While I played solely Pokemon Ultra Sun, with the nature of how Pokemon games are, and my history with them, I think it fair for this to be a review of both Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. With that in mind, my feelings of these games are conflicting. While I absolutely loved the experience of playing these games, I also continuously questioned why these games exist, and whether or not they should. I’ll further explain why later on in the review, but the game’s changes from Sun and Moon just don’t feel substantial enough for me to say it’s any better, in fact, there’s a certain, major aspect of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon that’s ultimately worse.
Now, I didn’t hate playing Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. In fact, much like the original Sun and Moon, these games are super fun and refreshing. But that’s also when the game isn’t interrupting you. This is mainly an issue on the first island of the game, but there were so many interruptions that just kept breaking the flow of the game. It’s important to give the player tutorials, which is what the purpose of the first island is, but too much and too often just ends up being frustrating. It gives the player little time to breathe, especially for someone like me, who has beaten this game multiple times before. After beating the first island though, it really relaxes on this, and you’re more left to your own devices which is so nice, but it’s just hard to ignore the interruptions of the first island.
And the trials are still just as good. Though I’m gonna be honest here, a lot of them are about the same overall, and I can only remember one trial actually changing. One of the big changes as well is that certain totem Pokemon change as well, though only 3 totem Pokemon change, leaving the other 4 exactly the same. On top of this, the game adds one final trial near the end of the game, and it acts as a sort of remembrance of every trial you faced prior which is really nice. Seeing all these people you met along your journey as its soon to meet its end is a really nice touch, and I’m glad it was added to these games.
And one thing I can definitely give to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is the increase in difficulty. While practically every Pokemon game is easy if you know what you’re doing, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are some of the harder Pokemon games, and I really like that. Most of the difficulty came from the Titans themselves. They start the battle with certain stat boosts, sometimes all of their stats are raised, like Totem Mimikyu. On the other hand, they can summon Pokemon that can make your battle harder, like how Totem Lurantis can summon Comfey, a Pokemon that can heal allies. Of course, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have one of the hardest boss fights in all of Pokemon, but part of me feels like it’s a bit too hard at the same time. What I mean by that is that it’s a boss with ridiculously high stats, higher than any other Pokemon at the time, and all of its stats are boosted by one. While it makes for a difficult battle, it also at the same time just feels like a bit of overkill. I was lucky enough to beat on my first try though, thanks to Toxic damage, and using a lot of revives. It provided for a really tense battle, especially since I was only able to get the Toxic to hit thanks to a Quick Claw activation. Of course my team probably wasn’t the best. My team was an Incineroar, Ribombee, Lurantis, Toxapex, Pallosand, and Kommo-o. One of the big challenges I had was definitely with flying types, which made certain late game battles really difficult, but really fun at the same time.
Now, I want to get into why my conflicting feelings with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon exist. Particularly, even though I had a lot of fun with these games, why do I feel at the same time, that they shouldn’t exist? I think it’s ultimately due to how very little the game changes from Sun and Moon. Aside from a couple Totem Pokemon changing, alongside the addition of (I believe) 100 pokemon, there’s very little that changes in the general flow of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon until the final parts of the game. Compared to other third versions of Pokemon games, Emerald changes up every Gym Team, and takes you to new locations such as the Magma Base. Crystal noticeably remixes the encounter table, while changing the story to be more about Suicune. Yellow incorporates a Pikachu that follows you, which changing major teams, such as the rival and the elite four. Platinum changes the flow of gyms, gives gym leaders new teams, and changes the entire look of the Sinnoh region. And of course, Black 2 and White 2 are just entirely different games, just occurring in Unova. The changes in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are so little, and with how this is a set of 2 games, instead of just 1, it feels even worse. The story itself is actively worse than Sun and Moon. It mainly ruins an entire character, who was one of the best villains in the entire series, but for some reason they tried to give her some sort of redemption arc in this game which just feels wrong. What made her such a good character was how irredeemable she was, and I just find it somewhat unfortunate. I think my issues here with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon would be lessened if it was only one game, the fact that this is a dual set of games makes the lack of change more apparent to me.
I don’t hate Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, in fact I really enjoyed my time playing through Ultra Sun again. I finally got around to trying out an Incineroar for the first time, and the challenge of this game is something very few other Pokemon games replicate. But with a weaker story compared to the original, and very little changes to the general flow of the game, I just find that I’d rather play the original Sun and Moon instead. I’ll definitely revisit these from time to time though, because there is an appeal to the difficulty of these games. However at the same time, I still see myself more likely playing the original Sun and Moon games.
Now, I didn’t hate playing Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. In fact, much like the original Sun and Moon, these games are super fun and refreshing. But that’s also when the game isn’t interrupting you. This is mainly an issue on the first island of the game, but there were so many interruptions that just kept breaking the flow of the game. It’s important to give the player tutorials, which is what the purpose of the first island is, but too much and too often just ends up being frustrating. It gives the player little time to breathe, especially for someone like me, who has beaten this game multiple times before. After beating the first island though, it really relaxes on this, and you’re more left to your own devices which is so nice, but it’s just hard to ignore the interruptions of the first island.
And the trials are still just as good. Though I’m gonna be honest here, a lot of them are about the same overall, and I can only remember one trial actually changing. One of the big changes as well is that certain totem Pokemon change as well, though only 3 totem Pokemon change, leaving the other 4 exactly the same. On top of this, the game adds one final trial near the end of the game, and it acts as a sort of remembrance of every trial you faced prior which is really nice. Seeing all these people you met along your journey as its soon to meet its end is a really nice touch, and I’m glad it was added to these games.
And one thing I can definitely give to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is the increase in difficulty. While practically every Pokemon game is easy if you know what you’re doing, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are some of the harder Pokemon games, and I really like that. Most of the difficulty came from the Titans themselves. They start the battle with certain stat boosts, sometimes all of their stats are raised, like Totem Mimikyu. On the other hand, they can summon Pokemon that can make your battle harder, like how Totem Lurantis can summon Comfey, a Pokemon that can heal allies. Of course, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have one of the hardest boss fights in all of Pokemon, but part of me feels like it’s a bit too hard at the same time. What I mean by that is that it’s a boss with ridiculously high stats, higher than any other Pokemon at the time, and all of its stats are boosted by one. While it makes for a difficult battle, it also at the same time just feels like a bit of overkill. I was lucky enough to beat on my first try though, thanks to Toxic damage, and using a lot of revives. It provided for a really tense battle, especially since I was only able to get the Toxic to hit thanks to a Quick Claw activation. Of course my team probably wasn’t the best. My team was an Incineroar, Ribombee, Lurantis, Toxapex, Pallosand, and Kommo-o. One of the big challenges I had was definitely with flying types, which made certain late game battles really difficult, but really fun at the same time.
Now, I want to get into why my conflicting feelings with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon exist. Particularly, even though I had a lot of fun with these games, why do I feel at the same time, that they shouldn’t exist? I think it’s ultimately due to how very little the game changes from Sun and Moon. Aside from a couple Totem Pokemon changing, alongside the addition of (I believe) 100 pokemon, there’s very little that changes in the general flow of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon until the final parts of the game. Compared to other third versions of Pokemon games, Emerald changes up every Gym Team, and takes you to new locations such as the Magma Base. Crystal noticeably remixes the encounter table, while changing the story to be more about Suicune. Yellow incorporates a Pikachu that follows you, which changing major teams, such as the rival and the elite four. Platinum changes the flow of gyms, gives gym leaders new teams, and changes the entire look of the Sinnoh region. And of course, Black 2 and White 2 are just entirely different games, just occurring in Unova. The changes in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are so little, and with how this is a set of 2 games, instead of just 1, it feels even worse. The story itself is actively worse than Sun and Moon. It mainly ruins an entire character, who was one of the best villains in the entire series, but for some reason they tried to give her some sort of redemption arc in this game which just feels wrong. What made her such a good character was how irredeemable she was, and I just find it somewhat unfortunate. I think my issues here with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon would be lessened if it was only one game, the fact that this is a dual set of games makes the lack of change more apparent to me.
I don’t hate Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, in fact I really enjoyed my time playing through Ultra Sun again. I finally got around to trying out an Incineroar for the first time, and the challenge of this game is something very few other Pokemon games replicate. But with a weaker story compared to the original, and very little changes to the general flow of the game, I just find that I’d rather play the original Sun and Moon instead. I’ll definitely revisit these from time to time though, because there is an appeal to the difficulty of these games. However at the same time, I still see myself more likely playing the original Sun and Moon games.