Pokemon Moon Review

This review is more of a what I think they did right or wrong with the game rather than a comprehensive overview.
The Pros:
The Region: Make no mistake, Alola,the region Pokemon Moon takes place in, is based on Hawaii. Your main character is from the Johto region, which is based on Japan. This sets up some of the game's constant explanation of how things work in Alola, as the character is from a different place, and Alola is quite different from any other region. Alola is split into four islands, with each island having a Kahuna which acts as the boss of the island. Within each island is at least one trial as well, a sort of gauntlet which pits you against various wild Pokemon, culminating in a final battle with Totem Pokemon. These Pokemon all fight in a new battle style called SOS battles which I will get into later. The Region as a whole is vibrant and a the change away from the grid based system of past helps too, giving the game natural looking flowing paths.
The Roster: The new Pokemon introduced in Moon are generally pretty great, at least as far as designs go. Pokemon with multiple forms like Lycanroc and interesting conditions to catch like Mareanie help these pokemon seem unique in an increasingly huge pool of pokemon.



The Cons:
SOS Battles: SOS Battles can be summed up in one word: Annoying. Having a Pokemon that took forever to weaken summon up a friend, getting rid of the friend to have the Pokemon summon up ANOTHER one is... Not fun. And this battle style is used in all the fights against the Totem pokemon bosses...
The Roster: While the pokemon themselves that are introduced are great, there aren't too many of them. If you are someone like me who wants a team of NEW pokemon, you'll definitely have to look around a lot.
Alolan Forms: While visually interesting, the choice of which old pokemon get new forms is... questionable. Only generation 1 (From Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow) pokemon got new forms. It'snot that only gen 1 pokemon return in Alola either, there are plenty of other "veteran" pokemon which appear totally unchanged. I don't want to be cynical,but I know why this is, it's purely for the sake of nostalgia. Gen 1 pokemon, or at least the starter pokemon from that gen, got special treatment in Pokemon X and Y as well, and it comes across as corny.

In all, it's a good game. What did you expect? It may not be my favorite, but I enjoyed my time with Pokemon Moon.