Is Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Truly an Enhanced Version?

by

Upon release Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon really left the fanbase somewhat divided. Although we at PJN loved the remixed return to the Alola region, not everyone had the same opinion – it really seemed like a “you either love it or hate it” entry into the franchise. Whatever your stance, we can’t deny that at the end of the day USUM is made to be a “third” or “enhanced” version of Pokémon Sun & Moon. So did Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon really give an “enhanced” experience compared to their originals? To find out we’re going to look back at last year’s Things We Didn’t Like About Sun & Moon article, look over the gripes of the originals, and see if they truly have been improved upon in its enhanced version.

The Rotom Pokédex

In our original journey through Alola in Sun & Moon the biggest disappointment with the Rotom Pokédex was how useless it became and how much of a wasted opportunity it was overall. Although it was a cute concept and had some useful features like the pinpoint navigation during the main story, once you became the Champion Rotom quickly became relegated to spouting repetitive, generic phrases as you completed the Pokédex. So did its upgrades and changes fare well in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon? If you were to ask me that in the early hours of my adventure through USUM I would’ve responded with a resounding, “YES!” – however having completed the game my opinion has wavered a bit. Overall, Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon rounded out the Rotom ‘Dex as a character by giving it much more personality and depth. And gave us, the player, much more opportunity to interact with it and benefit from doing so. Through some light petting and answering prompted questions about Rotom, yourself, and relevant events happening in game, we’re now able to build a stronger bond and connection with it. This can trigger change’s in Rotom’s dialogue and, more importantly, the occasional Roto Loto to receive Rotom Powers that help the player through the Island Trials. Rotom’s Z-Power tie in and inclusion of in game boosters are more than welcome upgrades to the age old Pokédex, however, the constant attention I needed to give the Rotom ‘Dex got real old, real quick. Normally I would just ignore features that aren’t required to move through the story if I don’t like it. But ignoring Rotom outright, for even a minute, prompts the ever present bottom screen to develop a sad, defeated expression. And as much as I just want to leave it be, it’s incredibly distracting to traverse through the lively, bright Alola with such annoyingly somber eyes lurking just a few centimeters below. Overall GameFreak brought some incredible upgrades to the Rotom ‘Dex, but they’re overshadowed by the blunder of making the relationship upkeep more of a constant distraction from the storyline first, and a useful feature second. Aaron Burr said it best, Rotom: “Talk less. Smile more.”

New Pokémon’s Low Encounter Rates

Despite what the title suggests, our biggest pet peeve wasn’t actually the low encounter rates themselves. Since we, and most people reading this, are hardcore fans and players of the series the low encounter rate brings a welcome challenge in completing the Pokédex. Despite it specifying where a Pokémon could be found down to the patch of grass in Sun & Moon, our biggest complaint was simply that the ‘Dex didn’t have any way to tell players if Pokémon could only be found through SOS battles. This made the hardcore players rely on third party databases, and caused the younger Pokémon audience to frustratingly search an area for hours without any luck. Luckily the Rotom Pokédex in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon now includes an Adrenaline Orb icon to denote whether or not you need to trigger an SOS battle to encounter a Pokémon! The low regular and SOS encounter rates are still prevalent in USUM, and that’s fine – but atleast we won’t be un-knowledgeably spending hours looking for a Mareanie and finding nothing but Corsola!

Protagonists Being Numb to Everything

There’s not much to say about this one. Despite adding several new cutscenes, and a completely shocking and robust new storyline in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, our protagonist still has that empty, dumbfounded smile no matter what’s happening in game: A hole leading to an alternate dimension opens up in the sky? Derpy empty smile. Lusamine wants to battle you after the reveal of her being the mother of Gladion and Lillie with the backdrop of cryogenically frozen Pokémon? Derpy empty smile. You literally get to travel on the back of a Legendary Pokémon through a highway of alternate dimensions to chase Necrozma and later encounter Ultra Beasts in their respective worlds? Derpy empty smile. The Pokémon franchise is known for their silent protagonists, but that doesn’t mean they have to be numb and seemingly detached from everything happening around them. The protagonists’ animation and expressions for Z-Moves are a wonderful example of how our avatar can remain silent and neutral, but keep a personality and react/emote appropriately to the situation. Hopefully GameFreak revisits the protagonist and how they react to the story as it unfolds around them when Pokémon makes their move to the Switch.

The Poké Finder

Another one of Game Freak’s amazing but poorly implemented ideas in Sun & Moon, the Poké Finder featured ridiculous slow down, boring and repetitive gameplay, and was used in game pretty haphazardly. Causing it to quickly became seen less as a new exciting feature, and more of thing you’re forced to use in order to get all the stamps on your Trainer Passport. Although the photo spots from Sun & Moon still remained mostly untouched and unchanged, Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon introduced the Alola Photo Club! These club buildings scattered throughout the region allows you to take photos with your Pokémon and edit them to your hearts content using a plethora of poses, frames, stickers, and more! You might think that going from the concept of taking photos of what you experience along your adventure (The Poké Finder) to a stationary studio (Alola Photo Club) would be a step back, but the way it’s implemented, and the ridiculous amounts of photo customization brings the idea of taking pictures in game leaps and bounds forward. Unlocking backgrounds, frames and stickers naturally along your journey without ever having to ever visit the Photo Club in between (instead of unlocking more features through constant opening and use) puts the emphasis back on adventure and discovery. And having Rotom prompt you to take a commemorative photo whenever Pokémon evolves or levels ups, or when you clear a Trial or become Champion integrates the Photo Club wonderfully into the story and gives each photo meaning. And although the Poké Finder and Alola Photo Club are technically separate entities, the latter definitely built of off, and would not exist without, the former. If only you still didn’t have to unlock the Poké Finder Pro to complete your Trainer Passport…

Removal of Amazing Features From Past Generations

Even when the possibility of an enhanced version for Sun & Moon first came into the fanbase’s forefront with the rumored Pokémon Stars, I don’t think anyone expected we would see the return of previously lost, amazing features from the previous generation – and rightfully so. Unsurprisingly, in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon horde battles didn’t make a return, the connection features didn’t get any more convenient, and the clunky, universally hated Festival Plaza is still as prevalent as ever. Yes, some new, small “features” within the Plaza were added, but its not to the point were you can say the Festival Plaza is any better overall. However, I will give props to Game Freak for cunningly allowing the Rainbow Rocket storyline to take place in the Festival Plaza. Because now when I think of the PSS’ failed successor my epic battle with all of the franchise’s big baddies come to mind first, not the overall clunkiness. So I guess that’s something?

No Side Quest Tracker

Despite the main series Pokémon games being an RPG at its core, it wasn’t until 20 years into the franchise with Sun & Moon that we really began to see side quests implemented into the games. As part of the effort to breathe even more life into Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon’s Alola, dozens upon dozens of different side quests featuring new cut scenes and item rewards were beautifully added into the game. Only one problem: there’s still no way to easily keep track of ’em all! Currently the only way to note quest details and track your progress is by manually writing down them down yourself, or, once again, relying on third party databases. Although the depth of Pokémon as whole has the fanbase looking up info online pretty often, something as simple as side quest completion shouldn’t have to make you open up another device all together just to make sure you cleared it all. Now deep into the post game I have a yearning to finish up all the side quests, but with no formal tracker in game I haven’t the faintest clue which NPC to go to, much less what side quests I have ongoing. These quick diversions from the main plot are one of the most effective ways I’ve seen Game Freak bring depth and life to a region and it’s people, so I welcome the inclusion of side quests in future games with open arms…just add a tracker please.

By no means can you judge an enhanced version of a game based purely on what existing features it built upon – we haven’t even began to scratch the surface of the new moves, Pokémon, areas, characters, and story Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon brought to Alola – but that doesn’t mean the promise of it being “enhanced” can’t be dissected. Do you think Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon lived up to its “enhanced” promise? What are some of your favorite USUM enhanced features? Or do you have some things that you wish got the enhanced treatment?

Supporters

Nick F

Smearg

Foil Island

Conglome NERD

alcremie sundae

Radiant Blutle

Zachery

Dragoniteo

Austin John Plays

Help support our work by becoming a Patron on Patreon! Swadloon Platoon members and above will be added to our site supporters list!

363 thoughts on “Is Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Truly an Enhanced Version?”

  1. I’m also reminded by the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 in Europe (it was a pretty under the radar release), that many review outlets said the game was very good, but they could never understand why this was made for the Wii instead of PS3 and said that the devs made some questionable business decisions.
    Nintendo literally owns the whole studio, smh >.>

    Reply

  6. *Mina”Get ready to face the strongest Totem Pokemon*
    *Totem Rimbombee appears*
    *Snowshrew uses Corkscrew Crash*
    *1HKO’s it*

    “You were saying?”

    Reply

  7. Ok this Stakataka really needs to be a shiny now so I can move onto the RR episode and start shiny hunting officially in the Ultra Wormholes

    Reply

  8. So i’m considering upgrading to a New 3DS XL
    and the only thing preventing me from doing so is the System Transfer and the Micro SD cards which you gotta do more to transfer data

    Reply

    • Idk I kind of like that the dragon trial is abandoned. On an island that’s much less inhabited than the rest and has a deep history it adds to the mystery. If they added someone to over see the trial then it would just be another average trial like the others. It being a left over mystery from the days of old makes it feel special.

      Reply

      • But the whole thing with USUM is that it’s an alternate universe, so they could’ve just kept it abandoned for the SM universe and spice it up in this one. All well.

        Reply

  13. I agree with all the points listed above though I have additional arguments with the games

    Lillie’s watered down story:
    In SM Lillie is a scared character. She’s constantly paranoid, and she talks about how she doesn’t really like Pokemon Battles. But I felt like a lot of this character of her was gone in USUM. TBH in SM it just looks like she just wants Nebby in the bag and safe. We barely get any character development as she doesnt seem as scary as last time. and the famous Exeggcutor Island scene where she explains how the cruelty of her mother started to harm everything around Lillie, including her. Lillie’s role just seems less amazing

    No good Post game facilities:
    cough cough ( https://pokemon.aminoapps.com/page/blog/battle-agency-rant/XKhg_u5GL76J2YDNZpD6BxBa2Rk2jv )

    Lusamine’s craziness:
    Ok, this REALLY confused me in the game. It’s like they made Lusamine seem like she was the main villain, but she really wasn’t. But they kept a lot of her dialogue/ evil facial expression the same. Why? Did she even need to act like a villain anymore? It seems like just a lazy excuse to me to keep all the scenes very similar. They should have just redid the story rather than making these one line references to necrozma.

    Ultra Necrozma fight:
    Yes, yes. I asked for. “I want pokemon to be more challenging.” But this fight is just SO stupid on sooo many levels. For starters this thing has HIGHER stats than Arceus. Which is pretty scar, but then it has a +1 Boost to every stat. That’s just unfair. How can my regular pokemon even compare to that?? Second, At this point in the game your pokemon should be 50ish. Why is thing level 60!? That’s just bad game design! It’s one thing to be challenging but at this point it’s bad game design. You just beat a level 50 trial and youre going to go fight a level 52 trial. How does fighting a level 60 right in the middle even fair? ITS BAD GAME DESIGN. It’s like having your very first Hau battle him having a 20 starter that beats you. Sure that’s hard, but thats more unfair than hard.

    Roto-Loto
    Why does it have to be a lottery? Why is it a lottery? Why cant it be O-powers and I just CHOOSE what ones I want. WHY IS IT A LOTTERY? The games are RNG enough as is.

    Difficulty:
    Excluding the unfair Necrozma match, the games were reasonably difficult like SM were, and I commend that! I struggled with a lot of totem mons.

    Too many similar problems with SM:
    It’s like they didn’t even notice a lot of real problems with SM. Sometimes the text got blurry from so many words on one line, not fixed. Festival Plaza sucks… not fixed. Z poses are too long (not to me, but I definitely saw this complaint a lot) not fixed. It’s just like they barely tried to fix the game, but just tried to add new stuff to the game. Too much dialogue (when SM just came out last year, and I played both last year this is very annoying to have it a third time) not fixed.

    Honestly, all these not being fixed makes it seem like they dont want me to play a third version of this game. Which is my BIGGEST problem with this game. Emerald had a huge Frontier facility and used the double battle mechanic a lot more, and I more changed story and the first ever pokemon cutscene, the Frontier alone makes you want to play the game after RS. Platinum literally fix almost ALL of DP problems which made you want to play the game. B2W2 were sequels which alone makes want to play the game after BW. The ONLY thing keeping people wanting to play USUM is there is 4 new pokemon. Not even new Alola forms. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend USUM to someone if they just played SM. It’s just not worth it.

    Reply

  14. Earthen boooooooored, where is everybody

    So i was dusting my old game shelf and i noticed my cache of old obscure Nick gamecube games
    Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom, Fairly Oddparents Shadow Showdown, Jimmy Neutron Jet Fusion and lastly all the Tak and the power of Juju games 1-3, anybody a fan of any of these titles?

    Reply

        • lets see i still have

          Gameboy Color (Sound does not work)
          2 Nintendo 64s (only one working controller sadly)’
          Gameboy SP (Limited edition silver and black)
          Gamecube
          Original DS
          Wii
          Original 3DS
          3DS XL
          Wii U
          Switch

          Reply

          • I’ve got

            -Game boy advanced SP (A few pixles are faded out, but it’s hardly an issue)
            -2 Gamecubes
            -3 Wii’s
            -A broken ds lite (still procrastinating since I was like 8 on getting it rebuilt)
            -DSi (white) (This thing is literally god! It has no problems What SO ever)
            -3ds original
            -Technically even if they are my brothers, DS lite, DSi, New 3ds XL galaxy style, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox 1

            This is everything I’ve got

      • noice, sadly mine is broken, it always glitches out at one sequence (the very first cave area in Jellyfish Fields it ALWAYS stops running at that spot)

        It really was a fun game same with the Fairly Oddparents games

        Reply

  15. “Enhanced” version.. yeah right like they enhance an already shitty, shallow, over convoluted story into more shitty, shallow, over convoluted story. This game is not worth for a whole price of $40+ and everything is basically the same and my experience on Alola is fairly new since SM was just release exactly a year before this shitty game. I hope Gamefreak learned from this mistake and make a better version not something shallow on first and fill it on the other version. And please GF stop aiming this game for kids already. even an unborn child can finish this game.

    Reply

  16. Blech….not related to anyone here, but I feel like these recent days haven’t been my lucky day, I feel like all my opinions have been shut down or have been ganged up on. It feels like everything I like is denied and everything I don’t want is given the V.I.P treatment.

    Reply

      • I was looking forward for it…for obvious reasons but lets not get into that

        Tis a shame but hopefully they really nail Incredibles 2 (Which i’m kinda sad that its not the direction i hoped they’d take)

        Reply

        • Come on dude, the giant was clearly like a 6 year old girl

          I am excited for Incredibles 2 though. It’s my favorite non-toy story pixar movie

          Reply

          • dude i know and i was thinking about possibility other giantesses 😀

            But nonetheless I am very excited for the Incredibles 2, i was hoping they would do a massive age shift, Bob and Helen now elderly but still trying to cling to the superhero game but they just can’t do it and retire (Some kinda Super retirement home) and their kids are full fledged heroes and tales of their deeds and the new villian and plot plot plot never too old to do the right thing lesson

          • No kidding media is the only way this kink flourishes
            But hopefully it will be good and restore my faith in movies

  21. Oh here I was silly ol’ star and then seraph comes along and is like look at this cute girl watch this anime so I watch this anime and it’s really rad and has cute girls and a fantasy plot and an adorable cat boy who dresses like a girl and I love him and I’m having a great time watchig this rad anime and then it all goes to sh*t and I’m just left feeling dead and I don’t even know what to fuckin say or do

    Reply

  24. Game Awards tomorrow at 5:30PM PST! It’ll be a cringe fest, of course, but I’m excited because I know Breath of the Wild will be blessed with awards it deserves. Hopefully Odyssey gets some recognition as well!

    Reply

Leave a Comment