(ULTRA) SUN/(ULTRA) MOON
And so we have finally reached Gen 7, and my all Starter Playthrough! Generation 7 is what I feel the REAL start of the 3D era. Yes, Gen 6 was 3D, but they honestly played and felt more like the 2D games than people want to admit. Movement was largely still grid based (only now you have diagonal movement, but you still went based off squares), a lot of series conventions were still in-tact, the perspective was essentially the 2D games but now with 3D graphics. In a sense, Gen 6 was more “Pokemon 2.5D”, while Gen 7 is the true first 3D Generation. Gen 7 does a lot of things with 3D games like free range movement, camera angles all over the place, large character models to pop out, and the concept of draw distance…
Which is the first thing I want to touch upon: Gen 7 honestly doesn’t feel that far behind Gen 8 in terms of it’s performance and power, while being a notable step up compared to Gen 6. See, a lot of those mockable things in Gen 8? I think they existed in Gen 7, but there’s a huge difference in that Gen 7 being made for 3DS hardware gave them an excuse as they were trying to downsize it to work on a worse console, accommodate for many things. The Draw Distance is a great example of that. I assume that if Gen 7 was on the Switch, it’d have the exact same draw distance problems Gen 8 had, with things popping in and out randomly, but the key difference is that it’s not the Switch, but the 3DS, which has a smaller screen. As a result, the low Draw distance wasn’t laziness so much as “What’s the point of a draw distance that far if the 3DS screen literally cannot see it?” and they just kind of copy and pasted that into Gen 8, which has a much larger screen. Now Gen 7 is known for having performance issues on a NORMAL 3DS, most notably there’s a brief pause at the start of trainer fights, and it drops frames massively in doubles. New 3DS largely removes this, but there were brief stints of that “pause” in doubles, and if weather in doubles was in effect, the game would slow down just a tad; not enough to ruin the experience, but just enough to be notice-able. I feel like if the 3DS was the only option, Gamefreak may have went “Maybe we should work on a better engine, or improving the engine’s performance” as they’d have noticed these problems, but they probably tested the game on a n3DS, and went “Yeah, that’s good, and the Switch is stronger, so no problems there!” leading to…well…the Gen 9 performance issues are well documented. I dunno, theorizing that stuff is pointless, probably the real answer is “Gamefreak understaffed and lacks time to playtest, and doesn’t care THAT much because they KNOW the games will sell regardless.” Cynical, but likely true.
…but enough of that, I should note I played on Ultra Moon, which I’ll get to why that’s meaningful a little later. The issues with Gen 7 start almost immediately in that the game takes forever to get started. There’s dialog everywhere, you walk into a new town, Kukui greets you and tells you about it, then you take 2 steps and Hau is right behind you and talks to you about it. Kukui and Hau are fun characters, make no mistake, but good lord is this barrage dialog driven cutscenes split up only by a few meaningless steps painful. The game does warn you, to some degree, a cutscene is coming by having a “Plot Destination Here!” thing, but the game is not brief and you have no idea how long it’ll be. We started seeing shades of this in Gen 5 and Gen 6, but they were never so long that it hurt the game. And to be fair, on your INITIAL playthrough, you probably are reading the dialog and paying attention because Alola’s plot is actually kind of worth caring about, similar to Unova’s, and gets pretty engaging right from the outset. The issue? Replayability is nightmarish. Pokemon games have always had a special quirk for replayability in the form “Ok, but how is the game using THIS team?” as I illustrated in all my previous playthroughs in the series, trying fun things and restrictions. Gen 7 is no exception in that respect, HOWEVER, the dialog heavy cutscene barrage of the early game on Melemele and Akala are a huge case of “GET ON WITH IT!” I remember this in my first playthrough of Ultra Moon, in fact; when I played Moon, I didn’t mind it precisely because “hey, what are they saying?” but in Ultra Moon, which felt like an enhanced replay, it took me far longer to get into it because of the “Ok I know how to catch a pokemon, SHUT UP!” Pokemon really needs to add a “y/n” option before every tutorial.
SIDE RANT TIME!
The aspect of Gamefreaks’ “This is made for kids!” is really starting to creep here, as you get the sense “But what if the kid presses yes by accident!?” It’s kind of disrespectful to children, since a little kid who can read is going to read VERY meticulously and if they don’t know, they WILL select the option that lets them no, while a more experienced player just wants to get through stuff as quickly as possible…and heck, even little kids know “Gotta weaken it first before you throw a Pokeball!” My 5 year old Nephew, watching me play Black 2 knew exactly what was going on when I was playing, saying “Try it now!” and when it didn’t work “Maybe weaken it more.” The nuance may not be known to them (best balls to use, status effects working, etc.), but you can leave that to random NPCs in town that Pokemon has always done where talking to them…you know, something the series has done since THE FIRST GAMES!? Case in point, random kids trading with one another in Celadon Department Store, and he goes “Hey, my Pokemon evolved!” was a clever way to point out that some Pokemon are Trade-evos. Really, Pokemon in general is insulting in the modern era, not because of easiness or the “kids” mentality, but because it DISRESPECTS little kids intelligence, and willingness to persevere. That’s the issue with a lot “For kids” mentality; many people do that thinking they’re doing kids a favor but really they’re casually disrespecting them. No, “for kids” should be a mindset about style, themes, etc. Pretending dumbing things down is “for kids” is stupid and needs to go away, and Pokemon unfortunately keeps digging itself deeper with that nonsense, doing no one a favor, actively hurting the experience for adults. This has been known for years not just in gaming, but in media…and older Pokemon games were great at that. Accessible and “family friendly” enough for kids, but enough gameplay depth that adults have something to latch onto, that the “fun” value offsets the whole “But isn’t this a kids series!?” entirely outside of that specific adolescent age range where “anything that isn’t ‘adult’ is for babies!” mindset (...so basically 10 year olds who old who think GUNS AND VIOLENCE = INSTANT COOL AND MATURE! <_< >_>)
SIDE RANT OVER!
This inability to get things going quickly also is notable because your first Pokemon Center takes forever to get to. Yeah, you have full healing spots, but if you want to swap out Pokemon, you need to go over an hour into the game. My starter was level 10 or so when I got to my first Pokemon center where I could finally swap in my other 5 starters from Pokemon Bank. That’s kind of inexcusable, unless of course you had a makeshift one at Kukui’s Lab where you could use his PC to swap Pokemon…why they didn’t do that I have no idea. Also, WHY DOES THE GAME FORCE ME TO DO MANTINE SURFING, WHICH HAS MORE TUTORIALS THAN ANY OTHER FEATURE IN THE GAME?! Yes, a random minigame you’re likely going to play once just to progress the game, has a whole in-depth, long tutorial, that is unskippable, and good lord I JUST WANT TO PLAY THE GAME STAHP!!!
To be fair, as I mentioned earlier, the plot and dialog IS better than what Pokemon usually provides. It has the “You’re new to the region” thing that Gen 3 had, but Hau is way more expressive than Brendan/May, Kukui is Professor that actually plays a consistent role throughout the game, which is great! He doesn’t just give you a Pokemon, but he battles you a few times early on, has a lot of personality (obsession with Pokemon move puns, like when he’s leaving he might say “I guess it’s time I U-turn out of here!”), the masked Royal thing is funny because your character figures out IMMEDIATELY who it is but apparently his own wife can’t? The game does still have that “hey new kid, GO ON A BIG TRIAL ADVENTURE!” but the “You were chosen by Tapu Koko” thing does at least give some excuse to the silly premise. Lillie is actually one of the best written characters in the series, being the ACTUAL protagonist of the game, and showing genuine growth from “scaled little girl” to “actually standing on her own two feet”; she still can’t do a whole lot , but she at least stands up for herself verbally. She just needs you as kind of a body-guard since she isn’t a trainer kind of like Alphinaud in Heavensward for FF14, though that comes with the flaw that is highlighted a lot between the two games. FF14, this “you’re not the protagonist, you’re just a body to talk to and the sword arm” works because the Warrior of Light in that game is incredibly expressive and has a lot of fun dialog options; Pokemon, your character has ONE expression which is that blank, soulless smile, so Lillie will be pouring her thoughts and emotions out to you, and the camera goes to your character being “:)”; I’m not asking for a lot, but would a few extra facial expressions to show your character having SOME kind of reaction be too much? Like even just give us “Sad” “Concerned” and “Angry” would be enough! But back to real characters, Gladion is also surprisingly in-depth, NOT being the full on emo-douche you expect, but he’s actually a decent guy underneath who basically had to become a “tough guy” to survive, seeing as his mother is a complete psycho who tried to control every element of his life (as demonstrated in Lillie), and in order to overcome that, he had to push back and become the rebel punk. I think one of the coolest touches to prove that he is actually a compassionate and nice guy? All his Pokemon save for Zoroark are Happiness Evolutions AND by the end of the game, they are all fully evolved, showing he does raise his pokemon with kindness despite seeming like he has a mindset similar to Silver’s “STRENGTH ONLY MATTERS!”
Team Skull is also a treat, being just kind of nuisances instead of the primary antagonists for one. They show up, they’re annoying, and they’re basically a parody of every evil team, with their names being “Grunt A” and “Grunt B’ and that apparently…is their real names, as they’ll say “Look, my name is Grunt B, what’s that tell you about me?!” They have a song that perfectly encapsulates their hoodlum look, and they’re really not taken seriously at all. More to the point, they actually do have kind of endearing lore, in that they’re not just a team of “bad guys” with some kind of grand EVIL!!! Motive, they’re just society outcasts that have all been adopted into one organization that they come together like family, albeit completely misguided sense of morality, much like real gangs. They even took over an entire city which looks like a city if it were run by a street gang that didn’t care, and why are they allowed to stay that way? Because Nanu basically said that if they have their own area they can call their own, most of their antics are isolated to that, and pretty much ONLY Team Skull lives there, so it surprisingly keeps them out of large scale trouble. Plumeria and Guzma are both different takes on leaders as well, Plumeria being more that “Big sis team Skull looks up” and Guzma motivations are driven more by his own failure as a Trial Captain and insistence that he proves himself to all of Alola by any means necessary. Guzma actually loses development in USUM because in the original games, he follows Lusamine without question until she reaches a point where she’s completely lost and he’s like “Yeah, I’m done, please knock sense into her, even I’m not that crazy!” showing even he has standards. USUM, meanwhile, it’s basically “Oh, me and Lusamine fought Necrozma and lost lol, sorry for being failed heroes!”
…speaking of, let’s talk Lusamine. Lusamine is a character that I think is refreshing in SuMo but utterly ruined in USUM. Why? Well, the plot changes. SuMo’s plot is basically about the Ultra Beasts, and stopping them, and Lusamine being the “loving, caring motherly figure of the Aether Foundation!”...yeah, ok, she’s got “REAL VILLAIN” written all over her, and her goal is to “USE THEM BECAUSE I AM OBSESSED WITH NIHILEGO AHAHAHAHAH!” which also explains Lillie’s outfit (and Gladion even states that he was subjected to something similar.) It makes you feel bad for Lillie more, and them just doubling down on “Lusamine is an obsessed psychopath, and a full on jRPG Antagonist” was kind of refreshing. It’s not deep, but it compliments Pokemon, and her final battle being “Hey look at all these cute Pokemon…BUT THEY’RE EVIL AURAS!!!” was a nice touch, and them all getting stat boosts made it FEEL like a genuine final boss fight for the Non-Trial part of the story. It was a great, stylistic touch and made her feel like getting a full on jRPG Final Boss form, something hard to do in Pokemon. So what’s USUM’s problem? The plot changing entirely to “NECROZMA IS COMING!” completely undermines any purpose the Ultra Beasts have; Nilhego showing up at the Aether Foundation feels completely peripheral, the scene with all the Ultra Beasts attacking Alola comes out of nowhere now since “Wait, isn’t Necrozma the issue!?” instead of being something that ties in with what the game was building up to, AND it turns Lusamine from “obsessed crazed woman” to “benevolent extremist!” and Guzma never gets that “yeah, she’s too crazy for me!” Necrozma’s story just feels so much less impactful too. When you get Nebby to evolve into Solgaleo/Lunala near the end, and you get your big awesome Legendary, it feels earned and something the game was building up to. Lillie was defending Nebby by all costs from her mother, and you helped her, and as a reward, you get to use this complete and total bad ass (or you could be fair and not <_<.) Here? Hey, Nebby evolved…oh, Necrozma kicked it’s ass despite how both stat wise, level wise AND type wise, NEBBY HAS EVERY ADVANTAGE (seriously, go compare base Necrozma to Solgaleo and Lunala; it’s such one sided match up.) It really compromises the story as well; this is Nebby’s crowning moment and NOPE! IT’S GONE LOL! So here’s a BETTER idea, because the game actually had it:
Why not have Nebby get to its form, and keep it the way it was. Then Necrozma shows up, you fight it, Nebby wins, but then the kicker? It transforms into the OTHER form, and beats you. Why? Because the Ultra Recon Squad apparently has their own “Other Box Art Legendary” they can use at will..which comes out of nowhere…why not just say Necrozma stole that? Or heck, if you want it to be that Box Art legendary, do what BW2 did: Give you the legendary of the OTHER version. See, Black 1 for example, you got Reshiram, so Black 2 gave you Zekrom. As a result, why not Moon giving you Lunala, then Ultra Moon gives you Solgaleo to combat the Dawn Wings Necrozma (and Vice Versa in Ultra Sun). This keeps Dawn Wings Necrozma as a logical face for Ultra Moon (and Dusk Mane for Ultra Sun), AND rewards people who bought both the originals and Ultra Versions. It really highlights the laziness Ultra games were as “3rd” versions. Ultra Necrozma is a neat fight I guess, but a little overtuned being so ridiculously overpowered that you might just get one shot left and right, and he’s hard to outspeed. There’s a reason the most reliable strat is “Toxic him” because you just need Quick Claw and one toxic, then lots of healing. Oh, speaking of Ultra, FUCK. THE. ULTRA. RECON. SQUAD. They’re the biggest microcosm of everything wrong with USUM’s plot compared to SuMo. In a game that already is wordy as hell to the point of hurting replays, they add in these two “quirky” characters that show up out of nowhere, talk about cryptic garbage relating to “NECROZMA IS COMING!” or something, have this vague sense of “ARE WE GOOD OR BAD!? WAIT TIL THE END TO FIND OUT!” even though the answer is “You guys are obviously good guys, but you’re so mysterious and cryptic that you sound EVIL!! This is not creative, it’s just obnoxious”, adding that many more scenes, and then they always have some of the most boring fights because “hey, we created this is new Ultra Beast that evolves for the new Gen 7 games that can’t be used in SuMo, when we COULD have just put an update patch for compatibility!” and the you crush it. I know “3rd versions” have added new characters in the past, like I believe Looker was Platinum only, and we had that Talent scout in Emerald, but they were largely harmless additions that had little impact on the main plot. The Ultra Recon Squad actively deviates the game from the original more interesting plot about Ultra Beasts to “NECROZMA IS COMING! NECROZMA IS COMING!” Many changes can be argued lateral and taste like, but I feel fully confident in stating that the Ultra Recon Squad actively makes the game that much worse, because it already had pacing issues, and now we’re adding more pacing issues in the form of cryptic, quirky, unentertaining characters.
The last notable plot change in USUM? Related to the Trial storyline stuff. Mina now has a real trial which is a lot of “backtracking” but at least they gave her a trial and a fight, and it gives you a chance to fight some of the Trial Captains that you didn’t in the original. This is neat but also clear padding and would be fine if it wasn’t there; thankfully they don’t make you fight all 7 Captanis, just a handful so it’s not as long as it could be. They replaced Hala with Molayne, which I’m totally fine with. I don’t have a strong attachment to either, and Molayne felt undercooked for Sophocles brother, so while he’s not a Kahuna like Hala to be appropriate, it’s the kind of change that mixes things up in a good way, while not strictly being worse or better. Also changes to the Totem Pokemon which is…a thing that exists. Ok, yeah, Totem Wishiwashi feels more interesting as a totem than Arquanid, but whatever, I didn’t care that much, Totem Mimikyu is in both and that’s the only thing that matters! There is one change, however, that I actively despise and have no idea why they thought it was a good idea:
The Champion.
So remember how I hated that they randomly changed Steven with Wallace? USUM is way worse in that respect, since SuMo had the absolutely perfect final boss in the form of Kukui. People have been asking for a Champion to be a Pokemon Professor for a while, and Kukui finally delivered and made sense! He’s actually a recurring character, like many Champions (and again, doesn’t just stop existing after the opening parts), he battles you a few times, showing he’s capable as a trainer, has a trademark in his Rockruff/Lycanroc, and is a fun guy. On top of that, his Ace is absolutely perfect; The Starter that DIDN’T get chosen by you or Hau, fully evolved, AND it’s also the one that is strong against your starter (eg pick Rowlett, he’ll have Incinceroar.) Fighting the guy who basically made you the trainer you are as your final test for “Become the first Champion of Alola!” feels so appropriate, and the music being the Pokemon Theme into the Alolan theme really highlights “Yes, YOU’RE the champion, Kukui is just your first title defense!” feel. With such a perfect Final Boss, what did USUM do? “I’m your opponent…lol jk, it’s Hau!” Yes, Hau, the guy who you’ve kicked and is clearly way below you the entire game, who is just a fun adorkable character…is your ultimate challenge? The guy who has a starter weak to yours, and…wait, the Rival as the final boss again? That’s just Gen 1 all over again, and unlike Gen 1 there was none of this “You two were rivals for your entire life!” so it felt appropriate there (one of the few thematic things Gen 1 actually made sense about.) Also the music is changed from “Your Final Boss Music!” to “This is a Final Boss Theme version of Hau!” It feels underwhelming when the final boss is just “It’s Hau…again…” Yes, technically ORAS added an extra fight with Brendan/May, but the difference is that was a post-credits bonus fight because Hoenn rival was pushed back prematurely, so tossing in one more no-stakes fight (eg you can lose it with no penalty beyond maybe some dialog change) is cute. Not sure why they thought that changing “Pokemon Professor Final Boss!” would be better if it was the Rival…and Hau, gotta remind you, is a FRIENDLY RIVAL, not a DICK rival, so you don’t really get a sense of fulfillment beating him again.
One last change I want to cover, before I get back into Gen 7 as a whole? Zygarde cells being replaced with stickers is again a step down IMO. Ok, getting the Totem Pokemon as rewards is a nice novelty, but I honestly prefer that Zygarde got a chance to shine in the form of his own game-length sidequest, where you can get a lesser version of him that’s on par with a mid-stage evolution Pokemon early, so you can raise your own legendary such that you can get a nice powerful (but not OP) 600 BST Legendary come endgame, with some unique moves and such, and if you get them all, he can improve further. It feels more rewarding if you plan on using Zygarde, where as the totems are, to my knowledge, not actually different than the base Pokemon, just bigger and apparently 3 Perfect IVs (hence “novelty,”) There are QoL changes, most notably SoS Battles only allowing one new partner, so you can’t get locked into a permanent “WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!” moment like in the original games…no doesn’t really fit in with this paragraph, but dunno where else to put it.
Back to general stuff in the Generation! One thing Gen 7 has going for it is excellent options in game, as per Gen 6. It has a wide range of new Pokemon, but also plenty of older ones to supplement. On top of that, Regional Variants are an incredible idea to breathe life into older Pokemon, making functionally new Pokemon off the template of an old one. Alolan Grimer is a fantastic example, in that it fits great into the lore, visual design is “clearly a Grimer but looks very different”, and they added Dark typing turning it from “Generic Poison type” to “The rather powerful Dark/Poison typing”, and even took advantage of design elements like “Oh, Alolan Grimer has glass shards in it’s mouth that look like teeth, so having it learn Bite makes sense!” Also making it so some of the older Pokemon evolve INTO Alolan forms while not being Alolan variants themselves (Pikachu and Cubone for example) helped mix things up. It is only Gen 1 Pokemon that got it, but they did explain that was because they were testing the idea and wanted to use the most familiar of faces AND they needed the most shake up, so I get that (Gen 8 also had a lot of Gen 1 variants…too much, but it did branch out and create regional variants of things outside of Gen 1, so there’s that…even adding Regional Variant specific evolutions, like Obstagoon for Linoone, or Sir’fetched. Then we have Pursurker which is a case of “Why isn’t Galarian Meowth just a whole new Pokemon?”) The new Pokemon are also pretty neat though they are largely allergic to the Speed stat. All 3 Starters, for example, have 70 speed or lower (insulting in Incinceroar’s case because Torracat is actually FAST!)...but I can forgive that, because Grass/Ghost, Fire/Dark and Water/Fairy, all with a unique attack (not sure what they were thinking with Sparkling Aria though…) and a unique Z-move to go with it, making for an interesting Starter trio. Also props to Incineroar for being designed CLEARLY to troll the Fire/Fighting fears showing Gamefreak is aware and probably not going back to that anytime soon (which is why I wanted to shoot people every time they made jokes about Scorbunny being “Fire/Fighting” like it was a new joke, since Incineroar not only made 2 in a row, but ALSO showed “They’re self-aware, and making fun of it”, highlights “Yeah, we won’t be doing that again for a while!”) More importantly, THIS GENERATION HAS MIMIKYU AND THEREBY IS THE BEST. IF YOU SAY OTHERWISE YOU ARE WRONG AND PROBABLY HATE POKEMON! …I mean…uhhh…yeah, Mimikyu’s pretty awesome and such <_< >_>
Game brings back Pokemonamie…well kind of. Minigames are gone, which I think is a good thing because those sucked, but keeps the petting and feeding aspect around, and replaces Minigames with “Pokemon Care” where “Awww, you’re soaked? Let me dry that off!” Much faster and keeps with the spirit. My one “issue” is that it does trivialize permanent status effects as you can always fully heal them between battle now, without using an item, so if you aren’t using Full Heals and ilk mid-battle, they’re now kind of worthless. Speaking of Full heals, shout out to later Boss Fights using Full Heals when you status them rather than relying on that “low HP Full Restore only.” It’s a detail that makes strats like “Toxic lol” strats not as foolproof. It also means since you can access it right after battle if conditions are met, raising Pokemon Affection is that much easier…which also tends to trivialize some aspects because you get RNG based bonuses that the enemy doesn’t (“Oh god, I got hit with a W4 at-...oh, my Pokemon is too happy to DIE and survived with 1 HP, lol!”) This isn’t new compared to Gen 6, to be fair, just the ease of raising it makes it stand out more, and since it’s entirely optional, it’s a fully good thing.
What it doesn’t bring back is the ability to SIT ON BENCHES. Seriously, what the fuck? That was like the whole reason to play Gen 6! You can instead sleep in beds…which is just kind of weird. “Hey, I’m visiting your house, mind if jump onto your bed and tests it’s quality?!” Instead of O-powers, you get Roto-Powers, which are randomized and I barely used them, so I honestly couldn’t care less about it, it’s a feature that just kind of exists and we move on!
Oh, speaking of Roto-powers, that leads to Rotem. Yeah, having your Pokedex and Map being a character in itself is cute and all, and the kind of “made for kids” feature that I do approve of, since it’s not insulting their intelligence so much as adding a fun little thing for kids to enjoy. What I don’t like is how his actual dialog CAN get in the way of gameplay, since when he’s saying something, it blocks your access to the map. The game has a fairly effective minimap for once, that’s good! But Rotom ALWAYS takes priority, so after a cutscene, if he has something to say, especially with a dialog option, it genuinely gets in the way. It’s not a big deal but it’s obnoxious and they really should have added an option to either turn him off, or at least tapping him skips his dialog completely and brings back the menu. I can believe this is more an oversight than a “WHAT IF THE KIDS MISS WHAT HE SAYS!?” aspect because it’s the first time they did this, but still is annoying.
Other good QoL features include how the game will tell you effectiveness of attacks…but only after you have some kind of confirmation. If you see a Pokemon for the first time, it tells you jack ****, but hit them with an attack, the game will remember how effective it is. Catch the Pokemon and get it in your Pokedex, now you have their typings confirmed AND the game tells you straight up their effectiveness. While this in theory makes the game easier, it doesn’t do anything you couldn’t just look up on your own as is, so it cuts out a lot of raw memorization or “Guide Dang It!” moments, and again, it doesn’t tell you until you’ve actually experienced it once yourself, also incentivizing experimentation, catching other Pokemon, etc. It also scans every Pokemon the first time you meet one; Pokemon has for a while told you if you caught one, but never if you saw one, so this feature while adding a few seconds of time I do approve of, as if you’re new to the series, and can’t remember everything, having a “Yes, this is a new enemy!” feature is good, and it’s not like other jRPGs haven’t done that before (see Breath of Fire games obscuring HP Bars the first time you fight them, for example. Same basic idea really.) The games engine is fairly fast in terms of text, health scrolling, move recognition, etc; if you get one shotted, for example, that health bar just kind of completely deletes itself instantly, a far cry from the Gen 4’s well known slowness (so…yeah, safe to say with 3 gens in a row of swift HUD, they’ve learned their lesson!)
Game starts you with a lot of cash, so you have wiggle room to buy what you want, especially notable given lots of Pokemon you may wants, Nest Balls to use them on, etc. I had 35k by the first shop for example. Vending Machines are teased early on…but busted or “sold out” so good troll there! Speaking of items, they’ve rebalanced the items, so Vending Machines are no longer as broken, with Fresh Waters now being worse than Super Potions, Lemonades being only “marginally better” making Super Potions more convenient to get in bulk actually meaningful, Hyper Potions are still potent but not so overpowered for their price that Max Potions actually feel like they serve a purpose in the main-game (Blissey, Snorlax, Wailord, etc. HP Tier Pokemon not-withstanding.) Then we have HMs…being completely gutted! Ride Pokemon being used instead allows for flexibility in your party. Actually, I’ve always felt HMs the way they were implemented to stop you from plot progression always came off as parasitic game design, Ride Pokemon largely doesn’t gate you, as when you get to impassible terrain, they pretty much give you the new Ride Pokemon the spot almost like a tutorial. Instead, they’re mostly used for an incentive to backtrack, like “Wait, I remember these big blocks from before, Machamp can push those, let’s see what’s over there!”, rewarding exploration, backtracking, etc, with items like TMs and such. Far better than “Gotta gimp your team to get through the game!” (or in Charizard’s case, “gotta gimp your team for Fast Travel!”) The good HMs largely turned into TMs though Surf/Waterfall are aftergame only which is annoying (TO BE FAIR: Scald is main-game and that’s a decent replacement for Surf, but Physical Water types suffer if they don’t get a level up move like Aqua Tail), and Strength is now basically Machamp only (I guess this incentivizes using more physical attacks maybe.) Tauros, on top of being Rock Smash’s replacement, doubles as the Bicycle due to being your fastest ride, Sharpedo in USUM is basically “Bicycle for Water!” which is a nice bonus, and you get Charizard, your fast travel, a lot earlier than you’d think (nice because the Island Gimmick would make backtracking a lot more painful.) My one issue with Ride Pokemon though? Stoutland. He’s the replacement for the Dowsing Machine but good lord is he a pain in the ass to use. Since Gen 4, the Dowsing Machine has been fairly good, for all that Gen 6’s takes some getting used to, it worked fine. Stoutland not only slows you down, but it’s annoying to find anything with him. If having Stoutland out at all would tell you where an item is, that’d be fine, but you have to actively “Sniff” while on him, slowing you down further, meaning you’re constantly holding it everywhere. And of course, this leads me to one of the dumbest things Gen 7 has:
STOUTLAND MAN!
Look, I get it, you gotta plot gate some segments, but this is one of the dumbest excuses on Akala Island. You randomly come to a spot that you can’t cross because…the guys Stoutland is too busy sniffing everything? I…what? There’s a reason I joke about “I am riding a Stoutland, you cannot pass!” because that really feels like what it is. The guy is riding a stoutland, you can’t pass, because fuck you, he’s riding a Stoutland and wants items! Gen 8 would try to one up this with “TEAM YELL IS BEING VERY ANNOYING AND YOU CAN’T PROGRESS!” but I can totally buy someone going “...nope, waiting for them to leave” because Team Yell is, in fact, that annoying. There are other points where the game gates you in Pointless ways, because they want you to find a linear path, and often it’s “won’t let you pass, you don’t have the right Z-crystal” leading to the usual Pokemon Problem of “wait, you mean all these rando trainers have this too? Or are your rules just inconsistent!?” At least use a real excuse like “The bridge is out!” Speaking of Random trainers, props to the game giving you an explicit warning when you’re in danger range of a real trainer. It’s no longer “is that guy going to attack me if I get close” but now “hey, you’re getting close to a trainer, you may want to prepare yourself”! I also think the idea of Route Masters or whatever they’re called is a nice touch, where beating all trainers on a route opens up a bit of a Mini-boss (harder than a trainer, but easier than a Gym Leader or equivalent there of) that beating them gives you a reward like a Held Item or a TM. Especially nice since this game lacks conventional Gyms and Gym Leaders…
And that is something the game does right: Shake up the formula. Trials feel genuinely creative and unique, and they aren’t just “random puzzle with trainers in the way” but some arbitrary task that has nothing to do with anything but fits, like “hey, gather ingredients so we can bait out the Totem Pokemon!” Totem Pokemon are a neat kind of boss fight, being a high level Pokemon that starts with stat buffs, has Trainer AI (so uses intelligent actions), summons allies that compliment it AND those things have intelligent AI. For example, Lurantis has Solar Blade and comes with the “negate charge move once” item…but also then summons Pokemon that know Sunny Day to exploit this. It also has things that buff it’s defense, heal it, etc. so you might think “Pure Grass type? That should be easy to slaughter” but then it’s faster than you, hits hard, summons Pokemon that activate Leaf Guard making it impossible to status out, and now it’s a real fight. Neat way to handle a boss fight that isn’t just a High end Trainer, which still exist in the form of Kahunas, whom are essentially “Gym Leaders but there are less of them”, relegated more to the “Finale of this island.”
Towns have random NPCs that give you actual sidequests, usually like “Show me this Pokemon I’ll give you more money!” or something. Nothing major, but the gesture is nice and gives you something else to do besides “progress through the story.” Festival plaza is clunky and hurts my OCD because I like having “pure” UI and the game is constantly bothering me with that green Exclamation mark saying “HEY SOMETHING IS HAPPENING!” Good justification to just turn off my Wifi on 3DS to be honest. It’s the game’s primary social feature, and Pokemon honestly never really did a great job with those anyway, I feel like it’s putting effort into something that most won’t care about and would rather the effort be put elsewhere. Pokepelago is nice having a bunch of features condensed there, like they took the Daycare Centers EXP and shoved it there instead, can get random items from expeditions, berry farming, what have you. Not a fan of random Pokemon attacking you out of nowhere because sometimes you’re standing still then BAM, random little shit in the grass that was off-screen bee-lined you. Yes, it’s my fault, but I’m still whining about it! Move Relearner being changed to allow you to use any move you could learn via level up even if you’re not high enough is really cool, as now those level 90 moves are reasonable…the downside is can’t use Move Relearner until just before the E4. I guess that’s a fair trade-off, especially since the E4, as is normal for Pokemon, is a bit of ramp up in difficulty due to being the Final Boss gauntlet (not a complaint; it’s fair and valid in this case.)
One last thing I want to touch upon before I get into my team is that I’ll give Gen 7 something that I can’t give Gen 8, and that’s the game DOESN’T feel like a soulless yearly release cash grab. It did probably come out too quickly (where’s our Z Version
) but given the 20th Anniversary, I can see why they did that; they wanted something big to celebrate the milestone. There are a number of subtle things the game does that show they still cared, like cinematics are clearly an attempt at doing something visually pleasing, the plot feels actually written with a purpose, not just misguided nonsense that gets interrupted by a completely irrelevant story, nor does it have obvious plotholes the game itself points out (No seriously; Gen 8 has a moment where Leon literally says to the villain “Wait, if the problem is 1000 years off, why can’t we hold off until to tomorrow, and do this WITHOUT putting anyone in danger?” and the game’s response is basically “Because fuck you, that’s why!”) Heck, the existence of something like Mimikyu and how they completely capitalized on it’s popularity immediately with stuff like the Mimikyu rap shows they were paying attention to the fanbase. Later games it’s like “So…Gen 1 Pokemon are popular, let’s use those!” and if they needed something popular, ONLY use Gen 1! Because stuff like Greninja or Lucario, or any Post-Gen 1 Eevee aren’t super popular in their own right, nope! Gotta be the “Safe” choices! It also didn’t have Dexit, though no National Dex to keep track but whatever. Why bring up Dexit? It’s more what it represents than the act itself. Gamefreak up through Gen 7 had a “play how you want” mentality, letting you use whatever Pokemon was available whenever, but then Gen 8 limits it with the reason of “new Models” which…you know what? I can accept a technical limitation, that’s fine. The issue is that they lied openly to justify this design decision that backpedals on the design philosophy of Pokemon, as well as other factors like “EXP SHARE IS A MUST NOW!” without justifying why it’s superior forcing it on when Gen 6 and 7 already implemented the same EXP Share with a toggle on/off. The failures with Gen 7 would be more execution based or things like “didn’t consider it would be a problem until after the fact”, not a result of “They didn’t care”, but Gen 8 absolutely has that “They just didn’t care!” mentality. Who “they” is up for debate, but Gen 7 still feels like it has some kind of heart and soul that Gen 8 just completely lacks. I bring this up because Gen 8 on paper doesn’t really sound that much worse, but playing it you can’t help but feel something is missing that Gen 7 had. I think the fact is Gen 7 still had some semblance of passion left in making the game (and maybe because “This is the 20th Anniversary, make it count!”), while Gen 8 came off as “FINE! HERE’S ANOTHER ONE! HAPPY!?” For a microcosm, with the exception of Lance (who is stupid and I’ve ranted about), all Champions have their ace as something well represented of their region or at least Generation in the case of Diantha (Mega Gardevoir), so what does Leon have? Charizard, which is like the “Safe” Popular Pokemon pick. Oh but it Gigantimax’s, that makes up for it…except not really. See, Diantha has the excuse of “No Gen 6 has a Mega evolution”, and Megas really did feel like whole new Pokemon, so it’s a fair compromise. Gen 8, there are a fair number of Gigantimax Pokemon from Galar, AND Gigantimax is a 3 turn buff, not a permanent state, so you don’t feel like you’re facing a new Pokemon, just a scary mode you have to weather for 3 turns.
And with that, here’s my team!
Decidueye: Honestly, disappointing. Grass/Ghost felt more awkward than good, and basically EVERYTHING I’d use him had a Dark move I felt like in this region, most notable Sucker Punch. It’s stuck with Razor Leaf for too long (though gets Leaf Blade at least eventually.)
Delphox: Kind of underwhelming due to lack of Fire specials or reall good special attacks until it evolves and gets Mystical Fire, which helps a little…then it gets Flamethrower and Psychic, and suddenly becomes good, with Dazzling Gleam for some extra perks. So yeah, slow start, but good finish, especially with Choice Specs.
Infernape: Kind of all over the place? There are points where I felt he was lacking, then points where he would absolutely dominate. So I guess “Circumstantially amazing” explains him.
Swampert: Consistently good. Always had some kind of decent Water and Ground STAB, could use Rock moves for flying types, often had a special effect, and he’s tanky. Only problem is I’d often forget to use him on Electric types, and “OH SHIT A GRASS MOVE!” moments.
Feraligatr: Kind of wish I picked Samurott simply because Fera doesn’t learn jack shit for leveling, can’t get a good Water physical until right before the E4 with Move Relearner, and his only Water STAB for most of the game is Water Gun until Poni Island where he finally gets Scald which while Special, is still a huge step up. Lack of a Second STAB hurts, can’t get Dragon Dance easily…yeah, pretty sure he’s my LVP. He has a decent off-type Movepool, but his stats always felt just not specialized enough (not as a Tank as I’d like, didn’t hit as hard as I’d like, etc.)
Venusaur: Was always good but changed how he was good. Sleep Powder and Leech Seed worked nicely as strategies, gets Petal Dance incredibly early to hit hard, but before then has Grass Knot and Nature Power, struggles with things that resist Grass, then Sludge Bomb shows up and covers that! Swapped Sleep Powder with Toxic because the way I was using Sleep Powder often meant Toxic was just better anyway and couldn’t miss. Also basically only thing that had reliable way to scare off Fairies late game (though Delphox often could out muscle them due to it’s defensive advantage and enough offense.)
And with that, my “play every Pokemon game through Gen 7” comes to an end. This was interesting, took longer due to breaks, but it’s done. Not gonna do Gen 8 because that will just
Poll