While we waited in anticipation of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Treehouse stream, Nintendo gave us an extended look at the latest installment in the Pokemon franchise.
For those that haven’t seen some of the trailers release in anticipation of this game’s release, Pokemon Sun and Moon received a significant visual upgrade, with larger character models and a slightly more adventure/cinematic styled camera angle than the isometric view of past titles. The battle visual features have also been improved, with a “shadow effect” cue that indicates that you’re within range of another Pokemon trainer (in accommodation of the absence of Pokemon’s old tile based movement). In addition, battles themselves have received a complete visual overhaul, preserving the actual location of the battles even when crowds are present, and ensuring that both Pokemon Trainers are always in view.
The stream also introduced added features to the battle system. One smart addition is how the battle menu feeds information to the player. Now, once you’ve battled a Pokemon for the first time, your move list will inform you which attacks are super effective or not very effective whenever you battle them again. This isn’t only valuable for players who want to battle Pokemon as efficiently as possible, but it also helps players who want to be careful and not faint Pokemon they’re trying to catch.
Battle Royal is a new game mode introduced to Sun and Moon. It’s a 4 player mode where each player can choose up to 3 Pokemon, using one at a time in a free-for-all battle. It’s slightly different to the dual Pokemon battles in past installments, as this opens the player up to having to pay attention to who’s left standing as anyone is a potential target for all players.
Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon will release on November 18th 2016, and will be available on the Nintendo 3DS.