I'd like to know who at Game Freak was personally stalking me when they decided to make a game that directly appeals to everything I like about Pokemon campaigns. It's a smartly designed decision that this game came out, because it knows exactly what a Pokemon campaign's strengths are. Sun/Moon doubles down on the worldbuilding Pokemon is so good at, in fact I'd say it pretty much just is the game. It's constantly about Alola, every new pokemon design and area bleeding the personality and culture of the region and it never really lets up even till the end. It didn't have to end there either, Sun/Moon actually brings in a story worth a damn, all wrapped around family values concerning Lillie and Lusamine, finishing in a clash that really delves deep into empty nest syndrome.
There's a very obvious side effect of all this, and that's that you can't move probably 30 minutes without being wrapped into a cutscene. Personally I think this is fine because I prefer my Pokemon campaigns to be roller coasters since I never truly enjoy the full customization experience to last an entire 30 hours due to AI teams being incompetent enough for me to always bulldoze over them. But I do understand where people will find this an issue that walls them off from caring about the game.
That being said, I do have one more positive to cover. Sun/Moon actually attempts to have PvE rather than PvP. While I would like to cover it in a full article, to summarize briefly a main problem with Pokemon campaigns from a gameplay center is that they hit a bottleneck by conforming to AI teams. Pokemon's combat systems are practically entirely designed for a real player vs player experience where it's structured around mind games and dazzling team combinations that catch the opponent off guard, creating a neutral game where each side has to understand and infer what the other side will do next with their Pokemon. That's entirely how competitive Pokemon works and it's completely missing in the base game, where AIs are so simple that they can be bulldozed by type advantage or overwhelming numbers. This issue can be mitigated by stronger Pokemon teams but what's a way way better solution is to throw out the middleman and try to make a PvE experience that uses Pokemon combat as a base to be built atop of.
And this is what Sun/Moon succeeds at, mostly. Totem Pokemon require you to make enemy-specific strategies and brute forcing requires more effort than just leveling. This comes to a head especially in the sequel where Ultra Necrozma which is practically a playwall that demands a fundamental understanding of a lot of Pokemon's combat so that you can 'cheese' it. It's not perfect, it's a very weak step forward but a step forward nonetheless.
Overall I find Sun/Moon to be the best a singleplayer Pokemon game has been, mostly since it scratches each itch I have for a Pokemon campaign and that it has a powerful soul and heart to every hour of playtime. Also Gen 7 competitive is good enough to elevate that.
There's a very obvious side effect of all this, and that's that you can't move probably 30 minutes without being wrapped into a cutscene. Personally I think this is fine because I prefer my Pokemon campaigns to be roller coasters since I never truly enjoy the full customization experience to last an entire 30 hours due to AI teams being incompetent enough for me to always bulldoze over them. But I do understand where people will find this an issue that walls them off from caring about the game.
That being said, I do have one more positive to cover. Sun/Moon actually attempts to have PvE rather than PvP. While I would like to cover it in a full article, to summarize briefly a main problem with Pokemon campaigns from a gameplay center is that they hit a bottleneck by conforming to AI teams. Pokemon's combat systems are practically entirely designed for a real player vs player experience where it's structured around mind games and dazzling team combinations that catch the opponent off guard, creating a neutral game where each side has to understand and infer what the other side will do next with their Pokemon. That's entirely how competitive Pokemon works and it's completely missing in the base game, where AIs are so simple that they can be bulldozed by type advantage or overwhelming numbers. This issue can be mitigated by stronger Pokemon teams but what's a way way better solution is to throw out the middleman and try to make a PvE experience that uses Pokemon combat as a base to be built atop of.
And this is what Sun/Moon succeeds at, mostly. Totem Pokemon require you to make enemy-specific strategies and brute forcing requires more effort than just leveling. This comes to a head especially in the sequel where Ultra Necrozma which is practically a playwall that demands a fundamental understanding of a lot of Pokemon's combat so that you can 'cheese' it. It's not perfect, it's a very weak step forward but a step forward nonetheless.
Overall I find Sun/Moon to be the best a singleplayer Pokemon game has been, mostly since it scratches each itch I have for a Pokemon campaign and that it has a powerful soul and heart to every hour of playtime. Also Gen 7 competitive is good enough to elevate that.