The latest Pokemon Sun & Moon trailer has been released and this time my recapping job is a lot easier as the new video focuses on evolutions of previously revealed Pokemon. As always the full trailer is at the bottom of this page so be sure to check it out to see all these latest evolutions in action as well as Alolan forms of Grimer and Muk and a couple of new trainers.
Revealed first was the evolution of Type: Null known as Silvally. Now confirmed as some man made attempt at recreating the God of Pokemon Arceus, by inserting exclusive items into the drive on Silvally’s head it is able to change type depending on the type of item inserted. This is due to it’s ability cleverly called RKS. It’s design is very interesting, being near identical to Type: Null minus the head restraint. How it will evolve is unknown but it is siad it will only evolve when it finds a trainer it can trust and it strangely has some connection to Team Skull member Gladion, who was revealed in the same trailer as Type:Null.
Next we have a new 3 stage evolution. Previously revealed Pokemon Jangmo-o evolves into what I believe is the first Dragon/Fighting type ever in a Pokemon game. It’s design and combat revolve around it’s scales. Both new Pokemon Hakamo-o and Kommo-o can have the abilities Soundproof or Bulletproof, giving them immunity to certain sound based moves and ‘cannon’ type moves (such as attacks with Bomb or Ball in there name). Kommo-o learns a unique attack called Clanging Scales which has a lot of attack power but lowers the defense stat.
Bounsweet will also evolve twice, first into Steenee and then into Tsareena. Steenee can have the abilities Leaf Guard and Oblivious while Tsareena can have Leaf Guard and the unique ability Queenly Majesty which protects it from priority attacks, similarly to Bruxish’ ability. Tsareena gets a unique move called Trop Kick which causes a small amount of damage but also lowers the opponents attack stat. The entire evolution line retains the Grass typing.
Ribombee is the evolution of Cutiefly and retains the Bug/Fairy typing. There’s not much else to say about Ribombee other than it’s two abilities can be Honey Gather which is useless in battle or Shield Dust which is a very handy ability that stops residual effects of attacks (e.g. thunderbolts chance to paralyze).
That’s it for brand new Pokemon but two more Pokemon from the very first generation (who seem to be the only one receiving Alolan Forms) got new forms today. Alolan Grimer and Muk gain a Dark typing in addition to their traditional Poison typing. These new forms gain access to biting and scratching moves thanks to the ‘teeth’ that have formed on their body from all the toxins they ingest. They also lose the Stench ability for Gluttony, allowing the Pokemon to eat berries earlier. It is unclear if it will have any stat changes but it is noted these Alolan forms are heavier.
Utilizing a mission-based format to progress the story players will regularly experience little cut-scenes that help flesh out the various side-characters that they will fight alongside, something that is very well done as the cast is quite likable once they are developed, as well as various developments that move the story along. This doesn’t hold up too well in the long run however as the mission format eventually requires quite a bit of progress to be made before any meaningful developments occur, often leaving players hanging dry for hours at a time before the next major event occurs.
In combat players can utilize various standard mecahnics such as attacking, jumping, guarding, and various skills to take down the Aragami they are facing off against, whether this means using your melee weapon to deal quick heavy damage or utilizing your firearm to deal damage at a distance. The issue with using the gun is that ammo can only be obtained from dealing damage or consuming enemies, meaning that you only have so many shots at a time, though the benefit here is that these shots can be charged with different elemental types to best target an enemy’s weaknesses.
Thanks to the various amount of God Arc type weapons that can be used by the player, the sheer number of missions to tackle, and the amount of customization available players will find that God Eater 2: Rage Burst has a tremendous amount of content to be played through, especially once you begin to tap into character specific missions. That being said, the game does make it so players will need to learn various aspects themselves rather than frontloading the information, this is good for those who like to test their own playstyles before settling into one but can be quite an obstacle to newcomers who find themselves struggling after glossing over certain mechanics.
With the release of God Eater 2: Rage Burst Bandai Namco has included only the English dub for the game and while the voice actors do fit their roles nicely, there are a few odd elements here. The game makes smart use of the controller speaker for relaying orders but many times throughout the title, even during important cutscenes, the dialogue comes across as extremely muffled to the point that it almost sounds as if the voice work was recorded off of speakers replaying the dialogue rather than a microphone. Thankfully while the dialogue often falters in this form, the soundtrack accompanying this game is outstanding as there are a large amount of great tracks that perfectly fit the nature of the game and help make large battles feel all the more intense.
