As I’m sure we all know by now, Nintendo recently released a new trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon–not only do we now have confirmation that the region is based on Hawaii, but we now also know who our new Professor is, his assistant, the names/types of the new legendaries, and the names of a few new characters. Perhaps the most surprising (in a good way) thing Nintendo announced was the Rotom Pokedex–something we’ve never seen anything even close to in previous Pokemon games. Despite this well of knowledge Nintendo has gifted us, there’s still plenty that we don’t know yet, and won’t know for some time–or at least until after E3 because Nintendo Treehouse said that they’ll be talking about Pokemon after E3. So without further ado, here are my predictions and hopes for Pokemon Sun and Moon:

 Hala– the man in the yellow coat

Image courtesy of Daily.Pokecommunity

Although nothing was said about this man in the American trailer, the Japanese trailer states that his name is Hala. Although originally speculated to be the professor of this region (after all, the hala is another kind of tree native to Hawaii) we now know that Kukui is the Professor of this region. It’s also safe to assume that Hala won’t even be his assistant, as we know that will be Lillie’s role (and I’ll talk about what I think about her later.) My guess is that he’ll either be a “secret” (only for a short while) gym leader or a member of the Elite 4–possibly the champion, but I think it’s less likely. In previous Pokemon games, there’s almost always a gym leader or member of the Elite 4 that meets the trainer and helps them a few times before they face each other in battle. If nothing else, I’m sure he’ll be very relevant to the plot somehow–perhaps he knows what the evil team is doing and he tries to stop him? Maybe he has information, maybe even involvement with the legendary Pokemon? I’m guessing he’ll be one of the next few details about the game to be explained at least a little more since everyone else that’s been shown in the trailers has been given a name and a role.

Lillie

Image courtesy of Bulbapedia

There seems to be a big stir about her everywhere–she’s the professor’s assistant, but why are we only now seeing her? Why does she hate battling Pokemon? She looks so sweet–why the stern look on her official art? I predict that she’ll end up being an antagonist of some kind–probably related to whatever evil team this game has. Her profile explicitly states that she hates battling Pokemon and I’m sure that’s going to be crucial to these games. My guess is that this game’s evil team will either follow something close to Team Galactic’s “We’re liberating Pokemon!” idea, or that she’s actually a master Pokemon battler–perhaps to an extreme level that we’ve never seen in Pokemon. If that were the case, if she’s not on our trainer’s side (I highly doubt she’s on our side, her facade seems to innocent) she might be involved in extreme levels of Pokemon battling, to the point where she battles them to the death. Perhaps that’s what the evil team in this game is involved in, as well.

HMs as Key Items

Image courtesy of aminoapps

This one is all hope rather than prediction. Having HMs be key items rather than moves is something Pokemon fans have been wanting for a while. For anyone unfamiliar, let’s take Cut for instance: Not a particularly useful move in battle, right? But you need something with cut on it in case you run into a tree. What if instead of cut taking down the tree however, you’re given a pair of gardening shears–a key item–that will cut the tree down? And if you still want one of your Pokemon to learn cut it can be turned into a TM instead. This eliminates the need for HM slave Pokemon while still giving an option to people who want their Pokemon to learn the moves regardless. It would be incredibly convenient.

Starter Evolution Lines

Image courtesy of gameskinny

Before I go into detail on this one, I’d like to point out that I’m assuming all the “leaks” of their evolutions that we’ve seen thusfar are fake and I’ll continue to think that until we see confirmation, so you won’t hear me talk about any of them. Since that’s out of the way, here’s what I’m guessing is going to happen: Rowlett will retain its Grass/Flying typing throughout its entire line and will shift from looking really cute to more like a Noctowl on steroids in a pile of leaves and branches. Litten will almost certainly pick up a second type in its next evolution–judging purely by its design, it will likely be dark type or ghost type. Phantom cats exist in a fair number of Hawaiian folktales so I’m leaning towards fire/ghost. If that’s the case, it’s next few evolutions will take a more ghostly appearance until it eventually looks like one of the phantom cats. Popplio is harder to to make such a confident guess for since its design could go in many different directions at this point and its inspiration is from sea lions. I’m leaning toward that it will be water/fairy for two reasons though: 1. Fairy types being so new and well-liked, it would make sense for Popplio to eventually become half fairy for the sake of adding more fairy types to the dex.  2. Fairy-type Pokemon tend to be more playful, happy, and cute in the traditional sense–all of which Popplio is. Again though, it has a much simper and, for the sake of guessing evolutions, vague design so it could just as easily go in any other direction. After all, how many of us predicted Piplup to eventually become half-steel?

Mega Evolutions

Image courtesy of PokemonRubySapphire

We’ve seen the mega bracelets on the trainers in this game–mega evolutions are here to stay. As for what Pokemon we’ll see new megas for, I’m guessing we’ll see at least one of the following: Rotom (because of the Pokedex), Dragonite, Flygon, Lunatone, Solrock, Kingdra (because there are seahorses in Hawaii–I’ll admit, my reason for thinking this will happen is pretty flimsy, but I’m holding out hope.), Solgaleo, Lunala, Magmortar (because of Hawaii being famous for its volcanoes), Electevire (because if Magmortar gets a mega they’d give one to Electevire, too) the final evolutions of the starters, Milotic (honestly, I just think its design makes it look like it’s begging to megaevolve. Besides, given the setting, I’m sure that there’s gonna’ be at least 2 or 3 water Pokemon getting new megas since water Pokemon will certainly be particularly important in this game) Corsola, Tentacruel, Raichu. As for ones I simply just hope get mega evolutions but it seems more unlikely for them, the main one I’d like to see is megas for even one or two of the Eeveelutions just because they all look like they could evolve again–besides, Eevee being the evolution Pokemon, it would make sense. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if only Eevee received a mega evolution for that same reason. Some other unlikely hopes I have for mega evolutions are Dunsparce, Stunfisk, Arcanine, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Hitmonchan, Torkoal, Delibird, Sigilyph, and Hawlucha. All of them just look like they’re just waiting to evolve–besides, I’d love to see them all become more competitively viable choices.