While we’ve seen our first taste of gameplay from Pokémon Sun & Moon, we still don’t
have a clear idea of what this new entry will be like. What new features will they introduce?
Which ones will be brought back? It got us to start thinking about what we hoped to see
in the seventh generation. Now this is more of a wishlist since many of these honestly
don’t seem that likely, but they’re still ideas that we think have a lot of potential.
First of all, we’d love to see the return of the jerk rival even though it already seems
like that won’t be the case at all. But past Pokémon games have had multiple rivals
so it’s not impossible, yet, that another rival could be introduced. Gen 1 set the standard
for what fans expect of a rival. He was cocky, rude, and constantly belittling you, despite
the fact that you often beat him. Yet he was always one step ahead and even became Champion
before you. It created this desire to take him down and the feeling that he really was
your rival.
The rival of Gen 2 continued this trend by having him outright steal his first Pokémon.
He had a darker personality to him that softened over time which granted him something of an
arc. Again, it built up this actual rivalry between the player and the rival because he
was such a jerk. And your opinion of him changed as he learned to truly care for his Pokémon.
After that though? Each rival was different but never bad. It was nice to explore the
other facets of rivalry at first, but by the time Pokémon X & Y were released, the concept
of nice trainers was just kinda dull. These kids didn’t feel like obstacles. Though
they were supposed to represent other aspects of Pokémon Trainers, they ended up feeling
like leeches on our journey that added nothing.
A return of a true, jerkish rival in Sun & Moon could help solve that problem. After all,
you just arrived in this region. Who are you to think you could immediately become Champion?
It should be this theoretical rival who has always dreamed of being Champion of Alola
and will do anything to achieve that goal. Meanwhile, the boy we’ve already seen is
someone more willing to welcome your arrival. A friend that doesn’t care about things
like that and just wants to have fun exploring the region and meeting Pokémon. It’d be
a unique dichotomy amongst the Pokémon games. Though, as we said before, we doubt this will
actually come true.
Next we have Pokémon Amie, which was one of the big new features of X & Y. Interestingly
though, it didn’t return for the Ruby & Sapphire remakes though that’s probably because they
were remakes. We wouldn’t be surprised if Pokémon Amie makes a return in Sun & Moon.
And if it does, we hope it’s expanded significantly. The feature was used as a way to build stronger
bonds with Pokémon and grant them special bonuses in battle. This was done by either
feeding them, playing mini-games, or petting them. We want to see it expanded to allow
players more interaction with their Pokémon.
Fans have been begging for the return of the HeartGold & SoulSilver feature of having any
Pokémon follow behind you, but with the more realistic, such as it is, artstyle of Sun
& Moon, that’s likely not going to happen. Having a realistic sized Wailord following
behind you would lead to all kinds of problem. But the point is that people want to connect
with their Pokémon and Pokémon Amie is the best way to do that. Make it more like Nintendogs
and allow for all kinds of different activities with the different Pokémon. Expand the mini-games
to keep us coming back. Maybe even introduce silly concepts like a dancing game that has
a luau theme. This is based on Hawaii after all. And speaking of which, this is the perfect
opportunity to bring back the Surfing Pikachu mini-game. There’s so much they could do
to keep fans connected with their favorite Pokémon while still keeping the benefits
of Pokémon Amie for the standard gameplay.
And speaking of interacting with Pokémon, we hope the return and expansion of Pokémon
Contests in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire signifies that they’ll be put to better use in Sun
& Moon if they return. So far in the games, they’ve been limited to just Hoenn and Sinnoh,
but the anime has expanded them to most regions in various evolved forms, most recently with
Pokémon Showcases. However, we want to focus on their inclusion in the Ruby & Sapphire
remakes where a subplot was introduced that helped us care, even if it was just a little,
about this side content.
So we want to see Contests return in some form with even more meaning. Give them their
own league with its own unique characters and rivals. Expand them to become a truly
fun extra that may even tie in with our Pokémon Amie idea. Maybe the dance mini-game allows
them to perform better. But the biggest hope we have in the Contests return is to make
them have significant rewards. Maybe provide more unique items or, since Trainer Customization
seems to be returning as well, have this be the method that players could unlock the outfits
of past Gym Leaders, Elite Four Members, Champions, and Trainers. This would convince players
to try more contests and potentially limit how many people have the same costumes. Even
better is if each was a set of clothes you could wear so you could mix and match.
Strangely, our next hope is both the simplest and the most complex. We hope competitive
battling is truly opened up in Sun & Moon. Namely, we want the option to either create
offline tournament’s with a group of friends or for Pokémon to have an online tournament
feature in the game itself much like Mario Kart 8. But this is a tricky outlook because
of the length some Pokémon battles can last. Still, tournament’s feel like a natural
part of the game and to somehow integrate that into the game itself would be something
amazing, especially if there were multiple types of battles.
Along with the standard 3 on 3 tournaments, perhaps there could be 1 on 1 tournaments
where each trainer picks one Pokémon to use from their team of six, in the same way three
Pokémon had to be chosen from your team in the Stadium games. And this idea could be
expanded to double and triple battle tournaments as well. Namely, the chance to play against
a ton of different people in a tournament setting would be a lot of fun as Mario Kart
8 has shown. Make it a point-based system with limited time and stalling tactics would
suddenly be an inefficient victory method. We feel this would be a potentially amazing
addition, but it’s also the least likely to happen. We’re not sure if Game Freak
would find it worthwhile to put in this much extra effort for the online.
Finally, our last hope is something that we feel would truly celebrate Pokémon’s 20th
anniversary, a Champion’s League. In it, players could face off against the six protagonists
from the previous games in an Elite Four-like challenge. Everyone remembers the fight against
Red in Gold & Silver. His Pokémon were strong, smart, and offered up a real test for fans
who wanted to do it all. Plus it was just plain surreal to face off against a character
who you played as in the previous game. And that’s why a final showdown with everyone
who came before would be so incredible.
But it’s not without its complications. First of all, which protagonists do we choose
between the male and female options? Should it be decided by who’s more popular between
the two? Or should the male trainers only appear if you choose to be a male trainer
while the female trainers appear if you choose to play as a female trainer? It’s a sticky
situation with no clear answer. Depending on the person, each one could be their iconic
trainer. Despite this issue, we still feel like the idea has merit. It’d be a great
post-game challenge and would certainly be a way to celebrate the evolution of Pokémon,
especially if each trainer only uses the Pokémon from their generation. It just feels like
the idea has a ton of potential.
More information on Sun & Moon is coming soon. And with it comes more clarity. But will some
of our hopes for the game actually be integrated? Or are we just daydreaming about the impossible?
What about you though? What are your hopes for Pokémon Sun & Moon? Do you agree with
ours? Let us know in the comments! Thanks for watching and make sure to subscribe to
GameXplain for more on Pokémon and other things gaming.