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Pokemon Sun/Moon Special Demo Thread

Battlechili

Banned
The demo for Sun/Moon so far feels weird. I started playing it and the entire atmosphere and style of the game doesn't fit any previous Pokemon title, or at least not Black/White and before (I've not played X/Y or OR/AS). The camera angles during battles are dynamic in movement in the same way the Gamecube's Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness had its battle camera move. Outside of battles, the camera isn't strictly top-down which looks weird and is very foreign to me. Cities also look and feel more like actual cities, and there appears to be many areas where you can see other NPCs that you can't actually interact with, as if they're just regular people part of a city doing their own job.

The game doesn't start out with its usual Pokemon Professor explaining the world of Pokemon either; the game jumps right in and acts like a more standard JRPG in its presentation. You learn a little about the world and characters right from the start, for example one of the first things the game introduced me to was that you were arriving from Kanto and that people greet each other in this region by saying "Alola".

Also from a technical perspective, the game could use some anti-aliasing.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Wait hang on, not even the goddam battles are in 3D this time? Jesus fuck, Gamefreak.

I guess we should be amazed they've managed to reach Dreamcast 1.5 level 16 years later.
 
Wait hang on, not even the goddam battles are in 3D this time? Jesus fuck, Gamefreak.

I guess we should be amazed they've managed to reach Dreamcast 1.5 level 16 years later.

The pixelated clouds say that's not Dreamcast level. lol

I haven't played the demo yet so this is good to know...Sadly.

Any other shenanigans I should be aware of? 0_0

As far as I know! The goal is to unlock new stuff for sense of progress, but they certainly didn't need to boot to start screen.
 
I haven't played the demo yet so this is good to know...Sadly.

Any other shenanigans I should be aware of? 0_0
I'd be aware of the events we just discussed near the end of the previous page and be aware that while the capture event lets you catch pokemon, add them to your team and even fight using them, they'll all be let loose at the end so you don't get to permanently keep any except frog-mascot :eek:
 

tookhster

Member
Man I can already see the Island Trials being the thing that will turn off a lot of people from enjoying the game. Mini quests in Pokémon sounded cool at first but when you force me to take 4 pictures of a Pokémon in order to do a boss fight, nevertheless in the demo, I see it as a bad sign.

I already predict some of the trials being fetch quests and dragging on. Just take me to the battles.
 

MicH

Member
Man I can already see the Island Trials being the thing that will turn off a lot of people from enjoying the game. Mini quests in Pokémon sounded cool at first but when you force me to take 4 pictures of a Pokémon in order to do a boss fight, nevertheless in the demo, I see it as a bad sign.

I already predict some of the trials being fetch quests and dragging on. Just take me to the battles.
Well, we already know one of them is collecting ingredients so its definitely happening
 

Squishy3

Member
is there anything else to get in the full game if you got the nugget from the pokemon catching challenge and got the stardust from the mysterious old man?
 
is there anything else to get in the full game if you got the nugget from the pokemon catching challenge and got the stardust from the mysterious old man?
Starpiece from defeating the 3 trainers + ace trainer plus whatever the daily events we discussed on the previous page give you.
 
So the newest Pokémon game I've played is Silver, but I've been replaying Yellow on my 3DS recently.

That being said, this demo feels like a hot mess. 15 years later I would expect the game to run faster, now have load screens, and not have the frame rate dip.

The camera perspective wasn't that great, but I couldn't turn it.

The other disappointment is that it mostly just uses one screen rather than having my pause menu constantly running on the bottom screen, or at least a map.
Lack of 3D in everything but the camera mode was also strange.

It feels like the game wasn't finished or rush, but based on the performance and display of tech from the demo.
I hope the full game is better.

I did like the Totem boss battle, but I killed it in 3 moves, so the full benefits of having a Final Fantasy-like modal boss battle didn't really show.
The demo felt way too easy, and that makes it difficult to assess whether that's how the game is or not.
 

CTLance

Member
is there anything else to get in the full game if you got the nugget from the pokemon catching challenge and got the stardust from the mysterious old man?
A bunch of things, actually.
You can beat the Ace trainer, you can talk to the NPC next to the Pokecenter on the next day and all the other "event" characters on their respective dates, and since the game gives a small cutscene and then saves, it seems like visiting the strange old man once a day may be a good idea as well.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
No camera control in these 3d areas. W-what. I take back Dreamcast 1.5 as well since this seems more like Playstation 1.5. My theory that Gamefreak exists in a temporal bubble a decade if not two in the past holds up.

Game is managing to feel slower and worse than previous entries despite actually finally having a fully 3d world. This press button to access boring camera turret gameplay is straight out of 1996.

Pikachu having the full anime voicing and not the gameboy sounds is fucking me up again too.
 

Maxinas

Member
Wait hang on, not even the goddam battles are in 3D this time? Jesus fuck, Gamefreak.

I guess we should be amazed they've managed to reach Dreamcast 1.5 level 16 years later.

Why should gamefreak waste resources on a gimmick that is going to die with the 3ds? I seriously doubt the NX or whatever future system pokemon games will be on, will support 3D. The majority of people hardly ever use 3D anyways.
 

psyfi

Banned
Man I can already see the Island Trials being the thing that will turn off a lot of people from enjoying the game. Mini quests in Pokémon sounded cool at first but when you force me to take 4 pictures of a Pokémon in order to do a boss fight, nevertheless in the demo, I see it as a bad sign.
I thought the trial was cool at first, but then after I got *another* text hint about sensing another Pokémon hiding behind *another* conspicuous hole in the wall, it just felt like a chore. There was almost no game to it. Like, it was just rote repetition. Walk forward, scroll through text, approach window, time my shot right. They took a potentially cool Pokémon Snap experience and watered it down to the point of just being busy work.
 

Gsnap

Member
Man I can already see the Island Trials being the thing that will turn off a lot of people from enjoying the game. Mini quests in Pokémon sounded cool at first but when you force me to take 4 pictures of a Pokémon in order to do a boss fight, nevertheless in the demo, I see it as a bad sign.

I already predict some of the trials being fetch quests and dragging on. Just take me to the battles.

I doubt many people will complain. Pokemon games are pretty passive in their gameplay anyway. All you ever do is walk around, talk to people, get items, and fight. This is the exact same thing but with a little more variety.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
Man I can already see the Island Trials being the thing that will turn off a lot of people from enjoying the game. Mini quests in Pokémon sounded cool at first but when you force me to take 4 pictures of a Pokémon in order to do a boss fight, nevertheless in the demo, I see it as a bad sign.

I already predict some of the trials being fetch quests and dragging on. Just take me to the battles.

Yeah, the moment I tried out the Island Trial it kinda deflated my hype as it was just boring and seem like something you would do in a sidequest rather than on the main quest.

I rather have the return of Pokémon Gym in gen 8 and let Alola be the only region to be unique.

No camera control in these 3d areas. W-what. I take back Dreamcast 1.5 as well since this seems more like Playstation 1.5. My theory that Gamefreak exists in a temporal bubble a decade if not two in the past holds up.

The 3DS doesn't have a second stick so how would someone be able to move the camera?
 
I thought the trial was cool at first, but then after I got *another* text hint about sensing another Pokémon hiding behind *another* conspicuous hole in the wall, it just felt like a chore. There was almost no game to it. Like, it was just rote repetition. Walk forward, scroll through text, approach window, time my shot right. They took a potentially cool Pokémon Snap experience and watered it down to the point of just being busy work.
There's definitely too many text boxes. Switching pokemon was slightly painful due to this as pressing A to skip the text would sometimes end up selecting 'no' on the "are you sure" dialogue XD

edit:
No camera control in these 3d areas. W-what. I take back Dreamcast 1.5 as well since this seems more like Playstation 1.5. My theory that Gamefreak exists in a temporal bubble a decade if not two in the past holds up.

Game is managing to feel slower and worse than previous entries despite actually finally having a fully 3d world. This press button to access boring camera turret gameplay is straight out of 1996.

Pikachu having the full anime voicing and not the gameboy sounds is fucking me up again too.
Keep in mind this is the company that couldn't even fit their game on the gameboy catridge until Iwata stepped in, rolled up his sleeves and hyper-streamlined their code and compression all by himself :p
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
Why did they remove DexNav and all stealth movement? I really don't understand why GameFreak introduces game mechanics to completely regress on them with the next game. If they thought it was too much I could understand scaling back what you got out of it, but now you can't creep up on anything? That very trial could've used a stealth mechanic to make it much more exciting, and knowing that you had all the potential Pokemon in an area was great.
 

Dremorak

Banned
Why did they remove DexNav and all stealth movement? I really don't understand why GameFreak introduces game mechanics to completely regress on them with the next game. If they thought it was too much I could understand scaling back what you got out of it, but now you can't creep up on anything? That very trial could've used a stealth mechanic to make it much more exciting, and knowing that you had all the potential Pokemon in an area was great.

I could have sworn I heard the cries of pokemon in nearby bushes... I'm wondering if this is the new mechanic for chaining wild pokemon to get shinies. I was walking in the grass and heard a cry to my right, so I stopped and walked right and then after a step or two found a wild pokemon that had a cry that sounded similar. Cannot confirm tho...
 

Battlechili

Banned
Anyone else get a minor framerate drop during a battle against two Pokemon whenever the camera zooms out to show both of them? I'm using a New 3DS XL to play this. Would've figured framerate drops would be avoided
 
I could have sworn I heard the cries of pokemon in nearby bushes... I'm wondering if this is the new mechanic for chaining wild pokemon to get shinies. I was walking in the grass and heard a cry to my right, so I stopped and walked right and then after a step or two found a wild pokemon that had a cry that sounded similar. Cannot confirm tho...
Yeah I kept hearing them too but I wasn't sure if it was just for atmosphere or some kind of capturing mechanic. Town is pretty noisy with all the hidden pokemon in it :p
 

DriftedPlanet

Unconfirmed Member
I could have sworn I heard the cries of pokemon in nearby bushes... I'm wondering if this is the new mechanic for chaining wild pokemon to get shinies. I was walking in the grass and heard a cry to my right, so I stopped and walked right and then after a step or two found a wild pokemon that had a cry that sounded similar. Cannot confirm tho...

Can confirm. Was using the cries to avoid battling yungoos during the catch-a-thon type thing (after you get
tauros you can break through the rocks on the right side of Ten Carat Hill
).
 

Valahart

Member
So I thought I didn't care for the demo until I downloaded it and then figured out I really didn't care about it after completing it.

How have people received it in general?

For me it was a great reminder of why pokemon games have been a full boring task to boring task to grinding to zillions of unwated battles.

I'm no genwunner and the designs are problably my favorites ever, but holy cow have the games turned into a borefest palloozza.

It took me about 20 minutes to complete at max(?) and it got me annoyed for at least thrice that time.
 

Bladenic

Member
I'm definitely thinking I'll use that dragon type. Dragon/Fighting sounds dope and I can't wait to see how the final evo looks.
 
So, just picked up the Pretty Wings on offer from that one guy. Poking my head around the demo again and I can't find anything else that wasn't already completed yesterday.

What are the odds the daily events aren't extra demo content and are just giveaways for the main game?
 
Seeing as the question of what you can do after the first play of the demo keeps coming up, I'll summarise and repost the ones I know of here:

Anytime activities:
Ten Carat Hill
* go right, smash the rock and talk to the old man to begin a capture quest. You can catch and use pokemon for the duration of the test but you'll be forced to release them all when it ends. You only need 3 captures to get the prize.
* defeat the 3 trainers and the ace trainer
Town
* talk to the lady at the end of the road near the crowd of slowpokes, she'll take you to a place where you break rocks and get presents from a creepy old man :p

Time Delayed Activities:
1 day - man standing outside the poke centre
5 days - woman standing on the street corner
12 days - guy in the city hall celebrating pikachu's birthday
18 days - police man on the docks
24 days - woman in the ferry port building

Also the cafe in the pokecentre mention the owner is away for a month, maybe that's a time thing too? :eek:
 
There's just a dude in a black shirt saying I'll want to meet someone in the city in a few (unspecified) days.
Odd, that should be the guy. He told me to come back tomorrow. Not today, not in two days but tomorrow :p
Once you collect the stuff off him next day he should tel you that there's someone else you'll want to visit in a few days. You sure you didn't accidentally already get the pretty wings off of him? XD
 

The Boat

Member
Odd, that should be the guy. He told me to come back tomorrow. Not today, not in two days but tomorrow :p
Once you collect the stuff off him next day he should tel you that there's someone else you'll want to visit in a few days. You sure you didn't accidentally already get the pretty wings off of him? XD

Hmmm, it shows up in the "send to full version list" so I guess I did ahah Probably because I started playing it earlier, put the 3DS to sleep and picked it up again past midnight... way past midnight, which is why I don't remember lol
 
Just saw this when I tried to do a transfer:

MBQiYin.jpg
 

StoneFox

Member
Wow this game has probably the worst HUD of all the DS games. All the relevant stuff like picking moves is on the right side and is not optimal for a left-hander like me; the other games always put the move selection in the middle...

I hope I can switch it to a "lefties" version in the full game.
 

Pokemaniac

Member
Wait hang on, not even the goddam battles are in 3D this time? Jesus fuck, Gamefreak.

I guess we should be amazed they've managed to reach Dreamcast 1.5 level 16 years later.

It's not like they decreased the level of detail from Gen VI. They actually increased it considerably with battle environments becoming more detailed and trainers being visible all the time now. Something had to give, and apparently the absurdly high detail Pokemon models weren't it.
 
Wait hang on, not even the goddam battles are in 3D this time? Jesus fuck, Gamefreak.

I guess we should be amazed they've managed to reach Dreamcast 1.5 level 16 years later.

If Im not mistaken, the 3D effect caused pretty good lag in XY...I don't think ORAS used 3D either.

It's actually really good, no one uses the 3D on the 3DS anymore, not even Nintendo proper lmao

Hopefully NX if it really does have a handheld component will drop that gimmick in exchange for more power.
 

Cbajd5

Member
Has anyone mentioned the fact that when you try to send the Greninja to the full version that it warns you that it won't listen to you until you complete two grand trials?
 
Wow this game has probably the worst HUD of all the DS games. All the relevant stuff like picking moves is on the right side and is not optimal for a left-hander like me; the other games always put the move selection in the middle...

I hope I can switch it to a "lefties" version in the full game.

Not really sure why it has to be. It's turned based, so you're not in a rush, and you're using your thumbs so it doesn't matter which side of the screen touch UI elements are. There won't ever be a "switch" for lefties because it largely isn't needed for any reason

It's actually really good, no one uses the 3D on the 3DS anymore, not even Nintendo proper lmao

Yeah, that's not true at all. They (Nintendo) most definitely do
 
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