Gotta Review 'Em All - Moves [Generation VI]

Generation VI was the generation that made the jump from 2D to 3D, and just like the fact that XY had to make 3D models of every single Pokemon, they also had to make models of every single previously existing attack. Which means that we don't actually have too many brand-new moves to talk about this time! And it is nice. They find a bit of restraint, and several types only get a couple of moves, and some of them are even signature moves!

Hell, the Dragon type move, in a first for the franchise, ends up not getting a single new move this generation! They really went in hard with Generation VI nerfing the Dragon-type powercreep that set in in Generation IV-V, huh? 

Of course, this just plays in with the rise of Dragon's nemesis, the brand new Fairy type. A couple (not enough!) of old Normal-type status moves got shunted into the Fairy type, but as a brand new type with nothing much to work on, the Fairy type of course gets a whole ton of moves to really set its "flavour" alongside the initial batch of Gen VI fairies we got!

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Fairy-type Moves:

• Fairy Wind (Yosei no Kaze/Fairy Wind) Being the first debut of a new type in a long, long time, Fairy-types obviously need a whole new batch of toys to play with, including a whole bunch of moves that fill in certain niches that the older types have. Fairy Wind is basically Gust but has a 'fairy' flavour to it, and is the weak, low-damage attack for Fairies. (A couple of older, non-damaging moves also got retconned into being Fairy-type). It kinda tracks, I guess, because fairies in myth tend to be shown to be able to manipulate the weather and the forest and stuff. 
• Disarming Voice (Chamu Boisu/Charm Voice) Another relatively weak move that always hits the enemy, Disarming Voice has the Fairy-type speak or cry in such a melodic sound that it always hits the enemy. Both "Charm Voice" and "Disarming Voice" seems to imply that the enemy gets charmed so hard that they take damage, but the description of the move in-game literally says that "the user does emotional damage to the opponent." Insert your own 'emotional damage' meme here!
• Moonblast (Mun Fosu/Moon Force) So let's move from the weak moves to the strong move, with Moonblast essentially taking the niche enjoyed by moves like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Flamethrower, and the like for being a high-power move that is almost always accurate, and has a little bit of an extra effect to it (lowering the Special Attack stat of the enemy). The animation is always pretty fun, with the flavour often being the Fairy-type literally summoning the power of the moon to rain down a pinky-purple ball or pillar of energy down onto the enemy. Most Fairy-type Pokemon get to learn this as one of their final moves. And I think it does capture the 'sweet but deadly' vibe of Fairies pretty well, yeah?

• Dazzling Gleam (Majikaru Shain/Magical Shine) Dazzling Gleam, also known as "Magical Shine" in Japanese, is basically the less-powerful version of Moonblast, being a special attack... but it hits multiple enemies, like Razor Leaf or Surf. The flavour is that the Fairy unleashes such a bright beam of light that it damages the enemy. I guess it's far brighter than Flash, but then again, these are fairies! Of course they're going to attack and murder you with their cutesy-wutesy sparkles!
• Draining Kiss (Dorein Kissu/Drain Kiss) What about physical-category moves, then? Fairies in pop culture don't tend to be physical fighters unless you count D&D elves as fairies, but I absolutely love that their weaker physical-category move is a kiss... a kiss that drains your essence, that is, functioning as essentially a Leech Life or Mega Drain. Appropriately, some 'kissing' non-Fairy Pokemon like Jynx, Luvdisc and Gorebyss also gain access to this move. 

• Play Rough (Jaretsuku/Frolic) And the strong physical-category damaging move is Play Rough, or 'Frolic' in Japanese, which... basically has the Fairy-type rush the enemy and then envelop it in a ball of cartoony dust. In the original Generation VI, hearts also pop up from it... which they removed or reduced in subsequent generations. Probably for the best, because a combination of the ball of dust and hearts, as well as the words "Play Rough", really does make it seem like... well, to borrow a term from the Sims, there were a lot of jokes being made about WooHoo's being done as a part of this move.
• Baby-Doll Eyes (Tsuburana Hitomi/Round Eyes) The 'Growl' for Fairy-types, Baby-Doll Eyes basically uses adorable eyes to decrease the enemy's Attack stat, and has increased priority. Gloriously, Nintendo itself has seemingly realized the meme-worthy status of Espurr's eyes, and every game post-Gen VI have had Espurr's eyes be the visualization of the Baby-Doll Eyes. 
• (No, Espurr can't learn this move. I think it makes it funnier.) 

• Misty Terrain (Misuto Firudo/Mist Field) Occupying a different 'slot' in the battlefield than weather or entry hazards are the 'Terrains', which I frankly thought was a bit shoehorned and gimmicky, and felt more like an excuse to have a battlefield effect for types that aren't tied to the weather. I've mellowed out a lot on these over the years, though I remembered thinking they were absolutely stupid and lacking of the flavour of weather conditions when I first played Generation VI. Maybe it's because the other games had so many random gimmicks over the years? Anyway, terrains only affect Pokemon that are on the ground (i.e. on the 'field' or the 'terrain'), and debuffs Dragon-types as well as acts as a free Safeguard for all Pokemon on the field. It also affects certain moves and items, but otherwise... that's basically all it does. 
• Flower Shield (Furawa Gado/Flower Guard) Originally learned by Florges and the non-Fairy Sunflora, Flower Shield raises the Defense stat of Grass-type Pokemon. It fits into Florges being a Fairy-type heavily associated with Grass-types without being a Grass-type itself, but it's otherwise kind of a niche move, isn't it?

• Geomancy (Jio Kontororu/Geo Control) And now we're moving into the signature moves. Geomancy (or Geo Control in Japanese) is Xerneas's signature move, which reflects Xerneas's power as the legendary Pokemon of life. It is kind of interesting that the Fairy-type also has ties to the 'Earth', something that would've previously been given to the Grass or maybe Ground type. Geomancy is a buffing move, but being a signature move to a legendary, it's an insane buffing move that buffs Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed by two stages each. 
• Light of Ruin (Hametsu no Hikari/Light of Ruin) This one is interesting because it's a signature move, but also an unreleased move. This was supposed to be the signature move of AZ's Eternal Floette, and presumably the ominous-sounding 'Light of Ruin' is a reflection of Floette's role of having absorbed energy from the Ultimate Weapon... but in practice it's just a big pink laser beam that deals recoil damage. I wasn't sure about including this or not, since it's not technically a released move, but eh. 

• Aromatic Mist (Aroma Misuto/Aroma Mist) Originally the signature move of Aromatisse, this one is... kind of boring? It's a mist that buffs the Special Defense, but only for an ally. We've had many 'buffing smell' moves in the Grass-type previously, and while I get that the Spritzee line is all about perfumes, this one is rather boring. 
• Fairy Lock (Feari Rokku/Fairy Lock) They really love Klefki, because they gave him two signature moves! Fairy Lock is something similar to Mean Look, where Klefki summons a bunch of spectral locks and chains and 'locks down' everyone on the battlefield. Interestingly, Klefki can't lock down Ghost-types, which presumably just pass through Klefki's padlocks. It seems rather innocuous, but remember that Klefki has access to Prankster, which allows all of its non-damaging moves to go first. 
• Crafty Shield (Torikku Gado/Trick Guard) This was originally Klefki's signature move before a couple of Pokemon like the Yamask line and Magearna got it. As its Japanese name notes, it's a "Trick Guard", meaning it's a guard against tricky (and crafty) moves -- damaging moves will still go through, but other status-causing moves will fail to affect the entire ally field. Surprisingly pretty fun in double battles for sure!

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Normal-type Moves:

• Boomburst (Bakuonpa/Explosive Sound Wave) God, what a cool-sounding move. Whether it's "Boomburst" or "Bakuonpa" it just sounds so primal, y'know? This is a gigantic, area-effect explosive sound blast that hits everyone on the field, including allies, and originally it's only given to Noivern and Exploud -- two creatures explicitly themed around speakers. This is another 'sound' move, and I remembered the fact that Noivern was highlighted a fair bit in XY's original marketing that there was speculation about a 'sound' type. I still think it would be really cool! 
• Noble Roar (Otakebi/Warcry) This is the Litleo line's signature move, which is a big Lion King roar that lowers both attack stats for the enemy. Not a whole lot to say, it sure is a lion roar, and it sure is another 'sound' move. They really are trolling the Sound-type theorists with the Normal-type moves they introduced in this generation, huh? 
• Play Nice (Nakayoku Suru/Make Friends) They really realized how many Normal-type moves they introduced in previous generations and they really cut down on it, huh? Despite its English name, 'Play Nice' wasn't intended to be a counterpart to 'Play Rough' in the original Japanese. It's a rather bland move that lowers the Attack stat after your Pokemon befriends the enemy (essentially a shittier version of Charm), and I really wonder if the flavour originally intended it to be a Fairy-type move? 
• Confide (Naishobanashi/Dirty Talk) This is a TM move, but learnset-wise it was originally exclusive to Chatot and later the Impidimp line as well. The idea is that the Pokemon whispers a dark secret, framed in a hilarious word bubble with censored-out words, and that somehow lowers the Special Attack of the enemy as they're so scandalized, scandalized I say, by the dirty secret that they just heard. Hilarious, actually! This attack is also not dodge-able, presumably because Chatot or Impidimp just literally walks up next to the enemy and whispers right in their ear, Bugs Bunny style. 

And then we've got a couple of moves that are exclusive to event-only Pokemon... and they're not really useful, being more of a gimmick to make 'event Pokemon' feel a bit special. I think they kinda abandoned the idea of a 'special move', and just returned to having certain event Pokemon with moves they can't normally learn or something afterwards. 

• Happy Hour (Happi Taimu/Happy Time) Happy Hour doesn't decrease the price of drinks, because this is still an All-Ages game, but it doubles the prize money received from trainer battles.
• Hold Back (Tekagen/Go Easy) This is basically a reskinned 'False Swipe', framed as the Pokemon 'holding back' and 'going easy' as opposed to it being a sword or slashing technique. Another one given out only in event Pokemon. Not much to say. 
• Celebrate (Oiwai/Celebration) Celebrate, meanwhile, does absolutely nothing other than the funny animation of a giant present box dropping and the user jumping out of it and celebrating it with you. Most of the Pokemon with this is tied to a birthday promotion or a championship. 
• Hold Hands (Te O Tsunagu/Holding Hands) This one also does nothing, the two Pokemon come close together and there's a 'hand-shaking' animation between them. Less cute than the giant birthday gift.

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Fighting-type Moves:

• Power-Up Punch (Guro Panchi/Grow Punch) This one is a TM I remembered using a fair bit in Generation VI. It's a simple punch, but after every punch you get a physical Attack boost! Whether it's a 'power-up' or a 'grow', I don't quite get the flavour behind this, but I suppose I don't have to. It's admittedly a pretty common anime trope, isn't it? Punching harder and harder and getting an even stronger final blow on the enemy? 
• Mat Block (Tatami-gaeshi/Tatami Mat Flip) The other one of Greninja's original signature moves (they made their favourite starter for this generation pretty clear), just look at that glorious samurai-courtyard background that the original Generation VI animation had! I think it's the same one as Retaliate or some other move, but in subsequent generations Mat Block just has the animation of a single rectangle rising up. I normally don't commentate on animation changes, but this is lame. Mat Block is a reference to a trope from old ninja movies, where someone would stomp their foot down to flip up the tatami of the room to act as a makeshift shield to block the darts launched at them. In Pokemon, this means Greninja is able to do it on the first turn he enters the field, creating a shield to protect both himself and his ally. There's also the downside of Mat Block not being on an increased priority move, but Greninja's so fast that it mostly isn't that much of a hindrance. 
• Later on, Throh of all Pokemon gets to learn this move, but only him and Greninja. 
• Flying Press (Furaingu Puresu/Flying Press) A wrestling move! We really do need more wrestling moves, and I feel cheated that we don't quite have a suplex move yet. You'd think wrestling moves would be a goldmine for them to draw for Fighting-type move names! Flying Press is, well, a jumping press attack and is the signature move of the wrestler-themed Hawlucha. I think Pikachu Libre in the Let's Go games is able to do it too. But Flying Press holds the unique distinction of being Pokemon's first dual-typed move, dealing both Fighting and Flying type damage at the same time. It really works for the flavour, too, since a 'flying press' involves Hawlucha doing a Fighting-type technique while airdropping from above. 
• I did really think that Flying Press was going to lead to a genesis of several dual-type moves. Maybe it's kept mostly to signature moves, or to legendaries, but I had the idea that perhaps a future generation would retcon moves like Scald, Fusion Flare, Fusion Bolt, the Pledge moves and a couple of others and turn them into 'dual types', but that never happened. Hell, even some of the moves we'll talk about below that belong to legendaries, like Steam Eruption or Precipice Blades, seem perfect to turn into double-typed moves. Hawlucha remains unique for now. 

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Electric-type Moves:

• Electric Terrain (Ereki Firudo/Elec Field) The second of our terrain moves is Electric Terrain, and... basically the flavour is that the Pokemon charges up the area around it, huh? As expected, Electric Terrain will boost Electric-type attacks used while it is active, but also has the bonus effect of preventing anyone from falling asleep, because the ionized air jolts everyone awake, I guess? Also, worth noting that all three terrains also affect Nature Power and Secret Power. Extremely notable, however, that after being kind of ignored ever since Generation VI, Electric Terrain and Electric Terrain alone ends up being the synergistic condition for Generation IX's Future-Paradox Pokemon to activate their ability 'Quark Drive'.
• Nuzzle (Hoppe Surisuri/Cheek Rub) This is a move originally exclusive to the 'Pikaclones' until Generation VIII gave it to a couple of others like Toxel and Yamper. But basically this takes the running visual theme of Pikachu and all its copycats having electrified cheek pouches. Nuzzle is basically them nuzzling against the enemy, dealing a small amount of damage and dealing paralysis. Cute.
• Eerie Impulse (Kaidenpa/Strange Wave) Kind of random. Eerie Impulse is a 'strange light' or 'strange wave' that lowers the enemy's Special Attack. I really am not sure what the flavour here is. 
• Magnetic Flux (Jibasosa/Magnetic Field Manipulation) We get a bunch of these non-damaging Electric-type moves that do weird things, huh? Magnetic Flux is learned by a handful of Electric-types and magnet-related Steel-types and allows them to wreak havoc with the magnetic field to... buff the defense stats of Pokemon specifically with the Plus and Minus abilities, which are extremely niche and frankly useless outside of double battles. Very conditional and frankly not that good! 

• Ion Deluge (Purazuma Shawa/Plasma Shower) A cool-sounding name! Whether it's "Ion Deluge" or "Plasma Shower", this really could've been the signature move of an Electric-type legendary Pokemon. Instead, it... turns any Normal-type move used by other Pokemon in the field into Electric type. Get it? Because they ionize the area around them? Rather underwhelming. Was this originally an effect of Electric Terrain that they separated into a move?
• Parabolic Charge (Parabora Chaji/Parabola Charge) I thought this was the Helioptile line's signature move, but they share it with Dedenne in their debut generation. I'm not sure why, because while Heliolisk does have a parabola from its frilled lizard neck, I'm not sure what Dedenne has. The effect is also a bit weird, because Parabola Charge unleashes a blast of electricity at everyone else at the field. That part I get, because parabolas spread signals and waves everywhere. But then the user heals? It's a HP-draining move, and I guess it's because parabolas can also receive signals? Kinda weird, I dunno. 
• Electrify (Soden/Electrify) This is the signature move of Helioptile and Heliolisk (and later Boltund learns it). Electrify causes the Pokemon's next move in that turn to become Electric-type. It's useful if the other Pokemon in a double battle has Lightning Rod as an ability, I guess, which will draw the Electric-type move to it and then neutralize it, but otherwise it's a bit of a weird move. Anyway, with Electric getting a bunch of non-damaging moves in this generation, I have the feeling like they were trying to do something weird but didn't manage to leave much of a lasting impression. Good effort, though!

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Bug-type Moves:

• Infestation (Matowaritsuku/Follow About) A move with a name that just sounds nasty, doesn't it? "Infestation" is already such a cool-sounding move name, and the animation causes a literal swarm of black insectoid gnats or something to manifest and deal damage to the enemy. I'm not sure if these are meant to be like, larval Bug Pokemon summoned by the caster? Regardless, it's like when you walk through a jungle and all of these tiny blood-sucking insects follow you around. The actual effect of the move is basically Bug-type Fire Spin, and it's not that impressive, but the flavour is certainly neat! In Generation VI, this was a TM-exclusive move before they added it to the movepools of a bunch of Pokemon. 
• Sticky Web (Nebaneba Netto/Sticky-Sticky Net) Wait, this is a Generation VI move? Huh, I guess I was thinking of Spider Web. Anyway, this is an entry hazard that lowers the Speed of Pokemon that are switched in. Okay, that kinda makes sense. It's given to a lot of silk-creating Bugs, not just spiders.
• Fell Stinger (Todomebari/Finishing Stinger) What a badass English name! FELL STINGER. God, that sounds so much more badass than what the move actually does, which is a mere 50-power move... and that was a much lower 30 in its debut generation. Fell Stinger gives the Bug-type an Attack boost if they kill the enemy with Fell Stinger. Not the most impressive attack. 
• Powder (Funjin/Dust) An extremely niche move, and one that is the signature move of Vivillon. Another one that's based on butterfly scales, Powder's effect is really not something you'd think would happen from such a simple move name. Pokemon affected by 'Powder'... basically blow up if they try to use a Fire-type move, dealing damage to themselves. I think the idea is that instead of the regular butterfly scale-powder, Vivillon douses them in something like gunpowder or something? Weird to give to Vivillon of all things!

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Grass-type Moves:

• Grassy Terrain (Gurasu Firudo/Grass Field) Our third and final Terrain is Grassy Terrain, and... it's a bunch of effects -- it boosts Grass-type moves, it restores the HP of every Pokemon by a little bit, and the grass 'dampens' the effect of Earthquake, Magnitude and Bulldoze. Not much to say here, out of the three Terrains introduced here, 'Grassy Terrain' sounds the most mundane. 
• Petal Blizzard (Hanafubuki/Flower Blizzard) Not our first 'petal' move, and most certainly not our only 'lots of tiny leaves/petals flying around' move, Petal Blizzard deals damage to everyone on the battlefield, basically like Surf, only flavoured like a storm of sakura petals. Kinda cute, I guess, and it does admittedly fill in a bit of a niche as a physical Grass-type AoE.
• Spiky Shield (Nidoru Gado/Needle Guard) This one is originally Chesnaught's signature move, until ORAS gave it to the two cactus Pokemon Cacturne and Maractus. Every starter Pokemon in Kalos gets a signature move, and Chesnaught's is the most... interesting? This one comes with a specific animation, too, where the green armour around Chesnaught's arms literally morphs into a shield and grows spikes. It's basically Protect, again, but if the enemy tries to hit Chesnaught they instead damage themselves on the spikes. Cool!
• Forest's Curse (Mori no Noroi/Curse of the Forest) OH SHIT, this is another cool signature move. Trevenant is already one of the coolest Pokemon to come out of Generation VI, but what a signature move he has! Trevenant is already themed after a dead tree in a haunted forest. Myths of forests that are cursed and cause people who enter to be unable to leave have appeared all over different cultures all over the world, and Nintendo is a particular fan of this in Legend of Zelda and its recurring Skull Woods. Hell, a Trevenant Forest in Kalos basically has the same gimmick as the Lost Woods! When Trevenant casts Forest's Curse, a very cool animation of the creepy trees in one such cursed forests appear all around the Pokemon it's cursing... and perhaps one of the coolest (and most underused) new gimmicks in Generation VI is that Forest's Curse turns the target into Grass-type. Or perhaps more accurately, Forest's Curse 'adds' the Grass-type to the Pokemon, since they don't lose whatever type they originally have (which is what happens with a move like Soak). Now this is more wacky than game-breaking, since the Pokemon's other resistances still come to play, but flavour-wise, what a cool one! Trevenant just cursed that other Pokemon to become part of that cursed forest forever and ever and ever... that's so cool!

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Water-type Moves:

• Water Shuriken (Mizu Shuriken/Water Shuriken) One of Greninja's signature moves, Water Shuriken is... well, a multi-hit move as Greninja forms shurikens out of water and launches it at the enemy! Eventually, Accelgor also gains access to it, as one of the few other 'ninja' Pokemon. Water Shuriken was originally classified as a physical move in Generation VI, but to fit Greninja's special-leaning stat, it became a special category move in Generation VII. Very flavourful, and simple to understand. 
• Steam Eruption (Suchimu Basuto/Steam Burst) This is Volcanion's signature move, and it's... well, an explosion of steam that deals water damage, but also leaves the target with a Burn. It's basically stronger Scald, and given to a Pokemon themed around steam, I guess it's appropriate! Not much to say, other than how interesting it is that it took them this long to weaponize 'steam' as a Water-type attack. 
• Origin Pulse (Kongen no Hado/Pulse of Origin) In the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games, the Hoenn legendaries get a couple of new signature moves, since they never had them in their original games. Kyogre, or rather Primal Kyogre, gets Origin Pulse, which is an area-of-affect move. The animation of this is always pretty damn cool, with a bunch of water droplets appearing and expanding all around Kyogre before he turns them all into gigantic anime Gundam laser blasts that barrage the enemy. The naming kinda fits with how life starts at the sea, and Kyogre does represent Alpha Sapphire to Groudon's Omega Ruby, and Groudon's signature move is about 'the end'. 

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Ground-type Moves:

• Rototiller (Tagayasu/Plow) What a weird move! The word 'Rototiller' brings to mind something a bit more destructive, but it's just... it's just plowing the field, increasing the stats of all Grass-types. Like the trope of earthworms and moles churning up the ground to make crops healthier to grow? It's learned by tunnel-digging Pokemon like Onix, Dugtrio, Watchog and Excadrill, and it would've been perfect for the actual earthworm Pokemon Orthworm if the move survived the Big Purge of Generation VIII. 
• Precipice Blades (Dangai no Tsurugi/Blade of the End) Man, they went really hard with Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon's signature moves, huh? "Blade of the End' sounds so cool! The animation involves Groudon slamming the ground and creating a series of jagged magma rocks that slam towards the enemy before exploding, showcased amazingly well in the animated Mega Evolution Special as the Precipice Blades just slams onto a flying Charizard and causes a gigantic explosion. 

• Land's Wrath (Gurando Fosu/Ground Force) The following three moves are all assigned to Zygarde as his signature moves, but while these were programmed into Generation VI games,  a lot of Zygarde's eventual alternate forms and 'story' were kind of shoehorned into a sidequest in Generation VII. Presumably, there would've been a 'Pokemon Z' that simply never materialized? In his debut generation, Zygarde only has access to Land's Wrath, or 'Ground Force' in Japanese, it's basically a glowing version of Earth Power that targets the enemies' side of the field only. I guess it makes sense that a 'Pokemon of the land' like Zygarde is able to control where the wrath of the land hits.
• Thousand Arrows (Sauzan Aro/Thousand Arrow) and Thousand Waves (Sauzan Webu/Thousand Wave) Programmed into the games but not accessible until Generation VII, the two 'Thousand' moves, I think, are meant to symbolize Zygarde's true nature as a colony-being created out of thousands of Zygarde cells. Thousand Waves creeps across the ground and hits all enemies, forcing them to be unable to switch out; while Thousand Arrows will hit anything in the air and knock them down. Neat, I guess? 

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Ghost-type Moves:

• Phantom Force (Gosuto Daibu/Ghost Dive) Okay, this one is basically a weaker version of Giratina's signature "Shadow Force" move, with more or less the same effect. Phantom Force (or its much more appropriate Japanese name, 'Ghost Dive') has the Pokemon dive into the shadows or phase through walls or literally go into the ethereal realm or something before appearing and hitting the enemy. Another neat arsenal to put for physical Ghost-type moves. 
• Trick-or-Treat (Harouin/Halloween) Literally just 'Halloween' in the original Japanese, Trick-or-Treat is appropriately enough the signature move of the Pumpkaboo line, which itself is based on Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The animation for this is always fun in the games or the anime, with the background being replaced with an orange-hued sky with spooky trees, as jack-o-lanterns and cartoon ghosts appear everywhere. This is the alternate-type counterpart of Forest's Curse, because Trick-or-Treat adds the Ghost-type to the enemy. Depending on how you flavour it, Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist has straight-up dragged the enemy into the ghost realm and 'killed' them temporarily (perhaps like that one early anime episode where Gengar puled Ash's soul out of his body?) or it's just something far more harmless with the Pumpkaboo line getting the enemy to dress up and be festive and get into the Halloween spirit. 

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Dark-type Moves:

• Parting Shot (Sute Zerifu/Parting Shot) A bunch of signature moves, here! Parting Shot was originally the signature move of the Pancham line until a couple of other Dark-types get access to it. Despite its name making me think of a 'shot' as in a bullet shot, but it's actually a 'shot' as in an insult. Parting Shot is a 'quick-switch' move, and Pancham/Pangoro switches out with a Pokemon in your party... but not before delivering one last evil insult that debuffs the enemy's Attack stats. "You haven't beaten me yet! This is just a tactical retreat!"
• Topsy-Turvy (Hikkurikaesu/Flip) The signature move of Inkay and Malamar (before they gave it to Grapploct of all things), Topsy-Turvy really fits with the whole 'upside down body plan' that the Inkay-to-Malamar evolution has. Everything about this weird Psychic/Dark squid is all about being upside down, from their design to their evolution method, and their signature move follows suit. Topsy-Turvy basically causes every buff and debuff to become upside-down. Very fun, and it really fits the idea of a Dark/Psychic creature!
• Hyperspace Fury (Ijigen Rasshu/Dimensional Rush) This one is Hoopa Unbound's signature move, basically flavoured as Hoopa launching all his rings and punching through these rings, causing the enemy to be unable to dodge them. Hyperspace Fury (or 'Dimensional Rush') removes the effect of all shielding and protective moves, and adds a Defense debuff for good measure. Really gets a fair amount of use in Hoopa's movie as well as in the 3D games' animation, and I honestly do think this sells Hoopa as something far more unique than just 'oh, Hoopa can teleport'. 

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Poison-type Moves:

• Belch (Geppu/Belch) A rather high-damage move for Poison-types... but it has the very situational condition of the Pokemon having had to consume a Berry first before being able to 'belch' and 'vomit' it out. It does, admittedly, have one of the best flavours for all of the 'vomiting' moves that Poison-types have over the years, but man, what a terrible move to actually have! 
• Venom Drench (Benomu Torappu/Venom Trap) Another rather situational move, Venom Drench only affects Pokemon that are already poisoned, reducing their stats heavily. From the name, I thought this was a move like Soak or something. But you realistically just want Venoshock's extra damage or something! A unique effect for sure, but one that's also a bit too situational. 

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Flying-type Moves:

• Oblivion Wing (Desu Uingu/Death Wing) This one is Yveltal's signature move. Oblivion Wing sounds cool as hell, but its Japanese move has some simplicity in 'Death Wing'. Yveltal gathers energy and unleashes a cool-looking black-and-red beam of death, which tears through the field like a satellite laser slicing through the soil, and... it drains energy. Unlike Parabolic Charge, this one is explained by Yveltal's whole deal as not just a 'death-dealing' creature, but one that actively sucks life energy out from the land under it. 
• Dragon Ascent (Garyo Tensei/Dragon Painting Eye Dotting) The signature move of Rayquaza, the animation of Dragon Ascent has him fly up into the sky, nay, to space, and then crash down with the power of a sky dragon god slamming down from the skies down towards you. The attack is immensely powerful, but actually has the drawback of reducing both defense stats... which makes sense, since Rayquaza just did what's basically atmospheric re-entry. I do like that Dragon Ascent, despite its name, is actually a Flying-type move, highlighting Rayquaza's own role as the legendary Pokemon of the skies -- of which the Flying-type would feel more 'in charge', so to speak. 
• The name of this move is a term that literally means 'ascension of a dragon', but has a double meaning that means to 'paint a dragon, and dot its eyes'. The idiom comes from a Chinese legend, where Zhang Sengyou, who is a highly talented painter, drew the picture of a dragon on a mural. The last detail he put in are the dots that form the eyes. However, such a masterpiece was the artwork that the act of giving it that one final 'spark of life' causes the dragon painting to come to life, jump off the mural, and fly off and ascend into the heavens. 

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Psychic-type Moves:

• Hyperspace Hole (Ijigen Horu/Dimensional Hole) Yeah, we're rapid-firing a couple of types that only have single moves introduced in this generation, and they're almost all signature moves! Hyperspace Hole is the signature move of Hoopa Confined, and basically has the same 'bypasses protective moves' as Hyperspace Fury. It doesn't remove the shields, though, or add a debuff, since this is the 'confined' or 'sealed' version of Hoopa's powers. 

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Fire-type Moves:

• Mystical Fire (Majikaru Fureimu/Magical Flame) Fire, one of the traditional 'main' types, only get a single move, and it is only exclusive to the fire starter Delphox originally, until ORAS made it available to Mismagius. I did complain about the sheer amount of 'oh god it's just a fire blast' moves in Generation V, and there's at least something fun about Mystical Fire in that it's fire summoned by the Harry Potter wand of Delphox. The effect lowers the Special Attack stat of the opponent.

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Ice-type Moves:

• Freeze-Dry (Furizu Dorai/Freeze Dry) Eh. A bunch of Pokemon get to learn this, and it's honestly a very typical Ice-type move. The only interesting fact is that Freeze-Dry deals double damage to Water-type Pokemon, which I guess is a reference to the freeze-drying process that's used to make processed food. Actually, that is a pretty good point -- why doesn't Ice-types deal super-effective damage to Water-types by default?

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Rock-type Moves:

• Diamond Storm (Daiya Sutomu/Dia Storm) I am surprised that they didn't give Diancie a Fairy-type signature move. But she gets Diamond Storm, which in retrospect does feel a lot more tied to Diancie's 'diamond princess' vibe. She launches a bunch of diamonds that, upon contact, will increase Diancie's Defense stat. I felt like they had a bit of a missed opportunity in not giving this move the same 'get money after the fight' like Pay Day, though. 

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Steel-type Moves:

• King's Shield (Kingu Shirudo/King Shield) This is Aegislash's signature move, and basically how the whole 'Stance Change' ability works. Aegislash swaps its stats whenever it jumps back and forth from being a sword or a shield, and the best way to trigger its defensive stance is to activate King's Shield -- which is basically a Protect but with the additional nasty effect of severely debuffing the enemy's Attack stat (it's even worse in Generations VI-VII!). I immensely enjoyed the mind games that come with playing with Aegislash in Generation VI, probably one of the few times I fully appreciated a Pokemon's battle gimmick. One complaint I do have is that King's Shield is always shown as being this interlocking series of hexagons that look more like a sci-fi forcefield than anything, and doesn't really 'fit' the medieval ghost sword vibe of Aegislash. 

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Dragon-type Moves:

NONE NO DRAGON! NO DRAGON MOVES IN THIS GENERATION!

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...And that's it for my coverage of the sixth generation's moves. This one was pretty short, mostly because there aren't too many new 'generic' moves. A lot of them are signature or quasi-signature ones, and I really do enjoy that a lot of the signature moves given to Generation VI Pokemon -- like King's Shield, Topsy-Turvy, Forest's Curse, Trick or Treat, Water Shuriken, Spiky Shield, and even the legendaries' signature moves -- all really do a great job at making these Generation VI Pokemon feel unique.