News: Meet the Alola Trial Captains!

[bobandbill]

Introducing Lana, Mallow, Sophocles and Kiawe!

Click here or the image to read the article!

 

[Mister Coffee]

I like Lana's design the most, she seems quiet, humble, and possibly aloof, that and she seems like she specializes in Water type, my favorite typing. Can't wait to find out more about her.

 

[Hikamaru]

Lana is definitely my fave, because we finally have an important female Water-type user other than Misty.

 

[bobandbill]

For those who looked at the early version of the article, it's updated with screenshots of the 3D models and quotes from the official website about them.

 

[MegaKuriboh]

Mallow is just absolutely adorable! Kiawe is really cool looking too, I can't wait to fight him and his Alolan Marowak! I hope there's many more too, but these are really solid designs.

 

[kingdenas]

They all look awesome! I love all of them! Especially Mallow, even though I'm a water-type lover (sry Lana). She just looks so funny and extroverted which makes me happy for no reason! But in general, they are all super cool!

I have a question guys... Is there any info that points to the existence of other Trial Captains? Or are there only 4???

 

[blue]

Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Trial Captains yet to be revealed. It seems like these four are situated on one island whilst we have a few more scattered around the remaining islands. As for my favourite, it has to be Kiawe with his awesome Alolan Marowak!

 

[blue]

If there were more Trial Captains though... then how many Island Kahunas would there be? I was under the assumption that everything would total up to 8 people that would make up the Alola League, but I can be wrong, here. D:

Idk, I could be wrong. I was under the impression that there were more Trial Captians because, so far, three of the four that we have been shown all appear to be situated on the second island.

The final trial on each island is called the grand trial. It is a Pokémon battle against the kahuna who leads that island. If a trial-goer succeeds in clearing this grand trial, he or she will be publicly recognized as having cleared all of the island's trials and can move on to the next island.

Lurantis is the Totem Pokémon of Lush Jungle, the site of an Akala Island trial.

This would indicate that each island has more than one trial. Now unless these Trial Captails govern multiple trials, it would seem that there is more than one trial for each island each with their own individual captain. From looking at the map, it shows that at least three of these Captains are found on the second (Akala) island which is definitely plausible given there are 18 types. I'm not saying there is an Island Captain for each type, but I definitely think there are more than four. At least I hope there is!

 

[raxic_ex]

So... I recall a leak where Guzma and Plumeria hold the Dark and Poison (or is it Ghost?) Z crystals.
If assuming the trial captain and kahuna also gives Z crystals as well, each island consists of 3 trial captain and 1 kahuna, so each island will have 4 Z crystals available. 4 islands will have 16 Z crystals and add up from Guzma and Plumeria we'll get 18 Z Crystals complete set.

This means that we will have 16 trial battles against captains and kahunas. This also had me recall The Riddler leak where he claims that Sun/Moon has no post-region as the region itself is twice big compared to other normal game. Recent trailer already showed that certain places actually looks way more larger than they look in the Alola map, in the beginning I thought the Alola map looks kinda small but I was wrong. Now we know that the region is huge, I hope that there'll be 16 "Alolan gym battles", it's the HG/SS vibe, and HG/SS related to Kanto... And to be honest recent trailer showcase alot of Kanto and Johto pokemon in the wild "it all comes together in the end" I guess...

 

[MrGriszell]

Wait guys seriously? It's already been confirmed that there are more trial captains. All 4 of these captains are on the second island. Seeing how we face a totem Pokemon that represents the type of the trial captains trial we are doing we can obviously say we don't know the normal type trial captain. It's safe to say we are gonna have a trial captain for every type

 

[Hikamaru]

Wait guys seriously? It's already been confirmed that there are more trial captains. All 4 of these captains are on the second island. Seeing how we face a totem Pokemon that represents the type of the trial captains trial we are doing we can obviously say we don't know the normal type trial captain. It's safe to say we are gonna have a trial captain for every type

Well, we don't know of any others yet besides these four. I feel we won't get more trial captains revealed until release, but they could prove me wrong. Having one representing each type won't be a bad idea either.

 

[Hikamaru]

I know I'll cop flack for this, but I actually think Trial Captains may actually be easier than the Gym Leaders of previous games. It's been notable that Game Freak has been making Pokemon games more easy with the recent installments, and with the addition of active stat changes and type effectiveness on the touchscreen interface in battle, it's clear that this game is meant to try and help draw in newcomers.

 

[blue]

I definitely think there will be more than four, but there could be different numbers on each island. I can't imagine the first island (MeleMele) having that many, at most I'd suspect it would have two. iirc you need to defeat these Trial Captains in order to battle the Kahuna to then succeed to the next island. If the Trial Captains that we've already seen are on the same island, then that must mean there are more on the remaining islands. As I've said, I can't really imagine them throwing us up against four trial captains right off the bat, it will probably become progressively harder.

If there are two for the first island, four on the second island and then perhaps three for each of the remaining islands then that would give us a grand total of 12 Trial Captains. Each Captain will most probably specialize in a specific type which will probably correlate to the nature of the island. I can imagine that certain types of Pokemon will reside in specific locations on each island. For example, in the volcanic area where Kiawe is based, we will more than likely run into mainly Fire-type Pokemon. Overall I think the combination of Trial Captains, Kahunas and Totem Pokemon will make for a really good challenge!

On a final note, do you guys think that one of the ways to receive Z-Crystals will be from defeating the Trial Captains? Maybe not all of them, but with these Trial Captains specializing in specific types, surely it would make sense to be gifted with a Z-Crystal of the respected type from these Captains.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

It is hard to say if they will be hard or not. Honestly, I haven't found anything really challenging since I beat Red in Pokemon Crystal. I know what I am doing, so it doesn't seem that bad. But there is always one or two gym leaders that give me a challenge. Hell I lost agaist Valorie in XY and I had trouble with a few gym leaders in BW.

So to me, I think the difficulty is based on skill level. I think it is pretty obvious that we will battle them at some point.

According to what I have read, the Japanese Site says there is more than 4. but I haven't been able to find the exact area to confirm that.

As for pokemon they will have, I think that depends on where they are located and what pokemon are in the dex. I think half of them will have an Alolan Form on there team though, if we get one of each.

Also, the 4 that we know seem to be on Akala Island.

 

[MegaKuriboh]

I can't see them being too tough, as they seem to be trainers who test your bond with your Pokemon instead of your skills, and that's where the Kahunas come in. Still, I hope they're not X/Y level easy, that was just disappointing.

 

[Hikamaru]

On a final note, do you guys think that one of the ways to receive Z-Crystals will be from defeating the Trial Captains? Maybe not all of them, but with these Trial Captains specializing in specific types, surely it would make sense to be gifted with a Z-Crystal of the respected type from these Captains.

I think it could be a possibility, especially since I recall a leak or rumor that mentioned Z-Crystals being given by Trial Captains. It does look like it could make sense in theory.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I don't know if the trial captains will give us the Z-Crystals, however, they might be hidden during their trials. So if you are taking Mallow's Trials, somewhere in the are will have the Grass Z Crystal. But they could also give us them.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Speaking of the trials... I apologize if I missed this but: was it even revealed as to what the trials were going to be consisted of? Is it just going on a wild hunt for items or something...?

For the most part know, so far I think only 2 things have been confirmed.

Mallow - Takes you into the forest or jungle and makes you look for items.
Lana - Sends us out into the middle of the water for something.

But I don't think that is all for those characters, as both of them are seen in multiple areas. Let me see if I can find screen shots of them.

Then we fight the Totem Pokemon and then the Kahunas.

And with them giving us each Captain's Type Specialty, I am pretty sure we will battle them at some point.

Spoiler:

Each Trial Captain also has a set area. Mallow's is the Lush Jungle.

 

[raxic_ex]

Consider the trials as "quests" or "gym puzzles" of this generation. After completing the trials we get to battle the trial captains or totem pokemon. The gameplay will certainly be longer since the "gym puzzles" has switched from indoor area to outdoor area, where all kinds of quests or demands can be issued by the captains. That being said, I hope the trial captain can be better in Pokemon battles if we did get the chance to do so...

 

[Rivvon]

I ask this because I hope these trials are going to be more than just finding items because that's just boring.

This.

Consider the trials as "quests" or "gym puzzles" of this generation. After completing the trials we get to battle the trial captains or totem pokemon. The gameplay will certainly be longer since the "gym puzzles" has switched from indoor area to outdoor area, where all kinds of quests or demands can be issued by the captains.

This is solid logic but what needs to be understood is that depending on how much "longer" these "Gym puzzles" turn out to be, and depending on how many trials we have to go through throughout the entirety of the game, going on long fetch quests can get pretty boring pretty fast. But if only the first few trials involve a longer "puzzle" and then they start getting very short near the end it will just feel oddly-paced (think back to the long stretches in the beginning of XY with no Gyms, but then all of a sudden you had to fight one Gym after another in rapid succession--it felt weird, didn't it?).

There's definitely a delicate balance that needs to be struck when considering the full nature of the island trials.