Opinions and Stories

E3 Reactions: PokéCommunity’s take on Nintendo’s E3 Treehouse event!

PokéCommunity user colours gives her own thoughts–as well as the thoughts of many other members of PC–on what they thought of Nintendo’s E3 Treehouse reveals!

Hi there, everyone! Name’s Angelica here, also known as colours on PokeCommunity! Here, I’ll cover the Sun & Moon E3 reactions from many of our users around PC, as well as toss in some of my own opinions. First and foremost, I want to start off by getting the opinion of Blue, who’s a huge regular of the Sun & Moon section here on PC! And boy, did he have quite a lot to say about what he found most interesting about the presentation:

I thought the Pokémon Sun & Moon segmant of E3 offered a great deal of new information. It was nice to see some actual gameplay footage to get a feel of how the games move and look in live action. The first feature that stood out for me was the new User Interface in battle. This feature allows you to see any stat increases/reductions and assists the player on what moves are super effective or not super effective against their target amongst other things. This is something that will help me out greatly at times and I really appreciate the smaller details that are going into these games.

It’s not surprising that the level of detail manages to catch his eye, after all. It doesn’t stop there, though! There was even more that he was impressed with such as the visuals of the games, as well:

The graphics was another thing that really stood out for me. Seeing how the player moves through the areas really gave a better perspective to what it will be like when we actually get to play the games. I love how colourful and vibrant the region looks, this footage was just from the first Island but I’m really looking forward to seeing how the remaining Islands look and feel. It seems that each Island has a different enviroment and it will be interesting to see how they differ to each other and what role each Island plays in the storyline.

I also managed to have an opportunity to get Dragon’s opinion on this, and he shared very similar sentiments:

I think the content shown for s/m was pretty exciting! I really like the whole guardians bit, and how the battle system is more fleshed out, so we could see the in-game trainers on screen, as well as seeing the statistics on the battle (i.e. Attack power down indicators).

I also managed to find a very interesting post by user baceevee that was also very pleased with what they saw at E3:

After seeing the live stream, I have to say I am very happy with what they’ve shown us so far. The region looks so very detailed and fleshed out. I like the fact that stat changes are easily accessible in the bottom screen battle menu. Also want to point out the fact that I LOVE the new battle menu! I am also very intrigued by the fact that the trainers are now going to be shown behind the Pokémon in battle. That will give us an interesting scale of Pokémon size compared to trainer size. Although that may be a small detail, it is one that I look forward to.

Honestly, the type effectiveness showing up under each move depending on what Pokémon the trainer has out is not something that I personally like, but I understand why they are doing it. They are trying to appeal to the masses, and there is nothing wrong with that. Those of us that have gripes about that and other ‘hand holding mechanics’ (myself included) have to keep in mind that these games are generally geared towards children, and they want to make it as easy as possible for any given individual to just pick up the game and play. I imagine they will have something in the options menu that could turn that specific feature on and off, but I’m not expecting it necessarily.

And while these users in particular were impressed, there were some concerns with certain parts of the gameplay, most notably the menu where you select your moves, as pointed out by Satoshi:

Was screaming in another thread, but I’ll roll into this one.

I looove the battle backgrounds, so much detail. It’s come a long way. ;;

Also, the graphics and other things aren’t disappointing at all, and I’m super excited for the battle royale feature. The one thing that concerns me is that the moves are labeled to make battles easier, and I hope there’s a way to turn that off, or maybe it’ll only stick around towards the beginning of the game?

Because this:

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Will kind of take away from newer players having to actually learn what moves and what types work the best on their own. I think that’s a crucial part of the gameplay, and learning about the games, and also part of what makes battles feel so risky and interesting. I feel like they didn’t need to add that in. We’ve been learning just fine without it for years. :/

And they’re not alone on the visuals department though; I too was extremely impressed with the visuals of this game. It all seems much more polished and well done compared to X/Y or even ORAS. I suppose it kind of makes you think whether or not X/Y and ORAS were some sort of a “test run”, so to speak, for the actual 3D games, which is Sun & Moon? Take a look for yourself, readers, and see whether or not the graphics and battle interface changes really are something to marvel about:

This quite honestly shows… an extremely beautiful scenery! For those of you who are unable to watch a video due to slow internet speed, basically, in this gameplay video, we’re given an introduction to Alola as a region in a way while one of the E3 hosts gives us a short tour through our first battle with Hau, who’s one of our rivals! At the beginning of the video, we’re also introduced to Hala, who’s said to be a very strong trainer. Is he a Gym Leader, or is he someone like Red who has very high level Pokémon that you’ll battle post-game? Who knows, but personally, I’m hoping for the latter. You’re also introduced to Lillie, who was shown in an earlier trailer as Professor Kukui’s mysterious assistant. The more keen viewers will see that there’s something moving about in her bag… but what is it? Is it a new Pokémon, or something more? I guess we’ll see in the coming months, won’t we?

There’s also more that was revealed during the Treehouse E3; most notably some new Pokémon! There were actually two that rumours say are Corocoro exclusives, but we’ll definitely see within the coming days whether or not GameFreak or Corocoro themselves would provide the English names. Anyway, here they are, and with some more opinions from some Sun & Moon regulars, to boot!

What about the new Pokémon??

Rockruff and Komala

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When these two Pokémon were revealed in Corocoro, it was honestly the first sign that things were, at the very least, heading in the right direction!

SERIOUSLY THOUGH, A PUPPY!!!! AND A KOALA!! I want to see what Blue thinks about this one!

I’m really happy they gave it a Rock typing rather than Normal. Rockruff is another Pokémon I’ll probably end up using on my team due to how much I like the design and the fact that it has the potential to be a great Rock-type Pokémon.

Definitely agreeing there! Game Freak has most certainly broken the mold as far as your typical early route dog expectation being a Normal-type. But it certainly brings to mind what kind of evolution Iwankko would have?

At any rate, what about Komala?

I do like the design but for me it is a little too simplistic to how I envisioned a Koala Bear Pokémon to be.

I suppose he has a point with how simple it does look. An interesting thought to point out is whether or not simplicty in a Pokémon’s design is for the better or not, but that’s also a really subjective point in and of itself (obviously). Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with a simple design in a Pokémon, as long as it’s done well.

Yungoose

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The first thing anyone noticed about Yungoose was its… well, oversized teeth, if that’s a way of putting it. It’s pretty cute otherwise, though. This time around, I wanted to see what Dragon thought of this Pokémon, and he had this to share:

Yungoose is a pretty cool looking Pokémon; the expression is a taaaad weird though. xD BUT I hope it will evolve into a spectacular Pokémon!

Which is precisely how I feel. It’s strange-looking, but it remains to be seen whether or not its evolved form would have bigger teeth a la Raticate or whether it’s just a base form thing. And apparently there’s also an interesting comparison to Donald Trump, according to Esper‘s post here.

Yungoose looks like Donald Trump. Please tell me I’m not the only one who sees it.

I’ll leave that to the imagination of the readers!

Pikipek

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This one was quite the reveal, and I suppose in a good way. It’s revealed to be Normal/Flying, although I’m personally hoping for it to change its typing somewhere down the line. Ultimately, I don’t really care so much what direction it goes in, as long as it isn’t a useless bird like Unfezant.

One noteworthy thing about Pikipek though, is one of its abilities, Skill Link, which means that any multi-hit moves would be able to hit five times in succession. User Dter ic put it quite nicely in this post:

I’ll consider using Pikipek solely for Skill Link. I wonder what multi hit moves it’ll get – most likely ones are Fury Attack and bullet seed from its description. Would be nice if Pikipek got its own flying type tail slap moves for a nice powerful STAB.

I agree, and I’ll likely use this Pokémon for the same reason. I hope whatever Pikipek evolves into would make excellent use of its Skill Link ability.

Grubbin

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I personally wasn’t too impressed with this thing at first. I’l be honest, I can’t say too much about my impressions about it because, while it’s a Pokémon that’s kinda adorable, I also don’t personally foresee myself using it a whole lot. Bluntly speaking, it seems rather boring? But perhaps it’ll grow on me in the future!

Battle Royal; the match-up that fans have been waiting for!


Well then. This was quite unexpected.

In the Nintendo Treehouse reveal, a new battle mode was introduced—the Battle Royal–that’s basically a four way battle between you and your friends! I have to admit, it’s personally very interesting, but moreso is how the rules work here. (Un)fortunately (depending on how you feel, generally), the battle doesn’t operate on whoever’s the “last man standing”, rather, the battle ends once one trainer loses all of their Pokémon. The winner is tallied upon defeated Pokémon as well as the remaining Pokémon a particular player has. It’s quite likely that it’s done this way to avoid unnecessarily long stall wars.

Personally, I really wish that it was done to the last man, but I can see the reasoning, here. Blackswordsman93 felt the same way, here:

It’s a very fun idea. I just wish the battle didn’t end as soon as one trainer lost their Pokémon. There should be an option to play till there’s one trainer left standing.

Though if anything, it’d make even more sense to knock out two players first…maybe we’ll find out more information about this as more news surfaces? I also managed to get some opinions from Blue about his thoughts on the Battle Royal, and it’s as follows:

The Battle Royal isn’t something I’ll end up using all that much if I’m honest. A cool concept but I’m just not down with the idea of a four way battle. I didn’t like the Rotational or Triple battles from Gen V and this seems like it could feel like a similar concept to me.

I don’t blame him for thinking it’s probably a gimmicky mode such as Rotational and Triple battles. After all, those battle modes failed to really generate any sort of interest, but I’d blame that on the fact that there were barely any trainers in which you can battle these kinds of modes to begin with in the first place. Maybe there’ll be more opportunities in which there will be a four-way battle? I sure hope there are a few battles here and there that will get players accustomed to the idea, at the very least. While I had a conversation with Dragon about his opinions on the Battle Royal, he had this to say:

The Battle Royal looks interesting, but I’m not sure how it would work on a competitive scale? Perhaps the best strategy is to rely on a really bulky Pokémon, like Slowbro, one who can sponge hits yet hit back? Maybe a hard hitting fast Pokémon too, like Weavile or Alakazam could pull out a vitory before the opponents can react? I’m curious about possible strategies!

He’s has a point. it’s hard to really predict viable competitive strategies unless we actually experiment for ourselves. All I know is that pulling off a stall-y like playstale is going to be a huge pain to the other players, as that’s going to drag on things for quite some time, but I suppose that’s why three players could gang up on one, as to make that strategy basically unviable. I also spoke with Achromatic about his thoughts on the Battle Royal, and he seemed really optimistic about it!

I just know this is going to be incredibly addicting and I can’t wait to play online with friends in this way. We used to do this ourselves back in the days of X/Y so it’s good to have a proper way to do it now.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, this E3 (and well, the month of June in general for news) was…interesting, let’s put it that way. I’ll sum this up with another quote from Achromatic, because this also sums up how I feel about the event (and possibly many others, as well!):

It was pretty dang exciting and we got way more than I expected. Especially seeing all the new Pokémon just hyped me up so much. This was a fantastic event.

We’ve got some pretty decent Pokémon reveals (IWANKKO AAAAA) as well as the amazing introduction of the Battle Royale (although let’s be real, I really wish it would be the last man standing… isn’t that what a Battle Royale is supposed to be about?). With that being said, I really hope we would continue to get more incredible news alongside some new interesting Pokémon! In my eyes, Sun & Moon certainly hasn’t disappointed… yet, but let’s hope it doesn’t, yeah?

Edited by bobandbill and Astinus.
Cover image by Pebbles.