation of Pokémon titles, save perhaps for the Festival Plaza, accessible from the main menu at any given time, where all types of online interactions have been regrouped.

Most of what it does, though, is introducing a couple of new ways of performing essentially the same things that could already be done before in another fashion, like EV training a Pokémon, among other things. Most of the interactions with other players could previously be performed directly via the touch screen in games like Pokémon X & Y, but now those features are hidden away in this new virtual area so as to not distract the player from what they are doing at that moment, which while introducing some extra steps to get online and interact with others, also frees up the bottom screen to be filled with other functions, in this case the new "Rotom Dex," which displays a detailed map of the area at all times and provides comments and directions to those in control, on-demand.

One of the two biggest changes, however, is the Z-crystals themselves. They exist for each type of Pokémon included, but also sometimes for specific species, unlocking some of these Pokémon's secret powers. Although this is taunted as a replacement for Mega Evolutions, fans of the previous generation fear not, mega evolutions are not gone, they simply can't be used early on. Transferring Pokémon from the previous generation, along with their mega evolution stone will allow them to use their mega evolution in the newer releases, as well. However, since a Pokémon can only hold one object at a time, Z-moves and mega evolutions can't be used in conjunction. When a Z-crystal held by a Pokémon is activated, the Z-moves it can perform may either be the same moves as normal but with a 50% boost in power, or sometimes different exclusive evolved moves altogether which opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. All of this helps keep battles fresh in this new generation, even for veterans of the series. Battles do seem to have been made a bit quicker, as well, with trainers almost never carrying more than two Pokémon at a time, even captains, which does seem to make battles against in-game trainers much easier than before on top of making them quicker.

The other biggest change is yet another that was heavily advertised before launch: the Alola forms of Pokémon. That is to say that certain, classic, Pokémon will either have a different appearance and type when encountered in Alola, such as Rattata, or will sometimes evolve from a completely normal Pokémon to a new Alola form if evolved in Alola, sometimes with an added condition like Exeggcute evolving into Alola Exeggutor or a totally normal Cubone evolving into a different Alola Marowak if evolved in Alola at night.

Such changes in design can naturally be a bit disorienting, or even questionable; however, once again this works in favour of more variety and allows Pokémon that formerly had moves of a different type from their own to now use those with the infamous Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) such as Bite, a dark-type move, being inflicted by a Alolan Ratticate who now is a dark type instead of normal. Completely new strategies and move sets that would not have been considered viable before for classic Pokémon can now be considered with such changes brought to the franchise, so while these may alienate to some extent the more conservative players, those ultimately work in favour of keeping the franchise alive and kicking. Also of note is that newcomers are further eased into the game by allowing them to see what attacks are effective against any opposing creature in battle, so long as they have battled that species at least once before.

More subtle changes and additions are also part of the mix with these two new entries, since HMs (Hidden Machines) are no longer a thing. In previous entries, moves that could be used outside of battles to interact with the environment, and often required to access new areas previously unreachable, were known has HM moves, because they required HMs to be learned, often offered by Gym leaders. Those moves, however, once a Pokémon had learned them, could never be forgotten, condemning a potentially perfectly good Pokémon to have one of his move slots permanently occupied by this one attribute. Such interaction with the surrounding environment outside of battle - Fly or Surf, for instance - is now performed by riding key Pokémon that can be summoned using a "Ride Pager." Need to break down a boulder blocking the road? Ride Tauros and charge through them. Need to get across the river? Call Lapras with your pager! Even certain functions previously tied to key items are now associated to Pokémon, such as the item finder, which is now replaced by Stoutland, the giant dog Pokémon who will sniff out items hidden in the scenery. It won't seem like anything out of the ordinary to new players, but this feels like a big change after 20 years of riding a bicycle to get to a destination faster when now you ride Pokémon instead. This doesn't feel out of place at all, though, in the Pokémon world. In fact, it makes a lot more sense than flying while holding the claws of a bird Pokémon smaller than the protagonist itself, or a teenager surfing on the back of a poor Squirtle.

The world depicted in Pokémon Moon is more than ever a captivating one. There have been reports of the game not performing well on the older generation of 3DS systems, especially pertaining to the frame-rate. Owners of the older system, though, fear not, as everything is not nearly as bad as it's made out to be.

Noticeable dips in frame-rate occur almost exclusively during battles against trainers while the menu on the touch screen is active, which is to say, when you're not looking at the 3D screen on top. This occurs due to the higher amount of animated characters on-screen when the game has to display Pokémon and trainers at the same time and the interactive menu is also up on the bottom screen. It gets bad when two-on-two battles take place, and this is where the New Nintendo 3DS models show their obvious superiority with a more decent frame-rate. This does not detract from the game too much, though. Obviously, if people without a 3DS are looking to make their first acquisition just to play this adventure, the choice should definitely be the newer model, but Pokémon Sun and Moon are not the games that should make anyone feel that they must absolutely upgrade. It's worth noting, however, that these new releases are 100% non-stereoscopic 3D and restrict the use of the web browser and Miiverse on older model units while the game is running. This is something that has become more and more common as the end of the 3DS draws nearer and nearer and developers prefer more and more focusing on a more visually appealing regular 3D title than a poorly performing and less detailed stereoscopic 3D one. Such games released in more recent times take more time to load as the system frees up memory to accommodate the needs of the software, and while the game is running, the newer 3DS models load up areas just an extra bit faster, but load times within the games are never an issue even on older models.

Pokémon Sun and Moon is without a doubt the best mainline Pokémon game yet and arrives at the right time as the whole series has enjoyed a complete resurgence in popularity thanks to Pokémon GO. The 3DS is pushed to its very last limits to pull off an extremely appealing virtual world in which to have the best adventures with your captured creatures. It's a pleasure both for the eyes and the ears. Indeed, it does sound great and has so many little details that make this the most credible Pokémon experience to date, like being able to hear the cries of the Pokémon hiding in the grass. Walk next to a patch of grass where wild Pokémon dwell and you're likely to hear the cries of the Pokémon itself that lives there, so you know in advance what species you are likely to encounter there. It's a seemingly insignificant detail, but worth bringing up because it shows how things that the player had to imagine before have now been made into a feature itself thanks to the developer pushing the limits further and further. If the rumours are true and a certain Pokémon Stars is indeed coming to Nintendo Switch next year, it's going to be hard to resist double dipping just for the extra lick of paint that the newer hardware will allow.