It would've been odd just 6 months ago to think the Pokémon franchise needed rebooting. Just last year, I renewed my faith in the formula by listing Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver as one of my favorite games of all time. However, I think it’s pretty clear nowadays that Pokémon has been rebooting since just a few years after those games. Pokémon Black and White were clear departures from the usual style, having a far more in-depth story, and clearer differences between versions; Pokémon X and Y changed the whole vibe of the franchise; and now Sun and Moon has come along, scrapping 80% of what’s been considered Pokémon for decades and leaving you familiar with only the basics: Catch Pokémon and try to look cool doing it.
Pokémon Sun and Moon are the newest twin installments in the indomitable Pokémon franchise. The story starts off simple: you’re new in town; you meet a professor who thinks you go on an adventure with Pokémon; you get a Pokémon and meet your rival; and then…well, then it steps into the unfamiliar. In lieu of the 8-gyms-then-Elite-Four-then-Champion structure of the previous 15 games, Sun and Moon features a slightly different system where you must travel across the four islands of the Alola Region to seek out "trial captains" who will have you complete some simple mini-game (find some hidden items; what's different about these pictures; etc.) and then fight a "Totem Pokémon", which is a wild Pokémon with a large boost to defense making defeating it take longer than normal. While a Totem Pokémon may seem like a more challenging fight than a normal Gym Leader, as the game goes on, the idea loses its appeal as one slightly enhanced Pokémon is put in the place of a gym leader with 5. And even with the defense boost, I defeated more than one Totem Pokémon in one-hit using nothing but simple understanding of type-effectiveness. Overall, I think this is representative of the game's difficulty: it's pretty easy, assuming you're not an idiot. The difficulty curve is more gentle than ever, and the new EXP Share system from Pokémon X and Y is back and more "easy mode" than ever. For the first time, I actually felt the need to turn it off because I found myself consistently becoming frustrated whenever one of my stronger Pokémon gained a level, making it more difficult to keep my whole party at the same level. Turning it off felt more challenging at first, but that ended up as more of a slight shock as the game made the mini difficulty leap before returning to its kiddy-coaster pace. In the end, I was able to beat the game's final challenge (which I won't spoil the nature of) completely under-leveled by 2-6 levels on the first attempt.
The story is a boatload of fun. Despite tonal incongruence on a nearly Suicide Squad level, the story holds your attention and has enough "Oh shit" moments to satisfy the little M. Night Shyamalan in all of us. But between the parts that shock you are long swaths of pure, adventurous fun. And that's really what Pokémon is about: An adventure you go on with your Pokémon where you begin to see them as your friends. However, this tone isn't absolute, and the game switches, seemingly at random, between it and a crazy parallel dimension conspiracy that essentially fractures the game between the old style of storytelling in Pokémon (Red And Blue, Gold and Silver, etc) and the new style (Black and White, X and Y). This mix of old and new gets disorienting when a new segment of the conspiracy comes out of nowhere and shoves its way right into the middle of your carefree adventure.
The best part of Pokémon Sun and Moon is, unsurprisingly, the design choices. None of the new Pokémon are weak in design. In my opinion, there's something to love in all of them. I personally love Mudbray; I had one on my party named "Derphorse" throughout the majority of the game, and I fell in love with the little guy. Also, there's tons of crazy new concepts: Z-Moves, crazy powerful attacks that a Pokémon can use if it hold the right item; Alolan forms, redesigned versions of older Pokémon; Ultra Beasts, which are...kinda like...weird aliens? I actually don't really know what Ultra Beasts are. Well, whatever's going on there, I happen to like it. And that's not all. Sun and Moon also does away with HMs which used to be necessary for progressing through games but were not particularly viable for actual battling. They've been replaced with the new Ride System, where you can ride on a Pokémon and use its specific capabilities to get through obstacles. This provides a far more elegant solution to the age old problem of how to block you from progressing past where you're supposed to be. And besides these technical design choices, the game's aesthetic is one of the most fun I've seen in a while. Being based in a cheery adaption of Hawaii, it's hard not to goofily smile along with the lovable inhabitants of the Alola region.
In the end, Pokémon Sun and Moon provides an experience that feels more like Pokémon than anything before it, while somehow also feeling as though there's nothing on earth like it. In some unimaginable twist, Pokémon Sun and Moon both perfects the formula and turns it on its head, refining all the things we loved about the old games and adding in things I never even knew I wanted. Long before we knew much of anything about Pokémon Sun and Moon, I heard rumors that the next games after them would reboot the franchise. I'd just like to say that these rumors are completely untrue; Pokémon Sun and Moon is very much a reboot of the Pokémon franchise, and I am totally ok with that, because Pokémon Sun and Moon get "Artistic Mastery to a Tear Jerking Extent"(9)/10. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go catch most of them. I would catch ‘em all, but I also have school and the internet and, ya know, other video games, and there’s, like, 800 of those little buggers now. No thanks.
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