trailer showing actual gameplay from Pokémon Sun and Moon has been released and beyond

even the revealed starters, there’s a ton of information to be found here. So let’s

not waste any time. We’ve got our own personal Hidden Machine, the old Analysis Machine naturally,

to discover all the secrets and hidden details from this latest Pokémon trailer! Let’s

see if we can catch ‘em all!

The most exciting part of any Pokémon game is seeing what new Pokémon there are. And

we’re in for a strong Generation if the Starters are anything to go by. First up is

Rowlet, a dual Grass and Flying type which is based on an owl. The Pokémon Company has

even released more information about it stating that it’s classified as the Grass Quill

Pokémon and has the ability Overgrow. It goes on to say, “Rowlet can attack without

making a sound! It flies silently through the skies, drawing near to its opponent without

being noticed, and then lashing out with powerful kicks. It can also attack from a distance

using the razor-sharp leaves that form part of its feathers.’

‘Its visual abilities are impressive. The darkness of night is no obstacle to Rowlet!

It can twist its neck nearly 180° from front to back so it can see directly behind itself.

It has a habit of turning its head in battle to face its Trainer and receive instructions.

The move Leafage attacks an opponent by striking it with leaves. Rowlet knows this move from

the moment it becomes your partner!” We even see it’s ability to rotate its head

180° during its idle animation. But the most interesting thing here is the move, Leafage.

It is a brand-new Grass-type attack that seems designed to give Grass types an early move

on par with Ember and Water Gun, and we even see it in action where it sends three green

energy balls at its opponent.

Next is Litten, the Fire-type starter. Though considering its dark coloring, we do have

to wonder if its final evolution could be a dual Fire and Dark type. What we do know

thanks to the Pokémon Company is that Litten is classified as the Fire Cat Pokémon and

it has the ability Blaze. They describe it as, “Logical but also passionate, Litten

always remains coolheaded and doesn't show its emotions on the surface. Litten can attack

with flaming hairballs!’

‘Its fur is rich in oils and immensely flammable. Litten grooms itself by licking its fur, and

then uses the collected fur as fuel for fireball attacks! When the time comes for Litten to

shed its old fur, it all burns up in a glorious blaze. The move Ember attacks an opponent

by firing a small flame at it. Litten knows this move from the moment it becomes your

partner!” So with that description, Ember is kinda gross when used by Litten. But you

can’t deny its effectiveness. We even see Litten lickings its paws during its idle animation

before using Ember. And during its attack, we can see the hair on Litten’s back stand

on end. But the coolest detail about Litten are the markings on its fur which, when combined

with its eyes, resembles the alchemic symbol for sulfur.

Finally, there’s Popplio, the Water type Pokémon. The big question with it is whether

its final evolution will gain the Ice type. We’re not entirely confident about that

since the typing and design could make it a little too similar to the Seel and Dewgong

family. However, Popplio’s classification is exactly the same as those two as the Sea

Lion Pokémon. Unlike them however, its ability is Torrent. The Pokémon Company also gives

it this description, “Popplio's swimming speed is known to exceed 25 mph. It's better

at moving in the water than on land. Still, when it's on land, it takes advantage of the

elasticity of its balloons to perform acrobatic stunts and jumps.’

‘Popplio can snort out balloons made of water! Watch it spin water balloons into a

playful battle strategy! Both frivolous and hard-working, Popplio can easily get carried

away—unleashing enough power in battle to make quite a spectacle! But Popplio’s determined

spirit means it can usually be found practicing hard on its balloon skills. The Water Gun

move attacks an opponent by firing a jet of water. Popplio knows this move from the moment

it becomes your partner!” And like the others we see it use its Water Gun and see its idle

animation. In this case, Popplio takes a very proud-looking stance.

What’s clear about all of the starters is that they’re full of personality. From their

idle animations to their attacks, they really do stand out. And there might be even more

of a connection between the chosen starter and your trainer since, in the Japanese trailer,

we see the trainer picking up his chosen Pokémon. It’s a level of interaction we don’t normally

see in the Pokémon games. At least outside of Pokémon-Amie.

However, we saw two more Pokémon during this reveal trailer. Toward the end, we were given

our first look at the titular Legendaries. First is Sun’s Legendary Pokémon which

has a definite lion-like design which seems to back up the trademark filed for a Pokémon

called Solgaleo. The legendary is located near some kind of ruin with the Sun and Moon

symbols on either side of it on nearby columns. Behind it, there’s a carving that shows

two hands raised into the air.

We see more of the ruin when Moon’s Legendary Pokémon is revealed. Here we see that the

ruin seems to be part of a mountain as the hands are shown to be holding up some kind

of giant circle. It could be either the sun or the moon or perhaps represent both. It’s

difficult to say conclusively. But the Moon Legendary seems to be designed after a kind

of bat which is quite fitting. The trademark seems to indicate that its name is Lunaala,

but there’s almost no evidence here to back that up.

Like many of the past Legendary Pokémon that have represented the generation, Sun and Moon’s

are shown to be different yet interconnected. In this case, it’s in the eyes. The Moon

Pokémon has orange eyes while the Sun Pokémon has blue, which is the primary color of their

opposites. Finally, we get to see the Moon Legendary’s unique move. It brings up its

wings into a full moon shape before combining six beams of energy into one massive attack.

Unfortunately, we don’t see anything concrete for the Sun Legendary, only that it’s unique

move brings the camera close to its eyes before attacking. Still, it does look quite fierce.

And, surprisingly enough, that’s every Pokémon that’s been shown so far. Or is it? In the

Japanese trailer, a small scene takes place in the trainer’s house. And behind this

woman is a Meowth. It’s not much, but it does show that the seventh generation will

not be repeating what the fifth generation did and only have brand new Pokémon in the

region. Instead we expect the game to keep the sheer variety of Pokémon that Kalos and

the sixth generation had.

But that’s everything that the trailers and supplementary material has on the Pokémon

of Sun and Moon. And we’re only scratching the surface. Let’s continue on and take

closer look at the trainers and the other characters we meet during both trailers. The

Japanese trailer actually shows the biggest news when it comes to the trainers, like X

and Y, players will be able to choose how their trainer looks. There are four options

for each gender though they all follow a similar style.

The male trainer has a rather simple design with shorts, a blue and white striped shirt,

the customary hat, and a backpack. Meanwhile, the female trainer has a wool cap with tufts

sticking up on top like a chicken and a square Pokéball symbol. She’s also wearing shorts

and carries a bag while her shirt is tied off in the front. While they may not stand

out compared to previous trainers, there’s actually some clever theming with the two

of them.

The male trainer has a blue hat while the female has orange. Her shirt and shoes are

colored yellow while his are blue. So far it seems that the male trainer is themed for

Moon while the female trainer is designed for Sun. However, the male trainer also has

orange highlights on his shorts which keeps him themed for both versions. Unfortunately,

we were unable to find anything blue on the female trainer, though her green shorts are

a cooler shade than anything else she’s wearing.

Along with the male trainer, we also get a look at his room. We can see his desk next

to a window where books and a globe sits. The globe actually displays the real world’s

Europe and Africa rather than any Pokémon geography. Next to it, one of the books is

open and can likely be read. On the left, there’s a Pikachu doll near the TV. A Wii

U is displayed in front of the TV with no NX in sight. So no preview here! Strangely

enough, there’s no PC to be seen anywhere in the trainer’s room though we think he

has to have one. Just maybe not in the form we’re used to.

And that’s because of a scene from before this during the Japanese trailer. In it, we

see a new character, Kukui, either sending a video message to the trainer to welcome

him or it’s a live-feed chat. What’s interesting is the aesthetic of a web message is fully

here as we see options to minimize, expand, or exit Kukui’s window as well as symbols

for the video feed, which is indicated to be on, a camera, and an options menu. You

obviously can’t interact with these options at the moment, but we even see that the background

wallpaper is of the ocean.

This is where the missing PC ties in. What if instead of a desktop computer, the trainer

has a laptop or a tablet that is with them at all times, allowing the ability to have

a video chat with characters that they meet along the way? Going one step further, what

if it’s a laptop that allows you to change out your Pokémon at any time without going

to a Pokémon Center. It’s quite the reach and a change we can’t quite see them making

for the sake of balance, but it could be a major update to the Pokémon formula.

The other key component to this talk with Kukui is that, like Generation 3, your trainer

has just moved to this new region, Alola. It’s an obvious play on the word Aloha and

the region is guaranteed to be based on Hawaii. And this move and the location is reflected

in the live-action segments of the Japanese trailer. It tells the story of a boy and mother

moving to Hawaii so it’s possible that there may be details on what the opening story will

be in Sun and Moon. For one, the boy’s name is Shohei. Is it possible that this will be

the male trainer’s name in the Japanese version? There are more distinct uses of color

during these moments as well. Shohei is wearing blue when introduced to his new class and

the boy who claps is wearing orange.

We believe this nice boy, who later reveals his name to be Hoku, is a real-world stand-in

for Sun and Moon’s rival, for lack of a better term. We’ll detail him in full later,

but what’s intriguing is that Hoku chooses the starter that is weak to Shohei’s choice.

Could the opposite trainer, the gender you did not choose, be the true rival in the game,

just like Serena and Calem from X and Y? Maybe the rival that Hoku represents is more like

Shauna from that same game. There’s actually more evidence to support this, but we’ll

get to that soon enough as there are a lot of characters introduced in the trailer.

But first, let’s look at Kukui. He’s the first character you seem to meet and may even

be your cousin unless that’s just a colloquialism. We believe he works as an assistant to Sun

and Moon’s professor. After all, he shares a name with the Kukui nut that can be found

in Hawaii. It’s had many different uses throughout the history of the islands, but

the ancient people actually burned the nut to provide light. They did this by stringing

the nuts in a row on a palm leaf midrib before lighting it on one end. Each one took about

15 minutes to burn so it could also be used as a way to tell time. The oil from the nut

was also used in lamps. It may be a coincidence but this ties into the light motif that Sun

and Moon seem to be going for.

In the Japanese trailer, we see the house you’re moving into. Boxes are everywhere

and there’s a Wailmer pail sitting next to a plant. It’s the same house we saw from

before with the Meowth. We can see Kukui’s telltale green shoes meaning this is at some

point in the same timeframe. It also means that this woman is the trainer’s mother.

She’s wearing a floral sundress as well as glasses on top of her head.

Throughout the same trailer, we see moments of Kukui talking to the player. He talks about

how it’s your first time in the region and how you need to get out there to meet friends

and Pokémon before concluding with a confident ‘Let’s go!” Kukui seems to be your link

and guide to the new region early on, and he may even be married as the video message

with him shows a ring on his finger. Though it may just be a visual flourish to his character.

As we stated before, we believe Kukui works for the new Professor who we get a good look

at here. He seems to be even more laid back than even Professor Sycamore and has a fan

tucked into his belt. The Japanese trailer shows that his name is Hala and, fitting tradition,

is named after a tree. The Hala tree is one that can be found in Hawaii and even ties

into a special location on the island, which we’ll discuss when we talk about the region

itself. Needless to say, Hala is the one to give you your first Pokémon. While you receive

your starter on a platform that seems to be designed for either ceremonial purposes or

Pokémon battles, we can see a building with double doors just to the left which is likely

Professor Hala’s lab. An NPC is hanging around nearby, likely to provide more information

on it.

Just before Hala sends out the Pokémon though, we see a shadow just to the right of the trainer.

A person is just off-screen while a wide-brimmed hat or perhaps umbrella sticks out from the

side. This person seems to be roughly the same height as the trainer but is standing

behind him which could mean it’s your mother. However, there’s a white piece of cloth

just below too which your mother just doesn’t wear. So who could this other character be?

The last new character we see is this young boy that runs up to the trainer. Considering

his backpack, he’s likely the rival for this generation though he seems pretty laidback.

We believe he could be tied to the real-world Hoku and become the trainer’s first friend

in Alola. He’s also different from past rivals since he is the one running behind.

After all, as he’s giving a big grin, we can see Hala’s belt sticking out from the

left side of the screen. Also, his hair style is incredibly similar to Hala’s so it may

be possible that he’s the Professor’s grandson.

As we said before, we wonder if this boy will be a Shauna-type rival for the player since

Hoku, who we presume to be this boy’s analogue and possibly even share the same name, picked

the starter that was weak to Shohei’s choice. We can’t say for sure, but we are confident

on this point. But this scene also has a clue to whether trainer customization really is

fully returning for Sun and Moon.

While the trainer was wearing a blue-striped shirt before, now it looks like it’s a brown-striped

shirt. And the orange highlights on his shorts are now white. So, unless this was a coloring