Pokemon Sun and Moon say goodbye to HMs

Yesterday, a YouTube user by the name of Kaphotics shared the details of a datamine that had been carried out on the Pokemon Sun and Moon demo. Kaphotics is back today with more information, revealing some rather game-changing details about the new Pokemon titles. Fair warning: those who want to avoid spoilers may not want to continue further.

One of the biggest revelations of this latest video is that Sun and Moon appear to be doing away with Hidden Machines, otherwise known as HMs. HMs are special moves that can be taught to a variety of Pokemon and are required to progress through the game world. They can be a frustrating aspect of the game because they require players to fill an all-too-valuable move slot with an attack that, in some cases, isn't very strong.

That may be changing in Sun and Moon, though it doesn't seem like the moves that were once taught via HM will be going away entirely. As it turns out, moves like Fly, Surf, and Waterfall are now bought by TM, which most importantly means they can be easily overwritten when you want to replace them with other moves. In all, there will be 100 TMs in the game, with 719 moves in total.

The video also takes a fair amount of time focusing on the new items in the game. There are 920 total items, with 58 of the new ones related to Z-Moves in one way or another. We're getting a new Pokeball to use in these latest installments, and the current theory is that they'll only be used to catch the Ultra Beasts that roam the Alola region.

The video delves into more specifics, but those are the major takeaways from it. While it seemed like Sun and Moon were already changing up the formula quite a bit, removing HMs is another big stride that will probably please most players. We'll soon get to find out just how much the Pokemon series is changing, as Sun and Moon launch for Nintendo 3DS on November 18.