With the release of Sun & Moon came a replacement to the gym challenges we had known for so long -- trials. Trials involved completing certain tasks, which ranged from locating/collecting items to solving puzzles, before being challenged to a battle by a powered-up version of a specific Pokémon species (Totem Pokémon). What did you think of trials in the generation VII games? Did you prefer them over gyms?
In theory, this sounded very cool. In practice, this was a wasted opportunity. Many of the trials were repetitive (collect X Pokémon is only interesting so many times), bland (refight all the captains again? Really?), or outright hard (glares at Lana and Mallow)
Despite needing some refinement, as @WavePearl said, I really like the idea and gladly encourage more such outside-the-box thinking on GF's part.
I was all for it when I originally heard it, but it just wasn't as interesting or as fun as I thought it would be. The thing about gyms is that they're actually hard, with all these opponents and their uniqueness. Trials, on the other hand, really have no great points. And if you leave to heal, you restart all over again. While that was okay, it wasn't exactly great for newcomers to the series in my opinion. And while I have nothing truly bad to say about them, the gyms were definitely better than the trials.
They could have made them cool but instead they made them so darn easy. Like, I breezed through them. Kiawe’s May have been the worst of them all. Heck, even a viewer of my fic said she was glad that I didn’t give it too much screen time
I personally prefer the gyms because they seem to be more challenging. If they maybe tried to make the minor Pokémon (exc. rattata leading up to raticate) a bit harder to defeat I'd prefer the trials.
The trials themselves weren’t all that bad. Yes, some were glaringly easy *cough Kiawe* but it makes sense in Alola to have the trials as opposed to the gyms. Since Alola is influenced greatly by nature (the tapus, literally all of poni island, etc) it would make sense to have these instead of gyms. Comparing the trials to the gyms, which is what everyone does? It makes the trials look like trash, even though it was a risky yet brave (not to mention creative and unique) decision to include them. I don’t think the risk was worth the reward, though, since most people still prefer the gyms.
I loved the break from the gyms, you can only do something so many times before it gets repetitive, no matter how hard you try.
Trials are okay, I still prefer gyms though. Gyms are more challenging and imo the trials aren't as fun as I thought they would be. It makes sense from a lore type of view since Alola is heavily nature-y, so it's obvious why they would do trials and put the Pokémon into the spotlight instead of gyms where the leaders are in the center of attention. I also can't really bring myself to like the Totem Pokémon. I just find it really dull to do some boring side quests and then fight a big bad boi version of a pretty lame Pokémon... Concept was okay, execution not so much.
Agree with most said above, they sounded really fun and interesting, but I think they were a missed opportunity; some of them were far too easy (such as Kiawe's spot-the-difference trial; like, really?) and others were quite hard for no reason (Lana's trial - what's with the strong Totem in USUM all of a sudden? Pretty random, really). I think if they balanced it out more or at least kept things at a consistent level of difficulty (like Kiawe's trial; if you're not going to change the whole picture thing, at least make things not quite as obvious, like honestly) it would have made things less... messy. But as someone who loves puzzles and challenges, I honestly would have been more happier if there were more... challenge, and not just a jumble of what are basically mini-games. (It's kind of like replacing all of the Temples in Legend of Zelda with silly mini-games; I guess it's kind of what Breath of the Wild did, but those were actual puzzles and were challenging, along with being fun.) TLDR - I guess in theory it sounds like fun and all, but in practice... not so much. Currently, I prefer the Gyms; basically all of those had puzzles, and at least they were a challenge and kind awarding to do. If they go back to doing Trials in another Gen, I have hopes, but honestly if they're the same/similar to the current ones, Trials can simply remain in Alola.
The concept was very refreshing compared to gen after gen of gyms. However, I do agree that it needed some fine tuning and as a result I don’t really hope to see them again in other generations. I think it’s best if it’s left as an Alolan tradition to demonstrate how different Alola is from other regions (especially before the development of their Pokémon League)!
Trials were kinda mediocre, honestly. I mean, they were just (mostly) outdoor Gyms. Do the puzzle, fight the peons, do more of the puzzle, fight the boss, get the prize. Rinse and repeat. I suppose the presentation was different for the slight variety in what you had to do prior to getting the stamp, but I would have liked to have seen something truly different from them and I was a little let down by this. If they had called Trials Gyms there would have been literally no difference. I'd be fine with them returning in future instalments, but I'd like to see more originality. Call an apple an orange if you want to but it doesn't change that it's still an apple.
I liked the trials but I prefer the good old gym battles, it was an interesting thing to do but I'd like to just do the classic gyms instead.