Here’s Why Pokémon Sun And Moon Is The Only One I’ve Never Finished

I try not to have a backlog. I’m choosier with what I spend time on at this stage of my life than I used to be, and if I care enough to play a game, I usually see it through. But there is one white whale on my shelf that, despite multiple attempts, I’ve never been able to commit to seeing through: Pokémon Sun and Moon, as well as their enhanced re-release, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The reason why is…a lot more stupid than you’d probably expect.

With the exception of the Alola games, I have finished every mainline Pokémon game at least once. I played through the first three generations endlessly on loop as a kid, creating new challenges for myself and catching new monsters to make the most of the game for as long as I could. It wasn’t until Generation IV that I became a “one and done” Pokémon player before moving on to the next thing. This was both because I was old enough to buy more games for myself so I wasn’t constantly pulling water from the stone, and because I was starting to lose interest in the stories they were telling. 

Pokémon games have had cool worldbuilding but lackluster narrative, so as I was getting older and playing grander RPGs like Mass Effect, Pokémon wasn’t holding my attention the way it once had. But still, I was playing these games as if out of obligation. I finished them, put them on my shelf, and didn’t think about them much beyond that. So what could have possibly happened with Sun and Moon and their “definitive” editions that finally pushed me over the edge and made me not finish a Pokémon game? Let me tell you about my pancake-eating archnemesis, Alolan Raichu.

Kotaku readers will know that Raichu, the evolved form of Pikachu, is my favorite Pokémon. Because his little brother is the mascot of the whole dang franchise, Raichu is often forgotten, and sometimes, in the case of the anime, actively set up for failure to make Pikachu look good. 

For many years, I grinned and bore it. To me Pikachu, Raichu, and their pre-evolution, Pichu, were all the same Pokémon anyway. If one form got love, it was like my partner in crime was getting attention at different stages of his life. But man, Game Freak was adamant about making sure everyone and their mother knew that Raichu was the red-headed stepchild of the family. Pikachu has a held item that makes it more powerful than Raichu, so there’s even a mechanical reason not to use a Thunder Stone and evolve it. Raichu’s Ultra Moon Pokedex entry even says, “Because so many Trainers like the way Pikachu looks, you don’t see this Pokémon very often.” Relax, Game Freak.

So when Sun and Moon was coming out, I was already halfway off the wagon. Then it arrived and Game Freak revealed that every Pikachu in the game would evolve into a new regional variant. The Alolan version of Raichu is…cute, I guess. It gains the psychic typing which lets it levitate and surf around on its tail, and all of this is apparently a result of Pikachu overeating Alolan pancakes, which is why it emits a sweet scent when it rubs its electric cheeks. But I saw through its facade. I don’t smell maple syrup, I smell some bullshit. I want to fistfight him in the streets.

Behind this syrup-smelling surfing psychic’s cute round face is a nasty, vile truth: Game Freak and The Pokémon Company were only willing to give Raichu attention if they changed him into something else entirely. The boy cannot get respect in his own form, and that has only become more clear in the years since Sun and Moon. Pikachu gets a Gigantamax form in Sword and Shield, an exclusive Z-Move in Sun and Moon, and is always the playable version in games like Pokken Tournament and Pokémon Unite. Raichu, meanwhile, gets scraps…unless it’s the Alolan variant, which is featured in games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and is playable in Pokémon Unite. 

A lot of this disrespect and preferential treatment has come after Sun and Moon, but I still called Alolan Raichu for what it was. Sun and Moon was already primed to push me away with its less interesting tropical setting and a Pokedex with too few standouts to keep me hunting for new favorites, so to not even be able to explore this region with my favorite electric rat? To be told to settle for an imposter that smells of hotcakes and psychic power? I just couldn’t push through. And y’all, I have tried so many times over the past 10 years. However, maybe I can finally go back after Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

© The Pokémon Company

The latest RPG in the series finally gives Raichu his due. He has not one, but two Mega Evolutions now, after having been oddly overlooked when X and Y came out and first introduced those transformations. I’m obsessed with both of these forms, though I have a preference for the flying, physical-attacking X form. I admit, however, there is some part of me that still feels a little bit of that lingering resentment because both forms carry distinct visual similarities to Pikachu, almost as if Game Freak wanted to make a Mega Pikachu but couldn’t based on their own rules, and so my rat son finally got love. Yes, Alolan Raichu felt like a slight to us OG Raichu lovers at the time…but now that my favorite Pokémon finally isn’t being ignored, do I have it in me to forgive the dopey-ass surfer boy for his crimes?

As the resident Pokémon guy around these parts, Sun and Moon is one of the only examples I have of a backlog game that feels truly wrong to have not seen through to the end. Usually, if I don’t finish a game, there’s a less stupid and prideful reason like I just wasn’t enjoying it, so I don’t carry the baggage of games left incomplete on my shoulders as I head out to new worlds on unknown adventures. But I’m a certified champion in every other Pokémon region besides Alola, which I left unconquered mostly because I didn’t want to do it without my best friend by my side. I might not go back any time soon, but for the first time in over a decade, I’m starting to feel like I’m letting go of the pride that has kept me from seeing it through.