Finishing this today!
Ending the Island Challenge
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| What will Primarina do? Oh, it has options. |
With the Necrozma crisis resolved, we can finish our trip across Alola. Nic talks to Mina to go directly to her boat home on Seafolk Village. She presents her trial: First, he'll battle her Fairy-type team. After she’s defeated, her true challenge begins, and it requires minimal work on her part. Mina gives him one petal. He's told to go battle some of the trial captains (Ilima, Lana, Kiawe, Mallow, Sophocles, Acerola) and collect their petals. Then, bring back the whole flower to Mina to lure out the Totem. A clever idea that doesn't actually force you to backtrack across the whole game, but it feels like a challenge worthy of the final trial.
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| Go, Sophocles, give it all you got! |
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I find it funny just how many of the Totems we fought
we Bug-types. Maybe Guzma was on to something. |
Every trial captain has a team with levels in the 50s, and these battles are throwbacks to previous events. You don’t fight every captain; You always fight Ilima and Kiawe, but Mallow and Sophocles are fought in
Ultra Sun (with the latter bemoaning that his friend Molayne is leaving), while in
Ultra Moon you fight Lana and… Acerola isn’t available, so you re-fight Nanu instead. We even get a scene with Guzma, at Aether House's entrance; he has turned over a new leaf. Return to Mina, and a Totem Ribombee is summoned; it can call for Blissey or Pelipper for help. When it’s defeated, Nic gets the Fairium-Z.
After which, we take on Poni’s grand trial, which means fighting Hapu’s Ground-types. This takes place on Exeggutor Island, and she couldn’t be happier to occupy her new place as kahuna. Victory nets Nic the Groundium-Z, and an invitation to meet the Elite 4 at the top of Mount Lanakila.
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| This place has more visitors than when I last visited. |
As a repeat from Sun/Moon, Gladion awaits at the mountain’s elevator, and gives his all in a memorable battle. His team includes Type: Null, freshly evolved into Silvally. Once again, he loses, but is quite proud of how far they’ve all come through this adventure. After which, it’s Mount Lanakila; it’s roughly the same, with two major differences. The first is the dozen Trainers to be fought in there. So it’s not a Victory Road with puzzles to solve – but it feels more like one than before! The second: This is where you can find Necrozma, back to its basic form. It can be caught.
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| Huh, didn't know Hawlucha could have a poison move. |
There’s still a Pokémon Center at the top, but no Hau battle. Kukui waits at the entrance, inviting Nic to go through and become the first Champion. The loadout of the Elite 4 has changed. Hala is replaced by Molayne, Sophocles’ friend and a Steel-type expert. The other three members (Olivia the Rock-type user, Acerola the Ghost-type user, and Kahili the Flying-type user) have teams swapped around, each with one or two Pokémon that differ compared to
S/M. Can’t leave once you begin – either you beat all four, or you lose. Once you’ve won, you gain access to your throne as new champion of Alola.
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| Lycanroc is past-Rock-type. Uh oh. |
But it won’t be that easy! Who comes in to contest your title and claim it for themselves? Nope, not Kukui; it’s Hau. The final boss is your rival. I preferred having Kukui as my true opponent, as the Professor’s team was unpredictable; but you’ve been fighting Hau regularly, so you have some idea of his team loadout. The starter weak to yours, an Eeveelution strong against your starter, an Alolan Raichu, and three more… He’s appropriately tough, and deserves being the final opponent for the main game.
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| Yay to Alola's first champion! Woo! |
Hau loses. He looks sad, but takes it well. The new Champion of Alola is celebrated on Melemele Island. We get vignettes of what other people are doing; Guzma renounces the criminal activities of Team Skull, but his gang will follow him no matter what he chooses to do next. Gladion leaves to train in another region (instead of Lillie). This time, we’re not taken aside during the party to fight Tapu Koko; nah, that’s later.
Postgame
So, what else is there to do? There’s a big one, but first: Everything else.
After becoming Champion, Nic is approached by the Ultra Recon Squad. At least one Ultra Beast was spotted on Poni Island, and we must catch it. It’s a different species in each version: Blacephalon in US, Stakataka in UM. There's two to catch, so you can trade one for the other.
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| Great, one more clown out there. |
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| Ah, yes - Cosmog "Get-In-The-Bag" Nebby II. Or just Nebby. |
Catching stuff: Everything in the Ultra Wormholes, including the original seven Ultra Beasts and all Legendaries, but also every species you can find using QR codes. And, of course, the one we’ve been forgetting: Zygarde, waiting in Resolution Cave, northwest of Poni Meadow. The four Tapus can be battled and caught. You can retrieve Nebby from Lillie at Mahalo Trail – and using the opposite Altar on Ula’ula, you can obtain an additional Cosmog to send to the other game and evolve into the Legendary you don’t own yet. You can get your own Type: Null as well!
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| I do wonder what I could do, yeah. |
Is battling more your groove? The Battle Tree still rests at the end of the Poni Gauntlet, a trek across the fourth island. The mode's three battle types of battle are now split into Regular and Super versions. In Regular, your Pokémon keep their current levels (all opposing Pokémon are still Level 50), while in Super, your team’s levels become 50 if they were higher. Kukui can be fought and added as a battle partner in Multi. The
real difference is that, this time, you can purchase every Mega Stone, even those of Pokémon outside of the Alola Dex. (The Beach Points from Mantine Surfing can be used as currency here!)
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| All the Tentacool, way too many Tentacool. |
Then you can look for every Z-Crystal, including species-specific ones; every Totem Sticker, and the Totem Pokémon you receive from Samson Oak as rewards; level up your Festival Plaza, almost unchanged from
S/M, and get the bonuses from it (…less interesting without the Wi-Fi connection); and get the highest score on every Mantine Surfing course, which can net some nice rewards, including a Surfing Pikachu.
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Damn, to go from a small-time crook and reject of society
to potentially Alola's champion... Mad props, Guzma. |
Title Defense returns once you’ve defeated the Elite Four a second time. After you've gained access to your throne, you have no idea who you’ll be battling next. One month after seeing the credits for the first time, you can encounter Gladion, whose Silvally is equipped with the Memory of the type strong against your starter. Other returning opponents include Hapu, Hau, Kukui, Plumeria, Ryuki, Sophocles and – yep – even Youngster Tristan! There's two new opponents, and it’s awesome to fight them here; the first is Guzma, the second is Lusamine.
But this all pales compared to…
Episode Rainbow Rocket
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| Yeah, I bet you'll tell us. Ready to gloat, huh? |
Nic is called in a panic by Sophocles, who says Festival Plaza is overtaken by a group wearing black and red. Team Rocket have showed up. You can beat their grunts. Is that all? Nope! Aether Paradise is in turmoil; Lusamine’s mansion was transformed into a giant castle emblazoned with a large multicolored R. There are Team Rocket Grunts on the way to the castle. Lillie is ready to help Nic, mostly providing quick heal to his party.
They face Faba, who reveals himself as a turncoat; anything to further his career! This dude is ready to team up with ecoterrorists, omnicidal maniacs, psychopaths, genociders, and the mafia, all at once, if it means going up in rank; what a piece of shit! He engages a double battle with another Aether employee against Nic and Lillie. After they're beaten, we can move on and weed out the evil.
While exploring the Castle, the kids are cornered by more grunts. However, Guzma shows up to help! He’s mighty pissed at what happened at Aether, so he lends a hand. Guzma and Nic fight the grunts and win. Guzma will stay back to make sure no other grunts attack by surprise, while we deal with the rest of Rainbow Rocket.
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| Guzma gets a redemption arc - Hell yeah! |
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For the record, MunchingOrange is using here a special
emulator that boosts the image quality of the 3DS games
played on it. Not sure whether I'd be at risk naming it, so
I won't. |
Nic explores the castle and encounters the leaders of the previous villainous teams, starting with Archie (Team Aqua) and Maxie (Team Magma), met separately. They both state they were pulled from a world in which they had won, where there was no exceptional Trainer to stop them, but where they were about to die. These games predate
Spider-Man: No Way Home, yet that’s exactly the feeling I’m getting. Each of them has access to their Legendary (Kyogre and Groudon). Giovanni never told either of them that the other also was in Rainbow Rocket, since they both hate each other and have opposite goals. Once they’re defeated, they both find out the other was here too, but they’re teleported back to their worlds before they can come to blows.
Nic accesses the upper floors, where he battles Cyrus of Team Galactic (who owns Dialga or Palkia), and Lysandre of Team Flare (who has his Mega Gyarados, and either Xerneas or Yveltal). I'm always down to beat up a Nazi allegory. (Yep, I still hate Team Flare with fiery fervor.) Beating these two reactivates the teleporter in Lusamine’s room.
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Was gonna say I should have kept the Alolan Raichu
nearby, but then I remembered that Mega Gyarados
is part-Dark. |
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He dared hit Lillie? Okay, new plan: Shoot this asshole
till his remains are unrecognizable. |
Before we can use it, Ghetsis comes out, wearing his fucking tacky tower dress. The dude is already thinking of multiversal conquest, by way of stabbing Giovanni in the back. Yep, that’s Ghetsis alright. This guy will always deserve an ass-kicking. His team is topped by Zekrom or Reshiram. After he’s defeated, Ghetsis slaps Lillie and threatens to kill her if Nic doesn’t surrender. Never mind the Pokémon, he should get fucking shot for hitting a child. However, Colress (who worked with Aether) shows up to rescue everyone. The scientist has invented a device that can create small wormholes that can send these guys back where they came from. Which he did to the others, and does to Ghetsis. Good riddance.
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In the playthrough I use, Mega Mewtwo X was beaten
in just one hit. Some final boss... |
Giovanni awaits in the secret lab, and he’s tough. Final boss of the entire handheld era of Pokémon. His team is mostly Ground-types, with one exception: A Mewtwo, which he boosts with a Mega Stone (in
Ultra Sun, I fought Mega Mewtwo X). He's tough, but he is defeated, and when he disappears, the mansion returns to normal. Lusamine is fine. All Faba gets for his treason is to be demoted to intern. Not even banned? We’re too kind to these types. A final scene shows that this vile version of Giovanni may reappear someday…
Alright, let’s wrap this up at last.
Final words
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| Well, now you have! |
Comparing
Pokémon Ultra Sun and
Ultra Moon to their predecessors is inevitable; these new games take a lot from
Sun/Moon and replicate most of what they offer, but try to improve everywhere they can. For starters, the story: I think I personally preferred Lusamine as the villain, as she gets reduced to a damsel in distress here. (Twice, if we count Episode Rainbow Rocket.) While the concept of the Ultra Recon Squad is interesting, I think these games don't do enough with it. And although Necrozma makes for a very memorable, climactic boss and antagonist, it will probably be remembered far more for the big battle against it than for everything else.
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A few trial challenges are massively improved,
so there's that. |
The Island Challenge "story" barely changes, which leads to the awkward position where the
Ultra games’ plot is too like
S/M, with minimal differences in scenes and NPC encounters – it makes the first half a slog if you’ve played the previous games. (The railroading tutorial that is all of Melemele doesn’t help, since it has several more things to teach you.) On the plus side, many secondary characters get even better moments to themselves, like Hau who learns to get serious in his Training even if he can still have fun, or Guzma who gets a redemption arc. Your mileage may vary on which story is better;
S/M or
US/UM? There are good arguments either way!
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To say nothing of the Totem battles, which all
employ new tricks and are more difficult
to deal with! |
Gen 7 compensated on the criticism of
Pokémon X and
Y being too easy by ramping up the difficulty – and the
Ultras may be the mainline series’ hardest games, period. Trainer levels are higher, and opponents use tricky strategies. Even the Trials, Alola’s centerpieces, are modified to present tougher challenges, especially for those expecting the Totem Pokémon from
S/M. Ultra Necrozma is so hard you practically must cheese the fight to win it, and the Rainbow Rocket episode pits you against powerful teams. Speaking of, both that episode and the possibility of catching most Legendaries makes these games a great tribute to, as well as a last hurrah for, Pokémon’s handheld era.
Gameplay was streamlined; 101 extra Pokémon to find and catch in the Alola Dex, areas for special evolution types are available sooner, and several tweaks were applied to improve the experience. While no new Alolan forms were added, four new Ultra Beasts and a Mythical were added.
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You can reasonably sink a few hours into
the Poké Finder, the Pelago, Mantine Surfing,
the Battle Tree, the Ultra Warp Ride, and so
on and so forth. |
Most of the major features return, all improved a bit; the Festival Plaza (with new facilities), the Poké Finder (new Pokémon to catch on film), the Poké Pelago (more species, new items to be found by your adventuring Pokémon). None of these are given tremendous boosts, but there’s a little something. There was also an attempt at improvine the Rotom Dex, by making it more like a virtual buddy, but it comes with the downside that it becomes annoying once it’s at max friendship with the player, blocking use of the bottom screen to give unsolicited advice at every scene transition. The only saving grace is the Roto Powers, which do end up being useful.
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Some Legendaries are locked behind owning
two previous Legendaries (ex. no Kyurem
until you have both Reshiram and Zekrom). |
Trading the Zygarde cells and cores for Totem Stickers isn’t bad, since you get unique rewards for collecting them. Mantine Surfing is addicting, there aren’t tons of rewards to it (though the Surfing Pikachu is nice), but it scratches that itch of going for high scores. To say nothing of the Ultra Warp Ride, found late-game, and everything you can find through it – boosted shiny chance, lots of Legendary Pokémon… that one made the price tag worth it.
Yes, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have more content. Just enough to feel like fuller, more complete games. Spend long enough playing them and you won’t feel like going back to Sun/Moon for any reason. Reception was average at first at the thought many fans had of replaying essentially the same games just a year later. But hindsight has since done its thing and we can safely say that these games "eclipsed" their predecessors. (Heh, see what I did there?) You aren’t getting a bad game if all you've got is Sun/Moon; but given the option between these two or their Ultra releases, go for the latter.
Phew! I hope I’ll never have to do another 10-part anniversary review again! Wait, something's not right...
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| "Pew!" |
…Nebby, get back in the fucking bag!
