Yesterday, the Pokémon Sun & Moon: Special Demo Version went live, allowing trainers to partake in a brief excursion into the Aloha Region where new features and aesthetic pleasantries await.
Throughout this year The Pokémon Company has spoon-feed the world morsels of information about Sun/Moon. Introducing us to new concepts like Z-moves, ultimate Pokémon attacks that can only be used once per battle, and items like the Poké Finder, which allows you to take picture of Pokémon along with a plethora of other features. While the demo gives us a glimpse of things we expected, it’s the subtle features that will no doubt have a big impact on the finished title.
X & Y was the first game to feature full 3D models, and Pokémon Sun & Moon takes things to the next level of realism. Gone are the big, bobble-head like models in favor of a more natural human model. Most notable is the sense of height and depth is finally refined within the game. For example adults and younger children will be at appropriate heights in correlation to your character, while even people in your age group may vary by a few inches.
It doesn’t stop there. Even while standing next to Pokémon your trainer will be realistically proportional to the Pokémon based of its Pokédex entry, giving the Pokémon world realism akin to modern RPGs like Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem. Though the protagonist walks around like a rag doll its welcoming to have a Pokémon title this accurate.
The battle screen, while at first glance looks unchanged, has received many minute changes that all come together for a drastically different experience. Like the over world Pokémon proportions are anatomical accurate along with the trainer which is visibly standing a safe distance behind their Pokémon, but beyond that you are gift with tons of useful information.
You will no longer have to guess how powerful a move will be against a dual-type Pokémon again. Each move will have Not-Very Effective, Effective, or Super Effective in reference to the Pokémon your facing. Beyond that if you or your opponent receives any stat changes you will be notified on the bottom screen. By clicking the lower screen you will be able to view which specific stats went down or up, and by how many stages, forever changing the face of competitive battling by making the player aware of every change to the flow of battle.
Over the course of the Pokémon Sun & Moon demo players will have a run in with the wangsters of Team Skull, get to ride on a Tauros, take pictures of wild Pokémon, and some surprises I won’t spoil. If you have a 3DS make sure to head Nintendo eShop and have fun exploring and discovering the secrets of Aloha.
