If my Backloggd activity wasn't a clear enough indication, I'm a big fan of Pokémon. So as you would expect I speak to and am influenced by my friends when the games come in conversations.
A few friends of mine plus another dozen or so streamers are currently in their own collective of Perma-death runs.
Each of them has tackled a different game and although most of them are using lighter variants on typical Nuzlocke rules the drama of it, combined with my experience doing a Nuzlocke in Brilliant Diamond last year gave me the yearning to go again.
I lead with this because, first off this replay, reassessment re-review of Pokémon Sun is after me finishing a run through the game using my own Nuzlocke rules.
Briefly those are: limited catches (one and first per area), Pokémon must be named, Pokémon who faint are released, no bonus Pokémon outside of catching, no Z moves and a level cap based on the upcoming boss.
Much like last time, if you are interested in how the run went I’m on Twitter, it’s all in one thread.
I also lead with it because I go into writing about this game and giving it a score hearing a lot of conversations of folk reevaluating games, playing specific titles for the first time, everyone saying what they love and hate about new and old Pokémon and as always what they think is the best and worst Generation.
Sun and Moon are quite often people’s least favourite titles in the series and I don’t think that’s completely fair.
There are lots of reasons Sun (and Moon) get a slagging, things I also disliked and I do still think are not great.
One of the most divisive things about the game is the removal of the classic eight gyms before the end game.
Instead, Sun’s location Alola (Pokémon-Hawaii) is based on four main islands each with its own leader and leading to them are captains with their own trials instead of the puzzles, mazes and other things the gyms have had before.
This isn’t a huge departure and more just a reformat but the trials don’t tend to be the most fun in the series and having the trials end with “Totem Pokémon” is not as fun or as exciting as battling a themed trainer in battle.
Totem Pokémon themselves are just powered up forms that can also call in assistance.
Instead of facing a squad of monsters your six battle ready beasts must fight in one vs two scenarios and it has little drama and more annoyances.
As you can imagine, this was exaggerated more in this replay because two Pokémon using offensive moves can easily feint one and it caused a lot of death during the run.
Mechanically this change was one for the worse but without delving into “deep lore” it also just isn’t as exciting or engaging on the character front.
“Favourite gym leader” is a conversation I’ve heard come up and I don’t think even if you were to count them that anyone would bring up the captains.
While on the conversation of story, it does seem like a lot of folk don’t like Sun’s and I actually think it’s one of the more interesting, just one of the more oddly paced.
You, the protagonist, are going around doing these trials, filling out your Pokédex, winning battles and genuinely being a good citizen but during all this you are helping the character Lillie.
To not spoil but to also make this review become a novella; Lillie has ties to other characters in the world, is carrying around a rare(legendary) Pokémon and also links in with a new thing to this generation - Ultra Beasts.
There are two groups that revolve around these Ultra Beasts - Pokémon from another dimension called Ultra Space, Team Skull your classic Team Rocket-like grunt antagonist group and the Aether Foundation who are studying these phenomena as well as Pokémon themselves.
Team Skull is quite one note, but they’re fun and actually look wise one of my favourite antagonist groups in the game. They’re just a street gang, they give me some Jet Set Radio vibes and I love that.
The Aether Foundation, well it is a spoiler to say there’s a twist but this is Pokémon the story telling isn’t typically that subtle.
Much like this part of the review, the main bulk of the story that cares about these two groups, Ultra Beasts and Lillie, slaps itself in the middle, not including post Elite 4 content.
It breaks up the main flow in such an odd way and barely sets much going for the game until you’re finished with the classic routine that it almost feels like it’s not meant to be there.
The ideas are good, but the placing and how it is executed within the game is not. You can almost ignore it when speaking of the game but you cannot ignore it when you’re playing.
Including unskippable cutscenes which leads me on to one of the other poor things Sun has.
Z Moves - throughout the game you gain Z crystals which can be given to Pokémon to allow them to do a one-shot super move of that crystals type.
It’s completely fine but utterly basic. For a while now Pokémon has always wanted to add just one more thing to the combat arsenal to change up the game play and this is maybe the most boring of them all in theme and mechanically.
Pokémon X & Y the mainline games prior to this one had Mega-Evolutions, where similarly you had a limitation on when and how it was used but rather than just a move it was one stage further on certain Pokémon and we got to see dramatic new forms.
Mechanically this may not have been better, Z-moves give more Pokémon more variation because GameFreak didn’t have to come up with lots more designs but thematically, visually this was a huge step down.
Also, they’re too bloody long.
I said that rating this the worst in the series wasn’t fair and have just given you a lot of reasons why maybe it is well let me tell you a few reasons why it definitely isn’t.
Presentation wise Sun nails so much- on a purely base level the graphics are honestly some of the best the series has ever had. Sure, it’s a statement that is more a question of how the new games can look so bad but outside of resolution the world, the models, they all look as good here in 2016’s Pokémon Sun as they do in 2022’s Pokémon Scarlet.
Whilst I hated the discourse surrounding “Dexit” coming up to 2019’s Sword and Shield, it is also hard not to laugh at how most of the models are certainly from this game.
There’s a lot of these little monsters though and this is a corner I understand cutting.
Presentation goes further than just GRAFIX, the theme is seen throughout in the mechanical changes but also the islands and for the first time in the series Regional forms.
Much like animals of the real world, Pokémon from different climates evolved differently and because this game is most definitely not in Poké-Japan they came up with lots of cool takes on classics.
This idea has been further explored in each game since and is a very fun and smart way of having some new designs but still holding onto nostalgia.
Not having new names to learn but having new match-ups to figure out.
People have their brains melt when you explain that now 27 years in there are over one thousand Pokémon but actually if regional variants didn’t exist that number would be even harder to take in.
Another thing Sun introduced is a lot of quality of life changes, even in comparison to the previous generation things like the move screen telling you if things are effective or not (once you’ve discovered it) to help failing memories are a godsend.
Gone are the Hidden Machines, the moves that allow you to take new routes like a metroidvania but sadly limit your team in combat or force you to take types you may not want and in this game instead you gain access to a rental system that for all intensive purposes lets you “Fly, Surf, Strength” but doesn’t mess with what you want to play with and collect.
Sun and Moon I think were some very good steps in the right direction, they wanted to make things more unique, more cinematic, more memorable.
They wanted to be rid of some of the more archaic design sensibilities and for the most part they succeeded in my eyes.
A couple of things felt like a step back, the story as I said was paced poorly if more cinematic.
The exploration, limited by more than just a sleeping Snorlax, made the game have less freedom than even Pokémon Red.
A thing that also stuck out for me especially on this replay was the amount of backloading.
Post-game content is great, it keeps people sticking around outside of just box ticking and PvP but so many things you would be used to having are just not there until the Champion is defeated and a lot of these things would have felt much more exciting and fulfilling if you were able to go off the beaten path and collect them earlier.
Overall this is one of the lower tier Pokémon games but it definitely isn’t without merit and is not the worst, it wasn’t at the time and it still isn’t now.
Playing on the new 3DS is still an absolute joy and I would recommend any fan of these games to give this one a go or retry, especially as if you want your own copy this isn’t one of the titles that the second hand market is completely taking the mick with (yet).
Oh, also Guzma rules!
A few friends of mine plus another dozen or so streamers are currently in their own collective of Perma-death runs.
Each of them has tackled a different game and although most of them are using lighter variants on typical Nuzlocke rules the drama of it, combined with my experience doing a Nuzlocke in Brilliant Diamond last year gave me the yearning to go again.
I lead with this because, first off this replay, reassessment re-review of Pokémon Sun is after me finishing a run through the game using my own Nuzlocke rules.
Briefly those are: limited catches (one and first per area), Pokémon must be named, Pokémon who faint are released, no bonus Pokémon outside of catching, no Z moves and a level cap based on the upcoming boss.
Much like last time, if you are interested in how the run went I’m on Twitter, it’s all in one thread.
I also lead with it because I go into writing about this game and giving it a score hearing a lot of conversations of folk reevaluating games, playing specific titles for the first time, everyone saying what they love and hate about new and old Pokémon and as always what they think is the best and worst Generation.
Sun and Moon are quite often people’s least favourite titles in the series and I don’t think that’s completely fair.
There are lots of reasons Sun (and Moon) get a slagging, things I also disliked and I do still think are not great.
One of the most divisive things about the game is the removal of the classic eight gyms before the end game.
Instead, Sun’s location Alola (Pokémon-Hawaii) is based on four main islands each with its own leader and leading to them are captains with their own trials instead of the puzzles, mazes and other things the gyms have had before.
This isn’t a huge departure and more just a reformat but the trials don’t tend to be the most fun in the series and having the trials end with “Totem Pokémon” is not as fun or as exciting as battling a themed trainer in battle.
Totem Pokémon themselves are just powered up forms that can also call in assistance.
Instead of facing a squad of monsters your six battle ready beasts must fight in one vs two scenarios and it has little drama and more annoyances.
As you can imagine, this was exaggerated more in this replay because two Pokémon using offensive moves can easily feint one and it caused a lot of death during the run.
Mechanically this change was one for the worse but without delving into “deep lore” it also just isn’t as exciting or engaging on the character front.
“Favourite gym leader” is a conversation I’ve heard come up and I don’t think even if you were to count them that anyone would bring up the captains.
While on the conversation of story, it does seem like a lot of folk don’t like Sun’s and I actually think it’s one of the more interesting, just one of the more oddly paced.
You, the protagonist, are going around doing these trials, filling out your Pokédex, winning battles and genuinely being a good citizen but during all this you are helping the character Lillie.
To not spoil but to also make this review become a novella; Lillie has ties to other characters in the world, is carrying around a rare(legendary) Pokémon and also links in with a new thing to this generation - Ultra Beasts.
There are two groups that revolve around these Ultra Beasts - Pokémon from another dimension called Ultra Space, Team Skull your classic Team Rocket-like grunt antagonist group and the Aether Foundation who are studying these phenomena as well as Pokémon themselves.
Team Skull is quite one note, but they’re fun and actually look wise one of my favourite antagonist groups in the game. They’re just a street gang, they give me some Jet Set Radio vibes and I love that.
The Aether Foundation, well it is a spoiler to say there’s a twist but this is Pokémon the story telling isn’t typically that subtle.
Much like this part of the review, the main bulk of the story that cares about these two groups, Ultra Beasts and Lillie, slaps itself in the middle, not including post Elite 4 content.
It breaks up the main flow in such an odd way and barely sets much going for the game until you’re finished with the classic routine that it almost feels like it’s not meant to be there.
The ideas are good, but the placing and how it is executed within the game is not. You can almost ignore it when speaking of the game but you cannot ignore it when you’re playing.
Including unskippable cutscenes which leads me on to one of the other poor things Sun has.
Z Moves - throughout the game you gain Z crystals which can be given to Pokémon to allow them to do a one-shot super move of that crystals type.
It’s completely fine but utterly basic. For a while now Pokémon has always wanted to add just one more thing to the combat arsenal to change up the game play and this is maybe the most boring of them all in theme and mechanically.
Pokémon X & Y the mainline games prior to this one had Mega-Evolutions, where similarly you had a limitation on when and how it was used but rather than just a move it was one stage further on certain Pokémon and we got to see dramatic new forms.
Mechanically this may not have been better, Z-moves give more Pokémon more variation because GameFreak didn’t have to come up with lots more designs but thematically, visually this was a huge step down.
Also, they’re too bloody long.
I said that rating this the worst in the series wasn’t fair and have just given you a lot of reasons why maybe it is well let me tell you a few reasons why it definitely isn’t.
Presentation wise Sun nails so much- on a purely base level the graphics are honestly some of the best the series has ever had. Sure, it’s a statement that is more a question of how the new games can look so bad but outside of resolution the world, the models, they all look as good here in 2016’s Pokémon Sun as they do in 2022’s Pokémon Scarlet.
Whilst I hated the discourse surrounding “Dexit” coming up to 2019’s Sword and Shield, it is also hard not to laugh at how most of the models are certainly from this game.
There’s a lot of these little monsters though and this is a corner I understand cutting.
Presentation goes further than just GRAFIX, the theme is seen throughout in the mechanical changes but also the islands and for the first time in the series Regional forms.
Much like animals of the real world, Pokémon from different climates evolved differently and because this game is most definitely not in Poké-Japan they came up with lots of cool takes on classics.
This idea has been further explored in each game since and is a very fun and smart way of having some new designs but still holding onto nostalgia.
Not having new names to learn but having new match-ups to figure out.
People have their brains melt when you explain that now 27 years in there are over one thousand Pokémon but actually if regional variants didn’t exist that number would be even harder to take in.
Another thing Sun introduced is a lot of quality of life changes, even in comparison to the previous generation things like the move screen telling you if things are effective or not (once you’ve discovered it) to help failing memories are a godsend.
Gone are the Hidden Machines, the moves that allow you to take new routes like a metroidvania but sadly limit your team in combat or force you to take types you may not want and in this game instead you gain access to a rental system that for all intensive purposes lets you “Fly, Surf, Strength” but doesn’t mess with what you want to play with and collect.
Sun and Moon I think were some very good steps in the right direction, they wanted to make things more unique, more cinematic, more memorable.
They wanted to be rid of some of the more archaic design sensibilities and for the most part they succeeded in my eyes.
A couple of things felt like a step back, the story as I said was paced poorly if more cinematic.
The exploration, limited by more than just a sleeping Snorlax, made the game have less freedom than even Pokémon Red.
A thing that also stuck out for me especially on this replay was the amount of backloading.
Post-game content is great, it keeps people sticking around outside of just box ticking and PvP but so many things you would be used to having are just not there until the Champion is defeated and a lot of these things would have felt much more exciting and fulfilling if you were able to go off the beaten path and collect them earlier.
Overall this is one of the lower tier Pokémon games but it definitely isn’t without merit and is not the worst, it wasn’t at the time and it still isn’t now.
Playing on the new 3DS is still an absolute joy and I would recommend any fan of these games to give this one a go or retry, especially as if you want your own copy this isn’t one of the titles that the second hand market is completely taking the mick with (yet).
Oh, also Guzma rules!