Here's the thing; playing this game right after SuMo will ruin your experience with it. I waited six years to replay this title, and I think it might actually be my third-favorite main series game (after BW2 and PLA).
USUM is SO good when you don't have Twitter in your ear telling you its bad. Just by changing this game to "set" mode it has now become a comfortable level of difficulty. I actually had to implement strategies for major bosses and Totem Pokemon were not as much of a pushover as I originally thought. Even the final Hau encounter, which I never considered memorable all those years ago has suddenly been catapulted into the "Pokemon Battle Trauma" area of my brain next to Cynthia and RR Giovanni.
Is the story as good as SM? Probably not, but re-reading Lusamine's text in this game again functions fairly well in a vacuum. It's a bit awkward that her obsession with Necrozma doesn't fit with Lillie as much as Nihilego did, but since she's explicitly aiming for Cosmog more this time and not just destroying her family I think it works fine. Additionally, Gladion directly brings up Mohn, which I don't think was in the original.
The Pokemon variety pre- and post-game is excellent, and the final encounters with RR and other side modes (UB and Shiny hunting) are still very fun. USUM will not absorb your free time like BW2 or HGSS's post-game content, but I don't think that's a bad thing. As I get older, I have begun to prioritize games that value my time, and I don't need every title to trap me in its loop forever. It took 25 hours to beat USUM's main story again and I enjoyed my entire time through.
This was the first game Kazumasa Iwao directed, and he followed it up with PLA. Unlike SV or SwSh, USUM and PLA feel like "complete" games to me, and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next when he gains full reins of the franchise.
USUM is SO good when you don't have Twitter in your ear telling you its bad. Just by changing this game to "set" mode it has now become a comfortable level of difficulty. I actually had to implement strategies for major bosses and Totem Pokemon were not as much of a pushover as I originally thought. Even the final Hau encounter, which I never considered memorable all those years ago has suddenly been catapulted into the "Pokemon Battle Trauma" area of my brain next to Cynthia and RR Giovanni.
Is the story as good as SM? Probably not, but re-reading Lusamine's text in this game again functions fairly well in a vacuum. It's a bit awkward that her obsession with Necrozma doesn't fit with Lillie as much as Nihilego did, but since she's explicitly aiming for Cosmog more this time and not just destroying her family I think it works fine. Additionally, Gladion directly brings up Mohn, which I don't think was in the original.
The Pokemon variety pre- and post-game is excellent, and the final encounters with RR and other side modes (UB and Shiny hunting) are still very fun. USUM will not absorb your free time like BW2 or HGSS's post-game content, but I don't think that's a bad thing. As I get older, I have begun to prioritize games that value my time, and I don't need every title to trap me in its loop forever. It took 25 hours to beat USUM's main story again and I enjoyed my entire time through.
This was the first game Kazumasa Iwao directed, and he followed it up with PLA. Unlike SV or SwSh, USUM and PLA feel like "complete" games to me, and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next when he gains full reins of the franchise.