| Communication | |
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Communication has always been the most important aspect of Pokémon. Battles and Trades with other players has been the overall crux of Pokémon and a large part of why it took off. While Generation VI had the Player Search System to make things easier, Pokémon Sun & Moon have a little bit of a more convoluted setup. First, for local play, you can access the Quick Communication feature straight away as soon as you get to the first Pokémon Center. Here, you're able to connect quickly with another player locally, but you only have Link Battle (Single), Link Battle (Double) and Trade at your disposal. If you want to play more intricate modes or if you wish to go online, you need to go to the Festival Plaza |
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| Battle Features | |
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At any point, you can enter the Festival Plaza. While this does have uses outside of the communications, this is where all the communication aspects of the game take place. From here you can interact with friends, battle, trade and enter all the online facilities that we have become accustomed to throughout the years. On the bottom screen, you will see multiple options. The two prominent ones give you the option to Battle and to Trade. There's also a Profile one for you to set messages for when people interact with your avatar in their Festival Plaza, as well as a Friend List. You can also connect to the internet by hitting the Wireless icon in the bottom right. Doing so will automatically sync your game to the Global Link when you connect |
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| Guests | |
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When in the Festival Plaza, either locally or online, many other people playing Pokémon Sun & Moon will appear in the plaza. These players will appear in your Guest List, with Friends being more prominent, showing at the top. However, you do have the ability to add people to a special VIP list. You can also block players if they have been harassing you. To interact with the players, you need to press the Battle or Trade button and select what you want to do. When you have done that, it will bring a list of all eligible players up for you to select who to encounter. This is the only way to communicate with players, as you cannot do it directly from the Guest List. When you look at other players, you can retrieve a lot of information about their gameplay, such as how many Pokémon they have fought, BP earned, eggs hatched and so forth. All players in your list are then ranked based on their values. These players you encounter can be utilised in the Festival Plaza to receive items, Festival Coins and to even play Missions if they are still in their Festival Plaza as well. |
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| Battles | |
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When you select Battle, you are given three options
You can now select one of up to 6 Battle Teams you have registered in your box during these battles. You can also, as of January 2017, scan a QR Code to use a team someone else created to go through some of the modes. |
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| Trades | |
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When you select Trade, you are given three options
Do note that if you are disconnected from a trade in the middle of it due to communication errors, you will be unable to trade for 24 hours. |
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