Pokemon Sun

 3DS
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1265 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 868 out of 1265
  2. Mixed: 186 out of 1265
  3. Negative: 211 out of 1265
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  1. FireDragon
    Nov 18, 2016
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have been with the Pokémon franchise since Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and I must say, the main series have gotten better over years! It was not until X and Y where I thought Game Freak finally revolutionized the series with 3D models and big beautiful landscapes to the point of making it great to play again. They finally changed the game for the better! However, it was not until I played Sun and Moon, where, overall, the games have changed the formula of the series in such a dramatic way, that it was not the way I was hoping for Generation 7 to turn out to be. With that being said, I have listed the pros, where the games did well on, and the cons, where the games did poorly on.

    Pros

    + The new forms for some of the Pokémon are fun to use

    + The Festival Plaza is pretty entertaining and a good way to get items

    + You're now able to heal status ailments by taking care of your Pokémon after battle

    + HMs are replaced with the more efficient Pokémon Pager system

    + Trials and Kahunas provide an interesting twist to the standard gym battle formula

    + The graphical upgrades make trainers and Pokémon look better and more interesting

    + Ability effectiveness now appears on the move select screen

    + A map on the bottom screen shows where you're at and where your next objective lies can be pretty helpful

    + Battle mechanics offer a new and fun touch

    + Does experimental things with formula

    + Riding Pokémon lifts the move limitations throughout your adventure

    Cons

    - Daycare only breeds eggs and no longer levels Pokémon

    - Very few Pokémon in game and no Pokémon Bank until January

    - Serious frame rate drops during totem battles and double battles

    - A lot of unnecessary cut scenes slow down the game. (I love cuts scenes normally but some of them feel pointless. There are quite a few cut scents that comprise of people only waving at you.)

    - No room to explore freely until almost the third island, everything is extremely linear

    - Alola Pokémon seem to have a low encounter rate

    - Not a lot of variation in Pokémon. Many places just have the same Pokémon with one new Pokémon added into the mix

    - Your dialogue choices almost have no impact what so ever

    - Your character's expression almost never changes which is a bit jarring when other characters are
    visible upset.

    - Double Battles chug rather harshly

    - More linear and easy going
    - Story less intriguing than expected and, at times, can be nonsensical and uninteresting - Z-move animations are way too long can and be boring to watch after several times From an overall standpoint, Pokémon Sun and Moon had many great points about it. However, the big changes to it feel as if Game Freak is trying to reboot the Pokémon series, even though it is already great. Instead of these big changes, why not just keep the gyms and add more Post-Game content to the new games? Taking pictures of Pokémon, challenges and trials from different characters, and fun minigames all feel like optional activities that you could do by yourself, but you are forced to do them in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Because of this, I did not enjoy the game, and I felt like they changed too much to the new generation. The game has its great and beautiful moments, but it also has it tedious and monotonous moments as well. * Now remember this clearly. This is just my opinion. Please do not feel offended by it. Thanks for reading my review and I hope you have a wonderful day!*    … Expand
  2. ke
    Nov 20, 2016
    1
    Why this game is pure garbage:
    1. Endless dialogs without any meaning
    2. horrible low fps
    3. still narly never in 3D
    4. Zero anti aliasing
    5. **** music
    6. Horrible long loading times
    7. Moore cutscenes than a telltale game
    8. Still much to easy
  3. randomnessiswow
    Nov 18, 2016
    4
    There are SOOO many cutscenes. I played for an hour, and literally 30-45 min of it was cutscenes. In addition, the load times are brutal, as every time you enter/exit a cutscene THERE'S A LOAD TIME. Furthermore, they found a way to make the training school required, which... I mean, just kill me.
  4. RealPokeGamer
    Nov 18, 2016
    3
    Pokémon Sun is one of those games that changes the face of a successful franchise in a bad way. Although it is a very fresh and innovative Pokémon game in the saga, it lost all hope when the developers took the most important part, Pokémon Gyms, out of the game. Without any badges to get, this tedious adventure lasts more than 30 hours with the least favorite story of the series. ThePokémon Sun is one of those games that changes the face of a successful franchise in a bad way. Although it is a very fresh and innovative Pokémon game in the saga, it lost all hope when the developers took the most important part, Pokémon Gyms, out of the game. Without any badges to get, this tedious adventure lasts more than 30 hours with the least favorite story of the series. The designs of the Pokémon and scenarios are very wacky, strange, and queer, and the graphics look alright and decent. The soundtrack is the worst of the Pokémon series, terribly depending on versions and sounds of other regions. What a disgrace. Without a doubt, the worst game in the Pokémon franchise.… Expand
  5. bigcheese53535
    Nov 19, 2016
    0
    This game feels more like some weird spinoff to the anime series than a mainstream Pokemon game. There's so many pointless cutscenes and dumb tutorials....it doesn't feel like a Pokemon game. 5 Hours in and I just can't play it anymore. Super boring compared to the other games.
  6. SteelDragon
    Nov 19, 2016
    1
    Big disappointment to me. The framerate issues and the lack of difficulty make this game feel as if they were antagonizing the older Pokemon fans while they let the younger fans depend on long tutorials and boring cutscenes.
  7. SkullShards
    Nov 19, 2016
    1
    The entire first hour/hour and a half is a cut-scene driven tutorial. You are forced down linear paths and need to skip through relentless exposition in order to get to the meat of the game. I found myself thinking at about the 1 hour mark, "It would be more fun to just play Blue or Gold again...". And now I am forced to watch the Pokedex blink at me every 3 seconds.
  8. labarith
    Nov 18, 2016
    1
    Cons:
    (old?) 3ds load times are ridiculous.
    TOO MANY CUT SCENES. I've played the game for an hour, and most of that has been me taking 2-3 steps and entering a new cut scene. Pros: It looks good. End of the day, you're going to buy this if you like Pokemon. But this is the first main-series Pokemon game to be legitimately unfun. Not "boring" or "slow" or "repetitive," but just    Cons:
    (old?) 3ds load times are ridiculous.
    TOO MANY CUT SCENES. I've played the game for an hour, and most of that has been me taking 2-3 steps and entering a new cut scene.

    Pros:
    It looks good.

    End of the day, you're going to buy this if you like Pokemon. But this is the first main-series Pokemon game to be legitimately unfun. Not "boring" or "slow" or "repetitive," but just a waste of your time.

    There are rumors about a new, better SWITCH version - in which case, maybe it's time to just not give Nintendo you're money anymore. Because ruining a franchise, and making people buy newer hardware to make it run even remotely well is not okay.    … Expand
  9. NewFaceofFun
    Nov 19, 2016
    4
    The only issue with Battle Royal is that the game’s performance takes a massive dip when four Pokémon are duking it out on-screen. These framerate drops happen more frequently than in previous games where two-on-two battles were the only serious offender, which is a shame, but thanks to the slow-paced, turn-based combat it never really becomes an issue, more an inconvenience.
  10. TheDonald
    Nov 18, 2016
    2
    I'll keep this review updated as I go but this is the most unplayable DAY 1 release I've ever witnessed and I've been buying Pokemon games on release day since red and blue back in the 90s. And despite being an oldie - I am definitely not the type to hate new changes. I loved ORAS and XY and B2W2 (XY had a small struggle because Nintendo completely bungled the Pokemon Bank release, but theI'll keep this review updated as I go but this is the most unplayable DAY 1 release I've ever witnessed and I've been buying Pokemon games on release day since red and blue back in the 90s. And despite being an oldie - I am definitely not the type to hate new changes. I loved ORAS and XY and B2W2 (XY had a small struggle because Nintendo completely bungled the Pokemon Bank release, but the game was still wonderful from day 1). The last time I was this infuriated by Pokemon was with the original Black and White when there was that annoying character following you around the whole game interrupting the flow of gameplay with inane button mashed scrolls of garbage small talk. However, this one is worse by far. It took 90 MINUTES of game play before I could even get to a Pokemon Center, save and discover that Pokemon Bank was unavailable (and sadly Pokemon bank is the least of my problems here). I had bred a level 1 Omanyte and Dunsparce in ORAS to try to make my first playthrough of Sun be more challenging (they tend to make each generation more and more idiot friendly - for example, taking away type-matching by giving players a cheat prompt now in Sun and Moon). Anyway, not being able to import my Pokemon was definitely a bummer and really inexcusable for Nintendo (they're like the lazy employee at a job) but still not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that even after 90 minutes of absolutely horrible intro-scene/tutorial patchwork, finally being able to get to the Pokemon center -- the intro-montage STILL isn't over! It's like they have gone out of their way to design a game that should have been titled "BUTTON MASH MEANINGLESS SCROLLS OF GARBAGE: Pokemon themed edition". Anyway. I'm super disappointed. I don't know how anyone is supposed to get into this story line with all this crap pulling you out of the game mentally. It feels like a chore to play this so far and it shouldn't feel like that after two hours. I should actually be able to play the game at this point.… Expand
  11. Ordano
    Nov 21, 2016
    0
    As others have stated: worst game in the series.
    - Terrible frame rates
    - Terrible story line (Team Skull was done particularly poorly with writing out of place for the series) - Deviates from traditional game formula in a negative way - Constant Loading - Constant Cut Scenes - The Rotom-dex is annoying A step backwards for the series - unfortunate that it happened on the year of    As others have stated: worst game in the series.
    - Terrible frame rates
    - Terrible story line (Team Skull was done particularly poorly with writing out of place for the series)
    - Deviates from traditional game formula in a negative way
    - Constant Loading
    - Constant Cut Scenes
    - The Rotom-dex is annoying

    A step backwards for the series - unfortunate that it happened on the year of their 20th anniversary.    … Expand
  12. dexMax
    Nov 19, 2016
    1
    This has got to one of the most disappointing entries in the series. The trials are stupid and boring. All the new pokemon are to damn slow and there is no national dex. What was Ganefreak thinking? One of the worst thing of all is the story. Pokemon was never about the story and never should have be. One of the worst things about it are the long unskippable cutscene that bring progress toThis has got to one of the most disappointing entries in the series. The trials are stupid and boring. All the new pokemon are to damn slow and there is no national dex. What was Ganefreak thinking? One of the worst thing of all is the story. Pokemon was never about the story and never should have be. One of the worst things about it are the long unskippable cutscene that bring progress to a grinding halt never mind the actual story is garbage. I want to explore the region on my own pace not the crap the game forces on me. There no good postgame to make up for it. Also pokemon calling for help is very annoying.

    Gamefreak scrape the story and refine the other good features just never make this kind of disappointment againm    … Expand
  13. gigus
    Nov 21, 2016
    2
    It is overall a very disappointing if you are a pokemon fan. There are some good things in the game but in the end the game leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. The main reason are the story cutscence
  14. Angrylittleman
    Dec 2, 2016
    1
    This game is great if you're five years old and have never played Pokemon before. For the rest of us it's a chore. Long cut scenes, forced tutorials, lack of freedom to explore, linear gameplay, too easy and just boring. I was skipping all chat as fast as I could without reading it. It's sad because I love this franchise to bits.
  15. SiCriCy
    Nov 20, 2016
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. going to keep it breif:
    -looks flashier than previose games resulting in slowdown in combat on a brand new 3ds,
    -loads of new well made cut scenes leading to unwanted load screens (so many loading screens),
    -a now MANDATORY and UNSKIPPABLE tutorial INCLUDING UNSKIPPABLE trainer school ~1-2 hour -FML,
    -no more puzzles, hm's and hm slaves, now a summonable mount that imo looks dumb af (way to overprotected and overdone riding gear making it look dumb, clunky, and overly safe for a shelterd 8 yr old to enjoy),
    -pokemon games have always been pretty linear with a little bit of exploring, but this is PAINFULLY LINEAR: rather than hm's that allow you to rexplore old areas, you have a free skilled mount to summon that directly allows you to progress with the fact that rather than puzzles or skill blocks you giet railroaded by physical barreiers to be removed after trial complete, i find this forced railroading painful and dumb

    OVERALL:
    aesthetics: 10/10 pretty AF, look great in all aspects
    story: 5/10, typical pokemon game with nice cutscens, but UNSKIPPABLE cutsenes
    quality of life: 4/10 LOADING screens, FORCED TUTORIAL, SEVERE BLATANT RAILROADING (no way to do anything you want in your own order since you MUST PLAY STORY to unlock ANYTHING)

    I personally think this is a one step forward two steps back kind of game; it has better visuals and looks nicer, but hardware unable to keep up and noticable slow downs appear in combat and sometimes lag spikes occur, MEANWHILE this game punishes you for knowing how to play the game by not allowing you to skip the tutorial at all and forcing you to further do an unskippable trainer school BS; compared to X/Y and ORAS this game was painful to play and painfully targeting a younger audience rather than aiming at a younger audience and accomadating the loyal generations that follow.    … Expand
  16. Hamish95
    Nov 22, 2016
    3
    I've been playing the Pokemon series since it's inception and over the years I've loved they new strategies game freak has used to change the way each game feels and plays, until now. This game would be a great game if it was a first in a series, showing plenty of bugs and making it not so challenging. From playing though this game I've found over half of play time is cut scenes and that'sI've been playing the Pokemon series since it's inception and over the years I've loved they new strategies game freak has used to change the way each game feels and plays, until now. This game would be a great game if it was a first in a series, showing plenty of bugs and making it not so challenging. From playing though this game I've found over half of play time is cut scenes and that's not what I want out of a pokemon game, yes cut scenes are great and help the story but there's a point of to much ruins it. As well as series frame drops when it comes to totem and double battles which have never occur in past games for me. The introduction of mega evolutions in just the last new games in the series being ditched for Z-moves that aren't overly useful I feel was a jarring mistake as Mega evolutions were loved by so many as well as removing the challenge of trying to figure out the next part of the story line that many have come to love of the pokemon series is what makes it so enticing, it's meant to be a challenge and overall I have found this game more cut scenes than gameplay, unchallenging with everything being handed to you, laggy and minimal strategy needed to be successful. The change of the gyms to trail however is something new and enjoyable even though they are fairly easy passed.… Expand
  17. Rickles
    Nov 28, 2016
    4
    Pokémon is giving way too much credit to Red, Blue and Yellow for its own sake. This fanservice comes in the form of Road 1 birds and rodents from every generation combined and spread accross Alola's 4 islands. The player is spammed with those useless, tired encounters throughout the game, ruining the experience.

    Zubat, Graveler, Dugtrio, Raticate, they're all back, and we're not happy    Pokémon is giving way too much credit to Red, Blue and Yellow for its own sake. This fanservice comes in the form of Road 1 birds and rodents from every generation combined and spread accross Alola's 4 islands. The player is spammed with those useless, tired encounters throughout the game, ruining the experience.

    Zubat, Graveler, Dugtrio, Raticate, they're all back, and we're not happy about it. To add insult to injury, they come in new flavors (new typings) that are considerably worse than their original counterparts and leave them vulnerable to an addition of other types, on top of former weaknesses.

    Pokémon in this game aren't well distributed. New creatures are hidden behind unfavorable 10% odds, daytime requirements, pin-pointed spawn locations or the new, frustrating S.O.S battle mechanic.

    Any Pokémon in a pinch will invariably call for help right before you can throw a Pokeball at them. This means getting stuck in never ending loops of respawns. This is annoying to say the least, seeing that most Pokémon will only call for copies of themselves.

    Some Pokémon call for otherwise unobtainable Pokémon, meaning that chaining is now a compulsory mechanic. And in a way, False Swipe becomes a requisite too. A shame, in a game that supposedly frees you of compulsory moves. This mechanic entails that you look for tips online to know exactly where to go and what Pokémon to chain to obtain a hidden monster.

    HMs finally disappear only to see the game become even more restrictive in its linearity and hand-holding.
    The story is bland and badly implemented. Dialog is immature and blithe even by Saturday morning cartoon standards.

    Technically, the game puts Game Freak to shame. It's simply inconceivable that such a game should lag so much. Both graphics and basic statistical calculus seems taxing on the 3DS. There is no stereoscopic 3D, and even the mapping of direction on the Circle Pad is imprecise and fidgety, making navigating menus a chore.

    Triple and rotation battles are a thing of the past, and inversion battles too (which saw the types affinity table overturned in a neat twist, and demanded that movesets be rethought entirely). The game's code couldn't take it, obviously, but here's thinking the 3DS itself actually could have, with some talent to back it up, which Game Freak has always notoriously lacked. The presence of the trainer's model, for instance, was an unnecessary addition, if it meant cutting off half of the game's modes.

    I couldn't really play Battle Royale, only because the main quests only opposes level 50 Pokémon to the player's lineup, meaning this is truly a post-game solo feature sitting in the middle of the campaign. Of course, up to 4 players may join in a joust, but putting it in the campaign at a time when no player may enjoy it is simply dumb.
    There are countless vexations in this game that make it a terrible iteration. Some will legitimately drive you up the wall, some are more subject to personal preference, such as the garish art direction and cacophonous score. But this is only my sentiment.    … Expand
  18. proxfrd
    Jun 22, 2017
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Worst main series pokemon game. Gamefreak focused solely on story and left the gameplay easy as heck. There are actual cutscenes that can't be skipped so you have to just grit it out and press A on the boxes as they come. The stories to these games have always been bad to mediocre. Focusing on the story didn't help that. After winning the championship, your game isn't autosaved and you're faced with the most horrendous, 30 min - 1 hour long cutscene depending on if you actually read the text. That is followed by the unskippable, 10 - 20 minute long credits. Also framerate issues throughout during battles.
    It doesn't seem like much, and I do appreciate the attempt at something new, but this endless garbage story is a huge leap in the wrong direction.
    Z-moves are cool. The new pokemon are cool, the gameplay is mostly the same.
    Solutions: Just put in a skip tutorial option and a skip cutscene option.
    Also fix the framerate issues, pokemon doesn't need to be that graphic intensive.
    P.S. You can't name your rival. Fix it    … Expand
  19. rubblecoder
    Jul 3, 2020
    0
    I swear this game was written by someone that wanted to annoy and frustrate as many gamers as possible. After beating the game it literally won't let you save for like a hour... wtf?
  20. Kartillian
    Dec 7, 2016
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've played every main series game in the franchise and I find this one to be by far the weakest.

    The problems are present from the outset, the game literally takes approximately 2hrs (playing at a casual pace and exploring a lot) before you're released from the cutscene purgatory, the cutscenes themselves wouldn't inherently be a bad thing except that they're borderline unnecessary most of the time, a lot of them are simply the characters doing simple gestures with little to no text. On top of that a serious number of them are a cutscene, followed by you walking several steps forward to yet another cutscene, the problem is exemplified in its agony by the fact that your character literally never changes their expression, at the apex of the main story arc when you find out the culmination of information, it pans over to your character to see you just stood there smiling while everyone around you is shocked and horrified.

    The second major problem is the animation, while a great deal of effort has been put into beautifying the world (and to its benefit), many of the characters you're forced to interact with have the same stagnant animation time after time, I can only see Hau waving at me so many times before it becomes a symptom of poor design.

    The storyline while impactful is incredibly short and sudden, this is both one of my biggest pros and cons of the entire game, I can do nothing but praise the level of care that has been taken to help forge a bond between the player and the fellow characters in the game, to which end you do genuinely feel for them in a way that no other game has so far in the series. However unlike other games in the series, the story isn't so intricately woven into the fabric of the game and simply comes seemingly randomly and in 3 bulk points that feel unnatural and forced, giving you little time to appreciate the world and its troubles.

    Another large problem is the severe lack of variety of Pokemon in the game, the developers specifically stated that they wanted to use Hawaii as the basis for the game due to the abundance and variety of wildlife and wanted to mimic that in the game, the series is now home to over 800 monsters and yet you'll see the same ones over and over, after your 20th Pelipper and 40th Yungoos, you really start to wonder what's happened to all the other Pokemon.

    The Island Challenges however are a huge praising point in the game, you still effectively get 'gym battles' with one of the Kahunas or Trial Leaders as well as some additional mini-game type enjoyment, the Elite 4 has also had a great small overhaul with you being able to battle the Elite 4 in any order, the trainers using some more powerful moves as well as them having access to some more interesting techniques, although the AI does seem to need a little improvement in these areas.

    The removal of HMs is a great change that many of us have wanted for years and the implementation of the new Ride-Abilities, while a little clunky in places, is a great alternative that they've found, however the 'gating' off of areas now is exceptionally obvious whereas before it could be obscured by you needing to get a specific HM, now there are literally gates with someone telling you to come back when you've got a Z-Crystal, its rather jarring and immersion-breaking to simply have someone tell you to buzz off and get a crystal that only a few characters have access too, so what do the rest of the citizens do if they want to get to the next town?

    The world while seemingly expansive is actually exceptionally linear with not much filling it, the world itself is physically large but the actual content to explore within that world is depressing light. The whole game may as well be played on rails between the straight forward routes and the constant steering cutscenes, this RPG world doesn't feel very RPG when you're told exactly where to go and what to do without much time to go off and explore for yourself, and lets be honest, the Pokemon games have always had a linearity to them but it's very poorly hidden and disguised in this game.

    The post-game is appalling, after you complete the main story arc, there's borderline nothing for you to do except collect the Zygarde cells and clean up a bit of UB-mess, thats it. The game dangles Kanto a few inches a way from your face, before cruelly snatching it back from you, it really does feel like this game has been set up for some DLC, which i'm fine with but putting icing on feces doesn't make it taste nice. The removal and non-replacement of the DexNav or counterpart is probably one of the worst mistakes that could also be made in this franchise, not just the game.

    The difficulty curve is also a fickle thing, the early game is borderline boringly easy, mash A, win battle. However the curve ramps up fiercely toward the end and actually provides a decent challenge in the late game, which is one of it's saving graces.

    Overall, a disappointing game is an excellent series.    … Expand
  21. Macka7
    Nov 21, 2016
    0
    As per usual when it comes to GameFreak, this is 2 steps forward and 60 steps back.

    So much for the 'fresh changes to the formula'. The trials generally suck and the Kahuna's are essentially gym leaders anyway. The game feels almost on rails with all of the handholding and cutscenes every five minutes. The supporting cast are generally irritating. The game was even easier than XY for    As per usual when it comes to GameFreak, this is 2 steps forward and 60 steps back.

    So much for the 'fresh changes to the formula'. The trials generally suck and the Kahuna's are essentially gym leaders anyway. The game feels almost on rails with all of the handholding and cutscenes every five minutes. The supporting cast are generally irritating. The game was even easier than XY for me, repeatedly OHKOing Totem bosses and Kahuna's with their three Pokemon are a joke.

    The game is a bit of a mess. Frame rate can't hold up very well in the new otherwise fun Battle Royale mode. The game constantly needs to load and 'cut away' whenever you interact with anything. There are loading zones everywhere. There are bugs with the way abilities and such work.

    I could keep going.    … Expand
  22. Blackbox20
    Dec 19, 2016
    0
    This game feels more like some weird spinoff to the anime series than a mainstream Pokemon game. There's so many pointless cutscenes and dumb tutorials....it doesn't feel like a Pokemon game. 5 Hours in and I just can't play it anymore. Super boring compared to the other games.Asd Come to this
  23. renegade96
    Feb 9, 2017
    0
    This game sucks. The rival is a total pushover, the story is stupid. The Aloa forms are stupid, instead of gyms you have challenges which are as easy as waking up. This game is a waste of money. The beginning is slow and boring as all hell. Gladion's sister does nothing but **** and whine the entire game. The villain is so **** vanilla it's unreal. These " beasts" are really, reallyThis game sucks. The rival is a total pushover, the story is stupid. The Aloa forms are stupid, instead of gyms you have challenges which are as easy as waking up. This game is a waste of money. The beginning is slow and boring as all hell. Gladion's sister does nothing but **** and whine the entire game. The villain is so **** vanilla it's unreal. These " beasts" are really, really stupid. What is this? Pokemon fanfiction the game? I did not enjoy one thing about this game. Not one thing. I really hated the Rotomdex. That thing was **** annoying. The only good thing about this game is that you can sell it at a pawn shop and use that money to by a game that is actually good… Expand
  24. AuldWolf
    Feb 3, 2017
    0
    It's just too linear! It's the Final Fantasy XIII of Pokémon games, it really is. For me, that's a huge disappointment. I feel that the strength of Japanese games development lies in the Metroidvania feel. It's where they excel. A world where you can revisit older parts of it and sometimes discover new things; You've unlocked a new ability, so perhaps now it's time to go back and checkIt's just too linear! It's the Final Fantasy XIII of Pokémon games, it really is. For me, that's a huge disappointment. I feel that the strength of Japanese games development lies in the Metroidvania feel. It's where they excel. A world where you can revisit older parts of it and sometimes discover new things; You've unlocked a new ability, so perhaps now it's time to go back and check that area you couldn't pass to see if there's anything new there. You may get a new bit of story (maybe even pertaining to a specific character), you may get a new item, but it'll be worth going to nose around the places you've been and it would give you a new appreciation for those places.

    Sun & Moon is a neverending road onward. It continually plows forward with only minor interruptions in a very direct road. It's exactly like Final Fantasy XIII. I've been trying to enjoy it, but i simply can't. I know a lot of extraverted people speak about the "hassle" of HM slaves because it's too much to manage, it was too much freedom for them, too many options! And whilst I can see that to a degree, I also enjoyed the freedom of choosing which Pokémon served my travel needs. It was a freedom I liked. From numerous perspectives, customisation matters to me, and it's a bit confusing that this type of customisation no longer matters to Nintendo since they've been pushing trainer customisation so hard.

    At the end of the day, Sun & Moon just feel cloyingly locked in and bereft of options and choices. I am a robot, I follow this line on the ground, I battle the interruptions, I obey. Might be fun for people who just don't want to think, but that's no fun for me.    … Expand
  25. Amfibios
    Oct 23, 2017
    3
    i've been playing pokemon since the original red and blue and this is the first time a pokemon game has bored me out of my mind.

    it's basically like watching an interactive movie where u just watch for 5 minutes while they're shoving the game's story down your throat, then back to the world, only to go the next objective pointed on the map where another 3 minute cutscene will pop up    i've been playing pokemon since the original red and blue and this is the first time a pokemon game has bored me out of my mind.

    it's basically like watching an interactive movie where u just watch for 5 minutes while they're shoving the game's story down your throat, then back to the world, only to go the next objective pointed on the map where another 3 minute cutscene will pop up only to be followed by a stupidly easy fight of non interesting npcs and then go back to the world where every way is blocked off, except the one THEY want u to take.

    0 interest in the story, 0 exploration, annoying npcs spamming the same animations over and over, everytime u meet them (somehow they keep popping up every 10 steps u take).

    npcs just seem to be so nice giving away charizards and lapras for free so that u'll use them to travel the world, monster encounters somehow is like 90% gen 1 pokemon. mega evolutions are basically non existent and noone's even talking about them as now everyone's focusing on the brand new z powers. no national pokedex.

    i wanted to love it, i TRIED to like it. it started holding my hand since the 1st minute and i was telling myself it'll get better, but it didn't. it kept my interest for a little while until it fell flat on its face and i couldn't find myself playing it anymore.

    they did try making some "innovations" but it wasn't even enough to be considered a whole new gen, just rehashed **** everywhere. if u like pokemon for the exploration and the quest for unveiling the mysteries of the world/pokemon, u'll find none of that here, steer clear.    … Expand
  26. EmirKhorasani
    Aug 18, 2017
    0
    This game was the culmination of taking all of the worst parts of pokemon and putting them front and center. 60% of the game is spent mashing the A button through the pointless slow grueling mucked up narrative. The other 40% spends a lot of time in loading screens and animations. It's actually 13.4 seconds from losing control to gaining it again in wild battles. The pokemon themselvesThis game was the culmination of taking all of the worst parts of pokemon and putting them front and center. 60% of the game is spent mashing the A button through the pointless slow grueling mucked up narrative. The other 40% spends a lot of time in loading screens and animations. It's actually 13.4 seconds from losing control to gaining it again in wild battles. The pokemon themselves used to be the compelling feature which pushed exploration, and dialogue used to be optional. That's what made pokemon greak. This is a horrible, horrible game.… Expand
  27. CaueV
    Feb 20, 2018
    0
    This game deserves an award for disappointment. First of all why does the tutorial last almost an hour? It’s not rocket science. All previous games gave you a 10 minute tutorial at max. People are not that stupid. And well, I guess most reviewers buy a Pokémon game to watch the anime, because that’s all this game is. You spend 90% of the game on cutscenes/ loading screens. And the story isThis game deserves an award for disappointment. First of all why does the tutorial last almost an hour? It’s not rocket science. All previous games gave you a 10 minute tutorial at max. People are not that stupid. And well, I guess most reviewers buy a Pokémon game to watch the anime, because that’s all this game is. You spend 90% of the game on cutscenes/ loading screens. And the story is as childish as you would expect. Every dialogue is basically about the power of friendship or something like this.
    But the stupidest design choice is putting a extremely low appearance rate on most of the new Pokémon. So you bought a new Pokémon game and want to play with new Pokémon? You better do research on which ones you want and have bulbapedia open while playing so you can grind an specific tall grass for 20 minutes until the Pokémon you want shows up. Otherwise you would most likely finish the game asking yourself where is half of the new creatures.
    And what a stupid idea is z-moves. Omg please remove this from the next game. 1 hit KO moves with long animations. Wow, they add so much to the gameplay. Mega evolutions did such a good job bringing back Pokémon that were useless before it, and then they got carried away and invented this garbage.
    It’s surprising how they got everything right on X/Y and managed to throw all that away, go to the opposite direction and make such an atrocity. Takes skill for that.

    X/Y still the best games in the series    … Expand
  28. Braduk
    Sep 13, 2017
    4
    Pokemon Sun/Moon are by far the worst in the mainline series.
    Pros:
    --Bottle Cap system to allow pseudo-IV maxing --The ability to send Pokemon from your party to the PC when catching other Pokemon --Simple and effective egg hatching route (in the sense that this time it's just a square) --Shiny Charm now only requires the regional dex to be completed --Battle Tree --The Mini    Pokemon Sun/Moon are by far the worst in the mainline series.
    Pros:
    --Bottle Cap system to allow pseudo-IV maxing
    --The ability to send Pokemon from your party to the PC when catching other Pokemon
    --Simple and effective egg hatching route (in the sense that this time it's just a square)
    --Shiny Charm now only requires the regional dex to be completed
    --Battle Tree
    --The Mini islands where you plant berries, EV train, etc are a cool idea

    Cons:
    --Excessive amount of cutscenes, to the point where nearly every route has at least one cutscene (and the intro itself takes 12 minutes for a speedrunner to complete, far far longer for the average player)
    --Excessive levels of handholding, I'm aware the series is for kids but the past games didn't have this much handholding
    --Super easy, even for a Pokemon game. Not once did I have to repeat a battle and I finished the Elite Four first try with a slightly underleveled party.
    --Extreme linearity, even for a Pokemon game, with tons of very obvious and shoehorned route and entrance blocks nearly every screen
    --The majority of the new Pokemon designs are not very memorable nor are they very coherently designed, though this is a more subjective con I know I am not the only one who thinks this, and don't even get me started on Ultra Beasts
    --No Super Training, despite both past games having them and it being a very well-received mechanic
    --Mega Forms are more or less shoehorned into a place and it's clear they never really planned to have them back
    --Z Moves are broken and ruin battles, and are required in every battle just like Mega Forms used to be
    --The region is very bland, small, and not very varied between islands, it's clear Gamefreak had no idea what to do without the grid system
    --Certain Pokemon have a 1% appearance rate in areas and that is just stupid
    --Postgame is near non-existent, which makes the small and crappy region feel all the worse
    --Nearly all the new Pokemon have tank-based stats, making party building unnecessarily difficult unless you want a full high defense, low speed team
    --The Trials are a poor replacement for Gyms, if anything both could have been done, there's not even 8 Trials
    --The minigame theme park is not well-developed and does not reach its full potential

    Gamefreak attempted to shake up the series with Sun/Moon. But change is not always good. Bad change is possible. And most of the changes in Sun/Moon are bad for the series. After how bad these games were I am outright skipping Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and may not ever buy a Pokemon game again unless the 2018 game stirs away from the type of game these ones are, and this is coming from the person who has bought and completed generations 1-6 of Pokemon before these ones.    … Expand
  29. Dalium
    Nov 7, 2017
    4
    This game is way too on rails and the postgame is aweful aside from Looker. The festival plaza is a confusing and unneeded replacement for the PSS. A bit harder then ORAS and expecially XY (thank god), plus the story is great. Way too much dialog though, and nobody asked for or wants Z-Moves. It also takes way too long to get your starter Pokemon.
  30. shoeless_sean
    Sep 3, 2020
    2
    WAY to many custcenes to start this game. Pokemon is supposed to be about getting thrust into this beautiful interesting world and being left to your own devices to explore as much as you want. The first 3 hours has over an hour of cutscenes and some of them end only for the player to walk 2 steps (i actually have counted several times) and enter another cutscene. The cutscenes have twoWAY to many custcenes to start this game. Pokemon is supposed to be about getting thrust into this beautiful interesting world and being left to your own devices to explore as much as you want. The first 3 hours has over an hour of cutscenes and some of them end only for the player to walk 2 steps (i actually have counted several times) and enter another cutscene. The cutscenes have two ranges aswell: 1 boring, unnecessary story that is not needed or desired, AND 2 unskipable tutorials that didnt need to be explained to 6 year old me but apparently need to be explained in depth now. I get this game is built for children but when red and blue came out i was a little kid and I had lots of friends who played these games as well as myself and we got along just fine.

    Gameplay and battling is actually worse since X&Y because they added in wild pokemon can now call for help meaning if you do not attack first or one shot the wild encounter pokemon you may have to fight several more, because they can call more than just one per battle. Also for some reason most of what the player will random encounter is gen 1 and gen 2 pokemon, and not even the alolan form ones. I saw at least 50 zubats, and 25 spearow in one two hour session at one point. I buy a new game that they could put in over 800 pokemon and 3 out of 5 encounters are from the first 50 of the Kanto Dex? are you kidding?

    Gamefreak apparently forgot what makes pokemon games fun, cuz this game is bad, especially by their standards.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best 3DS Game of 2016
1
#1 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2016
1
#1 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 87 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 85 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 87
  3. Negative: 0 out of 87
  1. Vooks
    Apr 8, 2017
    100
    Pokémon Sun and Moon make terrific changes the twenty-year-old formula, allowing new fans and returning ones back into the series with a wonderful lively and colourful world. It's just a little too easy for us who have been here from the start - but it's easy to forgot that when you're having such a blast.
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  2. Easy Allies
    Mar 19, 2017
    90
    If you’re a newcomer to the series, this is an excellent opportunity to learn the fundamentals in a laid-back setting. If you’re a pro, you’ll relish the new options in place for making your Pokémon all they can be. Sun & Moon is a Pokémon vacation we’d gladly take again.
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  3. Vgames
    Mar 8, 2017
    90
    These games exceeded my expectations by a mile. Pokemon Sun and Moon are games that every Pokemon fan and every 3DS owner needs to own. Nintendo and Gamefreak did an awesome job creating a great story and the changes they made for the format make the game feel fresh and exciting more so than ever before. The game has its minor issues like the end game and some performance issues on Old 3DS models but the soundtrack, the story and the new features more than make up for it, to make an unforgettable experience.
    Read full review
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