[DISCUSSION] Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers)

[DISCUSSION] Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Printable Version

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RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - lucarioxp - Jun 19, 2016

I've really enjoyed the new pokémon so far. Every starter, and the new early game pokémons are just awesome!

I really want a new eeveelution! But what if they just gave Eevee a mega evolution? :D

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Black117 - Jun 30, 2016

Originally I was only going to make a post reminding everyone we'll be getting new Pokemon Sun and Moon Info tomorrow, however there seems to be a "considerable" leak that's rather significant enough for me to cover. Apparently there have been 7 new Pokemon shown in the various trailers on youtuber from anonymous sources. Wasn't sure at first if I'd cover them today, or tomorrow, but until we notice some videos showcasing these new Pokemon and abilites, well couldn't ignore them.

Here are the 7 new Pokemon:

These images were from Pokebeach, but we don't know who leaked the images. I know there are some videos, but its kinda late for me to find them atm, so I'll leave it to you all to discuss these new Pokemon.

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Lythania - Jun 30, 2016

Huh, cool! Thanks for the reminder about the new info tomorrow as well. :D

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - jouzea - Jul 1, 2016

@Black117 !! The video is out! So hyped!! Is that round pika mouse the new pikachu clone? It's so cute!!! The fish one looks like a parrotfish! the bug pika beetle looks sooo awesome as well!

We still can ride a pokemon! Stoutland!!!!

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Black117 - Jul 14, 2016

Alright its been a long time since I've last updated the thread here, but I'm sure everyone knows most of the relevant news by now. Going to review all the new Pokemon and features of the game revealed so far in full from late June to Mid-July. Hopefully there isn't something too major with these updates, especially now that we've gotten a good amount of information since. Most of these updates can be some on the dedicated fan sites (Aka Serebii, Pokebeach, and PokeJungle), but again, this is for all of you to see here as well.

June 30th 2016 News: New Pokemon Leaked Earlier

During the early morning of June 30th, we got a whooping total of 7 new Pokemon revealed, one of them being a potential legendary Pokemon which is really exciting to see. Again I've kinda covered this, but now we have some details regarding what these Pokemon's Typing, Abilities, and descriptions.

The first Pokemon we see is a new Dragon/Normal-type Pokemon named Drampa. While this Dragon-type might look weird compared some of the other Dragon-types we've seen, it has a new ability in Berserk. Everytime Drampa's HP reaches 50% or below, its Special Attack stat increases, which is kinda interesting. The other ability Drampa will have is Sap Sipper, basically granting immunity to Grass-type attacks while getting an attack raise. If Drampa is defensive-oriented, Berserk can benefit it more, especially if it has other recovery based moves to abuse this strategy, though whether this ability is single use remains to be see. From a design point, Drampa reminds me of that one Dragon, Falcor from the Never Ending Story. This might be a stand alone Dragon-type without an evolution similar to Druddigon, but it unknown if this Dragon-type can evolve again.

Next Pokemon we'll look at is Gen 7's "Pikachu" clone, the Electric/Steel-type Pokemon Togedemaru. One might think you should give this guy a hug or something, but I'd probably twice about that decision as Togedemaru has long spikes and needles from its back. Heck Togedemaru is even given the ability, Iron Barbs which has been exclusive to the Ferrothorn line for to generations. Slap a Rocky Helmet on this mouse, and well just laugh as it deals slow residual damage against the opposing Pokemon. Togedemaru also gets the ability Lightning Rod, but personally I think people will want to abuse the Rocky Helmet-Iron Barbs combo as it already resists Electric attacks. One last thing to note is Electric/Steel-type isn't a terrible typing at all, as it sports a whooping 11 resistances and 1 immunity. While Fire-types, Fighting-types, and most notably Ground-types will be able to land super effective hits, I feel like this Pikachu clone is actually useful this time around just with the typing and the Iron Barbs ability alone. We'll just have to wait and see how it stat distribution is, but definitely excited about this guy.

Our next new Alola Pokemon is a strange looking Water/Psychic-type, Bruxish. I'll admit, Bruxish is one of the interesting looking Pokemon I've seen from a design point with its purple-pink color pattern, elongated lip and sharp teeth (hence Strong Jaw as one of its abilities). Most people aren't focusing too much about this fish, rather more so about the new ability Dazzling. This ability prevents the opposing Pokemon from using all priority moves, just like Quick Attack, Fake Out, Sucker Punch, etc. Personally, I do like Dazzling than the Pokemon since if its found a good defensive Pokemon (not saying Bruxish isn't viable), especially in double battles.Chances are we might see Bruxish, or another Pokemon use Dazzling in VGC than in singles since it is extremely situational, but we'll see.

The next Pokemon we see here is a new Bug/Fairy-type Pokemon Cutiefly. What we know about this Pokemon is it lives close to humans, Pokemon, and plants to sense their feelings, or auras. The abilities Cutliefly can have are Shield Dust which prevents any additional effects from taking place, and Honey Gather, which gives it a chance to collect the Honey item at the end of every battle (level dependent. Based on its appearance alone, there's a good chance Cutefly will evolve again to a stronger Pokemon, at least lets hope its isn't something as similar to the Combee line.

Here we have our first reveal of the evolution of Drubbin, the new Bug and "Electric" Pokemon Charjabug. Most people predicted Grubbin would evolve with a part electric typing, and their suspicions were true after all, especially with the hints given. Based on appearance, the design is definitely a combination of a cocoon and a typical battery. Speaking of batteries, Charjabug's new ability, Battery allows it to raise the power of its allies special attacks, so basically useful for doubles or triples. In the same leak, Charjabug is later shown to evolve to the following new Pokemon: Vikabvolt:

The final evolution of the Grubbin line: the Electric/Bug-type Vikabolt. To be honest, this is my favorite design from the Alola Pokemon to date since we have another stag beetle just like Heracross. All we know about this Bug/Electric-type Pokemon is its given the ability Levitate to avoid getting hit with Ground-type attacks (aside from Mold Breaker). Based on the description from TCPi, it even uses nearby Charjabugs to power up its electric and special other special attacks as a battery of sorts, hence the design. Overall, the Vikabolt line is my favorite evolution line and given the design, this Pokemon definitely was in the works maybe prior to this time. One last thing to comment is its nice to have an early bug-type Pokemon look well made with its sharp jaws, wingspan, and the menacing look instead of having something like a Butterfree-like Pokemon.

Lastly, we have a probably our first look into a potential legendary trio member... (or quartet): Tapu Koko. Just based on the design alone, I feel as if Game Freak intended Tapu Koko, the Electic-/Fairy type, to be a Legendary, given its status as the "guardian deity" of the Melemele Island, or the starting island we begin. People have speculated Tapu Koko based on a totem pole, or a tiki with paintings on its shield arms, face, and the rest of the body. What I find interesting about this Pokemon is that it interacts with people, even being handled by one of the NPCs, Hala. In terms of battling, this Pokemon has the most potential out of all the the 7 Pokemon leaked shown at the time. Tapu Koko comes with a new ability called Electric Surge, which activates the new terrain field introduced in Gen 6: Electric Terrain. For those who don't know, Electric Terrain boost the power of all Electric-type attack from "grounded" Pokemon by a 1.5x multiplier and prevents all Pokemon from going to sleep. Since Electric Terrain last long similar to the weather effects, will only last 5 turns since Tapu Koko was sent out. Finally, we get a new exclusive move for Tapu Koko, Nature's Madness which is essentially like Super Fang as it halves the HP of a Pokemon.

Overall, all these Pokemon design are eccentric and look as if they are from the Alola Region. All these Pokemon were showcased in this trailer so I'm going to leave a link to the international version.

July 1st - 3rd 2016 News: Confirmation of Leaks / Other Misc. Stuff

[Image: komala.png]

As the title mentions, most of the leaked Pokemon were later confimed by the TCPi Japan and eventually a trailer was shown later for the international audience (the one I've posted. The only information we got concerning new Pokemon and abilities were the names of Iwanko (the Rock-type dog) and Nekkoala (the Koala Pokemon), were localized as Rockruff and Komala respectively. For those who don't know, Rockruff was first revealed accidentally in a Corocoro video and now it's been officially revealed to the international audience along with Komala. Rockruff has two standard early game abilities Vital Spirit / Keen Eye respectively and Komala has a new ability in Comatose, to remind everyone makes the user only be inflicted by sleep status while the others fail.

Now we can discuss more about Zygarde, which everytime we do, Game Freak seems to just give it more toys like they almost want Zygarde Perfect to be just as strong and more powerful than Mega Rayquaza. If any Zygarde 10% or 50% form's HP is below half and has the ability "Power Construct", all the Zygarde cells will gather to form Zygarde Complete form. Once Zygarde Complete is in battle, it actually regains some of its HP back to a sufficient level and utilize a new move known as "Core Enforcer". With this attack, it can remove the opponent's abilities that's essentially have already moved, or attacked in battle before. Essentially this almost like an enhanced version of Mold Breaker with a Dragon-type STAB (we seen this form do SE damage to a Garchomp). Really doubt the move is going to be Fairy-type or Ice-type since Zygarde doesn't have a decent Dragon-type move aside Outrage. With all these ridiculous buffs Game Freak has given Zygarde, I feel as if its going to be one of the strongest Pokemon in the game, assuming people are able to get its transformation safely.

There's not much to review aside from press release screenshots of the game, but I'm not going to post all of them or review them. Thanks to Serebii, there's a page dedicated to all of these images so here's a link. From these images, we see the protagonist riding on a Stoutland (riding on pokemon returns?), the new trade evolution, Pikachu firing an "electric beam", a Forrest-like environment, the evolution process, and various Pokemon in different locations. To end off this section, I'm going to leave a video from the Hong Kong VGC event featuring Professor Kukui in the opening sequence of the game, as well as gameplay of Rockruff/Komala.

July 7th 2016 News: Salandit Reveal at Japan Expo

Couple days after the initial reveals multiple Pokemon and various screenshots, Junichi Masuda unveiled a new Pokemon at the Japan Expo. The new Pokemon in question is a Poison/Fire-type Salandit with a slim lizards/salamander-like appearence with an interesting new ability: Corrosion. This allows the user to effectively inflict the Poisoned status on any type, including Steel- and Poison-type Pokemon. From a typing perspective, Salandit has 8 resistances (Fire, Grass, Poison, Fairy, Steel, Ice, Fighting, and Bug), and four weaknesses to Water-, Rock-, Ground-, and Psychic-types which isn't entirely bad. Overall, this Pokemon is an excellent addition to the growing list of Alola Pokemon, so to end on that I'll leave a video showcasing Salandit in action.

July 12th 2016 News: Corocoro Leaks - Kiteruguma and Mimikkyu

(Best Designs Ever)

Later during the month, we got another pair of new Pokemon from a Corocoro leak, which I'll admit questioned if there were even Pokemon, or some kinda of prank, but the two eventually grew on me. The first Pokemon we'll discuss is the pink-face bear, Kiteruguma who is a Normal/Fighting-type Pokemon with the abilities Klutz and "Fluffy" (we don't know what this does for the user). Based on its description from Corocoro, Kiteruguma is said depicted as a friendly looking Pokemon in appearance who only wants to give someone a hug, then breaks their bones with its strength ...(more dark Pokedex entries). While Corocoro doesn't directly mention that, its implied that even the local Alola people warn themselves not to go near to a Kiteruguma, then again just about any Pokemon can be classified as dangerous.

Then we get to this...thing which I'll admit didn't like the design until I read its description. This new Pokemon is called Mimikkyu with another unique typing in Ghost-/Fairy-type with the ability Disguise (again don't know much...though might explain or tie into its lore / design choice). All we know is that Mimikkyu is it avoids the sun by covering itself with a cloth (hence the Pikachu scribbles). Apparently if someone tries to remove the cloth of Mimikkyu, the person will be afflicted with an illness (again another dark Pokedex entry). This Pokemon's design is based on a Pikachu merchandise which became extremely popular in the region 20 years ago (interesting timing), and wants to be adored like the ever so popular Pikachu.

July 13th 2016 News: Japanese Gameplay Trailer with Misc. Stuff

I'm going to leave this trailer for you all to see. Will give my thoughts about it soon but it does contain some "minor" spoilers if you really look into it. Not talking about how we briefly see the touch screen main menu, Pokemon Amie enhanced, riding on various Pokemon in multiple terrains, showcasing Mimikkyu/Kiteruguma, the fact Eevee doesn't get any new evolutions this generation (might make some upset), the protagonist using their bracelet with the diamonds summoning powerful attacks, etc. Again I highly recommend everyone to look at this trailer since it shows a good level of depth Game Freak has taken into the development of Sun/Moon. To end on this note, on July 17th, the Japanese variety show (geared towards kids) promise to showcase some new gameplay to the public, though don't be shocked if its something small or rather significant news/confirmation of rumors/etc. I'll do my best to keep up with the news as best as possible, but always be sure to keep up with the news sites like Serebii, Pokebeach, and Poke Jungle.

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Black117 - Jul 24, 2016

Seems like the Pokemon news cycle doesn't want to end as we got new reveals of 6 new Alola Pokemon including the two Pokemon revealed in the Corocoro magazine. In addition to these 6 new Pokemon, we also got some new features concerning the game that's probably one of the biggest news regarding competitive battling with the announcements of personalized tournaments from PGL and the new Hyper Training mode. We'll first discuss the new Pokemon, then have follow ups with the other two revealed in Corocoro (their localized names + abilities), and end on those two new features. Alright lets get to it:

The Turn Tail Pokemon: Wimpod
Typing: Water / Bug
Height: 1'08"
Weight: 26.5 lb
Ability: Wimp Out

The first Pokemon of the six shown in the trailer is the Water / Bug type Pokemon, Wimpod. As the name describes, Wimpod sure looks like a Pokemon with a cowardly attribute as they tend to flee then people or Pokemon approach them. The new ability for Wimpod also fits the description TCPi given it, Wimp Out (kinda funny and original). Anyways every time Wimpod is at about 50% HP or less, it will either always run away in the wild, or retreat in battle back to its trainer. The Water / Bug typing hasn't been given since Surksit and its nice to see a rather interesting support ability with this Pokemon as one can use maybe as a good lead to scout for things, and then have a Wimp Out activate to get a free switch.

The Fruit Pokemon: Bounsweet
Type: Grass
Height: 1'00"
Weight: 7.1 lbs.
Ability: Leaf Guard / Oblivious

The next Pokemon revealed is the pure Grass-type Pokemon: Bounsweet. This Pokemon is based on the "mangosteen" fruit found in South East Asia and has a seemingly innocent look, yet this might be a negative trait. Many Pokemon have come to prey on Bounsweet for its nutritious value. What's even more mess up about this is given how playful Bounsweet looks as it avoiding its predators as best its can, typically it doesn't get help from other people or Pokemon. The two abilities this Pokemon comes with are Leaf Guard (prevents status when in Sunlight), and Oblivious (prevents infatuation / Taunt), which are rather useful support abilities for Bounsweet. Preferably Oblivious will be used since likely this Pokemon will have Aromatherapy and not having to be under Taunt, or basically be able to use its support moves without any disruptions is nice to have.

The Posy Picker Pokemon: Comfey
Type: Fairy
Height: 0'4"
Weight: 0.7 lbs.
Ability: Flower Shield / Triage

The latest Fairy-type in Pokemon Sun and Moon couldn't get any more Hawaiian than this Pokemon: Comfey. Likewise, Comfey is based on the traditional Lei flowers people associated with Hawaiian culture, tourism (probably due to pop culture), and uses for special occasions. Getting back to this Pokemon, Comfey makes flower rings with special oils to emit different soothing aromas. These flowers are used in the medical field to treat patients in either Pokemon Center or hospitals, so Comfey is likely associated with them. Regarding abilities, Flower Shield prevents its Grass-types allies from having any reduce stat drops, though this is extremely situation, even as exclusive for Double Battles. The new ability, Triage is rather interesting to say the least given the description given. Based on what TCPi released, Triage is an abilities which gives all healing moves (and I quote) "the highest priority in battle". This statement can mean many things given that its rather vague. Obviously Comfey will have +1 priority to all healing moves, but since they said the "highest priority", which can put it as high up with "Helping Hand", or Stage 5. Either way, looks like based on the details provided Comfey will be like a cleric support Pokemon of sorts, but we'll see.

The Draft Horse Pokemon: Mudsdale
Typing: Ground
Height: 8'02"
Weight: 2028.3 lbs.
Ability: Own Tempo / Stamina

Honestly the most interesting "new" Pokemon revealed among the four new Alola Pokemon (not counting the other two we'll dicuss in a bit), the Clydesdale Pokemon: Mudsdale. Just based on the design, and the description Pokemon gave Mudsdale about (Heck it weighs around the same as a Groudon!), this Pokemon seems extremely powerful as if they wanted it to be so. Based on the site, Mudsdale is rather strong minded in completed the tasks its given, and is said to beat is enemies with strong kicks (hence the new move High Horsepower). Though Mudsdale isn't as fast, it has strength and stamina to continue various task, such as carrying a 10 ton load for 3 days (classic Pokemon hyperbole). While Own Tempo prevents the Pokemon from being confused, Mudsdale's other ability, Stamina is rather powerful. If any Pokemon were to attack Mudsdale, its defense stat will raise every time. Give this Pokemon a good defensive stats, passable special defense, and a recovery move (aside Rest), Mudsdale looks like a strong tanky Pokemon that can be viable both in-game and competitive.

The Disguise Pokemon: Mimikyu
Typing: Ghost / Fairy
Height: 0'08"
Weight: 1.5 lbs.
Ability: Disguise

Mimikyu is a Pokemon we've already seen, but let's brief go over its description. This Pokemon uses a cloth to cover itself from the sunlight as too much expose will result failing health. The Alola people exclaim a myth that upon looking underneath Mimikkyu's disguise, it will afflict the person with an illness. Recently due to the rise of Pokemon merchandise since 20 years ago (nice reference to the 20th anniversary), specifically Pikachu products, Mimikyu are said to make themselves look like the ever popular electric Pokemon, Pikachu. Unfortunately given the associate myth and taboo the Alola residences associate Mimikyu with, these Pokemon are typically lonely as a result. Typing-wise, Ghost / Fairy-type leaves Mimikyu weak to Ghost and Steel-type Pokemon, while immune to three types ( Normal-, Dragon-, and Fighting-type). Regarding its ability Disguise, this gives Mimikyu a "free Substitute" as this allows any Pokemon attack to fail, but "break" the disguise. We still don't know if status moves have any effect on Mimikyu. Competitively we'll see if this Pokemon is viable, though already Mimikyu's has became a fan favorite of the new Alola Pokemon based on the description and design choice.

[Image: bear.png]

The Strong Arm Pokemon: Bewear
Typing: Normal / Fighting
Height: 6'11"
Weight: 297.6 lbs.
Abilities: Fluffy / Klutz

Last we have the a unique Pokemon with capable strength and power: the Normal / Fighting-type Bewear. According to the description from TCPi, Beware is said to behave in a "friendly fashion", but since it cannot control the strength of its arms, it can snap anything in two with a "bear hug" (oh game freak). The typing for Beware has been used on a couple of Pokemon like Mega Lopunny and Meloetta-Pirouette form, but Bewear (and possibly its evolution line) will be the first Pokemon to have this typing without any restrictions. While Klutz won't likely be the most consistent ability for Bewear, the new ability, Fluffy gives Bewear almost pseudo-Fur Cut, except its not. The new Fluffy ability will cut the damage of all contact moves in half, however Fire-type moves deal double damage to this Pokemon. Personally this is a decent trade off as Bewear can have some moderate defenses to tank most physical hits (since a majority are physical contact).

New Features: Hosting Tournaments and Hyper Training

[Image: pgl.jpg]

Hosting Tournaments

With the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon nearby, the Pokemon Global Link will be "upgraded" to allow for "customized rulesets" and "original competitions". Though we don't know the full scale of how deep these friendly competitions as well as how far the rulesets will be, clearly this is a huge step in the right direction when it comes to hosting more grassroots and different online tournaments either organized by various sub-groups in the Pokemon community. For this feature to be utilized, people now have to use their own personal PGL accounts to make these tours, so sign up to the PGL and link them with your copy of Pokemon Sun / Moon. Going back to the customized tournaments, people can host online tours with other participates and if it exceeds a certain amount, there will be a "ladder", or leader board of how well players have performed. These competitions can be set to allow for pre-approved trainers, or everyone around the world, with a certain cap. The last component to the PGL are the Live Competitions, which allow players and event organizers to host tournaments with other within the same area, or walking distance. Digital Player IDs will be created via QR codes so everyone who wants to compete can scan and enter. This goes back to my point regarding how Pokemon wants to grow the competitive battling by giving players the liberty to host their own tours. Heck we might host some of these for the site in the near future once Sun and Moon hit.

On a quick note, the Pokemon Global Link for XY / ORAS will soon start to end most of its services. To commemorate the start of the new PGL for Sun and Moon, TPCi has launched their Thank You Campaign where most items will be 50% and Ability Capsules will be available online as well. Be sure to redeem all those Poke Miles before they aren't valuable once the PGL shuts down the Game Sync service!

(From Serebii / TCPi)

Hyper Training

The last major announcement is honestly one in which competitive Pokemon fans, including myself, have long asked for since the beginning of competitive Pokemon, a way to increase your Individual Values, or IVs to maximum. Anyone can read the information here, but honestly I just want to say, its about time for players to be able to increase the IVs of their Pokemon without possibly wasting hours on hours soft resetting Event / Legendary Pokemon. Of course with such a method, Game Freak has implemented sorta a couple restrictions. First off, the Pokemon has to be at Level 100 to use this method, and second the Player needs to obtain the new "Bottle Cap" items. These Bottle Caps are then exchanged to a person by the name of "Mr. Hyper" somewhere in the Alola region, though not mention where exactly. Seems like the event Magearna apparently holds a Bottle Cap, though based on reports its a specific "Silver Bottle Caps", meaning there might be different variants that boost the IVs of a certain Pokemon by increment.

Regarding my earlier statement, depending on how "rare" the Bottle Caps are, chances are breed Pokemon might still be the way to go for getting legit Pokemon, while using the Bottle Caps should be used only for the exclusive event Pokemon, or Dittos to start IV Breeding. If these Bottle Caps are fairly common, and/or can be "farmed" in some fashion, people might use this method to get max IV Pokemon first before breeding. Hopefully the games have a facility or area to where one can be able to level their Pokemon up to level 100 in a couple of hours, or minutes.

I'll leave the link to the Pokemon video here as well so everyone can see the new Pokemon and features announced. One last thing to mention is that there will be new information released to the general public on August 1st and will be published on all the official sites. We might get a trailer with new Pokemon, maybe finally have answers regarding the diamonds and the bracelet the protagonist carry, maybe some new forms, story elements, etc. Who knows. Right now, I've haven't been able to keep up with the news, as we get closer to the launch date, I'll keep up as best as possible. Expect these updates to be around within a span of a couple days since the reveal of any new info, in case other news drops so I may cover it as well. Alright will see you all again on in August!

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Black117 - Aug 10, 2016

Might as well cover two news events at once which are both the major news drop from August 1st and the Corocoro leak today just a few hours ago. Likewise, the old news will be discuss first, but not detail, just the facts and some speculation here and there. The Corocoro leak isn't as "important" or huge info as the August 1st public release, but its important as it dispelled a potential "leaked" Pokedex rumor which had gained traction lately.

Update: I'm going to cover the Corocoro leak separately from this one since there hasn't been anything major released lately aside new Pokemon, Alolan forms, and the reveal of the Evil Team. Will get up to speed with this (around Thursday), but I want to cover.

The August 1st News

I'm not kidding when we got a bunch of news here, as its seems as key aspects of the game have been revealed from Alolan-based Pokemon forms, traditional Pokemon reveals, the PokeRide function (seems to replace HMs usage), the Island Challenge (seems to replace Gyms...though not fully confirmed), and the new mechanic: Z-Moves.

Alolan Forms

[Image: 010816-2.jpg]

(Source: Serebii)

If Game Freak / Creatures / Nintendo ....TCPi wanted to deliver a bomb shell news regarding Sun and Moon, they definitely delivered with this revelation. Now older generation Pokemon might receive new forms changes known as "Alolan Forms" ( also known as Region Variants), which has of now have been given to only Kanto-based Pokemon (though this can change). Not only do these Pokemon have asthetic changes to them, but apparently it seems like they all change their typings, abilities, "potentially" learnset/egg moves/etc, and traits in a rather drastic scenarios. For instance, typically we classify Vuplix as a Fire-type since Gen 1, but given the information revealed that some Vuplix were brought to Alola (probably the southeastern most island) with the snowy mountain), some of them have adapted to their environments and changed to Ice-type. There's still a ton of questions regarding Alola forms, and I can even speculate and go on about this for the next several pages, but I'm going to leave it at that. I'll leave a link to the brand new Alola-based forms and their descriptions below.

Alolan Exeggutor - Typing ( Grass / Dragon ) - Ability ( Frisk )

Alolan Vulpix - Typing ( Ice ) - Ability ( Snow Cloak )

Alolan Ninetales - Typing ( Ice / Fairy ) - Ability ( Snow Cloak )

Alolan Sandshrew - Typing ( Ice / Steel ) - Ability ( Snow Cloak )

Alolan Sandslash - Typing ( Ice / Steel ) - Ability ( Snow Cloak )

New Pokemon

We also got a host of new Alola-based Pokemon for the games and most of them seem to be on point and well designed / thought-out. The Pokemon shown by order from first to last are Oricorio, Minior, Gumshoos, Fomantis, Lurantis, and Musbray. Oricorio will have its own section section given it has four different forms and the other Pokemon will be covered together as some have been revealed with their evolutions line beforehand, or don't have much information to cover. Likewise I'll leave a link to each of the Pokemon links down below.

Oricorio - Type ( Either Fire / Electric / Psychic / Ghost- and Flying type) - Ability: Dancer

The first Pokemon revealed in the trailer is a part Flying-type Pokemon with various typing: Oricorio. Each type of Oricorio seen in the trailer are based on specific dancing traditions inspired by Salsa (Puerto Rico/Latin America), Cheer-leading (US), Hula (Hawaiian/Polynesian), and Japanese traditional dance (don't know the exact name unfortunately) . As such, each Oricorio-type seem to inhabit one of the four islands and have strong connection to each they reside. We don't know where exactly each Oricorio will reside, but our bets are there will be one forms per island. The interesting part of Oricorio is they have four, yes four different types aside the part Flying typing in Fire, Electric, Psychic, and Ghost. Each Oricorio learns the new move: Revelation Dance, which type matches the same type as the corresponding bird. Finally the new ability Dancer seems to allow Oricorio to "copy" the dance moves of all Pokemon in the battlefield so essentially it can perform Quiver Dance, Sword Dance, Fiery Dance, Lunar Dance, etc and not waste a turn at all!

Fomantis - Type ( Grass ) - Ability - Leaf Guard
Lurantis - Type ( Grass ) - Ability - Leaf Guard
Gumshoos - Type ( Normal ) - Ability - Strong Jaw / Stakeout
Minior - Type ( Rock / Flying ) Ability - Shields Down
Mudbray - Type ( Ground ) Ability - Stamina / Own Tempo

To the left, we see two new mantis-based Grass-type Pokemon in Fumantis and its evolution Lurantis with the Grass-typing and the ability Leaf Guard. Fomantis is said to store energy for its eventual evolution Lurantis and knows the moves Razor Leaf and Solar Beam. The only notable information we know about these two is that Lurantis learns the new move Solar Blade, which seems to be a physical variant of Solar Beam. Gumshoos is the evolve form of Yungoos with the same Normal typing and potential abilities in Strong Jaw and Stakeout (doubles the power of its attack if the targets switches). Minior is Rock / Flying-type Pokemon with a meteor design that goes along with its ability: Shields Down. In battle (likely if its HP is full), Minior will have strong defensive capabilties as long as its above 50% HP. If it gets below half HP, its "shield" will break and the core form of Minior will be revealed. Once in this form, Minior will have increased offensive potential, but with defenses lowered. Finally we have the pre-evolved form of Mudsdale, the Ground-type Mudsbray, which has the same abilities in Stamina and Own Tempo respectively.

Poke Ride

Seems like there's a new feature where players can call service Pokemon to assist them to crossing various terrains and have certain uses as well. While we don't know who, or when we get access to this new in-game mechanic, but once players do, they can move around or perform several task players can't do. Seem likely these Poke Ride can slowly replace the HM moves for the Main Series games, but I doubt thats the case. For now we have only seen six Pokemon who we can use: Charizard to Fly in certain locations, Lapras to perform "basic" surfing, Mudsdale to cross rocky paths, Sharpedo to move faster in water, jump, and break rocks, Stoutland to sniff around to find hidden items (might replace the itemfinder), and Tauros who breaks through rocks and runs fast. Again we don't know how early we get access to Poke Rides, but it seems likely that we'll have Lapras and Stoutland as the "basic" service Pokemon since Sharpedo seems to do the same thing Lapras does, but can break through rocks while still move faster. Stoutland might be reserved for finding items and might have a slower speed than maybe Tauros or Mudsdale. One last important aspect is these Pokemon do not join your party at all so they are only used until they're recalled.

The Island Challenge, Trial Captains, and the Kahunas

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After a couple of months, we finally get to see some of the new "gym leaders" or bosses of the new games, but with huge twist. From the looks of it, the Gym Challenges and "potentially" the Pokemon League have been replaced with a spiritual successor to the main plot of the game called the "Island Challenge". Unlike taking on 8 Gym Leaders and soon the E4 in previous installments, players are tasked by the Trial Captains (probably a "lesser Gym Leader) into completing various quests whether it is looking for specific items, battling "boss" Pokemon, knowledge-base tests/puzzles, and of course, matching with big Kuhuna of each Alolan Island. This could mean battles will no longer be the main focus in the Island Challenge Trials, but instead having to complete various task in a traditional JRPG game. While we don't know if at any point we battle these Trail Captains, the fact that the Pokemon site lists each individual and their specialty type potentially means we might battle these trainers. Near the end of each Island Trial, a "Totem Pokemon" will appear and challenge the player into a 2 v 1 battle with the Totem Pokemon getting assistance from allied wild Pokemon. As of right now, the only Totem Pokemon showcased in the videos was both Gumshoos and Lurantis, both seem to get a power boost and call their former evolutionary lines for support. After the Totem Pokemon has been defeated, the Grand Trail commences where the player challenges the main governing Kuhuna of each island. If they are able to beat the Kuhuna, the player can advance unto the next Island.

As of right now, we've only been introduced to four of the Trial Captains (potentially one per island), but they might number to the eight mark to make up for the Gym Leader count as previous games. Here are the following Trail Captains / Kuhunas we know about here:

Mallow - Specializes - Grass types - Notes: Loves to Cook, though has her own taste
Lana - Specializes - Water types - Notes: Looks after her family
Sophocles - Specializes - Electric types - Notes: Good with mechanics and is an inventor
Kiake - Specializes - Fire types - Notes: Traditonal Alolan Dancer
Hala - Kuhuna of Melemele Island - Notes: Grandfather of Hau ; Seems to use Tapu Koko in battle

Z-Moves, Z-Ring, and Z-Crystals

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Finally we get to the main event of the trailer: introducing the new Z move mechanic. Based on the description of Z-Moves from TCPi, these attacks are of "great power", though the drawback is these attacks are only for one-time use. Apparently, "all Pokemon" (even Unown I guess), can perform Z-Moves, however there are some requirements in order to achieve this feat. First, the player must have a Z-Ring (kinda like a Mega Ring), which is a bracelet that can hold multiple Z-Crystals on the side. Speaking of Z-Crystals, there are 18 different verisons of these based on types (Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, etc) that are found throughout the Alola region. The player performs a unique dance to become one with their Pokemon (obvious lore that no one does IRL... I hope). To perform Z-moves, the player must have a corresponding type related to the Z-Crystal ( Fire move must match with a Fire-type Z-Crystal), and the Pokemon must be holding the Z-Crystal as a held item. As of now, we only seen 4 of the 18 Z-Move types revealed such as Inferno Overdrive, Bloom Doom, Hydro Vortex, and Gigavolt Havoc. While its too early to speculate how viable these Z-Moves are, I'm sorta leaning towards the fact these have been moderately balanced since these attacks require a held item (Z-Crystal) and can only be used once, making these attacks high risk, high reward. Some questions I'd like to know are the following

Will Z-Crystals be able to be used "again" somehow despite the claim?
Can Hidden Power "count" towards having a certain type with the corresponding Z-Crystal? It is Normal-type after all, but changes based on the IVs of the Pokemon.
How "exactly" are Z-moves calculated into a standard Pokemon battles? Will the variant of the move be physical if a Pokemon uses a physical attack, and vice versa for special attacks?
Do Z-Move stack with STAB? Will the base power of the corresponding move be stacked with the Z-move? Do Z Moves have a set base power?

Potential Leaks

For now, going to end this section off with a bit of a disclaimer. Apparently there have been a number of leaks that have surfaced lately concerning the new mechanics, starter Pokemon final evolutions, new Pokemon designs, etc. While I don't know where exactly these leaks are based off of, I'm going to leave a link to the leaks here. Not going to cover the leak info a they did get the typing for Alolan Ninetales wrong, so potentially some of the info here can be fake or not true. As of right now, it seems that most of the leak has hold true with the exception of Ninetales's Alola Form being "Fire/Fairy", probably a mistake on whoever leaked the info, but again take it for a grain of salt. Here's the image of the four leaks.

Anyways, I'll have the second part of the news concering the Corocoro release, which should be out Thursday.

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Black117 - Aug 10, 2016

So I was going to cover the corocoro leaks, but I noticed someone (probably another leaker from TCPi) took the time to get clips of the new Pokemon and posted around the internet. Going to post these as is in a spoiler box, so open it if anyone want to see the new Pokemon. (Images are from Serebii/Pokejungle)

Thursday Update:

Finally we have the latest Corocoro scans, however some of the stuff has been covered via leaks and the trailer posted below. Not going to explain what most of these Pokemon are or the new antagonist team until TCPi releases more information regarding them. There were 3 Pokemon in the exact evolution line revealed based on the Japanese Corocoro scans based on sand castles, and a pre-evo of Bewear. The smaller castle is called Sunabaa while the larger evolution is called Shirodesuna with both the Ground/Ghost-type. Not much descriptions regarding these Pokemon are shown aside they are "cursed" sand piles and Shirodesuna seeks out life force of living things, almost similar to Chandelure's behavior. The last Pokemon revealed is the pre-evolution of Bewear, Nuikoguma, who is apparently doesn't like he being touched and exhibits strength though not as strong as its last stage. The only other information revealed is next issue of Corocoro will have discuss Iwanko or Rockruff's method of evolution, which almost everyone has speculated to be rather "unique".

For the time being, there might be more stuff revealed it the coming days, but chances are it will be the leaked trailer stuff. The "best" hope for Sun / Moon news is to watch the opening ceremony of Pokemon Worlds at San Francisco (streamed on Twitch), since in the past Junichi Masuda has revealed some information before. Some of these reveals include Mega Kangaskhan (who we all want nerf this gen), and Mega Slowbro, or at least showcased as the Korean site accidentally showed Mega Slowbro a day later. Keep in mind Junichi also revealed the Zygarde Perfect and 10% forms in-game as well as how to get the last stage form in battle back in a Pokemon Nationals event in Hong Kong. Maybe I have my hopes high for the reveal, but chances are it might get leaked with the pace of the news we've been getting lately. Anyways feel free to discuss any of the new Pokemon and features for Sun and Moon.

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Eeveeli - Aug 11, 2016

A trailer with the pokemons in the spoiler tag from Black got released in JP so don't mind me adding the video into the spoiler tag haha.

RE: Pokemon Sun & Moon News Thread (Will Contain Pre-Launch Spoilers) - Black117 - Aug 19, 2016

New Stuff Revealed at Gamescon and Worlds!

New Pokemon got revealed around this time with some we might have covered and others completely brand new. Today we'll go over all 5 new Pokemon revealed starting with the new Pokemon revealed to the ones that now have localized names.

The Blast Turtle Pokemon: Turtonator
Type: Fire / Dragon
Height: 6'07"
Weight: 467.4 lbs.
Ability: Shell Armor

Turtonator was revealed at the German Video Game Event Gamescom at the end of the Pokemon presentation via a video from Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori. As everyone probably has heard this for the billionth time, this is the first Fire / Dragon type Pokemon to have its typing not exclusive to either a Mega Form (Charizard X), or a legendary (Reshiram). Again Fire / Dragon typing is relatively good especially if Turtonator looks as rather "defensive" oriented as it only has two weaknesses being Dragon and Rock. From its descriptions, Turtontator lives near volcanic areas often feeding itself with sulfur and other volcanic material. As a result, this turtle dragon's shell is extremely explosive and any strong contact or strike will ignite Turtonator's shell, which it uses to disorient its prey. A new exclusive move, Shell Trap highlights this behavior. In battle, Turtonator "sets up" a trap, and if the opponent targets the Fire-/Dragon-type with a physical contact move, the opposing Pokemon gets hit with an "explosive attack". The way they are describing Shell Trap reminds me of the moves Powder and Counter but together. Most of us know Counter doubles the damage dealt by the opposing Pokemon in retaliation, however Powder is exclusive Vivillon as its a priority move where if the opponent strikes the user with a Fire-type move, an "explosion" inflicts the attacker. Still we don't know how exactly Shell Trap is, but it seems like a "retaliation" based move like Counter, Bide, Mirror Coat, etc. If anyone wants to watch the video, here's the reveal of Turtontator.

The Boxing Pokemon: Crabrawler
Typing: Fighting
Height: 2'00"
Weight: 15.4 lbs.
Ability: Hyper Cutter / Iron Fists

The latest Pokemon revealed was actually do so by Junichi Masuda himself is another crustacean Pokemon: Crabrawler. Given how Masuda wanted to showcase the "similarities" between Crabrawler's behavior and the competitors at worlds, I guess the staff at Game Freak wanted this thing to be at least "usable" in battle. Just because we saw this thing being able to faint Kangaskhan, Cresselia, Talonflame, Smeargle, and Landorus-T, I think its more so like it being able to take on stronger opponents or so. Anyways, this Pokemon is very competitive in nature and will fight other Crabrawler for food and are dangerous to people if provoked. Likewise, this crab is shown to be a pure Fighting-type Pokemon with Hyper Cutter and Iron Fists. Given that Crabrawler has the ability Iron Fist, we might see some attacks like the elemental punches, Hammer Arm, Mach Punch, Bullet Punch, and other "punching moves" for Crabrawler.

The following Pokemon have been revealed before I won't go over their descriptions.

The Sand Heap Pokemon: Sandygast
Type: Ghost/Ground
Height: 1'08"
Weight: 154.3 lb
Ability: Water Compaction

Note: The ability, Water Compaction raises the Pokemon's defense by 2 stages, however only if its hit by a Water-type move.

The Sand Castle Pokemon: Palossand
Type: Ghost / Ground
Height: 4'03"
Weight: 551.2 lbs
Ability: Water Compaction

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The Flailing Pokemon: Stufful
Type: Normal / Fighting
Height: 1'08"
Weight: 15.0 lb
Abilities: Fluffy / Klutz

Guess that's all I'll be covering for the time being. There was some news regarding how Z- Crystals work and all, yet I still think we need more information, until I can cover the exact mechanics. For now, see you all later.