played this with a team i save edited into the game and it was SO DAMN FUN playing my pokemon power fantasy!
okay so the ultra megalopolis section is kind of dumb and out of place but everything else is rock solid. this is just hardmode dlc with 50 extra pokemon but i don't really care because i didn't pay for it. alola is an amazing region so any boring necrozma stuff is more than made up for with the bonus trials and extra guzma screen time
TOO HANDHOLDY FOR ME BUT IT'S GOOD (caps lock wasn't intentional, i'm sleep deprived)
This review contains spoilers
The better version of Pokémon Sun&Moon... and probably what they should have been from the start.
USUM add many needed improvements to the base SM games, including but not limited to:
- A wider pool of Pokémon (Up to 400!) and a better encounter distribution.
- A different collectable hunt that feels rewarding (Totem Stickers)
- An enjoyable minigame that doubles as an easier way to obtain BP (Mantine Surf)
- Speaking of BP, new move tutors and the possibility to buy all Mega Stones in the Battle Tree
- The Alola Photo Club, where you can take cute pictures with your Pokémon and decorate them!
- Different trainer teams and different Trials (for example, the Grass trial or the Electric trial).
- A whole new host of side quests and cutscenes to make this game truly feel like an RPG. I did not realize how badly this region needed these; it now feels more full and lived in!
- A better endgame gameplay loop in Ultra Ride, which brings a lot of Legendaries, Ultra Beasts and non-Alola Pokémon with it. You can even shiny hunt in there!
- Story changes. Some of them were okay-ish, like the Ultra Recon Squad, some of them were downright awful, like Lusamine and Lillie's whole storyline, but changes nonetheless.
- An increase in difficulty. Apart from the infamous Ultra Necrozma fight (which I had to cheese with a level 6 Zorua), the game in general increases the levels of enemies and improves their movesets. Also, Molayne takes Kaudan's place in the Elite 4. Nice.
- Necrozma: no longer a strange one-off, the cover legendary now appears not only at the climax of the story but also during you ascent through an improved Mount Lanakila. It has a catch rate of 255, which means you can catch it with quite possibly any ball!
- UI redesign. Much nicer than whatever SM's UI had going on.
- Rainbow Rocket: The postgame includes this amazing callback to previous games, and the teams all change depending on the version you're playing! A nice, old-fashioned nostalgia trip à la PWT in the form of a gauntlet of battles.
There's so much about this game that's an improvement over the original it's insane. My only gripe, apart from the Lusamine storyline, is the fact that this should have been Sun and Moon from the very beginning instead of whatever undercooked game they gave us. These deserved to be the introduction to Alola, even if with the original storyline, and maybe a third version would've gone better if they had made this the base game. Given some of Alola's most commonly-criticized problems have not yet been solved in this version (long cutscenes, hand-holding, etc.), it really is the true gen 7 experience.
All in all, the only Alola experience I recommend because of how simply good it is, even with its few flaws.
USUM add many needed improvements to the base SM games, including but not limited to:
- A wider pool of Pokémon (Up to 400!) and a better encounter distribution.
- A different collectable hunt that feels rewarding (Totem Stickers)
- An enjoyable minigame that doubles as an easier way to obtain BP (Mantine Surf)
- Speaking of BP, new move tutors and the possibility to buy all Mega Stones in the Battle Tree
- The Alola Photo Club, where you can take cute pictures with your Pokémon and decorate them!
- Different trainer teams and different Trials (for example, the Grass trial or the Electric trial).
- A whole new host of side quests and cutscenes to make this game truly feel like an RPG. I did not realize how badly this region needed these; it now feels more full and lived in!
- A better endgame gameplay loop in Ultra Ride, which brings a lot of Legendaries, Ultra Beasts and non-Alola Pokémon with it. You can even shiny hunt in there!
- Story changes. Some of them were okay-ish, like the Ultra Recon Squad, some of them were downright awful, like Lusamine and Lillie's whole storyline, but changes nonetheless.
- An increase in difficulty. Apart from the infamous Ultra Necrozma fight (which I had to cheese with a level 6 Zorua), the game in general increases the levels of enemies and improves their movesets. Also, Molayne takes Kaudan's place in the Elite 4. Nice.
- Necrozma: no longer a strange one-off, the cover legendary now appears not only at the climax of the story but also during you ascent through an improved Mount Lanakila. It has a catch rate of 255, which means you can catch it with quite possibly any ball!
- UI redesign. Much nicer than whatever SM's UI had going on.
- Rainbow Rocket: The postgame includes this amazing callback to previous games, and the teams all change depending on the version you're playing! A nice, old-fashioned nostalgia trip à la PWT in the form of a gauntlet of battles.
There's so much about this game that's an improvement over the original it's insane. My only gripe, apart from the Lusamine storyline, is the fact that this should have been Sun and Moon from the very beginning instead of whatever undercooked game they gave us. These deserved to be the introduction to Alola, even if with the original storyline, and maybe a third version would've gone better if they had made this the base game. Given some of Alola's most commonly-criticized problems have not yet been solved in this version (long cutscenes, hand-holding, etc.), it really is the true gen 7 experience.
All in all, the only Alola experience I recommend because of how simply good it is, even with its few flaws.
We weren't ready