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?
I think I hate anime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlwda9S58Lg
I just watched a mind and heart f*cl episode then got spoiled that one of my favorite characters is actually worthless by the end of the series
Juuni Taisen?
Re:Zero
Good.
There’s a lot to hate about anime
Anime was a mistake anyway.
??
I predict that the gen 8 starters will be Water/Ice, Fire/Steel and Grass/Ground
Tbh I’m just waiting for gen 8 on the switch with some new fairy babies for me, also yes I am alive
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/170bf54c3255c3b0256ac89bf61f6defaa4a028f31809a7daf5d517790b7eba2.gif
That Opał prof
Pic is dope
Faaaeee
I missed you!
same girl, I work on a resort in the mountains and never have any time to myself except for now because of the flu so I thought I’d check out the site briefly
It has been a while mon amie (is that the right term?)
Where more likely to see Arceus become available to the public and leave the Sacred halls than Gen 8 being on the Switch. We’ll have a new handheld by then and NOT the Switch.
So I’ve always looked around and noticed people always question how the actual hell mon X is considered terrible in competitive while mon Y (The best examples I can see as mon Y for outsiders of competitive would probably be Pelliper or Alolan Muk, especially considering the rank of the original while mon X is usually a legendary or Pseudo. Early gen 7 Kommo-o got a lot of this). So here’s a competitive analysis from a sorta competitive player. Feel free to destroy my dignity if I mess up a few small details
1. Typing and the stats that go along with them
This is stupidly important and is probably the most surface level of all the traits Pokemon have. For this argument I’m going to use Incineroar because it actually fits the reasoning incredibly well.
Lemme give its stats
HP: 95
Attack: 115
Defense: 90
Special Attack: 80
Special Defense: 90
Speed: 60
As you can tell, Incineroar’s stat spread is actually pretty good! It looks like it could see some serious use and considering its ability, Intimidate, it seems bound to be amazing…. except for one… huge… glaring… flaw
Its type…. and oh my god does the type hurt it
Let’s have a little run down
Water- One of the most common types of the meta, weak to this. In most cases water types can easily outbulk and kill Incineroar
Ground- Earthquake is a consistent move on pretty much every team, weak to this
Rock- Stealth Rocks are undeniably the most spammed hazard, weak to this
Fighting- Another common offensive type, weak to this. Most fighting types either outspeed or carry priority so this is a scary situation.
Poison-Can get whittled down by toxic and toxic spikes
Bug- Neutral to this, can be sticky webbed and outsped easily
Fairy- A very common type these days and is walled by a fair amount of them.
Steel- Actually beats this type but the sad thing is that bulking out Incineroar in the majority of tiers isn’t actually that hard.
Fire- Is immune to Will-o-wisp, a noice scenario
Additionally it has prankster immunity which is cool too
As you can tell, a lot of common stuff hurts it. It’s immune to will-o-wisp which is a HUGE plus but that’s about it. It’s bulk suddenly means a lot less once you realize the fact that wearing it down is as easy as breathing, you have a load of options.
I’d bring up Avalugg as another example but that thing is a special level of bad.
Regardless, this is one of the reason mon x may be bad
Of course this isn’t the only reason. If it was, Tyranitar wouldn’t be considered one of the best current OU mons like it is now
Part 2 coming soon
Part 2: Movesets and abilities
As such, a mon like Incineroar as I mentioned last time is held down by its type. Even fire/fighting would have increased its viability a bit but I digress..
It’s ability is a common competitive staple which immediately is a plus and with its moveset giving nearly everything it wants (outside of like, y’know, reliable recovery), USUM saved Incineroar from having this issue (though reason 1 is FAAAR too strong)
This isn’t the case for all mons though. Mega Sceptile is pretty good examples of this. Mega sceptile, undeniably, is a relatively scary mon. 145 special attack is nothing to scoff at in the slightest. Considering all the tools it has access to, why isn’t it OU? Along with a few other reasons, it has a relatively crappy movepool. It has Grass moves… dragon moves…Literally all of its coverage is put into physical attack which isn’t what the mon is meant to do for the most part. There’s also a LOT of mons that literally run stab moves plus focus blast…. like they literally depend on focus blast to hit anything. Mega Ampharos is a nice example of this considering its…. less than average coverage…. It also has mold breaker as an ability which does literally nothing for it in 99% of scenarios. On another mon, sure, but on Ampharos it’s kinda garbage. Compare this to Pokemon like Araquanid or Klefki who are good SOLELY for the fact that they have really strong abilities.
A lot of bulky low tier mons are held back by one huge factor, they lack recovery. This alone is proof to how gaining a single move can make a mon so much better.That’s why people care so much about move tutors and hidden abilities.
For an example of this, take a look at Passimian
With a rather decent stat spread, Passimian looked good but during the SuMo meta, it was an utter pile of trash and most people who used it would pretty much find zero success. In USUM, the gods of move tutor decided to grace it by giving it every fucking move it could have possibly needed. While it’s not going to become the next god of the metagame, but it might actually move up a tier or two. In fact, it’s not done yet. Its hidden ability is defiant, aka, that one ability you use to troll intimidate and defog users before sweeping their team. With all of this, the mon will have likely made a two tier jump based on abilities and moves alone.
Part 3 coming soon
And now for the final thing, the one that’s honestly the least controllable of all these: meta placement. Lets say you’re playing a typical game of RU and you just got rocks and webs up. Suddenly your foe busts out an Articuno to defog the rocks away only for it to hilariously die from the entry hazards it was meant to get rid of. In that same tier, Gligar and now even rotom possess defog: both of which perform the role better than Articuno. It’s from here you take the mon and work to see what actually works better for it. Decidueye, for example, is a rather mediocre defogger due to its rather lackluster defense but it works a lot better as a cleaner. But what happens when a mon DOESN’T do anything better? At this point you have an interesting scenario. A mon will get stuck in a tier where it does absolutely nothing but if it were to drop into another tier, it would basically obliterate everything in there. Want an example? Staraptor… The thing has spent several generations in limbo… that’s all I need to say about that
If it’s never used and never drops, nobody will talk about the mon competitively once they realize they can just use something much better to the meta…. however the meta is kinda inconsistent at times
What may be OU last gen may sink down next gen. (ohhaitalonflamehowareyou). Some mons literally become good solely because of the fact that they counter things that are currently used. There’s a reason Alolan Marowak stayed in OU y’know.
Anyways, this is a small analysis of what separates good mons and shitmons from each other. If you feel I missed anything, let me know. I feel like someone like Chaos could have explained this way better than I did but I just felt like mentioning this myself simply because a lot of people don’t entirely get why certain mons are as good/bad as they are.I wanted to make a kinda simple little guide to help people get better at competitive so.
Anyways, that’s that, thanks for bothering to read this
And sorry for taking so long to post this, my chromebook giga crashed
It’s ok. Though by the stars…i kind of hurts to know those three factors.
Ultra sun team update. So I just finished the grass trial in ultra sun. Finally decided on a water type and got my fourth team member as well! Ended up dropping my arbok as well! Anyway here’s the team updates! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f2314064ac1008b44e16733faf08e47d8a29bf1d7e955b388ee41dbd59eda13.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e9b416f34c00a9588422f078888a08d4f92402977da580356382c1fc81aacfd.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bab77f09a1643e9d55b8115b42d723527b12504e2d96bb0c7f62d044840be7a3.jpg
Note my torracat is lv 27. Funny thing on the passimian I fully expected it to take forever. Needless to say it was walking around in the grass when I got in lush jungle. Got the nature I wanted on my first try as well! So excited about finally using this Pokémon since I wanted to use it in multiple playthroughs but never had spot for it. This is my first time using ribombee and shellos as well! I plan to get poipole for my team and one more member just not sure who.
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So I’m kinda burning out my Pokémon lusts and have been leaning towards BOTW but this time it’s trial of the sword I made it pretty far and made it to the middle section until a guardian lasered my head off so yeah
All I have left in Moon is to go to the elite four and beat the champ
Then it’s a storage unit for my living dex which I am getting more lazy with trying to accomplish
BOTW is amazing, can’t wait for the champions Ballard (I think I spelled it right).
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The final Pokemon I’ll be using is the time travelling Pokemon, yours truly celebi! :]
Here’s a tip!
If given the option to be a total dickface,
…
Don’t! 😀
Meh I will treat people the way they treat me lol if someone’s an ass I will be an ass too and vice versa
I kinda just mean in general. Like as a person
I know what you mean. I tend to be friendly towards people to the point I will have conversations with complete strangers lol now on me being an ass to someone for being an ass it only happens if they push my buttons way too much.
I used to have that mentality and still kinda do but the best way in life is being mature and well rounded regardless if the person you’re dealing with is nice to you or not. If they’re an ass then you being an ass back doesn’t reflect well on you.
It takes a lot of emotional control and maturity to get there but it’s well worth it 🙂
As I said I will only be like that if they push my buttons too much. Now what will set me off is when someone messes with people close to me. If that happens all hell breaks loose and I turn into the meanest person ever. That said I am pretty easy going and it takes ALOT to set me off
Oh yeah absolutely defending family friends etc is most important.
And have you ever noticed the most respected characters and succesful people don’t waste their time fighting fire with fire. They have confidence, emotional strength and are not phazed by what people say. They get on with their life focusing on what matters, avoiding trouble or going down to the level of others as they are better than that.
It’s like me or you arguing with a 6 year old over what film we should watch doesn’t look good but with mature adults they avoid it completely:)
Takes time but that^ is my current focus in life just being better as an individual!
Tbh I’d rather see a flawed character become strong through their own unique hardships. An immediate emotionally strong character is boring
That’s normally the case with everyone. No one is born flawless, we all have to go through lifes hardships and phases to become better.
Emotional strength is severely underrated and imo lacking in this day and age.
It is pivotal that we promote emotional strength in ourselves, families and future children. This is what will help create positivity and mutual respect/growth.
I mean this is a deep topic but I cant stress it any further it’s helped me so much in being a better person :]
And being emotionally strong doesn’t mean you can’t break down or you have no weakness.
For me it means willing to listen and understand others rather than brushing them off, not taking everything personally, having the strength to be objective and logical under pressure and not breaking down at every miniscule opportunity.
Being able to forgive,understand, show emphathy and sympathy etc
Hmm
But why 🙁
You don’t realize today’s society is the biggest most obnoxious dickfaces run everything
“Today”
Like that wasn’t always the case
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b100c36f9689cc82b0ec990407ad29f06dbae9cc4a348aaffcc6348592585b4d.jpg
The power of one.
theres like a new article so see ya there
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O O F
I regret buying them.
The worst mid-gen games I ever played. In the past they got better Emerald, Platinum and BW2 they made the differences bigger in every gen, but these ones just feels like we are back to what Yellow was for Red and Blue/Green.
I wasn’t going to buy these new games until I found out that they added new Pokemon. I’m strict and enslaved to completing the pokedex and keeping it updated and no, I don’t like to rely on the glorious trolls of GTS.
These games shouldn’t have existed in the first place. In the age of DLC, it’s unexcusable that a game being released mostly unchanged just with a few improvements one year after the original. Just because they already did this with Emerald and Platinum doesn’t mean it’s ok to do it now. In fact, I doubt people would like these games nowadays. It just feels like they needed a new game to end the 3DS lineup, and did whatever they could
In this case I would agree. (USUALLY they add so much stuff that makes it worth the game itself being a ‘third’ but this time it really didn’t.)