Pokémon Sun is surprising, weird, novel, different, and, most importantly, really, really good. I never thought I would say any of these things about the new Pokémon game, but here I am; Game Freak made a new way to play Pokémon.

That last one surprises me most of all. I was one of those Pokémon fans who really wasn’t all that fond of X and Y nor Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in the grander scope of the Pokémon series. X and Y especially brought with them tremendously low difficulty, a poor story, a deadly combination of fewer creature designs and worse ones, and a region barren of secrets to uncover.

Sun and Moon does not fix all of these problems, unfortunately, but for what problems the game has, it makes up for with seemingly innumerable quality of life improvements and structural shakeups.

In fact, “life” is a word that describes this game pretty well. The liveliness of Alola, the region the game takes place in, was clearly a primary focus of this game’s development. Rather than being just one consistent landmass like previous games, Alola is made up of four main islands that each feel like miniature regions of their own. They each have their own unique personalities, cities, Pokémon habitats, cultures, and feels.

And compared to other regions, Alola feels less rigid and concrete. Routes are commonly sprinkled with things like Pokémon Centers and motels. You will find more instances of one Pokémon showing up across multiple connected routes - in the same way animals don’t exist in one rigid location. At the same time, there are almost no instances of Pokémon being stuffed into specific areas “just because.” Every Pokémon feels like it is where it should be.

This is made abundantly clear through the introduction of Alolan Pokémon, variants of old creatures made explicitly for the Alola region. Instead of regular Raichu, we have Alolan Raichu – a Psychic/Electric version of the famous Generation 1 Pokémon that rides on its tail like a surfboard because of changes in Pikachu’s diet (according to the Pokédex). Rattata became nocturnal as a means of protecting itself against new predators. It’s an awesome way to breathe new life into classic monsters, and makes Pokémon feel more like real wildlife this time around.

One more way Sun makes the world feel alive is through the ability to ride Pokémon, a returning feature from X and Y, except now you can ride select Pokémon whenever you want (rather than doing it in extremely specific circumstances). It is both your new way to travel faster (who needs a bike?), and, more importantly, it is a complete replacement for HMs in previous games. No longer do you need to keep a move slot on a flying Pokémon reserved for Fly so you can travel around. No longer do you need to teach something Rock Smash just for three caves in the first 20% of the game. Need to smash a small rock? Summon Tauros and ram through it!

They’re a blast to use, and eliminating the need for HMs allows for a new world in which you can have zero Flying-or Water-type Pokémon on your team and still be totally fine. It’s an improvement 20 years in the making.

Humans characters feel more alive in this game too. Sun and Moon have full, 360-degree rotational movement, and the dynamic camera shows off the humans’ full, proportional 3D models. If it weren’t for 3DS’s handheld visuals, this game would be indistinguishable from a modern console JRPG.

This is further enhanced by the story, which plays more like an involved JRPG story than at any time in the series’ past. There are cut scenes, expressive characters, and some surprisingly dark dialogue that would just feel out of place in any other series game. This all makes me lament the absence of voice acting, as characters look so good now that it feels jarring to have dialogue without even Zelda grunts to go along with it.

Gym battles have been fully replaced by Trials on each island, which are, for all intents and purposes, smaller gyms where there are no trainer battles to really speak of. You go to an area, fight various wild Pokémon, and go through a challenge which often has nothing to do with fighting monsters (like answering questions or going on a hunt for items).

At the end, you fight a Totem Pokémon, a super-powered Pokémon with beefed up stats. Think of it like a boss fight. Only after beating all of the Trials on an island do you fight the Kahuna, or big boss of an island, which is more like a gym leader battle from previous games. After that, you get a Z Crystal for whichever Type of Trial you beat. I love these to death. Playing Pokémon now feels more like one long adventure rather and an adventure segmented into so many different parts.

Z Crystals allow you to use Z-Moves, which are super moves you can use once per battle. Remember Mega Evolutions? Those are gone from the main story and replaced with this. There are Z-Moves for the various types, and beyond that, some Pokémon get their own Z-Moves unique to them. I love Mega Evolutions, so I’m disappointed to see them go, but Z-Moves are a solid mechanical replacement if that is indeed the direction Game Freak chooses to go with this.

That’s not to say there aren’t problems. For one, there is almost no 3D in the game outside of the small Pokémon Snap spin-off mode where you can take pictures of Pokémon in specific environments. It’s sorely missed because, in 2D, jaggies are everywhere, and outside of great art design, it’s not an amazing looking game. The game is also extremely easy, though I will say it is notably more challenging than both X/Y and OR/AS.

There are two much bigger problems. First, there are very few secrets off the beaten path I can find. It feels like Kalos in X and Y in its linearity. My second issue is that Game Freak made the (admirable) decision to treat old Pokémon the same way they treat new Pokémon, and go out of their way not to highlight new monsters in trainer battles and in the wild.

In other words, I see far more old Pokémon than new Pokémon during the game. For as new as this game feels, I see maybe five Pokémon per island that weren’t revealed through official trailers. I don’t know how many new Pokémon there are in this game, but my early hours tell me that there probably aren’t an absolute buttload. It’s a shame, because Alola has some of my favorite designs ever to grace this franchise.

If I listed every change in Pokémon Sun and Moon, this review would be twice the length. Long story short: these are the most ambitious sequels this franchise has ever seen. Are there problems? Of course. Am I pleased with the end result? Absolutely. Pokémon Sun and Moon are a refreshing rethought on what it means to play a Pokémon game.