Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon - Second Trailer Analysis

Hey everyone, Pixel here with your regular dose of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon news for Lake Valor!

So, after a leak surfaced for a thumbnail of a new trailer earlier today, The Pokémon Company uploaded a trailer on to Youtube containing minimal, but nevertheless exciting, information about Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. I've taken the liberty to capture some screenshots, and have analysed them for you here.

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In this first image, we get a glimpse of the new official artwork of Rowlet, Litten and Popplio. This is nothing major - ever since Pokémon Emerald, the starters have always received re-done artwork in the sister or sequel games. Examples of this are the Hoenn starters in Emerald and ORAS, the Sinnoh starters in Platinum, and the Unova starters in BW2.

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Although this clip was brief, we were shown the male protagonist running in a circle, with a Rockruff following behind them. The Rockruff also has a music note symbol appearing out of a speech bubble, most likely indicating that it's happy. Could this be a hint at the return of Pokémon following the player? Do note that walking and running animations for all 802 Pokémon, including shinies and alternate forms, were found in the data for Pokémon Sun and Moon. It's possible that these were not implemented due to time constraints, but have now been added.

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Another brief glimpse of the new Alola, this scene shows a view of a never-before seen forest area, complete with a new overworld model. This trainer or NPC seems to be based off of rice farmers, with that traditional rice hat.

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If you blinked, you probably missed it, but these Alolan Exeggutor were on the screen for barely a second! It's obvious that this is Exeggutor Island, but do note the absence of giant palm trees (that, when interacted with, were Alolan Exeggutor in disguise) that are replaced with Alolan Exeggutor themselves.

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A lot of the clips in this video were quite short, but we were able to see the Flying-type Elite Four member Kahili performing her Z-Move in the overworld. What's interesting about this is that she's in a location that is not the Pokémon League, which seems to indicate that she'll have a larger plot on the story.

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Another character that only appeared in the Pokémon League is this trainer, Ryuki, who mentioned that he came to Alola from another region. It seems he's making a return in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and this clip also shows us a brand-new area. it looks like a combination of an Aether Paradise building, and Lt. Surge's Gym from Kanto (with all the trash cans lined up).

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This was just so cute, I decided to include it, but it does hold some details. Now we're aware that Alolan Vulpix has an overworld model (which is obviously just reused form its regular model), and that the Aether Foundation does, in fact, appear in this game, as we can see one of the employees off to the side of the shot.

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Ah yes, the infamous leak that surface a few hours before the trailer's debut. Of course, we weren't shown what's inside, or much of the outside that the screenshot didn't share already, but it seems that this facility is either a new store of some kind, or something we've never seen before. Perhaps this is the building that the new gameplay feature, Alola Photo Booth, will be accessible in. For a more in-depth look at this new gameplay mechanic, make sure you click here and read the article I wrote on this topic. (Link currently unavailable)

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"New Secrets of the Alola Region Will Be Revealed!" is the tagline of this screenshot, with an ominous purple vortex shown in full-focus above Poni Island. Luckily, the camera zooms back just far enough for us to get a glimpse of the whole of Alola.

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As we can see in the above image, most of the water in the Alola region has become orange. Whether this is significant to the game's lore, or just an aesthetic touch with the setting sun in the background is yet to be determined. Upon closer inspection of the map, it seems that not much of it has changed. In fact, looking at the empty plots that were located around Alola, only the one in Hau'oli City, the one in Heahea City, the one in Konikoni City, and the one in Malie City have had something added to them. This might indicate that the story, or even the player themselves, is in-charge of what buildings go where, the first one in Hau'oli City. Perhaps that building's true purpose is to act as a HUB of sorts for constructing the other buildings in the other empty land plots across Alola? Regardless, an in-depth look at the new Alola region map has already been conducted, and can be viewed here.

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Here, we get our first glimpse at the artwork for the new protagonists, as well as the 8 choices players will have at the beginning of the game. Much like in Pokémon Sun and Moon, the player can choose between "pale, blonde hair, blue eyes", "fair, black hair, black eyes", "tan, brown hair, brown eyes" and "chocolate, black hair, brown/hazel eyes".

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Finally, after some "official English information" on Lycanroc Dusk Form that revealed nothing new, we were shown the covers for these two games. This is the first time we've seen them since their debut, and I have to say, they look quite stunning.

Now, that's it for the English trailer, but the Japanese trailer held some more secrets, specifically regarding the new Z-Ring.

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For those of you who cannot read Japanese, the new Z-Ring is being referred to as a "Z-Power Ring". This coincides with the details on the official English website, which also uses this name.

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And here's the Z-Power Ring's official artwork! According to the site, the Z-Power Ring will allow the player to use a larger variety of Z-Moves. It also confirms that new exclusive Z-Moves will be given to certain Pokémon, and since then we have had one new exclusive Z-Move revealed. To read up on it, make sure you click here to view the article I wrote on this new Z-Move.

Apart from the trailer, there are some other interesting images I wish to share and analyse. Both of these images are from the Official Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon website.

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In this screenshot, we see the male protagonist encountering Necrozma at the Altar of the Sun. Necrozma also appears alongside Solgaleo and Lunala on the website, with only one sentence of text about it: "Necrozma is wreathed in mystery and is thought to have come from another world in ancient times."

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This is just the render for the background of the Official English Website, but if look closely at the shining star in the middle, it appears to have eyes. This is very interesting, although not much else has come from this. Perhaps this is the "new light that shines on Alola"?

Well, that is all for this news update. Although the video was short, there's definitely a lot to speculate on! Make sure you stay tuned to Lake Valor, where there'll be more in-depth analysis on any information given about Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. This is Pixel, signing out until next time!​

 

That would be the island where the Poke Pelago is located. Nothing changed about it, so I didn't include it in my analysis.