News: Pokémon Sun & Moon Officially Announced [Summary of news here!]

[MarinoKadame]

I'm expecting at least a dark-skinned with light hairs default female protagonist, Serena default was not dark-skinned tho but at least we got the choice of it.

We got too much of the same skin color and hair colors that are kind of the same on all the protagonists, some of em were blue haired at least but other than Blue and Brown we only got Serena that had an honey colored hair who looked more like a really light brown mixed with blonde.

Even the new May kind of had about the same color as default Serena.

 

[TCB]

So is this the longest time between just the titles and logos for a new generational pair of games and an accompanying first look of gameplay we had in a while? Correct me if im wrong, but for X&Y we had footage right off the bat and for ORAS we had that snippet of Kyorge and Groudon about a week later? Even Black and White had some form of gameplay roughly a week after its logos and titles were revealed.

 

[Hikamaru]

It's definitely a visible pattern between alternating generations. That being said, S/M could still give us more pokemon than gen 6 did, yet still give us less than any other previous odd numbered generation. I do agree it feels like they're starting to slow down on that front.

Looking through serebii news archives from 2010 and 2013, I'm thinking we won't see anything like mascot legendaries or starters until around May. I hope I'm wrong though. I can't imagine corocoro's "first Sun and Moon feature" to be something like Magearna's typing, and if they were to show the concept art from the announcement trailer, that'd just be silly imo.

May 2010 the mascot and region names were revealed. In February 2013 Sylveon was shown.

As ORandAS mentioned, we have had a few outliers in terms of announcement of new info patterns. I know that with B/W the starters and region name were revealed in May 2010, while X/Y had the mascots and starters as the first new Pokemon shown (not counting early anime appearances of new Pokemon) in the trailer from January 2013 shown in a Nintendo Direct presentation with Sylveon being revealed the following month.

If this month's issue (which is the May 2016 issue) reveals starters, mascots and (maybe) the region name as well, it would definitely be close to when B/W's info regarding that was revealed.

 

[Pokemon_Hero]

Gen 6 introduced less than 100 because of the hard work they had in the 3DS. They had to work on this system and have all the old pokemon in this console.

But gen 7 will be different. They had the 3DS ready and easy to make a gen with. I'm sure there are at least 100 new pokemons.

 

[Hikamaru]

Gen 6 introduced less than 100 because of the hard work they had in the 3DS. They had to work on this system and have all the old pokemon in this console.

But gen 7 will be different. They had the 3DS ready and easy to make a gen with. I'm sure there are at least 100 new pokemons.

I can see your point. I feel like the small number of new Pokemon in 6th Gen and the "blandness" of X/Y that people seem to notice was sort of to make the games look like a testing ground for the 3DS's capabilities for a full-scale main series Pokemon game. The graphics have to admit blew me away because I was surprised the 3DS handled that much rendering that X/Y had in regards to the Pokemon models and how they looked very smooth compared to games like Stadium, Colosseum, XD and Battle Revolution. Heck, even the PokePark games on Wii have smoother models that were animated well even before 6th Gen came out.

Both the generations that took place on the 3DS, 4th Gen and 5th Gen, had their overworlds be a hybrid of both 2D and 3D, with the notable 3D rendering being the buildings and trees. 5th Gen's building models were more advanced than 4th Gen, and the additional camera angles in 5th Gen shown with Castelia City showed how well the DS was able to handle such graphics, and 6th Gen added even more camera angle changes.

What we all know from this is how much Game Freak loves to push to the limit when it comes to making Pokemon games look great on your typical Nintendo handhelds.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I can see your point. I feel like the small number of new Pokemon in 6th Gen and the "blandness" of X/Y that people seem to notice was sort of to make the games look like a testing ground for the 3DS's capabilities for a full-scale main series Pokemon game. The graphics have to admit blew me away because I was surprised the 3DS handled that much rendering that X/Y had in regards to the Pokemon models and how they looked very smooth compared to games like Stadium, Colosseum, XD and Battle Revolution. Heck, even the PokePark games on Wii have smoother models that were animated well even before 6th Gen came out.

Both the generations that took place on the 3DS, 4th Gen and 5th Gen, had their overworlds be a hybrid of both 2D and 3D, with the notable 3D rendering being the buildings and trees. 5th Gen's building models were more advanced than 4th Gen, and the additional camera angles in 5th Gen shown with Castelia City showed how well the DS was able to handle such graphics, and 6th Gen added even more camera angle changes.

What we all know from this is how much Game Freak loves to push to the limit when it comes to making Pokemon games look great on your typical Nintendo handhelds.

People also called DP obviousbeta for the DS, and some felt the same way with RS and the GBA. So it's kind of a new system thing. Or course DP were in development for awhile, even having a year delay. While Gen III ended up getting missing stuff like all the sevii islands and Shellos.

Gen 6 introduced less than 100 because of the hard work they had in the 3DS. They had to work on this system and have all the old pokemon in this console.

But gen 7 will be different. They had the 3DS ready and easy to make a gen with. I'm sure there are at least 100 new pokemons.

Yeah, they do. Plus they got an entire year or year of not working on another game (depending if this is they XY team or OrAs team).

 

[MarinoKadame]

Since Game Freak kind of count Mega Evolution as new Pokemon for them it's 120 new Pokemon for Gen 6. There's 48 Mega Evolutions for now. Johto added only 100 new Pokemon before that.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I do agree it feels like they're starting to slow down on that front.

Really? It was only in 2010 that they introduced the most Pokemon ever in a generation. 5th gen wasn't that long ago.

One generation of low Pokemon doesn't create a trend.

Granted I don't think we'll ever reach the heights of 5th gen again in terms of new Pokemon, but I don't think we're necessarily going to start getting less and less Pokemon each generation from now on. I could see the high/low pattern becoming tighter in future though. Less "107 to 156 to 72" and more "72 to 90 to 80".

 

[Xander Olivieri]

For a little sake of clarity.

Gen 1 introduced 151 Pokemon (001-151)
Gen 2 introduced 100 Pokemon (152-251)
Gen 3 introduced 134 Pokemon (252-386)
Gen 4 introduced 106 Pokemon (387-493)
Gen 5 introduced 156 Pokemon (494-649)
Gen 6 introduced 071 Pokemon (650-721)


Doing this for those reading and confused by the high-low pattern that is being mentioned. This count does not include Alternate Formes, this is straight Pokedex numbers. Alternate Formes unfortunately do count as "New Pokemon" as they typically have to recreate the "sprites" for them. Sometimes they have to make new stats and balance them as they would normal Pokemon.

So if you want to count formes in this:

Gen 1 introduced 151 + 0 (no extra forms or anything)
Gen 2 introduced 100 +276 (shiny sprites) +25 (Unown)
Gen 3 introduced 134 +140((unknown Spinda count left out)) (Shiny) +3 (Castform) +??? (Spinda's spots)((Unknown value based on Personality value.)) +3 (Deoxys) ((Both sets of Castform and Deoxys being one of the balance changes))
Gen 4 introduced 106 +135 (Shiny) +2 (Burmy) +2 (Wormadam) +1(Shellos) +1 (Gastrodon) +5 (Rotom) +1 (Shaymin) +1 (Giratina) +16 (Arceus)
Gen 5 introduced 156 +176 (shiny) +1 (Basculin) +1 (Darmanitan) +3 (Deerling) +3 (Sawsbuck) +1 (Frillish) +1 (Jellicent) +1 (Thundurus) +1 (Tornadus) +1 (Landourus) +2 (Kyurem) +1 (Meloetta) +1 (Keldeo) +3 (Genesect)
Gen 6 introduced 071 +168 (Shiny) +19 (Vivillon) +4 (Flabebe) +5 (Floette) +4 (Florges) +9 (Furfrou) +1 (Meowstic) +3 (Pumpkaboo) +3 (Gourgeist) +1 Hoopa +28 Mega Evolutions (XY) +20 Mega Evolutions (ORAS)


Totalling out around

151 Gen 1
401 Gen 2
280 Gen 3
270 Gen 4
352 Gen 5
337 Gen 6

(I forgot when Gender difference was added so when they are added it it'll increase the counts from that point on. This counts both Aesthetic changes and actual combat changes for form differences since each are designed pretty much from scratch and take up a lot of resources.)

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

For a little sake of clarity.

Gen 1 introduced 151 Pokemon (001-151)
Gen 2 introduced 100 Pokemon (152-251)
Gen 3 introduced 134 Pokemon (252-386)
Gen 4 introduced 106 Pokemon (387-493)
Gen 5 introduced 156 Pokemon (494-649)
Gen 6 introduced 071 Pokemon (650-721)


Doing this for those reading and confused by the high-low pattern that is being mentioned. This count does not include Alternate Formes, this is straight Pokedex numbers. Alternate Formes unfortunately do count as "New Pokemon" as they typically have to recreate the "sprites" for them. Sometimes they have to make new stats and balance them as they would normal Pokemon.

So if you want to count formes in this:

Gen 1 introduced 151 + 0 (no extra forms or anything)
Gen 2 introduced 100 +276 (shiny sprites) +25 (Unown)
Gen 3 introduced 134 +140((unknown Spinda count left out)) (Shiny) +3 (Castform) +??? (Spinda's spots)((Unknown value based on Personality value.)) +3 (Deoxys) ((Both sets of Castform and Deoxys being one of the balance changes))
Gen 4 introduced 106 +135 (Shiny) +2 (Burmy) +2 (Wormadam) +1(Shellos) +1 (Gastrodon) +5 (Rotom) +1 (Shaymin) +1 (Giratina) +16 (Arceus)
Gen 5 introduced 156 +176 (shiny) +1 (Basculin) +1 (Darmanitan) +3 (Deerling) +3 (Sawsbuck) +1 (Frillish) +1 (Jellicent) +1 (Thundurus) +1 (Tornadus) +1 (Landourus) +2 (Kyurem) +1 (Meloetta) +1 (Keldeo) +3 (Genesect)
Gen 6 introduced 071 +168 (Shiny) +19 (Vivillon) +4 (Flabebe) +5 (Floette) +4 (Florges) +9 (Furfrou) +1 (Meowstic) +3 (Pumpkaboo) +3 (Gourgeist) +1 Hoopa +28 Mega Evolutions (XY) +20 Mega Evolutions (ORAS)


Totalling out around

151 Gen 1
401 Gen 2
280 Gen 3
270 Gen 4
352 Gen 5
337 Gen 6

(I forgot when Gender difference was added so when they are added it it'll increase the counts from that point on. This counts both Aesthetic changes and actual combat changes for form differences since each are designed pretty much from scratch and take up a lot of resources.)

Gender differences came in Gen IV.

 

[Hikamaru]

Gender differences came in Gen IV.

I remember how most gender differences in 4th Gen were only minor ones like colour changes or certain body parts being a different size. Then with Unfezant, Pyroar, Meowstic and the Frillish line we got way more drastic differences.

I do kind of wonder if any new Pokemon with gender differences will be back to having minor ones like the 1st-4th Gen Pokemon, or drastically different ones like Meowstic or Jellicent.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I remember how most gender differences in 4th Gen were only minor ones like colour changes or certain body parts being a different size. Then with Unfezant, Pyroar, Meowstic and the Frillish line we got way more drastic differences.

I do kind of wonder if any new Pokemon with gender differences will be back to having minor ones like the 1st-4th Gen Pokemon, or drastically different ones like Meowstic or Jellicent.

The two of the latest ones reflect real life differences between the sexes (doves and lions).They may be more realistic with them. Perhaps they should update some of the older ones too.

Speaking of differences, they seem to vanish with Mega Evolution. Even Lati@s' are barely there. Latias is smaller so that's actually more realistic at least since female birds (they're based on the same kind of chicken that Blaziken is...yes, Latios is a rooster, and Latias is a hen) irc tend to be smaller on average than their male counterparts. I bring this up as I expect the Mega Nidos if/when made to lose some of those differences like they did. Maybe become a navy blue color, or purplish blue.

 

[NightmareClown]

THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But one thing is not amazing. The date of realese. One site is telling me it's going to be winter, another is telling me its going to be at the end on the year around October/December! PLEASE TELL ME THE TRUTH GREAT UNIVERSE!!!! (Also someone please reply if they know the real date FRS!)

 

[Ho-Oh]

We're sort of pretty sure it'll range from October-December. So far December is the most likely bet, due to holiday or mid November, for around thanksgiving/black friday/etc.

But yeah, everything is sort of up in the air at the moment and nothing can really be confirmed. All we know is the press releases and that one trailer. It does suck but thankfully we should know the next info by roughly the 12th. :)

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But one thing is not amazing. The date of realese. One site is telling me it's going to be winter, another is telling me its going to be at the end on the year around October/December! PLEASE TELL ME THE TRUTH GREAT UNIVERSE!!!! (Also someone please reply if they know the real date FRS!)

They are both accurate. They said it differently in the different languages. In NA English said Holiday 2016, Spanish said end of the year, Japanese and Chinese said Winter 2016. No solid release date is out yet. I put the window between Nov-Dec.

 

[Hikamaru]

I'm with ORandAS's theory, likely going to be November or December. Betting it more on the former though.

 

[Pokemon_Hero]

Maybe we will get 79 new pokemon to get 800. and a few mega.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Maybe we will get 79 new pokemon to get 800. and a few mega.

They better introduce some formes, or something similar to Megas/Primals, or people will get salty with a few new mons and Megas, calling it worse than what XY pulled on us.

Well it's not a bad number imo. But I'll like for there to be like 120 new ones, less than RS introduced, but more than DP.
Btw this year is DP's 10th anniversary, so I expect a lot of focus on Sinnoh mons. Perhaps even a Mega Infernape (it's the year of the monkey too!). Megas I expect like 10 (Infernape, Johto starters, Lugia, Ho-oh, Flygon, Mismagius, and Volcarona).

 

[Hikamaru]

They better introduce some formes, or something similar to Megas/Primals, or people will get salty with a few new mons and Megas, calling it worse than what XY pulled on us.

6th Gen's new Pokemon roster aside from Hoopa (and maybe also Zygarde) never had many alternate formes at all. The only real form differences aside from those were Meowstic and Pyroar's gender differences along with the wing patterns for Vivillon and the flower colours for the Flabébé line. Aegislash's forms weren't really a form difference at all since it only changes between holding the shield in front of it or carrying it on one of its arms.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

6th Gen's new Pokemon roster aside from Hoopa (and maybe also Zygarde) never had many alternate formes at all. The only real form differences aside from those were Meowstic and Pyroar's gender differences along with the wing patterns for Vivillon and the flower colours for the Flabébé line. Aegislash's forms weren't really a form difference at all since it only changes between holding the shield in front of it or carrying it on one of its arms.

Out of those last ones, Aegislash's formes have the most differences in term of stats. I kind of hope they give another mon that ability, maybe as a new H.A. for Genesect.