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"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Pokemon Moon
8 years ago
It’s time for the new Pokémon game review.
Pokémon Moon
Well, after doing a few other Pokémon reviews, you all knew a review of the new game was going to be incoming at some point. I had been waiting on this too, and here it is. This is the newest main Pokémon game, and I chose to go with Pokémon Moon of the two choices. Everyone knows the basics of Pokémon, but is the game still as good as it always has been, or has the series started any sort of decline yet? Well, let us take a closer look and find out shall we?
Gameplay
The basic gameplay of Pokémon is unchanged, so there is little need to go into all that explanation again. You all know the drill of going around, collecting Pokémon, raising their levels, and that sort of stuff. That stuff is unchanged and still the same and as entertaining as it always was. However, let us take a look at some of the newer gameplay elements that have been added in the new games to see if they help or not. One of the first big things people are likely going to notice as they are playing this game, that besides there being new Pokémon to catch, that many of the older Pokémon, especially first generation Pokémon have had some redesigns and type changes. This is explained as regional variants, so they are able to slightly redesign some Pokémon, and also changes their types to match these redesigns. An easy example of this would be Raichu, who is now part Psychic type and looks completely different than his original design. You will sometimes find people that have the original forms, but for the most part you are going to see the variants in this new region. I don’t have a problem with these variants, as it is always interesting to see and think about how Pokémon could change if they are in different areas. As long as the typings make sense, then I won’t complain. These aren’t replacements after all, as the original forms are still present after all. Another big change that will become apparent is that there are no gym leaders in this game. Yes, in this game, they changed the gameplay formula in that you aren’t taking on a gym challenge to become the champion. You are instead taking on an island challenge, where you travel between the islands of the region and take on the various challenge masters, which include some puzzles sometimes as well, before being allowed to challenge the strongest trainer, which is called the Kahuna. The Kahuna is basically the gym leader of the island, as defeating them is usually not easy, and you are often rewarded pretty well for beating them. I’ll go more into that in the next section, but changing this up is a nice change of pace, as this makes the game not be the same thing as all the others before it. There is more of a uniqueness that I enjoy by them trying something different finally. Another change is that the HM’s are gone. You may be wondering how they could take out a staple like the HM’s that have been around for so long, but you would be surprised that this was actually very welcome change. The HM’s would be taking up move slots, and you would often times have to either have an HM slave with you, or have to constantly go get a single Pokémon just to use a single move to get somewhere on the map. That is no longer the case, as they simplified this, so that it doesn’t become so intrusive to need to use environmental moves like that. Now, you have this ride gear that allows you to summon a special Pokémon when you need something like the HM’s done. You have Tauros who has basically replaced both the Bike and the Rock Smash abilities, as it can run around real quick, but also smash rocks as it runs. You have Charizard acting as your Fly HM. Lapras and Carvahna are both Surf HM’s, and Machamp being your strength HM. There are more, but you get the idea. These can be called whenever you want, and it never makes you use an HM slave or have to go get a Pokémon out of the box just to have to us a special move. This is actually very welcomed, as it makes things easier and not as intrusive as the HM’s did. Another new thing you are going to run into are the use of Z moves. When a Pokémon holds a Z crystal, you can have them preform a special fifth move that corresponds to the type of Z crystal they are holding. There are also Z crystals that are for specific Pokémon that will make that specific Pokémon do an even more powerful Z move. These Z moves are powerful attacks, but they can only be used once per battle, so you need to make sure you are using them at the right time to make them count. They do take a little bit to perform as well, so while these are good moves, you may not want to use them in every wild encounter, or you will be waiting a lot for moves to hit, when other moves will do the job more quickly, but leave you open to attacks. You need to figure out when is the best time to use these moves. They are a neat concept, but just don’t rely on them is all, as you won’t be using them all the time. Now, there is one new feature I have to mention that is not a welcome change. I get what they were doing with it, but they didn’t execute this in the best way. This feature is the ability for wild Pokémon to call for backup. This can mean you could end up suddenly finding yourself in wild double battles. That’s nothing new, as older games have done wild double battles before. However, this ability can activate over and over again to where it can feel like you are stuck in the wild encounter unless you run away. You will end up defeating the first Pokémon, and the other one will immediately call for backup and now you have two again, and it will end up repeating over and over again. This will get annoying real fast, especially since you can’t throw out a second Pokémon yourself, as you are still stuck with just one Pokémon against two. It is very easy to get stuck into a loop at times, and you will become annoyed that the battle doesn’t seem to be ending. What’s more annoying is that the calling for backup system is the only way to catch some Pokémon as well. You have to find certain Pokémon and that Pokémon then has to call for backup, which could then bring out the Pokémon you are looking for, a small percentage of the time. You see how this could get annoying real fast? Yeah, I get what they were going for here, but I don’t think they executed this very well. If they want to keep this feature, they need to make some edits to it real quick or people will become even more annoyed with it. One last thing is that they made it to where you aren’t going to be able to simply trade Pokémon up into this new game. They are locking it behind a pay wall if you want your Pokémon from all your years of Pokémon collecting. Yeah, if you want your old Pokémon, once it updates, Pokémon Bank will be the only way to get your old Pokémon back. That’s pretty low honestly in my opinion. Hey, you want all those Pokémon you have worked years getting? Well, pay us $5 and you can have them back! I still think it’s pretty low to do that to people, but I guess I get why they do it. It’s still pretty low to do that though. But as you can see, these are some of the highlights and the few lowlights I noticed while playing this game. While I may not have gotten everything, as you can see, there are way more high’s than low’s with this game when it comes to how it plays. They still managed to keep the gameplay fun, while adding some fun new elements that will continue to keep people playing for a while to come.
Story
I don’t want to give anything away story wise, but I will say that this is one of the more creative stories that I’ve seen in a while in a Pokémon game. You are a new person arriving from the Kanto region, into the new region of Alola. You just need to think Hawaii when you see this region. You are quickly introduced to the region and become a Pokémon trainer who is going out to take on the island challenge with new you friend Hau. However, you also have a girl that is involved with the story a lot too, named Lillie, who carries around a strange Pokémon as she looks to be trying to help it. You are going to run into Lillie often, as she is a big part of the story, as well as the Pokémon she is carrying around too. She has a bit of an aversion to Pokémon trainers at times, as she doesn’t want to see them getting hurt. The story is going to revolve around her throughout a great amount of the story, but I don’t want to give those spoilers away. Most of the time, you are still focused on you and your friend going around taking on the island challenge as you work to become a better trainer, which is nothing new, but the way you do it with the island challenge I mentioned before does make it different enough to keep it interesting for sure. You are likely so used to the gym challenge, that doing something is such a welcome change, that it does make the games feel different enough, to where it isn’t the same, but close enough to make you understand that you are doing something similar to what you always do in the other games. There is a new evil team in this game as well, though these ones I’m not as impressed with. Team Skull is basically a bunch of punk low life rapper types that just want to cause trouble, but the bosses, and take Pokémon from those weaker than them. They don’t seem to have some plan to take over the world like other teams, but they are still quite the nuisance and sort of represent a type of people I don’t care for too much is all. Each island you are going to travel to through this story is different from the next, and all the area leaders and Kahuna’s have their own personality and often times are run into a couple of times before you even face them. Most of them aren’t just people you see just once when you battle them and never again. The region feels alive and like people really are trying to do things on it, other than just standing in one place waiting for challengers. The story is almost hard to explain without giving everything away, but I will say, it will keep you interested until the end, as you aren’t expecting some of the twists they throw at you, nor how the island challenge finally ends, but that part is very familiar when it reveals itself later in the story. Your character once again will feel like the big hero, even though he is still a kid. I must say, you know a story is good when you want people to go experience it all themselves instead of just telling it all. So yes, go play this story, it’s very good in my opinion.
Graphics
The graphics are great in this game, as all the characters look like nice 3D models, and the environments look pretty impressive as well. People have sorted wanted traveling between areas for a while now, though with different regions mind you, but the aspect of each island being slightly different from one another yet still being the same region is quite neat. Each island feels like a different area in appearance, but the people and personalities you encounter are what keep it all the same region. The Pokémon look great and well designed, looking like you see them in the books and such with little being changed. Cutscenes are done well, and they all play smoothly as well. For the most part, this game looks great, and you know how good they have been making these games look since X and Y. However, there is one thing I need to mention that does make this game have some graphical problems. That is the fact that I almost feel like at times this game really does require the new 3DS instead of the older model. The main reason I say this is that while the bulk of the time, the game looks great, there are just little things that keep it from being perfect. There are at times areas where characters models can look a little pixely, but that isn’t noticeable as much as the sometimes severe slowdown that is going to happen in parts. For the most part, the lag and slow down isn’t noticeable, but when you start to get into thinks like double battles, my goodness, the game lags likely crazy when it is trying to start the battles, where you will have seconds of the models frozen in place, then there is a lot of delay between when you select things and when they happen. Yeah, double battles are very bad when it comes to the lag department, and anything that has a lot of characters on screen at once like that. I don’t have an new model 3DS yet, but I’m betting some of these might be different if I did have one. That just seems odd they would do that, but I’ve heard other games have been having a similar problem as well. It doesn’t break the game by any means, but it will become very distracting in particular parts of the game. The rest of the game is gorgeous, but you need watch out for those few areas where the lag is going to catch up with you as you play.
Sound
The game sounds great, as this game has another great score of music for the player to listen to as they are playing the game. The tunes are memorable and of course get me humming them as I’m playing. There are some familiar tunes and remixes to enjoy, as well as plenty of new tunes that not only can sometimes match the tropical region, but also just are nice to listen to overall. Heck, they even got Pikachu doing the saying its name thing in this game again. It’s a small touch, but an interesting one to suddenly change back to in this game. I didn’t ever hear the music glitch either, even with the slow down at times. The music would never change its pace, only the graphics would. Well, at least you don’t have to worry about the music ever going out on you, and a good thing too, because it’s catchy. I have no problems here, as the music does its’ job and has that catchy memorable feeling that I’m always mentioning to get a perfect music score out of me.
Control
The game controls fine, as getting the character to move all around is no trouble at all. Pokémon games have never been hard to control, as you are just running around a large land, and operating menus throughout the game. I did have some tricky times trying to understand the new sticky keys buttons to make the ride Pokémon work, and it doesn’t seem like you can make the fishing pole work by a single button anymore as well, unless I just missed it. So yes, while the majority of the game works fine in the control department, which does make little to say, there are those small little quirks I wouldn’t mind seeing changed, or at least explained a little better in my opinion.
Replay Value
The replay value here is the same as any other Pokémon game. Each play through of the game is as different as you make it be. This means that if you use different Pokémon, the game will play differently due to the different types and stats of the Pokémon you are going to have with you. While the story is going to be no different, and the way you get things done is no different due to the game being very linear, you still have decent replay value due to how different the Pokémon are and how different ones will make certain areas easier and harder depending on who you have with you at any given time. This is still a bit tricky though due to the pay wall being there in the future if you want your older Pokémon back, but it is still no different due to how different Pokémon change the base gameplay, due to all the different types and stats of different Pokémon. Yes, the game is linear, and we all know that at this point. Often times replaying the game is more about seeing how you are with playing with different Pokémon than trying to experience the story again. While it is a nice story though, the game is still very linear. Still, that’s not always a bad thing if the story is good, and your base gameplay isn’t that bad either.
Overall
I have to say that Nintendo and GameFreak continue to show why this series has been around for so long. The game is done very well, and it still feels like the same series people have grown to enjoy but with enough new things added in to keep things interesting. You have a great story, great music, and neat new Pokémon and twists on old Pokémon that you are going to be entertained for quite some time. There are small little quirks such as the lag issues, and the game being a little linear, but for the most part, you are likely going to enjoy this game and I would recommend it fully. Heck, when you hear that this game has been selling more than Call of Duty this year, you know it’s a good game if it can compete with that sheeple game. Go give it a try for yourself.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Pokémon Moon a nine out of ten.
Gameplay: 9
Story: 10
Graphics: 8
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 9
Pokémon Moon
Well, after doing a few other Pokémon reviews, you all knew a review of the new game was going to be incoming at some point. I had been waiting on this too, and here it is. This is the newest main Pokémon game, and I chose to go with Pokémon Moon of the two choices. Everyone knows the basics of Pokémon, but is the game still as good as it always has been, or has the series started any sort of decline yet? Well, let us take a closer look and find out shall we?
Gameplay
The basic gameplay of Pokémon is unchanged, so there is little need to go into all that explanation again. You all know the drill of going around, collecting Pokémon, raising their levels, and that sort of stuff. That stuff is unchanged and still the same and as entertaining as it always was. However, let us take a look at some of the newer gameplay elements that have been added in the new games to see if they help or not. One of the first big things people are likely going to notice as they are playing this game, that besides there being new Pokémon to catch, that many of the older Pokémon, especially first generation Pokémon have had some redesigns and type changes. This is explained as regional variants, so they are able to slightly redesign some Pokémon, and also changes their types to match these redesigns. An easy example of this would be Raichu, who is now part Psychic type and looks completely different than his original design. You will sometimes find people that have the original forms, but for the most part you are going to see the variants in this new region. I don’t have a problem with these variants, as it is always interesting to see and think about how Pokémon could change if they are in different areas. As long as the typings make sense, then I won’t complain. These aren’t replacements after all, as the original forms are still present after all. Another big change that will become apparent is that there are no gym leaders in this game. Yes, in this game, they changed the gameplay formula in that you aren’t taking on a gym challenge to become the champion. You are instead taking on an island challenge, where you travel between the islands of the region and take on the various challenge masters, which include some puzzles sometimes as well, before being allowed to challenge the strongest trainer, which is called the Kahuna. The Kahuna is basically the gym leader of the island, as defeating them is usually not easy, and you are often rewarded pretty well for beating them. I’ll go more into that in the next section, but changing this up is a nice change of pace, as this makes the game not be the same thing as all the others before it. There is more of a uniqueness that I enjoy by them trying something different finally. Another change is that the HM’s are gone. You may be wondering how they could take out a staple like the HM’s that have been around for so long, but you would be surprised that this was actually very welcome change. The HM’s would be taking up move slots, and you would often times have to either have an HM slave with you, or have to constantly go get a single Pokémon just to use a single move to get somewhere on the map. That is no longer the case, as they simplified this, so that it doesn’t become so intrusive to need to use environmental moves like that. Now, you have this ride gear that allows you to summon a special Pokémon when you need something like the HM’s done. You have Tauros who has basically replaced both the Bike and the Rock Smash abilities, as it can run around real quick, but also smash rocks as it runs. You have Charizard acting as your Fly HM. Lapras and Carvahna are both Surf HM’s, and Machamp being your strength HM. There are more, but you get the idea. These can be called whenever you want, and it never makes you use an HM slave or have to go get a Pokémon out of the box just to have to us a special move. This is actually very welcomed, as it makes things easier and not as intrusive as the HM’s did. Another new thing you are going to run into are the use of Z moves. When a Pokémon holds a Z crystal, you can have them preform a special fifth move that corresponds to the type of Z crystal they are holding. There are also Z crystals that are for specific Pokémon that will make that specific Pokémon do an even more powerful Z move. These Z moves are powerful attacks, but they can only be used once per battle, so you need to make sure you are using them at the right time to make them count. They do take a little bit to perform as well, so while these are good moves, you may not want to use them in every wild encounter, or you will be waiting a lot for moves to hit, when other moves will do the job more quickly, but leave you open to attacks. You need to figure out when is the best time to use these moves. They are a neat concept, but just don’t rely on them is all, as you won’t be using them all the time. Now, there is one new feature I have to mention that is not a welcome change. I get what they were doing with it, but they didn’t execute this in the best way. This feature is the ability for wild Pokémon to call for backup. This can mean you could end up suddenly finding yourself in wild double battles. That’s nothing new, as older games have done wild double battles before. However, this ability can activate over and over again to where it can feel like you are stuck in the wild encounter unless you run away. You will end up defeating the first Pokémon, and the other one will immediately call for backup and now you have two again, and it will end up repeating over and over again. This will get annoying real fast, especially since you can’t throw out a second Pokémon yourself, as you are still stuck with just one Pokémon against two. It is very easy to get stuck into a loop at times, and you will become annoyed that the battle doesn’t seem to be ending. What’s more annoying is that the calling for backup system is the only way to catch some Pokémon as well. You have to find certain Pokémon and that Pokémon then has to call for backup, which could then bring out the Pokémon you are looking for, a small percentage of the time. You see how this could get annoying real fast? Yeah, I get what they were going for here, but I don’t think they executed this very well. If they want to keep this feature, they need to make some edits to it real quick or people will become even more annoyed with it. One last thing is that they made it to where you aren’t going to be able to simply trade Pokémon up into this new game. They are locking it behind a pay wall if you want your Pokémon from all your years of Pokémon collecting. Yeah, if you want your old Pokémon, once it updates, Pokémon Bank will be the only way to get your old Pokémon back. That’s pretty low honestly in my opinion. Hey, you want all those Pokémon you have worked years getting? Well, pay us $5 and you can have them back! I still think it’s pretty low to do that to people, but I guess I get why they do it. It’s still pretty low to do that though. But as you can see, these are some of the highlights and the few lowlights I noticed while playing this game. While I may not have gotten everything, as you can see, there are way more high’s than low’s with this game when it comes to how it plays. They still managed to keep the gameplay fun, while adding some fun new elements that will continue to keep people playing for a while to come.
Story
I don’t want to give anything away story wise, but I will say that this is one of the more creative stories that I’ve seen in a while in a Pokémon game. You are a new person arriving from the Kanto region, into the new region of Alola. You just need to think Hawaii when you see this region. You are quickly introduced to the region and become a Pokémon trainer who is going out to take on the island challenge with new you friend Hau. However, you also have a girl that is involved with the story a lot too, named Lillie, who carries around a strange Pokémon as she looks to be trying to help it. You are going to run into Lillie often, as she is a big part of the story, as well as the Pokémon she is carrying around too. She has a bit of an aversion to Pokémon trainers at times, as she doesn’t want to see them getting hurt. The story is going to revolve around her throughout a great amount of the story, but I don’t want to give those spoilers away. Most of the time, you are still focused on you and your friend going around taking on the island challenge as you work to become a better trainer, which is nothing new, but the way you do it with the island challenge I mentioned before does make it different enough to keep it interesting for sure. You are likely so used to the gym challenge, that doing something is such a welcome change, that it does make the games feel different enough, to where it isn’t the same, but close enough to make you understand that you are doing something similar to what you always do in the other games. There is a new evil team in this game as well, though these ones I’m not as impressed with. Team Skull is basically a bunch of punk low life rapper types that just want to cause trouble, but the bosses, and take Pokémon from those weaker than them. They don’t seem to have some plan to take over the world like other teams, but they are still quite the nuisance and sort of represent a type of people I don’t care for too much is all. Each island you are going to travel to through this story is different from the next, and all the area leaders and Kahuna’s have their own personality and often times are run into a couple of times before you even face them. Most of them aren’t just people you see just once when you battle them and never again. The region feels alive and like people really are trying to do things on it, other than just standing in one place waiting for challengers. The story is almost hard to explain without giving everything away, but I will say, it will keep you interested until the end, as you aren’t expecting some of the twists they throw at you, nor how the island challenge finally ends, but that part is very familiar when it reveals itself later in the story. Your character once again will feel like the big hero, even though he is still a kid. I must say, you know a story is good when you want people to go experience it all themselves instead of just telling it all. So yes, go play this story, it’s very good in my opinion.
Graphics
The graphics are great in this game, as all the characters look like nice 3D models, and the environments look pretty impressive as well. People have sorted wanted traveling between areas for a while now, though with different regions mind you, but the aspect of each island being slightly different from one another yet still being the same region is quite neat. Each island feels like a different area in appearance, but the people and personalities you encounter are what keep it all the same region. The Pokémon look great and well designed, looking like you see them in the books and such with little being changed. Cutscenes are done well, and they all play smoothly as well. For the most part, this game looks great, and you know how good they have been making these games look since X and Y. However, there is one thing I need to mention that does make this game have some graphical problems. That is the fact that I almost feel like at times this game really does require the new 3DS instead of the older model. The main reason I say this is that while the bulk of the time, the game looks great, there are just little things that keep it from being perfect. There are at times areas where characters models can look a little pixely, but that isn’t noticeable as much as the sometimes severe slowdown that is going to happen in parts. For the most part, the lag and slow down isn’t noticeable, but when you start to get into thinks like double battles, my goodness, the game lags likely crazy when it is trying to start the battles, where you will have seconds of the models frozen in place, then there is a lot of delay between when you select things and when they happen. Yeah, double battles are very bad when it comes to the lag department, and anything that has a lot of characters on screen at once like that. I don’t have an new model 3DS yet, but I’m betting some of these might be different if I did have one. That just seems odd they would do that, but I’ve heard other games have been having a similar problem as well. It doesn’t break the game by any means, but it will become very distracting in particular parts of the game. The rest of the game is gorgeous, but you need watch out for those few areas where the lag is going to catch up with you as you play.
Sound
The game sounds great, as this game has another great score of music for the player to listen to as they are playing the game. The tunes are memorable and of course get me humming them as I’m playing. There are some familiar tunes and remixes to enjoy, as well as plenty of new tunes that not only can sometimes match the tropical region, but also just are nice to listen to overall. Heck, they even got Pikachu doing the saying its name thing in this game again. It’s a small touch, but an interesting one to suddenly change back to in this game. I didn’t ever hear the music glitch either, even with the slow down at times. The music would never change its pace, only the graphics would. Well, at least you don’t have to worry about the music ever going out on you, and a good thing too, because it’s catchy. I have no problems here, as the music does its’ job and has that catchy memorable feeling that I’m always mentioning to get a perfect music score out of me.
Control
The game controls fine, as getting the character to move all around is no trouble at all. Pokémon games have never been hard to control, as you are just running around a large land, and operating menus throughout the game. I did have some tricky times trying to understand the new sticky keys buttons to make the ride Pokémon work, and it doesn’t seem like you can make the fishing pole work by a single button anymore as well, unless I just missed it. So yes, while the majority of the game works fine in the control department, which does make little to say, there are those small little quirks I wouldn’t mind seeing changed, or at least explained a little better in my opinion.
Replay Value
The replay value here is the same as any other Pokémon game. Each play through of the game is as different as you make it be. This means that if you use different Pokémon, the game will play differently due to the different types and stats of the Pokémon you are going to have with you. While the story is going to be no different, and the way you get things done is no different due to the game being very linear, you still have decent replay value due to how different the Pokémon are and how different ones will make certain areas easier and harder depending on who you have with you at any given time. This is still a bit tricky though due to the pay wall being there in the future if you want your older Pokémon back, but it is still no different due to how different Pokémon change the base gameplay, due to all the different types and stats of different Pokémon. Yes, the game is linear, and we all know that at this point. Often times replaying the game is more about seeing how you are with playing with different Pokémon than trying to experience the story again. While it is a nice story though, the game is still very linear. Still, that’s not always a bad thing if the story is good, and your base gameplay isn’t that bad either.
Overall
I have to say that Nintendo and GameFreak continue to show why this series has been around for so long. The game is done very well, and it still feels like the same series people have grown to enjoy but with enough new things added in to keep things interesting. You have a great story, great music, and neat new Pokémon and twists on old Pokémon that you are going to be entertained for quite some time. There are small little quirks such as the lag issues, and the game being a little linear, but for the most part, you are likely going to enjoy this game and I would recommend it fully. Heck, when you hear that this game has been selling more than Call of Duty this year, you know it’s a good game if it can compete with that sheeple game. Go give it a try for yourself.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Pokémon Moon a nine out of ten.
Gameplay: 9
Story: 10
Graphics: 8
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 9
