Pokemon Sun and Moon: A Journey into the Seventh Generation

After 22 teaser trailers, multiple release updates, and dozens of "confirmed" and unconfirmed leaks, it is now mere WEEKS away until the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon. With that said, it's time to look back at the most common speculations that were made and how well they held up. Before we do, there are some recent updates that cannot be ignored. 

It didn't take long after the release of the demo on October 18th for fans to get into the game code and take a look at what kind of Pokémon Nintendo hadn't included in its teaser trailers. While there were some very, very interesting looking sprites, two stood out above the rest and began a wildfire on the internet. These two sprites were those of Alolan Persian, the evolution of Meowth, and Alolan Dugtrio, the evolution of Diglett.

Alolan Persian kept the purple palette of Alolan Meowth, but sadly lost all of its looks. Alolan Meowth  gained infamy among fans of feline Pokémon for its well-groomed aesthetic. Alolan Persian looks as though it's having an allergic reaction or ate one too many plates of lasagna. Perhaps in continuing with the idea of Alolan Meowths being pampered and coddled, designers decided to show what over-pampering would lead to in its evolution. Alolan Dugtrio on the other hand, looks exactly like regular Dugtrio. With blond wigs slapped on. Every time I see Alolan Dugtrio all I see and hear is the He Man "I say hey! What's going on?" meme. The only plausible explanation for this design choice that fans have found is that the blond hair is inspired by Pele's Hair. Pele's Hair is an actual, real life natural phenomena and form of volcanic glass fibre that collects on rocks and trees and the like. It is quite common in Hawaii, so I can see why it's being implemented as it was. It's still silly though. 

Now, some of the biggest theories surrounding Sun and Moon have to do with its placement in the Pokémon world and time line, and the true intentions of the Aether Foundation. While I'm a huge fan of time lines, having written several theories on the true order of the Five Nights at Freddy's games myself, I will only be focusing on theories pertaining to the immediate game play in the new releases. Starting with: the typing for the starter final evolutions.

Back in May, a fan checking source code in the Japanese Pokémon Sun and Moon website came across saved icon files for Ground and Fighting on the starter Pokémon page. This lead many to believe that there was a good possibility of Litten evolving into a Fire/Ground Type, Popplio a Water/Fighting type and Rowlet remaining Grass/Flying. Fans at least hoped that Litten would not fall into the seemingly never-ending cycle of Fire/Fighting starters. 

Did the theory hold up? Nope!

On the bright side, Littens final form is NOT Fire/Fighting. Litten evolves into Torracat, who holds a single typing status until its final form, Incineroar; a very Fighting-looking bipedal Fire/Dark type with its Pokédex entry boasting about its "fighting spirit." It almost feels as though Nintendo wanted Incineroar to be Fighting, but gave into the pressure and went with Dark instead.

Popplio proved itself to be the ugly-duckling starter Pokémon by evolving into the "pop-star Pokémon" Brionne before its final evolution, Primarina; the beautiful mermaid Water/Fairy Type. This was actually a small theory in itself that ended up holding out.

And finally, my little gentleman Rowlet caught many fans by surprise by losing its Flying typing after its second evolution, Dartrix, and becoming a Grass/Ghost type in its last evolution of Decidueye. I have absolutely zero regrets in choosing Rowlet as my starter with an evolution like this. Maintaining that it can still learn Fly. Please.

It's worth noting as well that each final evolution is able to learn a move specific to itself. Decidueye learns Spirit Shackle, a type of Mean Look, Incineroar learns Darkest Lariat, a move that ignores any stat changes in battle, and Primarina learns Sparkling Aria, which heals a targets burns.

The second theory has to do with the region players will be travelling through.

Even back in February, fans latched onto the clues that Sun and Moon would be taking place in Hawaii or a Hawaiian-esque region. This was spot-on when the regions name was revealed and players were comforted by the fact that they would have a system of islands to explore and not be restricted to just one. A second theory emerged, however, suggesting that due to an absence of a Pokémon Z game centred around Zygarde after the release of X and Y, and hints from Nintendo saying that Zygarde will be implemented into Sun and Moon in a very special way, that it is likely that players will be able to visit Kalos in the post-game. 

Did the theory hold up, eh?

So far, nothing is concrete. There are definitely throwbacks to Kalos showing up in the teaser trailers, such as Professor Oak's cousin, or Alolan Oak as he is affectionately referred to as, showing up in the game. In the most recent update, it was also revealed that the characters Red and Blue will also make an appearance in the game. While it's entirely possible that Kalos will be visiting the players more than the players will be visiting Kalos, I will be keeping my fingers crossed that inter-region travel will make a comeback in Sun and Moon.

Lastly, we will be looking back at a theory that I made myself at the very beginning of this journey: what does the bracelet do?

Back in June I wrote, "In the last generation, players were able to take their Pokémon's evolution one step further with the Megaevolution stone and bracelet. Could this be Alola's Megaevolution bracelet? Or could this be the rumoured fusion bracelet?" 

Did the theory hold up? No, but I was close.

While Megaevolution has been announced for Sun and Moon, the bracelet's main focus seems to be Pokémon-specific Z-moves. Other fans jumped on the bracelet being used for fusion as well, since the introduction of it in the anime with Ash-Greninja, but I have one main concern with this. In the demo, players are able to receive a limited edition Ash-Greninja, but it doesn't transform via the bracelet. Instead, it has a hold item that overrides its special ability, allowing it to "evolve" into its new form. I feel as though player-Pokémon or possibly Pokémon-Pokémon fusion evolutions are just too complicated to implement in the game, and are probably going to be saved solely for the anime.

With that said, the next update will be the last in this series into the seventh generation of Pokémon and will be a full personal review of the game. It's been quite the ride with all of the updates Nintendo has dished out over the past six-plus months. There have been ups, there have been downs and there have been some "why, why are you doing this to me" moments. But overall, I could not be more excited to see this new trial spin on the old Pokémon gym formula. Until next time!

SOURCES

Leaked Pokémon Sun and Moon sprites [link]
Pokémon starters [link]
Pokémon Sun and Moon location theory [link]
Pokémon Sun and Moon Kalos theory [link]
Pokémon Sun and Moon Kalos theory [link]
Pokémon Sun and Moon fusion theory [link]
Pokémon Sun and Moon mega bracelet theory [link]
Official Pokémon Sun and Moon most recent teaser trailer [link]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catlin Spencer is a long-time volunteer and news director at CJLO with experience in writing, hosting, producing, and training under her belt. A lover of satire, cartoons and video games, Catlin is a huge dork who is always one line away from making a really bad pun.