In overall, Ultra Sun and Moon is disappointing as a third game. I gave it 4/10. Here are my opinions:
Goods:
1) Some Pokemons are no longer shiny-locked, such as Ultra Beasts. Every legendaries in XY are shiny-locked. Which means, you need to catch the event in XY to obtain shiny Xerneas and Yveltal.
2) All Mega Stones sold in Battle Tree. In Sun and Moon, only about half of the Mega Stones are sold in Battle Tree shop. And half of the stones are obtained through event codes. Some people might miss out Mega Stones and are unable to get those stones.
3) More items are no longer once-per-game, such as Lucky Eggs. In Sun and Moon, a lot of people accidentally traded away their Lucky Eggs in the GTS. This is currently a meme in GameFAQs Trading Forum. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Lucky Eggs can be found on Blisseys, but still very low chance. In Gen VI, Leftovers are also once-per-game items.
4) Gold Bottle Caps are easier to obtain in Ultra Sun and Moon. You can easily obtain them in Battle Tree once you reached 50 streak. This means Hyper Training easier.
5) Slightly different plot, such using Mantine Surf to travel between islands, and including Ultra Recon Squad.
6) Some Ultra Beasts are unlimited. This means that you don't need to replay the whole game just to obtain an Ultra Beast of different stats, nature, etc. Hopefully, they will make this for other legendaries in future generation Pokemon games so that we don't have to replay the whole game.
7) Pacing is slightly better. It is not as rush as Sun and Moon near the end because a new trial is added into Poni Island and Mount Lanakila is improved. The last trial is probably my favourite (I dislike the long dialogues though).
8) New formes are well done. Necrozma formes and Dusk Form Lycanroc are decent.
Bad:
1) Rainbow Rocket episode is not a memorable villainous faction as compared to other post-games in other games. I meant that after you beat the Team Rainbow Rocket, you cannot battle with them again, such as using Giovanni, Archie, Maxie in Battle Tree. In ORAS, you can have Archie/Maxie as your Battle Maison Multi Battle partner. In Battle Tree, you can only use Team Skull members, and Lillie (she is trash) as your Multi partner.
2) Too much cutscenes. The whole Smogon Orange Islands community has been ranting on this issue since XY. But much worse than XY. The tutorial is too long, including the cutscenes, it takes about 40 minutes to reach the first Pokemon Centre. The whole Smogon always complained "why not add a button to skip the cutscenes/tutorials? Fire Emblem has done that". The biggest problem with cutscenes is the replay value.
3) New Pokemons are more legendaries, and I know a lot of people likes to defend USUM, stating that it is the only game that released new Pokemons in the middle of a generation. Here is my rebuttal. Most of them are disappointing. Stakataka made the whole Smogon riot during the release of the typing. ANOTHER ROCK/STEEL. Let's see, Aggron, Probopass, Bastiodon. And all of them has a major problem that prevents them from becoming a defensive wall. 2 4x weaknesses. So basically a Ultra Beast version of Bastiodon in summary. Why not Rock/Psychic (since both Solrock and Lunatone is trash)? Blacephelon is not as bad as Stakataka but still very disappointing. When it is first released in datamine thread. Everyone's first reaction is "ctrl"+"F"+"Focus Blast", then "Oh ****, this is Tyranitar's food", so yeah. Nagadanel is the only Pokemon that this is decent. Zerora looks like Fighting-Type and has a lot of Fighting moves, why is it not a "Electric/Fighting type? And no new non-legendary Pokemons.
4) Some legendaries are still shiny-locked. Let's see, Zygarde, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma. That is still a lot. Hopefully, it will be released in an online event distribution, like Shiny Xerneas and Yveltal in XY, not region-locked in Japan like 90% of the events.
5) Some event Pokemons are still region-locked. This has been an issue since BW? In earlier generations, most events are not region-locked.
6) Not all Pokemons found in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, such as Nidoran, this means that some people has to subscribed to Pokebank just to get those Pokemons to Gen VII. Fortunately, there are trading forums to cope with this issue.
7) Battle Agency is very disappointing. Look at the number of Grade 0s in Battle Agency.
8) Most new areas are disappointing, Ultra Megapolis has a lot of wasted potential. The tunnel after the volcano has no purpose in the game (other than passing it). Some caves are forgotten after you obtained the items.
9) Game-exclusives. Mallow is not available for Battle Tree in Ultra Sun and Kiawe is not available for Battle Tree in Ultra Moon. Game-exclusive Pokemons can be solved by trading but not trainers.
10) Roto-powers are random, as compared to Gen VI, when you can choose the O-Powers you want.
It is disappointing, so many wasted potential. Why not add a Battle Frontier like Emerald, Platinum or another sequel with many new routes and tunnels like BW2. We only get a few small caves in USUM. The only improvement I have seen is Mount Lanakila.
Goods:
1) Some Pokemons are no longer shiny-locked, such as Ultra Beasts. Every legendaries in XY are shiny-locked. Which means, you need to catch the event in XY to obtain shiny Xerneas and Yveltal.
2) All Mega Stones sold in Battle Tree. In Sun and Moon, only about half of the Mega Stones are sold in Battle Tree shop. And half of the stones are obtained through event codes. Some people might miss out Mega Stones and are unable to get those stones.
3) More items are no longer once-per-game, such as Lucky Eggs. In Sun and Moon, a lot of people accidentally traded away their Lucky Eggs in the GTS. This is currently a meme in GameFAQs Trading Forum. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Lucky Eggs can be found on Blisseys, but still very low chance. In Gen VI, Leftovers are also once-per-game items.
4) Gold Bottle Caps are easier to obtain in Ultra Sun and Moon. You can easily obtain them in Battle Tree once you reached 50 streak. This means Hyper Training easier.
5) Slightly different plot, such using Mantine Surf to travel between islands, and including Ultra Recon Squad.
6) Some Ultra Beasts are unlimited. This means that you don't need to replay the whole game just to obtain an Ultra Beast of different stats, nature, etc. Hopefully, they will make this for other legendaries in future generation Pokemon games so that we don't have to replay the whole game.
7) Pacing is slightly better. It is not as rush as Sun and Moon near the end because a new trial is added into Poni Island and Mount Lanakila is improved. The last trial is probably my favourite (I dislike the long dialogues though).
8) New formes are well done. Necrozma formes and Dusk Form Lycanroc are decent.
Bad:
1) Rainbow Rocket episode is not a memorable villainous faction as compared to other post-games in other games. I meant that after you beat the Team Rainbow Rocket, you cannot battle with them again, such as using Giovanni, Archie, Maxie in Battle Tree. In ORAS, you can have Archie/Maxie as your Battle Maison Multi Battle partner. In Battle Tree, you can only use Team Skull members, and Lillie (she is trash) as your Multi partner.
2) Too much cutscenes. The whole Smogon Orange Islands community has been ranting on this issue since XY. But much worse than XY. The tutorial is too long, including the cutscenes, it takes about 40 minutes to reach the first Pokemon Centre. The whole Smogon always complained "why not add a button to skip the cutscenes/tutorials? Fire Emblem has done that". The biggest problem with cutscenes is the replay value.
3) New Pokemons are more legendaries, and I know a lot of people likes to defend USUM, stating that it is the only game that released new Pokemons in the middle of a generation. Here is my rebuttal. Most of them are disappointing. Stakataka made the whole Smogon riot during the release of the typing. ANOTHER ROCK/STEEL. Let's see, Aggron, Probopass, Bastiodon. And all of them has a major problem that prevents them from becoming a defensive wall. 2 4x weaknesses. So basically a Ultra Beast version of Bastiodon in summary. Why not Rock/Psychic (since both Solrock and Lunatone is trash)? Blacephelon is not as bad as Stakataka but still very disappointing. When it is first released in datamine thread. Everyone's first reaction is "ctrl"+"F"+"Focus Blast", then "Oh ****, this is Tyranitar's food", so yeah. Nagadanel is the only Pokemon that this is decent. Zerora looks like Fighting-Type and has a lot of Fighting moves, why is it not a "Electric/Fighting type? And no new non-legendary Pokemons.
4) Some legendaries are still shiny-locked. Let's see, Zygarde, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma. That is still a lot. Hopefully, it will be released in an online event distribution, like Shiny Xerneas and Yveltal in XY, not region-locked in Japan like 90% of the events.
5) Some event Pokemons are still region-locked. This has been an issue since BW? In earlier generations, most events are not region-locked.
6) Not all Pokemons found in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, such as Nidoran, this means that some people has to subscribed to Pokebank just to get those Pokemons to Gen VII. Fortunately, there are trading forums to cope with this issue.
7) Battle Agency is very disappointing. Look at the number of Grade 0s in Battle Agency.
8) Most new areas are disappointing, Ultra Megapolis has a lot of wasted potential. The tunnel after the volcano has no purpose in the game (other than passing it). Some caves are forgotten after you obtained the items.
9) Game-exclusives. Mallow is not available for Battle Tree in Ultra Sun and Kiawe is not available for Battle Tree in Ultra Moon. Game-exclusive Pokemons can be solved by trading but not trainers.
10) Roto-powers are random, as compared to Gen VI, when you can choose the O-Powers you want.
It is disappointing, so many wasted potential. Why not add a Battle Frontier like Emerald, Platinum or another sequel with many new routes and tunnels like BW2. We only get a few small caves in USUM. The only improvement I have seen is Mount Lanakila.
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