Demo discussion (not for spoilers/datamine info)

[Alolan Coconut]

Yeah I'm actually looking forward to potentially hearing more of the music. Some of the stuff we've heard so far has sounded amazing. (The battle theme is feeling kinda worn out due to all the trailers it's been used in though.)

I agree. I'm really looking forward to the musical score. I hope it gets close to the ORAS soundtrack, they did an amazing job on those remixes and I believe they have the skills to give Alola that same tropical vibe. I hope we get a little preview in the demo.

 

[Mitchman]

I agree. I'm really looking forward to the musical score. I hope it gets close to the ORAS soundtrack, they did an amazing job on those remixes and I believe they have the skills to give Alola that same tropical vibe. I hope we get a little preview in the demo.

If you watch the demo vid from the german guy, we get to hear a couple of battle tunes that have been heard already, and the music for Hauoni City and Route 2. So far its BW tier, upbeat and jaunty, with an rpg whimsy that Ichinose has formulated into near perfection.

 

[Alolan Coconut]

If you watch the demo vid from the german guy, we get to hear a couple of battle tunes that have been heard already, and the music for Hauoni City and Route 2. So far its BW tier, upbeat and jaunty, with an rpg whimsy that Ichinose has formulated into near perfection.

That sounds really promising. Dammit. And here I was, trying to keep it all together.. November 23th sounds so far away now.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Two things:

1} The demo doesn't replace the full game, you can play both. A demo isn't supposed to give the full experience, it's like complaining that a unicycle doesn't give the full experience that a motorbike does.

2) Can't imagine Ash-Greninja being locked into a demo. It'll get re-released or otherwise made available in game. Like Mega Glalie wasn't locked to the ORAS demo.

-------

Looking forward to the datamine just as much as actually playing the demo. I think once I get my hands on it, I may change my mind on some aspects I'm not completely on board with.

I am pretty sure Ash-Greninja is demo exclusive and can only be transferred into SM.

 

[CynthiaLover]

I am pretty sure Ash-Greninja is demo exclusive and can only be transferred into SM.

Hey, it's no big deal. Just get the demo to tide you over and try to enjoy it. And if you don't want your bonus ninja frog, I could take it off your hands, if you want. Either way, give the demo a go. It'll at least give you a much-needed taste of what the real game has to offer.

 

[Enzap]

NOTE: FOR ALL DISCUSSION ON INFORMATION LEAKED THROUGH DATAMINING AND HAS NOT BEEN REVEALED BY OTHER MEANS PLEASE USE THIS THREAD

SPOILERS: Demo Datamine Discussion

 

[PinkIceFox]

What time is the Demo supposed to come out for EST in the United States? I thought it'd be out at midnight but I couldn't find it in the store... >o<

 

[Esiouqrut]

What time is the Demo supposed to come out for EST in the United States? I thought it'd be out at midnight but I couldn't find it in the store... >o<

It's scheduled to come out at 07:00 PDT, which is roughly 8 and a half hours from now.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Laaaame. >-> Oh well at least it'll be out when I wake up I guess.

 

[Soki]

The demo is now out in Europe!

 

[NinjutsuSen]

Played it now. Good impression about what's to come.

Graphically it's a better improvement than from Gen IV to V. More detials and more fluid world.

The movement is akward. Turning around isn't that sudden anymore and I believe it's gonna annoy people who are breeding and training for competive play. Also some huge framrate drops while snapping pokemon with the rotom dex.

The island trials are as I expected. Some things you need to do like snapping pokemon, a quiz and other activities with battles mixed in. But to be honest, the trial in the demo was boring. Killing two times two of the same pokemon. The totem pokemon was the only fun thing from that trial, since it's more harder, but even that shouldn't be a problem if you have a team of six and moves like Surf which hit multiple pokemon at a time. It feels akward and it was my personal least favourite part of the demo.

Move animation were great. They are still not that much different, but they improved the animations from gen 6. I also like the better character models.

Music....No. Too calm, too taken off and too mixed. Didn't like a single track much and that's what disappoint me the most from the demo.

Also what I disliked and hoping ithe full versions will not gonna end up like here is the pokemon distribution. The dumper said 300 pokemon in the dex, which isn't much when there are 800 pokemon out there, but I saw Trumpmon, Pikipek and Jangmo-o the whole time in trainer battles. Also the same pokemon in the grass for the most time.

 

[Soki]

What I liked about the demo:

• This demo is long, it took me two hours straight to finish the thing whoa.
• This game is absolutely stunning The overworld has never looked so real, like the buildings have so many details in them, just look at the Tourist Bureau, damn.
• I can never state enough how much I love that people aren’t chibis anymore, also makes the world look a lot more real.
• Also cannot state enough how awesome it is that trainers are now visible during battles.
• Hau’s such a cutie, I love him.
• I love Team Skull the most though, their lines and faces they pull are hilarious and they have the best battle music. Also absolutely love Plumeria.
• The towns now have fenced areas with grass in them, so we can now catch Pokémon inside towns I guess, that’s kinda awesome.
• You can ride Pokémon everywhere, even inside towns! That’s just awesome, I definitely prefer that over the bike. And it’s definitely needed, cause these towns are huge.
• If you start a battle while riding, you wear your riding outfit during the battle

What I disliked:

• Only male PC is playable again
  
• Can’t use the starters and mostly can only use Ash-Greninja. Though I am happy there’s a part where you can catch some mons and actually use them to catch other mons with. But sad you have to release them as soon as you leave the area.
• Not a big fan of the zoomed in screen, it’s hard to see where you are and where you can go. Though I assume (and hope) this will be less of a problem when we have the Rotom Dex showing the area on the bottom screen.
• The PC doing a push animation in front of sliding doors lol
• The random Pokémon cries in the overworld are cute at first, but it gets annoying real fast imo.
• The PC still having the creepy smiling face on all the time during cutscenes -_-;
• The moves screen is so full. Now there’s the move name, type, PP, info-button and effectiveness-button all crammed inside one button. It’s just a bit too much and it’s distracting.
• Still not a fan of effectiveness being shown at all. It’s hard to ignore, especially since Super Effective is shown in bright yellow. I really like having to think about which move to use myself, but it’s just not needed cause the bright yellow text immediately draws your eyes to the right move :/ Really hope we can disable this in the full game.
• Also still not a fan of most of the music, it’s just too happy/calm. It just doesn’t make battles feel like battles, except for the Team Skull battle music.

Some interesting stuff people might've missed:

Spoiler

• The demo has two parts. After the first part you can click on ‘press start’ again for more adventures.
• At the end of the road where the Pokémon Centre is, a row of Slowpokes is blocking the road. Talking to the woman on the left will warp you to Mahalo Trail. Use Tauros to smash through the rocks and at the end of the road you’ll receive three Stardusts which you can transfer to the full game.
• At the start of Ten Carat Hill, there’s a rock on the right which you can smash through with Tauros. Here you can access the Pokémon Catching Challenge. After catching three Pokémon, you can talk to the NPC to receive a Nugget.
• In Ten Carat Hill, fight all three Pokémon Trainers (one between the two patches of grass, one on the upper right path between the smashable rocks and the kid in front of the cave). This unlocks a fight with Ace Trainer Sheri at the start of the area.

Some NPC's mention possible future events:

• After 1 day (oct. 19): the guy next to the Pokémon Center will give you something good.
• After 5 days (oct. 23): a woman in front of a tree will meet a strong guy and will introduce you to him.
• After 12 days (oct. 30): a man in Town Hall wants you to celebrate his Pikachu’s birthday with him.
• After 18 days (nov. 5): a police man in front of the ferry terminal wants help dealing with a ‘shady deal’ going on.
• After 24 days (nov. 11): a girl in the Ferry Terminal is sailing off and wants you to see her off.
• After around 30 days (nov. 16 or later): the owner of the café in the Pokémon Centre returns. (Could also just mean that he’ll be back because that’s when the full games release).

Under spoiler tags, in case people haven't played it yet and want to find it out themselves

 

[Bittersweet]

• If you start a battle while riding, you wear your riding outfit during the battle

wait, WHAT?!

Seriously though, why is there still no gender selection is the demos? You just default to male... Seems not very inclusive of Nintendo. Including the female player character (who should already be finished and fully animated) in the demo shouldn't be that hard...

Overall I liked the demo. the new battle interface will take some getting used to. I love how lively everything is. There's never a dull moment on screen, loving the new battle intro, and the new "!" graphic that pops up before trainer battles.

TEAM SKULL! <3 Awesome theme music!

I was sceptical at first, based on how determined GameFreak seemed to want to keep HMs forever, but now am about 85% sure based on the way that the way ride Pokemon are presented in the demo that HMs are finally going away forever... About 3 Generations too late for my taste, but still.

This demo was also longer than I expected. And there's still more to come over the next month.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Wait! The demo is 2 hours long!? And that's just the FIRST playthrough? Wow, just wow. Gotta give GF props on this one. Compared to the short-and-sweet mentality of the ORAS demo, this one is practically a mini-SM. And the fact that certain events can be accessed after a certain amount of time will certainly increase the longevity of the demo until the real games come out. Gotta say, GF really did a good job on this one. ...This is gonna be a long two hours until the demo is released here...

 

[Thingamajig]

The entire experience was worth it solely for the derpy smile on Sun's face as

Spoiler

an irate Hakamo-o charges at you

during the trial.

 

[PinkIceFox]

"This is fine. c:"

NPCs are nonplussed as HECK.

 

[Soki]

Oooh fun new demo fact: it's night or day in the demo depending on the time you start it up.

It changes per minute, even minutes give you day/night and uneven minutes gives you the opposite. Example, when I started it up at 15:06 it was day and when I started it up again at 15:07 it was night It seems to differ per person if even minutes give you night or uneven minutes...

 

[IncineROAR]

I should really call in sick into work so I can play the demo

 

[Vyrron]

Just finished playing the demo! I really liked it for the most part. The overworld feels more alive and immersive than ever, the town is huge, Pokeride is fun and the characters were all likeable. Especially Team Skull, they were hilarious!

Unfortunately my concerns over frame rate issues were confirmed. It wasn't very noticeable during regular battles but the Totem battle was a mess. Seriously it was hard to look at. Shame they didn't do a better job optimizing the games for the original 3DS. But I guess now we know why triple battles were removed, double battles were probably already too much for the old systems to handle.

Other minor things I didn't like:

• Apparently we can't sit anymore.
• I expected at least a reaction from NPCs when headbutting them with Tauros...
• The PC's poker-smiling face when a huge Hakamo-o was approaching was a huge immersion killer.

 

[DasManiac]

Does the demo contain any optimization for the New 3DS?