Pokémon UltraSun and UltraMoon General News/Information/Speculation thread - IT'S HERE!!

[Tactician Robin]

Guess I'll give my two cents on this. I'm a little sad it truly wasn't Sinnoh remakes but The Pokemon Company has always gone to their own beat. It was just a rumor anyway.

Pokemon really seems to be pushing the alternate realities and worlds ever since the Delta Episode in ORAS, so this is probably just continuing from that.

As for the legendaries, I think we can say this is most likely taking the Black/White Kyruem route....actually these games feel very reminiscent of Black/White 2. Yea, it's not a sequel per say, but another take with a brand new protagonist.

To touch upon the video, I do like the idea GameXplain brought up about Necrozma being a parasite though. I'd hope they add new locations in this game. Squeeze in a few more towns and routes at least to make this game different.

And for speculation, maybe the third evolution of the starters will be different in this. I remember that being a popular theory back when Sun/Moon were being speculated on, but I feel it would make sense that new forms appear in this game.

 

[MediocreLee]

More islands would be cool.  Maybe my hopes and dreams for Pokemon Stadium styled minigames can finally come to fruition in a main series title!  Buuuuut, unlikely..

And I'm really digging the small new details or as he said "remixed" details.  Looks pretty good in my opinion.

[Good Fellow]

Immediate pass for me. I'll wait until the Sinnoh remake comes out to reinvest myself into the Pokemon franchise monetarily. Regardless of my own bias, I'm curious to see what they'll expand and add content-wise in this release.

[The DanMan]

I need to stop lurking neogaf-- it's like masochism at this point.

There have been four "shit on gamefreak/pokemon threads" in the past 48 hours.

Anywyways:
 

14 hours ago, MediocreLee said:

And I'm really digging the small new details or as he said "remixed" details.  Looks pretty good in my opinion.

As am I. But they need to show more to get me-- how big are the changes going to be overall?

[Night Zap]

Looks pretty interesting to me. If I pick it up, I'll take Ultra Sun, because I got Moon when it came out.

I highly doubt this will be a full-on sequel like B2W2. Despite the change in outfit and hairstyle, the protagonists are still unmistakably the same, it wouldn't make sense to have them just start a new team from scratch after becoming the champion. Thus, alternate timeline where Necrozma interferes with the events of the games.

[Thane]

Any chance for more Ultra Beasts is a chance I'll take! I really liked their plot but found it to be a tad squandered. Seeing as the legendaries are all hinted at having been Ultra Beasts at some point, I hope they delve deeper into that mystery. 

When they say "alternate take on the story", I wonder just what kind of events will be changed. I wonder how this'll affect Lillie and Gladion's involvement. There's no chance the former isn't included in some major way, given how popular she became.

Oh, and this might allow for another form or buff for Guzzlord, so that'd be a good thing. Sadly, I don't expect many new Pokémon, which is a shame, because more Alolan forms would be welcome.

[Pikappa93]

12 hours ago, Thane said:

Oh, and this might allow for another form or buff for Guzzlord, so that'd be a good thing. Sadly, I don't expect many new Pokémon, which is a shame, because more Alolan forms would be welcome.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure by "new Pokémon" they meant new forms for Pokémon we already know. Personally, I'd love new Alolan forms for non-gen I Pokémon.

[Tamanoir]

3 hours ago, Pikappa93 said:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure by "new Pokémon" they meant new forms for Pokémon we already know. Personally, I'd love new Alolan forms for non-gen I Pokémon.

That would honnestly be the perfect opportunity to add Gen 2 Alola Forms Pokémon, to promote the sales of Pokémon GS in the Virtual Console. 

[The DanMan]

16 hours ago, Thane said:

Any chance for more Ultra Beasts is a chance I'll take! I really liked their plot but found it to be a tad squandered. Seeing as the legendaries are all hinted at having been Ultra Beasts at some point, I hope they delve deeper into that mystery. 

When they say "alternate take on the story", I wonder just what kind of events will be changed. I wonder how this'll affect Lillie and Gladion's involvement. There's no chance the former isn't included in some major way, given how popular she became.

Oh, and this might allow for another form or buff for Guzzlord, so that'd be a good thing. Sadly, I don't expect many new Pokémon, which is a shame, because more Alolan forms would be welcome.

I think they're a definite possibility, actually. That or I'm projecting expectations on the minimal PR.

3 hours ago, Pikappa93 said:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure by "new Pokémon" they meant new forms for Pokémon we already know. Personally, I'd love new Alolan forms for non-gen I Pokémon.

Alolan forms count as those.
They're not even as big an investment as a lot of legendary forms (re-texturing and slightly altering an existing model, while the likes of Giratina, Shaymin, Kyurem, etc. looking almost entirely different between forms and necessitating entirely new models).

[Anacybele]

Why would people expect more Alolan forms and new Pokemon? By new Pokemon, I'm pretty sure Masuda meant that the Pokedex would be expanded to include more older Pokemon, like third versions and B2W2 did. Not brand new designs. This isn't a new gen, you know.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Anacybele

[Shuuda]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Why would people expect more Alolan forms and new Pokemon? By new Pokemon, I'm pretty sure Masuda meant that the Pokedex would be expanded to include more older Pokemon, like third versions and B2W2 did. Not brand new designs. This isn't a new gen, you know.

ORAS introduced new mega evolutions halfway through a generation. Adding new Alolan forms would not be too disimiliar a move. Not that I necessarily believe they'll make new ones yet, just that it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[Augestein]

3 minutes ago, Shuuda said:

ORAS introduced new mega evolutions halfway through a generation. Adding new Alolan forms would not be too disimiliar a move. Not that I necessarily believe they'll make new ones yet, just that it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Or how Crystal allowed you to get Celebi. It wouldn't be the first time you got a little addition to the next version in the same gen. And new forms seems like the best idea that can be done without bloating the roster too much for the Gen. 

[Anacybele]

7 minutes ago, Shuuda said:

ORAS introduced new mega evolutions halfway through a generation. Adding new Alolan forms would not be too disimiliar a move. Not that I necessarily believe they'll make new ones yet, just that it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Mega evolutions are a bit different though. They're just adding a new ability to previous Pokemon. They don't get new dex entries or anything. Alolan forms are still different Pokemon themselves with their own evolution trees despite being a variation of an existing Pokemon. They get different designs and more different types and different moves and everything.

I feel Mega evolution is more akin to Z-moves than anything. Both require held items and give new abilities to previous Pokemon. As such, I think new Z-Crystals are far more likely here than new Alolan forms.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Anacybele

[Shuuda]

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Mega evolutions are a bit different though. They're just adding a new ability to previous Pokemon. They don't get new dex entries or anything. Alolan forms are still different Pokemon themselves with their own evolution trees despite being a variation of an existing Pokemon. They get different designs and more different types and different moves and everything.

Actually, mega evolved forms do have their own Pokedex entries now.

While I don't have any inside knowledge of how Pokemon are designed, my intuition is that designing an Alolan form doesn't require that much more effort than a Mega form, especially when they both serve the same basic purpose of reinvigorating older Pokemon. The core difference is that a Mega is an exaggerated version of a Pokemon, while an Alolan is an alternative version.

I dunno. I'm waiting for some more information before having any real opinions on Ultra S&M (phwoar).

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Shuuda said:

Actually, mega evolved forms do have their own Pokedex entries now.

While I don't have any inside knowledge of how Pokemon are designed, my intuition is that designing an Alolan form doesn't require that much more effort than a Mega form, especially when they both serve the same basic purpose of reinvigorating older Pokemon. The core difference is that a Mega is an exaggerated version of a Pokemon, while an Alolan is an alternative version.

I dunno. I'm waiting for some more information before having any real opinions on Ultra S&M (phwoar).

Well, then, yeah, I dunno and would just prefer to wait for more info too.

[Thane]

What are the odds of Solgaleo and Lunala getting new typings when fused with Necrozma? I mean, Necrozma's just Psychic, which is a typing the other two already have. I assume they'll both get a new ability, or just Prism Armor.

[Anacybele]

I think that they'll either become pure Psychic or not change their typings at all. But new abilities definitely seem probable.

[Zanarkin]

20 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I think that they'll either become pure Psychic or not change their typings at all. But new abilities definitely seem probable.

 

They get a third typing which happens to be psychic... lol

 

On a more serious note, I'd love to see Solgaleo have a better ability. Prism armor on Solagaleo would have been bad ass. What are they worried about, Solgaleo being too OP? Like that ever matters when they make pokemon.  

Edited June 10, 2017 by SlayerX

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, SlayerX said:

 

They get a third typing which happens to be psychic... lol

 

On a more serious note, I'd love to see Solgaleo have a better ability. Prism armor on Solagaleo would have been bad ass. What are they worried about, Solgaleo being too OP? Like that ever mattered when they make pokemon. 

Um, then why did they specifically say that the Fairy type was made to counter dragons who were previously too powerful? They do care about balance to some degree. xP

[Zanarkin]

Just now, Anacybele said:

Um, then why did they specifically say that the Fairy type was made to counter dragons who were previously too powerful? They do care about balance to some degree. xP

Well yes, but I mean, when it comes to Legendaries they sometimes seem to give no fucks. Mega Rayquaza is proof of this. Although they do tone shit down for things like VGC (the Darkrai nerf was probably due to that).

[Anacybele]

10 minutes ago, SlayerX said:

Well yes, but I mean, when it comes to Legendaries they sometimes seem to give no fucks. Mega Rayquaza is proof of this. Although they do tone shit down for things like VGC (the Darkrai nerf was probably due to that).

Ah, yes, Mega Rayquaza. You do have a point there. :P

[Skynstein]

Dragons were powerful but they were, like, kinda supposed to be powerful. They're the rarest type.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Cerberus87 said:

Dragons were powerful but they were, like, kinda supposed to be powerful. They're the rarest type.

But when you have stuff like Lance and other E4 members and gym leaders who specialize in dragons, it wasn't so easy to battle them if you didn't have an Ice type or Ice type moves. And Ice type Pokemon in general have not been that good. They don't even resist Water!

Edited June 10, 2017 by Anacybele

[Skynstein]

7 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

But when you have stuff like Lance and other E4 members and gym leaders who specialize in dragons, it wasn't so easy to battle them if you didn't have an Ice type or Ice type moves. And Ice type Pokemon in general have not been that good. They don't even resist Water!

Yeah but that's their point. To be hard. :D

I think Ice should've resisted Water, actually, because Ice and Water cancel each other out.

I think Garchomp is the only overpowered one, but Garchomp is broken anyway, he's too fast, bulky and powerful, so he's difficult to take down even with Ice-type Pokémon or moves.

Edited June 10, 2017 by Cerberus87

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Ice types barely resist their own type. They shatter whenever you look at them sideways. 'Course that's why they call it Mean Look.

I liked the idea of dragons being so powerful, rare, and difficult to raise. But the charm was lost once you're done with a casual playthrough and battle other players who do not care about your precious difficulty curve.