There
is a lot of talk about thinking outside the box, creative teaching, creative
expression, injection of new elements into old way of doing things and
revolutionary changes in today’s rapidly evolving socio-economy. However, most
of these people do not know what they are talking about, and wish that nothing
ever changes until the day they die. This interpassive behaviour is a result of
the system of thought these people were raised, educated, and trained in; and
as someone who had been looking for jobs the past 10 months, I’ve heard this
bullshit from potential employers too many times to realise the pattern. There
is much to be said about this generation of human beings that demand creativity
and uniqueness from the new, yet possess no special skills and talent to
survive outside their comfort zone, and are secretly manipulating things with
the power of their seniority (obtained not through being more capable but
simply because they were born decades earlier when the socio-economy demanded
so little from the everyman even dogs could make it to space) to ensure nothing
ever changes; but that topic will have to wait till another day.
Because
this article is about Pokemon Sun and Moon, the main titles of the 7th
generation of the Pokemon franchise video games, which is closely related to
the rant above. Pokemon SM embodies that creativity that I think a lot of fans
have been waiting for; it doesn’t do it perfectly, but we are beginning to see
cracks in the old formula that lacks a lot of narrative sense. Why do gyms
exist? Where do the champion and elite four come from? Why do certain Pokemon
look and act certain ways, and why do they have certain abilities or moves? While
ORAS represented the end of a tired generation of the stagnated formula exposed
through the nonsensical plot and worldbuilding, Pokemon SM elevates the
narrative and worldbuilding aspects of Pokemon games to a higher level by doing
away with gyms and introducing island trials to fit into the Alolan world. The
hastily mashed together Elite Four as a result of narrative reasons creates
probably the most memorable end game boss fight in a Pokemon game hands down.
I
love Pokemon XY. It is probably still the best Classic Pokemon title (a term
that I’ll use to describe the old titles from RBGY to ORAS hereinafter)
alongside FRLG, which despite having no nostalgic effect on me (because I
didn’t play Red and Blue). FRLG remains one of the best remakes because the
team strived to make a better and updated experience instead of simply trying
to invoke nostalgia.
This
is important here because SM was clearing riding on the success of Pokemon GO
and the reignited interest in Pokemon, especially those of the first
generation, in previous fans. GO also serves as a bridge between new players
and the mainstream Pokemon games using their familiarity with the Pokemons
currently present in GO. This is done through the inclusion of Alolan forms of
Pokemon exclusively from the first generation, old Generation 1 Pokemons
ranging from the gen-rat critter Rattata, to familiar faces like Meowth and
Raichu, to some Pokemon that did not require makeovers because they already
look amazing like Grimer and Muk. Even though other than the Pokemons of Hoenn,
those from Johto, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos will probably look different if they
were living in Alola, the ignorance of this fact reflects the intentional use
of familiarisation and nostalgia stirred via Pokemon GO to bring in and bring
back players. But the way SM does it is truly creative, and while XY perfected
the Classic Pokemon formula, SM brought it outside of its comfort zone and
possible created a new order that future Pokemon games can follow, at least for
a few more games.
Now
that way XY did it was ok. Allowing one to catch Pokemons from different
regions in Kalos was exciting because it is good to see familiar faces and be
surprised about what one can find in the grass occasionally. This is also by no
means a new method of easing casual players into the games in case they for
whatever strange reason only recognise Pokemons up till a certain generation as
‘real’ (this is mostly the fault of Gen 5), but SM brings this to another
level. I like having only new Gen Pokemons on my team when going through the
main story, that’s just my thing, because why play with a Slowpoke or Wingull
just because the latter has a new ability (although we need to touch on this
later because I love the change but that’s on a competitive and design level)
when I can have a Wishiwashi or a Toxapex (which, by the way, has the coolest
new ability in the game) to fill up that water slot? But now the Gen 1 Alolan
forms are no longer just ‘something I’ve used before in a past game and
therefore their existence has no other purpose other than filling up the dex
and the only time I’ll touch them is for competitive’. Alolan Marowak was on my
team because it is a Fire/Ghost that rocks Lightning Rod for Electric
protection and Bonemerang, which is arguably the best Earth type move in the
game. Alolan Muk is now part Dark which negates its Psychic weakness entirely
while giving it no new weaknesses. And they look different. That is important.
It feels like you are travelling with a new Pokemon and the new flavour text
about Diglett and its hair just punctuates the point that it is a different
Pokemon.
And
this is the point I want to focus on, because prior to XY, Platinum was my
favourite Pokemon game. SM is currently miles ahead in the lead, but hopefully
not for long, because DPP remake is coming up and the signal SM sends is very
positive for a possible amazing DPP remake. I predict that there will be Sinnoh
forms for old Pokemons. Of all the Alolan form Pokemons in SM, Grimer and Muk
are my favourite because their form changes made sense – it is explained that
Alola did not have pollutants for Grimer and Muk to feed on so they fed on
garbage, and therefore their looks changed and their habits changed. Why they
are now Dark type can be better explained but there is sufficient effort there
to make the change believable as compared to steel type Dugtrio with glorious
hair which looks more like a rejected Kalos Pokemon.
With
the success of the new forms, I hope the team moves even more aggressively
towards that direction because it is firstly, an excellent step forward in
worldbuilding and narrative through grounding the existence of each individual
Pokemon in practical reality. Many of the flavour texts in this generation’s Pokedex
reveal that Pokemons like Crabrawler are eaten by humans, and many other
Pokemons eat each other in the wild. The Alolan Sandshrew lives up in Mount
Lanakila learns how to resist the cold. The weakling Pokemon Wishiwashi learns
how to fight in a school instead of alone. This is more believable than Wingull
suddenly knowing how to summon rain, or Rattata having whiskers for some
reason. This brings me to my next point; I like how they are trying to make
each individual Pokemon more useful and unique, even if they are not up to
competitive standards. In this cast roster of over 800 Pokemons, many old
Pokemons have become simply lower-tier clones of new ones, and there are is
absolutely no reason for competitive players to take any notice to them. In the
best-case scenario, a change is made for a Pokemon to stand out, and at the
same time their change also makes narrative sense. Muk has a new ability that
is useful in double battles, its new typing bestows upon it Dark-type STAB and
Psychic immunity, and I have already said that its change is rather decent from
a worldbuilding standpoint. Marowak, a physical Fire/Ghost type pokemon with
exclusive access to the Thick Club and Bonemerang, is not just ‘another ground
type’ anymore; and the whole island-fire-dancer feel to its new design makes
excellent use of its old design to make catching and owning a Marowak exciting
again. Pelipper with Drizzle is now being considered in competitive, and
despite the ability change being its only change I still welcome it because
that means we get to see new faces at tournaments, but I do hope the Pokemon team
doesn’t go down this lazy road of just changing one thing, but combine
individualistic Pokemon character building, skillset, and ability customisation
to try and make at least one form of each of these 800-odd critters stand out.
It is hard, but all they really have open up to fan recommendations. A friend
just told me how wonderful it would be to have a Pokemon game set in the
prehistoric era, and immediately I thought about how Ancient forms of Omastar,
Kabutops, Archeops, etc. can help to revamp these lesser used Pokemon both on
main game teams and competitive teams and give them more personality, and more
love. Personally? Bug/Dragon Mega Flygon, please.
The
other formula breaking element in Pokemon SM is the trials. I am completely in
love with the Ghost trial, and everyone who has talked to me about the Fire
trial told me how much they enjoyed it too. I don’t think they can do much for
Sinnoh remake, but I for one won’t mind if they changed the gym systems
slightly just to make it more fun. Talking about that, I will be disappointed
if they don’t invite me to be on the BW remake writing team, because I have an
idea of how to make it better – long story short, the old team just screwed up
all that excellent build up the finale by throwing N out of the window and
putting in a regular bad guy instead. Which again, is relevant because the
writing in SM is pretty excellent for a game that cannot be too dark in case
kids get scared. Something the big bad in this game said in the end really resonated
with me, and Team Skull is really quite the charming ‘evil’ group once you get
past the cringe. The music is excellent. The Pokemon designs are excellent. The
trial captains are bursting with personality. There’s really nothing much to
say there because those things have been generally good in past Pokemon games
(except Gen 5) and there is no surprise there, although I have to say the music
is the kind of good that hits you right in the face and sticks in your head.
This is without a doubt my favourite Pokemon game. It does everything it is
supposed to do well beyond expectations, or to pure perfection, such as the
music. Unlike Owlboy that I reviewed earlier this year that was a great game
without a core, this game orbits around a strong philosophy of wanting to make
each Pokemon unique, and not simply ‘something you play in replacement of
another at a lower tier because Smogon said so’. I hope this is the new bar.
You can’t just make a ‘good’ Pokemon from now on. It cannot just be as good as
XY, or as good as this, we will be expecting more because frankly speaking, SM
opened too many doors for amazing possibilities in the future and it will be
disappointing if they decided to close them up again. Pokemon Sun and Moon is
the only game this year to threaten my current Game of The Year, which I have
reviewed on this site before, but I won’t give it my GOTY simply because the
Sinnoh remake may just be a step back and whatever SM has done here will be
wasted. On its own, it is an excellent game with a lot of polish, except for
minor issues I have with SOS battles and the beginning being extremely draggy,
which puts it around an 8/10. But as a game in a franchise that will be coming
out with more new games that can be equally if not more amazing because of the
possibilities this one hints at?
10/10.
