Lunar

Age 24
Male
England
Seen September 16th, 2020
Posted September 15th, 2020
So from the latest Sun and Moon trailer, we saw the games will be set 12 hours apart. We got shown that this will make different Pokemon appear at totems, but how else will it affect the games? Will we get different trainers at different times of day? How do you guys think the time difference will affect Pokemon Sun and Moon? :)
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Tennessee
Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted 4 Weeks Ago
5,620 posts
13.1 Years
From what I saw in the trailer, there is still night and day in both games it would seem. I am just not sure what exactly it means.

They could be forcing us to by both games to get all of the story and pokemon. But we hardly know anything.

Honestly, I don't like the idea where one is day and the other is night if that is how it is.

Lunar

Age 24
Male
England
Seen September 16th, 2020
Posted September 15th, 2020
Honestly, I don't like the idea where one is day and the other is night if that is how it is.
By the looks of it, it seems like certain events will be in the day in Pokemon Sun and at night in Pokemon Moon. It will be interesting to see how Game Freak changes stuff in each version, whether an event changes drastically or it's just a slight change.

blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
Pulled this from the website.
In the Alola region, the Pokémon that you might encounter on the same route can vary between day and night, and so this time difference allows players to have a completely different experience.

And it doesn’t stop at Pokémon—some events are also different from one version to the other, so I hope you all can enjoy both worlds to the fullest.
It seems like Day/Night is a huge theme in these games and that the two have significant differences compared to past titles.
Male
England
Seen June 2nd, 2022
Posted September 11th, 2018
501 posts
7 Years
My interpretation of it was that Pokemon Sun has a normal day and night cycle, but Pokemon Moon is reversed. Offsetting it by 12 hours means that if you play Pokemon Moon in the day, it will be night in game, but if you play during the night, it will be day in game. A person with Sun might want to trade a day exclusive Pokemon for the night exclusive Pokemon of a friend playing Moon, since it's too much hassle for them to try getting other Pokemon late at night.

I'm sure we will still have version exclusive things, but this sounds more to me like we will have a ton of stuff exclusive to certain times (like Pokemon which only appear or evolve at certain times of day), which will be easier to get in certain versions depending on when you have time to play. For example, a Pokemon which can only be found late at night will probably be hard for most people to get in Pokemon Sun without messing with the 3DS clock. Meanwhile, anybody playing Pokemon Moon would be able to get it easily, since the night in game takes place during the real life day.

I would expect to see more of the same kinds of things we've seen before in terms of day-night exclusivity. We will have Pokemon exclusive to the day and night, like how Ledyba and Spinarak are in Johto games. I would also expect Pokemon which only evolve at certain times of day like we got in X/Y. The fact that the times are different in the two games add an interesting twist to this.

I think this is a pretty cool idea, though I was planning on getting Moon and I'm not too sure if I want it to be night all the time when I play.
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Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
I feel I saw this coming since there was a relevant leak that mentioned this and it was the same leak that did predict Alola Forms.

But onto what I else I think, I have seen people on Tumblr feeling worried that Sun will be eternal daytime and Moon will be eternal nighttime, but I think what's actually the case is that they will just be the opposite of each other based on your 3DS clock. So example, if your 3DS clock is at 13:00 (1:00pm) it will be day in Sun and night in Moon, while the opposite time of 01:00 (1:00am) will be night during Sun and day in Moon.
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Rivvon

Age 30
Female
USA
Seen 1 Hour Ago
Posted January 30th, 2023
2,770 posts
16.1 Years
This is really conflicting to me because of my own personal biases: I usually have the most time to play during the night and I've grown to love it. I highly associate Johto with nighttime because that's when I would play most frequently, and I loved exploring Sinnoh at night because some places were appropriately calm and serene while others were just bustling with nightlife. And in some cases, the fact that the game ran based on real-life time worked out nicely, too: I was "pulling an all-nighter" to finally finish OR and the sun was literally rising outside and in-game when I got to face off against Wally--it was epic!

But since I want Moon, when I play at night, it's going to be daytime in-game-- That's just going to weird me out... I really appreciate major version differences but this is just kind of wild to me. I'm definitely going to be thrown off by the offset time and my overall experience of the game is definitely going to be affected by it. I'm really glad to see they're taking advantage of day/night differences again but I still can't say I'm 100% on-board with the idea of the clock being offset in one version.


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Lunar

Age 24
Male
England
Seen September 16th, 2020
Posted September 15th, 2020
But onto what I else I think, I have seen people on Tumblr feeling worried that Sun will be eternal daytime and Moon will be eternal nighttime, but I think what's actually the case is that they will just be the opposite of each other based on your 3DS clock. So example, if your 3DS clock is at 13:00 (1:00pm) it will be day in Sun and night in Moon, while the opposite time of 01:00 (1:00am) will be night during Sun and day in Moon.
I think this is the most likely scenario, it's sure gonna be weird having a reverse day/night cycle though. I wouldn't like a eternal day/night system as I'll be getting Moon and these games look amazing in the daytime and especially at sunset.

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
One thing I could see returning in this game is Pokemon being available at certain times of the day, which I'm aware hasn't happened since 4th Gen. The Japanese trailer did hint at Drifloon being available during the day and Misdreavus available at night, the latter actually kinda makes sense when you consider Misdreavus (along with Murkrow) were catchable during night in Diamond & Pearl.

I think that because of the reversed time between versions, it will make getting certain time-of-day based Pokemon harder or easier depending on which version you're playing and what time of the day you're most likely going to play at.
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Age 28
Male
Oregon
Seen September 24th, 2018
Posted July 3rd, 2018
17,520 posts
13.1 Years
The return of an emphasis on Night and Day make this Gen more like the first 2 even gens compared to Gen VI, which to me felt more like an odd Gen, minus the whole 'a lot of new Pokemon thing'.
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Male
Seen March 5th, 2018
Posted December 30th, 2017
87 posts
6.9 Years
I feel I saw this coming since there was a relevant leak that mentioned this and it was the same leak that did predict Alola Forms.

But onto what I else I think, I have seen people on Tumblr feeling worried that Sun will be eternal daytime and Moon will be eternal nighttime, but I think what's actually the case is that they will just be the opposite of each other based on your 3DS clock. So example, if your 3DS clock is at 13:00 (1:00pm) it will be day in Sun and night in Moon, while the opposite time of 01:00 (1:00am) will be night during Sun and day in Moon.
If this is true, I don't like it at all ;_;

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
If this is true, I don't like it at all ;_;
I don't see anything bad about opposite time between versions. Basically, Sun will be following the normal time cycle based on your 3DS clock while Moon will follow the same cycle, but at the opposite time.
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Male
Seen March 5th, 2018
Posted December 30th, 2017
87 posts
6.9 Years
I don't see anything bad about opposite time between versions. Basically, Sun will be following the normal time cycle based on your 3DS clock while Moon will follow the same cycle, but at the opposite time.
I wanna get moon but playing it at night and in game is day isn't gonna feel right.

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
I wanna get moon but playing it at night and in game is day isn't gonna feel right.
I guess you could just set your 3DS time to the opposite, like for example, at 7:00pm set your time at 07:00 instead of 19:00. Remember that AM is 00:00-12:00 and PM is 12:00-00:00 and check each time and what it'll correspond to in-game.

I'm not sure exactly when the time of day changes happen since it seemed to change with every game since 4th Gen, but we'll wait until release and see how it's handled.
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Nah

Age 30
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9.5 Years
My interpretation of it was that Pokemon Sun has a normal day and night cycle, but Pokemon Moon is reversed. Offsetting it by 12 hours means that if you play Pokemon Moon in the day, it will be night in game, but if you play during the night, it will be day in game.
Ooooh that makes sense! I was confused with how they'd make it work with the 3DS clock, since in past games the in-game time would match the time on your handheld's clock.
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Age 32
Male
Seen August 21st, 2021
Posted August 19th, 2021
2,334 posts
15 Years
Yeah I think the idea is that in Pokemon Moon. If you're 3DS clock is set to 12:00 midday, in-game it'll be 12:00 midnight. It's just that the time of day is inverted in Pokemon Moon.

Personally I like this idea, I was planning on getting Moon anyway because of Lunala but I think it could be an interesting change of pace to travel as a sort of night owl. (plus I bet all the cities will be gorgeous when they're all lit up)
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Male
Lisboa, Portugal
Seen January 9th, 2021
Posted October 24th, 2019
1,707 posts
8.4 Years
OMG thanks guys now I understand! I actually tend to play more during the day, but I love nightime, so I'm REALLY happy that I decided to pre-order Pokémon Moon! I feel like adding different daytimes in both games, just make them more enjoyable! I loved the idea ^^
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Mawa

The typo Queen

Age 30
Female
Canada
Seen August 13th, 2020
Posted March 1st, 2020
OMG thanks guys now I understand! I actually tend to play more during the day, but I love nightime, so I'm REALLY happy that I decided to pre-order Pokémon Moon! I feel like adding different daytimes in both games, just make them more enjoyable! I loved the idea ^^
Yeah now I kinda regret my choice XD I have Sun.

But hey, I can chance the time on my DS too.
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深き海の彼方
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted December 17th, 2017
4,904 posts
9.5 Years
My understanding of it was like Caethil said: Sun has a normal day/night cycle while moon is nighttime when it's daytime IRL, and vice versa. Honestly when I first heard about it I thought it seemed like a bit of a gimmicky way to distinguish the two versions, but thinking about it, I can sorta see how this would be a cool feature. Since there's different Pokémon available based on the time of day, it'll be easier to catch certain Pokémon in one version than in the other. And of course there's always the possibility that there will be other side effects of the time difference that we just don't know about yet c:
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Age 32
Male
Seen August 21st, 2021
Posted August 19th, 2021
2,334 posts
15 Years
Would really throw me personally for a flip though, if playing real-time at night would result in Moon's in-game to be daytime and vice-versa.

Makes for an interesting experience though; glad I'm going to be playing Moon as my main game. n.n
I'm pretty sure that's actually how it works.

Like if you're playing the game at 3am, in-game the clock will be 12 hours forward so it'll be 3pm in-game.

Maybe somebody should make a time chart of some kind to demonstrate. (I guess I will if nobody else does)

Something I don't really understand though is that they outright said that the Alolan Raticate totem will be exclusive to Pokemon Moon, but what if you are playing that trial in the middle of the night? Since it would be daytime wouldn't that mean Gumshoos would appear? (even in Moon) Do they just not allow you to participate in trials at night in Sun and during the day in moon?
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Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
Would really throw me personally for a flip though, if playing real-time at night would result in Moon's in-game to be daytime and vice-versa.

Makes for an interesting experience though; glad I'm going to be playing Moon as my main game. n.n
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I am actually looking forward to playing a game where the time is reversed, so I can definitely understand you there.
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gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
I'm getting Moon, so it looks like on my first few hours of playing my game will be set during the night! By the looks of things the towns and areas appear to be substantially different depending on the time of day that you're playing. Obviously, I prefer how they look at night. 8)