Media previews of SM

[Mitchman]

Wait a minute, if there ARE 7 trials total, wouldn't that be lopsided by a whole lot? Like 1 trial for the first and last island and only 3 for the middle part of the game? More so, that would mean the pacing is all over the place, and trial location would make no sense, as the 3 trials of Akala would be within spitting distance, and the entire south portion has no rhyme or reason. Much like the Diamond Head Expy on MeleMele. Even so, that would mean that the story would rely way too much on dialogue and cutscenes, as if the last trial of the island is on the same level as the Kahuna battle, then THAT would mean that Lana and Kiawe are both somewhere between levels 15-25, signifying that very little battling would be done while exploring the island, which seems off. And I know I not off kilter for this train of thought, with the ampunt of areas supposedly visited on Akala by the time you reach the Kahuna, you should have a 15-20 level stretch, not 10. Its very strange all in all though that Ilima is fought at the same level of Pokemon as Hala, as having one captain on that island means that a whole lot less of the island is going to be explored then previoisly thought. I am starting to wonder if the Tapu dungeons are going to have a bigger role and purpose then the lake guardian caves....

Edit: Wait, 7 Trials total would place the Big Island at TWO trials, which makes even less sense. There would practically be no need to further the level curve beyond level 40 in this case. What the hell would be the point of removing gyms be if that just means that the game has even less battling then before if the 7 trials is the case? I don't buy it at all.
Edit 2: While revealing 2 Kahunas before release is like revealing 2 E4 members before release, I seriously doubt they would go as far as revealing almost all of the trial captains. Even XY didn't go further then revealing 5 of the gym leaders.

 

[Nintendokusou]

Wait a minute, if there ARE 7 trials total, wouldn't that be lopsided by a whole lot? Like 1 trial for the first and last island and only 3 for the middle part of the game? More so, that would mean the pacing is all over the place, and trial location would make no sense, as the 3 trials of Akala would be within spitting distance, and the entire south portion has no rhyme or reason. Much like the Diamond Head Expy on MeleMele. Even so, that would mean that the story would rely way too much on dialogue and cutscenes, as if the last trial of the island is on the same level as the Kahuna battle, then THAT would mean that Lana and Kiawe are both somewhere between levels 15-25, signifying that very little battling would be done while exploring the island, which seems off. And I know I not off kilter for this train of thought, with the ampunt of areas supposedly visited on Akala by the time you reach the Kahuna, you should have a 15-20 level stretch, not 10. Its very strange all in all though that Ilima is fought at the same level of Pokemon as Hala, as having one captain on that island means that a whole lot less of the island is going to be explored then previoisly thought. I am starting to wonder if the Tapu dungeons are going to have a bigger role and purpose then the lake guardian caves....

Edit: Wait, 7 Trials total would place the Big Island at TWO trials, which makes even less sense. There would practically be no need to further the level curve beyond level 40 in this case. What the hell would be the point of removing gyms be if that just means that the game has even less battling then before if the 7 trials is the case? I don't buy it at all.
Edit 2: While revealing 2 Kahunas before release is like revealing 2 E4 members before release, I seriously doubt they would go as far as revealing almost all of the trial captains. Even XY didn't go further then revealing 5 of the gym leaders.

That's the problem, it seems strange.
The breakdown would go like this:
Melemele - Ilima / Hala
Akala - Mallow, Kiawe, Lana / Olivia
Ulaula - Sophocles, ??? / ???
Poni - ??? / ???
And if that is the case, I'm guessing that the Team Skull interference would be way more noticeable than what we were initially expecting.

 

[godiego]

Wait a minute, if there ARE 7 trials total, wouldn't that be lopsided by a whole lot? Like 1 trial for the first and last island and only 3 for the middle part of the game? More so, that would mean the pacing is all over the place, and trial location would make no sense, as the 3 trials of Akala would be within spitting distance, and the entire south portion has no rhyme or reason. Much like the Diamond Head Expy on MeleMele. Even so, that would mean that the story would rely way too much on dialogue and cutscenes, as if the last trial of the island is on the same level as the Kahuna battle, then THAT would mean that Lana and Kiawe are both somewhere between levels 15-25, signifying that very little battling would be done while exploring the island, which seems off. And I know I not off kilter for this train of thought, with the ampunt of areas supposedly visited on Akala by the time you reach the Kahuna, you should have a 15-20 level stretch, not 10. Its very strange all in all though that Ilima is fought at the same level of Pokemon as Hala, as having one captain on that island means that a whole lot less of the island is going to be explored then previoisly thought. I am starting to wonder if the Tapu dungeons are going to have a bigger role and purpose then the lake guardian caves....

the flip side of that would be that a sort of four trials per island system has horrible pacing as well. for example, Melemele would feel incredibly rushed since there's very little space there so it's likely you'd just go from trial to trial, whereas on the Big Island it would be more natural to have four. in addition, we don't know if every Trial involves battling. we know that Lana and Ilima's trials do, but perhaps Mallow's, Kiawe's, and Sophocles's does not?

Edit: Wait, 7 Trials total would place the Big Island at TWO trials, which makes even less sense. There would practically be no need to further the level curve beyond level 40 in this case. What the hell would be the point of removing gyms be if that just means that the game has even less battling then before if the 7 trials is the case? I don't buy it at all.

game is supposed to be more story centric so what may have been traded out from the League-system is filled in with battles against Skull and UBs and what have you. for what it's worth, the League system is only two more battles than what we know of the Island Challenge, thirteen (eight gyms, four Elite Four, one Champion) versus eleven (seven trials/totems, four Kahunas). there's also the possibility of the final island just being a big climax for everything-- Skull, Aether, UBs, Solgaleo/Lunala, the Challenge, it all-- and so it doesn't have any trials or even a Kahuna perhaps (it does look pretty inhabited).

Edit 2: While revealing 2 Kahunas before release is like revealing 2 E4 members before release, I seriously doubt they would go as far as revealing almost all of the trial captains. Even XY didn't go further then revealing 5 of the gym leaders.

Kiawe, Lana, Sophocles, and Mallow had to all be revealed because they're part of the main cast of SM's anime.

 

[Mitchman]

We know that each island has a Kahuna though, so that means at least one trial is on the final island. Even if UBs/Aether/Team Skull do take up the bulk of boss battles as well as the guardians, Totem battles will still be a 2 Pokemon, maybe 3 Pokemon battle, so in the end there is only going to be 4 major trainer battles for the new system replacing the Kahunas. Of course perhaps some Totem battles could be the final Pokemon of a Captain battle, but still that would likely be for 2-3 of the Captains. I think there is something about the Island Challenge and the way its connected to the plot that we still don't know about yet, that will make sense of everything, and I still believe that 7 trials is too low a count. Maybe not 4 on each island, but 2 on the first and last island and 4 for the bigger ones would make more sense and be a sensible way to reach 16 types for 16 z crystals at the very least. Cause I do think in some way the type crystals will be like the gym badges of the games, with the Pokemon crystals more akin to mega stones.

 

[Nintendokusou]

the flip side of that would be that a sort of four trials per island system has horrible pacing as well. for example, Melemele would feel incredibly rushed since there's very little space there so it's likely you'd just go from trial to trial, whereas on the Big Island it would be more natural to have four. in addition, we don't know if every Trial involves battling. we know that Lana and Ilima's trials do, but perhaps Mallow's, Kiawe's, and Sophocles's does not?

game is supposed to be more story centric so what may have been traded out from the League-system is filled in with battles against Skull and UBs and what have you. for what it's worth, the League system is only two more battles than what we know of the Island Challenge, thirteen (eight gyms, four Elite Four, one Champion) versus eleven (seven trials/totems, four Kahunas). there's also the possibility of the final island just being a big climax for everything-- Skull, Aether, UBs, Solgaleo/Lunala, the Challenge, it all-- and so it doesn't have any trials or even a Kahuna perhaps (it does look pretty inhabited).

Kiawe, Lana, Sophocles, and Mallow had to all be revealed because they're part of the main cast of SM's anime.

The official site confirms that all Trials end in a Totem Battle though.
Quote: "At the end of each trial, a mighty Pokémon known as a Totem Pokémon will be waiting."

Knowing that, the 7 Trials are hypothetically as follows:

Ilima - Verdant Cavern [Melemele] - Gumshoos
Mallow - Lush Jungle [Akala] - Lurantis
Kiawe - ? (Volcano) [Akala] - Alolan Marowak (according to Riddler)
Lana - ? (Waterfalls) [Akala] - Wishiwashi
Sophocles - ? [Ulaula] - ? (probably Vikavolt with Charjabug allies)
? - ? [Ulaula] - ?
? - ? [Poni] - ? (probably Kommo-o, or even Solgaleo/Lunaala)

I agree that the reason there are only 7 has something to with the plot and the idea that there will be some sort of league building aspect in it or something else. So we probably won't be able to tell what to expect just out of the number of Trials.

The last island of Poni also seems to have a port town with people living in boats, and some other sort of location with people near that giant tree. So it's probably not fully deserted.

 

[godiego]

The official site confirms that all Trials end in a Totem Battle though.

what i had meant is that not every trial may incorporate battling elements as the trial. for the Verdant Cavern we know it involves navigating through the cave while rooting out Yungooses (A-Rattata in Moon, perhaps) and making it towards the top. that's a battling element. similarly with Lana's, it would appear that we're fishing for whatever Pokemon is making the ruckus that she mentions. however with Kiawe, we know we're playing Spot the Differences with the dances and Mallow's (perhaps) involves using Itemfinder-Stoutland to find the four items she asks for. yes every Trial ends with a Totem battle, but not every Trial will have a battling element within it (apart from the Totem, ofc).

We know that each island has a Kahuna though, so that means at least one trial is on the final island.

well, sort of. as i mentioned on the previous page there's always the chance that the description of the Island Challenge was made to be as descriptive as possible without spoiling too much. that is, every island but the last one has Trials and Kahunas but you don't want to spoil whatever reason the last island may have for not having any Trials or Kahunas so you just dragnet say that each island has trials and kahunas.

and I still believe that 7 trials is too low a count.

it's what we have. i think it's a bit presumptuous to sort of write-off seven trials as being too low when we don't really have much of an indicator of how expansive seven trials may actually be.

 

[Nintendokusou]

what i had meant is that not every trial may incorporate battling elements as the trial. for the Verdant Cavern we know it involves navigating through the cave while rooting out Yungooses (A-Rattata in Moon, perhaps) and making it towards the top. that's a battling element. similarly with Lana's, it would appear that we're fishing for whatever Pokemon is making the ruckus that she mentions. however with Kiawe, we know we're playing Spot the Differences with the dances and Mallow's (perhaps) involves using Itemfinder-Stoutland to find the four items she asks for. yes every Trial ends with a Totem battle, but not every Trial will have a battling element within it (apart from the Totem, ofc).

well, sort of. as i mentioned on the previous page there's always the chance that the description of the Island Challenge was made to be as descriptive as possible without spoiling too much. that is, every island but the last one has Trials and Kahunas but you don't want to spoil whatever reason the last island may have for not having any Trials or Kahunas so you just dragnet say that each island has trials and kahunas.

it's what we have. i think it's a bit presumptuous to sort of write-off seven trials as being too low when we don't really have much of an indicator of how expansive seven trials may actually be.

Oh, that's what you meant, I understand now. Yes, I agree with that.

 

[Keshav]

What if there are 7 trials per island? And there is actually some underground space which is very very big because of the size of the games. I'm good with either 7 trials total or per island, I just want them not to be too much rushed.

 

[Nintendokusou]

What if there are 7 trials per island? And there is actually some underground space which is very very big because of the size of the games. I'm good with either 7 trials total or per island, I just want them not to be too much rushed.

If you check what were talking about above, you will see that it's very difficult to fit 7 Trials in each island, even if you break things as 3 Captains + 1 Kahuna.
I was thinking about that before, but now I'm starting to see where they are coming from, and it really is very hard to fit in there.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

7 trials per island is too much. One trial per captain please.