On November 19th, nearly two weeks ago, the newest Pokemon game in the franchise hit the markets and is the seventh installment in the main Pokemon franchise games. Pokemon Sun and Moon introduced 80 new Pokemon to the seat, and something that a lot of players, new and old, that have been worried about where how these Pokemon were going to fit in the franchise.

A lot of the new Pokemon that you would encounter in the lowland region, which is based off the islands of Hawaii, are very unique and take a different styling in which we’ve seen other Pokemon be created. In multiple interviews, designers for the game, and also designers for the Pokemon, wanted to make sure that the Pokemon and the scene of the new Regent fit exactly. The games have always been a balance of making sure that the Pokemon in every region fits perfectly. Almost like you would expect to run into that Pokemon if you were in that environment. With a Hawaii environment, a lot of the Pokemon in the games or tropical or water based.

There have been a lot of interesting designs choices this time around that many are not to sure about. For example, when the starter pokemon were leaked, trainer were unsure what to think of Litens evolutionary line. In fear of getting another fire fighting type, which would have been the fourth in a row for the franchise, the design team made the Pokemon look like a professional wrestler, awkwardly giving it a fire dark typing. Incinaroar is goofy and really looks like a fighting type, but was forced to be something different. Another silly pokemon is Bruxish, a new fish pokemon that just looks ugly and like it had paint spilled all over it. It’s an appealing, and honestly not one of the most well-received Pokemon at the new region. However it does fit the theme of the region, which is what the designers were going for.

Another weird technicality of the game is the absence of Mega Evolution, which was a new craze that swept the past two games of the series. Pokemon X and Y introduce Mega Evolution, which is an extra stage of evolution of Pokemon can go through during battle. This would give Pokemon enhanced abilities and what temporarily have them involved just during the battle. Well this is a concept A lot of people were hoping to get a little bit more background on, it was scrapped completely from Sun and Moon and instead new fans and old fans were treated to the New Concept of Alolan forms.

These are new forms of old Pokemon that have migrated to the Alolan region and only take part of that new form. The most infamous being executor, which would from a stubby coconut plant with three heads, to a very tall palm tree. why mega evolution was scrapped I don’t know but the Alolan forms do have a lot passion behind them.

Pokemon has always been a classic RPG type of video game, allowing you to pick your player, pick your Pokemon, explore, level up, and defeat your ultimate Challenge and Rivals. And while none of whom have taken a lot of old formulas and breaking away from them, like the removal of gym leaders from the entire game, they stuck true to the RPG roots and were able to make the game a more interactive, and expiration based type of RPG period while during the game there is probably way too much dialogue that is needed, it is nice that the franchise is finally adding a lot more depth to a story and putting you in a world that really feels like you are on a new island, and giving the player a whole new experience with playing a game that they’ve already played. Pokemon games needed a change up and I think sun and moon absolutely nailed it, it is a beautiful game, it’s well developed, and the storyline, even though it takes a long time to build up, does get there and is one of the best story plots of any Pokemon game.

4 out of 5 stars