What did you NOT like about Sun&Moon?

[PaulTheProtist]

The reason the PSS worked so well is because it was on all the time, making it easy to start link trades/battles. Now, you can only ask people who are currently in the festival plaza, meaning they probably are doing something else with their time. I had a lot of link battles/trades in Y; in Moon I have yet to participate in one.

 

[indigohex]

I am currently in the Ultra Space in Pokemon Moon, and the battle is SO HARD! All my Pokemon knocked out in the battle against THE FIRST POKEMON! And I agree with some of the criticism that some posters has put up here, and since I haven't completed the game, I have been spoiled. I think that the battle I lost against may cause me to lose interest in this game, which is very different from previous games, just like Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum.

 

[PaulTheProtist]

You will be banned from trading for several days if your internet gives out on you. Extra bad since my router is unstable, and I'm pretty much punished for not being able to afford the best internet. I'm starting to prefer XY, as they don't do stupid things like this.

 

[Esserise]

It's a minor nitpick, but something Wicke said in the post-game nagged at me:

> "UB-02. Code name: "Beauty." Properly known as Pheromosa. This UB was sighted for the first time following the incidents at Aether Foundation. This UB can reach speeds exceeding 120 mph in just an instant. This speed is greater than any other living creature that has been discovered to date."

This, even after:

Pidgeot: "It spreads its gorgeous wings widely to intimidate enemies. It races through the skies at Mach-2 speed." (Assuming standard conditions, this would be ~1,522 mph.)

Rapidash: "With incredible acceleration, it reaches its top speed of 150 mph after running just ten steps."

Arcanine: "The sight of it running over 6,200 miles in a single day and night has captivated many people." (Since the Pokémon world has a 24-hour day, Arcanine's average speed would be ~259 mph.)

Skarmory: "Skarmory is entirely encased in hard, protective armor. This Pokémon flies at close to 190 mph. It slashes foes with its wings that possess swordlike cutting edges."

Talonflame: "It zooms directly at its prey at flight speeds of close to 310 mph, while fiery embers scatter from gaps in its feathers." (What's especially notable about this one is that this is the newly-written entry for Pokémon Moon, which is the very same game in which Pheromosa and its corresponding information is available.)

I just... surely they could have picked a more impressively high number for Pheromosa's speed. Something on the scale of Magcargo being hotter than the surface of the sun... for once, it'd at least be justified by Pheromosa being a profoundly strange creature from an alien dimension. I mean for crying out loud, Pheromosa still doesn't even have a higher base speed than Deoxys-S or Ninjask...

Maybe living in Alola long enough just causes people to develop a really warped sense of speed...

 

[Matleo]

I'm waiting till Blaze, Torrent and Overgrow get in battle animations of their activation and a little buff that they could activate below 50% HP with a 50% rate chance of activation and by 30% of HP a 100 % rate of activation.

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Rotom's looping and repetitive dialogue in the post-game. It's basically worthless after a certain point.

Years from now it'll still be asking people about the Ultra Beasts.

 

[IncineROAR]

The delay in the Pokemon Bank update is probably my main beef with Sun & Moon.

Alola feels a lot smaller compared to other regions. Its hard to notice due to the excessive cut-scenes and dialogue. I'm hoping if we get a third version or a sequel set of games, we get another island to explore.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Another island appearing so suddenly wouldn't really make so much sense, but developing more cities would. I mean, if Unova could expand and build cities in the areas to the far left, then maybe the same could be done in Alola. I mean there's a lot of space on Poni Island and there's some room in Ula'ula Island.

 

[King Robert]

To be honest, I was really hoping the Pikachu, Charizard, Lucario, Greninja, Jigglypuff and Mewtwo amiibo would get some use in this game...like, I dunno, unlocking various clothes you could give your avatar for bragging rights?

 

[SinnohEevee]

* The story ends quickly
* We don't learn enough about Lusamine and her motives.
* The Battle Tree is difficult and your Pokémon don't earn XP.
* Mega Evolutions are hard to come by.
* Cosmog (the one I get from a lake, not Nebby) takes a lot of time to level-up and doesn't know many useful moves (mine only knows Splash and Teleport).
* No National Pokédex.

(That's all that I can remember right now).

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

* The story ends quickly
* We don't learn enough about Lusamine and her motives.
* The Battle Tree is difficult and your Pokémon don't earn XP.
* Mega Evolutions are hard to come by.
* Cosmog (the one I get from a lake, not Nebby) takes a lot of time to level-up and doesn't know many useful moves (mine only knows Splash and Teleport).
* No National Pokédex.

(That's all that I can remember right now).

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

No battle facilities award exp points. They are purposely designed that way. It is supposed to set your Pokémon to a specific level in order to provide that challenge, in a same way that battling other players online don't award exp points.

 

[Esserise]

Another minor, specific-to-me complaint, but I dislike the lack of dated history (i.e., they tend toward saying "long ago" rather than "X00 years ago"). Granted, outside of Gen II and Gen V, Pokémon doesn't tend to give a lot of hard dates for events in the past (or in the case of XY/ORAS, everything traces back to 3,000 years ago), but I kind of had my hopes up anyway. Alola has a fair amount of lore, but only Magearna's creation (which isn't normally a part of the game) and the gifting of the star pulses to the alien man in the desert (which requires you to transfer a Solrock/Lunatone in order to learn about it) are given firm dates.

* The story ends quickly

How exactly do you mean? The story comprises the entirety of the main game and even a little bit after - unless you shredded through the game in a speedrun, I'm not seeing how it could "end quickly."

 

[NoirCore]

* The story ends quickly
* We don't learn enough about Lusamine and her motives.
* The Battle Tree is difficult and your Pokémon don't earn XP.
* Mega Evolutions are hard to come by.
* Cosmog (the one I get from a lake, not Nebby) takes a lot of time to level-up and doesn't know many useful moves (mine only knows Splash and Teleport).
* No National Pokédex.

(That's all that I can remember right now).

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

*Uh? The story didn't seem so quick to me.
*She was influenced by a Nihilego into going insane. That was her motive for acting as she did.
*I'll give you that the Battle Tree is hard, but you've never earned EXP in a battle facility, and you're not supposed to.
*You're right about Megas.
*To be fair, you're evolving it into a Legendary, and that problem isn't really game-specific.
*Yeah, I dunno what's gonna be up with that.

 

[Soki]

*She was influenced by a Nihilego into going insane. That was her motive for acting as she did.

This is what people assume, no such thing was actually said in the games iirc. When has Nihilego done that? She doesn't fuse with one until the very end and she's already plenty of mad before that. Has she been meeting up with one regurlarly? How/why? None of this is ever explained.

Also, she's so inconsistent; first she says she wants to protect the Ultra Beasts and she knows that being send to our world hurts them... and then proceeds to open multiple wormholes so they get sent here. Then she says she wants to live in Ultra Space, for which one wormhole would've been enough to transport her there, and she told us she was already able to do that without Cosmog itself. So her reason for needing Cosmog back issss....?????

And then there's her whole fixation on beauty when she's in the Ultra World talking to Lillie, which is coming out of nowhere too imo.

It seems she's just crazy for the sake of having a crazy villain and that just seems like lazy writing imo.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

So her reason for needing Cosmog back issss....?????

That it was probably considered an Ultra Beast?

 

[Soki]

That it was probably considered an Ultra Beast?

Ah I even forget about that, that makes it all even better: She wants to protect Ultra Beasts and therefore kidnaps one and almost kills it in an attempt to create multiple wormholes that hurt even more Ultra Beasts. Great job Lusamine, oh mother and protector of Ultra Beasts

 

[Esserise]

This is what people assume, no such thing was actually said in the games iirc. When has Nihilego done that? She doesn't fuse with one until the very end and she's already plenty of mad before that. Has she been meeting up with one regurlarly? How/why? None of this is ever explained.

It's a problem, but it's one with an ultimately simple fix - all they needed to do was be clear about when the toxins were introduced into her system.

The only reason why people think she was being influenced by Nihilego, and I'll grant that it is a very compelling reason given her over-the-top behavior, is because Wicke tells us in the post-game that Nihilego boosts its hosts natural traits and overstimulates them to the point that they lose their inhibition, and by that point, we've also been told that Lusamine had the toxins in her system.

The only real issue is that we don't know when the toxins entered her system, and the answer to that question has some rather large consequences on determining how responsible she was for the suffering of Lillie and Gladion. If she was influenced by Nihilego the whole time, then none of it was really her fault.

But the thought that she ever met with a Nihilego prior to entering Ultra Space herself doesn't seem feasible within the map of events that the game lays out. Her reaction when it appears in the conservatory is pretty clearly the first time she's seeing one, which rules out any secret backdoor meetings with it prior to the game.

But I think the more important factor in ruling out the idea that she was influenced the whole time is how Gladion and Lillie respond to her behavior.

> Lillie: "I think...my mother is getting a bit better. She even tried to come tonight...I’ve been trying to help her understand what she did wrong. Gently, of course. But she needed someone to scold her."

> Gladion: "My mother's desires to reach Nihilego...and what she did in order to achieve that goal...I know she was completely out of control. But that doesn't mean I can't understand it. It was my father that started it. He was the one who first confirmed the existence of Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts. But my father...He disappeared during an experiment. Trying to connect to an Ultra Wormhole. All that was left behind was a weakened Cosmog and his papers about Nihilego...Lusamine's obsession with Ultra Wormholes...and her obsession with the Ultra Beasts...I think it was all basically her way of trying to reach him again. That's what I had to believe. To get through it."

Essentially, if Lusamine was not properly herself due to Nihilego's unbalancing influence, then she can't really be said to have done anything wrong. If you brainwash somebody and force them to kill someone, you're responsible, not the brainwashee. But Gladion and Lillie both seem to hold her accountable. Lillie is explaining to her what she did wrong, not what was wrong about what the parasite pushed her to do. And it's the same for Gladion; his statement there is him trying to rationalize her actions and to put them into a context that can be understood (grief that turned into obsession and went too far). If her behavior wasn't her own, then he has nothing to try to understand. She wasn't herself; she was under a parasitic influence. I think if Lillie and Gladion learned that their mother had never truly turned on them, and that it was all just bad luck really, then it would be like a revelation to them - it completely reframes the suffering they experienced and redirects the fault toward Nihilego instead of Lusamine.

Also, she's so inconsistent; first she says she wants to protect the Ultra Beasts and she knows that being send to our world hurts them... and then proceeds to open multiple wormholes so they get sent here. Then she says she wants to live in Ultra Space, for which one wormhole would've been enough to transport her there, and she told us she was already able to do that without Cosmog itself. So her reason for needing Cosmog back issss....?????

That it was probably considered an Ultra Beast?

I've been thinking about this. And I'm wondering if her jumping into the wormhole wasn't a somewhat last-minute improvisation - technically, she never says that her goal is to reach Ultra Space. She tells us that she wants to summon her beast, whereas if her goal were merely to get into Ultra Space, she wouldn't necessarily need to summon anything, just open a wormhole. We know that she wanted to capture Nihilego - and of course she would, after the incident in the conservatory she sees it as her duty to protect the Ultra Beasts, and by this point in her mania, her idea of "protecting" something tends to involve having ownership of it.

So extending from that, I think what the whole deal was in that scene was that she wanted to summon many Ultra Beasts in order to capture and "protect" as many as she could. The Aether Foundation obviously had lots of Beast Balls prepared, and she does say this:

> "I was able to open the Ultra Wormhole using just the gases we'd extracted from Cosmog when it was in Aether Paradise, wasn't I? But now I have Cosmog itself inside this crate here... If I use its entire body, how many Ultra Wormholes will I be able to open? How many sweet beasts will come to me then?"

Cosmog is therefore necessary to bring as many beasts as possible to her. But we scuppered that plan, and then the wormhole started to fade, so I think at that point, she decided to say screw it and jump into the wormhole. She doesn't think she has anything left to stay on Earth for anyway so why the hell not? And once she gets there, she pulls a (Generations) Cyrus and realizes that it's basically perfect for her and decides to stay.

And then there's her whole fixation on beauty when she's in the Ultra World talking to Lillie, which is coming out of nowhere too imo.

No, that was a fairly consistent part of her character, cropping up to at least some degree in all of her scenes.

From the first meeting, after Hau comments on her age:

> "Oh, you! The right style does wonders, you know. And, Hau, your style is a bit wanting, hm? I’ll have to take you out sometime and help you pick a smashing outfit."

During the second meeting, when she's talking to Lillie:

> "What can you do, Lillie? You failed to convince me to listen to you. You don't even have the strength of a Trainer. The only thing that you've ever done on your own is steal someone else's research material! You're not beautiful enough for my world... but fine. Since you're here anyway, you can watch me summon my sweet beast. And then... you can leave."

(Also, note that last line - tying it back to the second part of this post, Lusamine telling Lillie that she can "leave" after Lusamine summons the beast makes it sound to me like Lusamine wasn't planning on going into Ultra Space right then and there. If she were, then why tell Lillie she can leave once the beast is summoned? Lusamine would be the one leaving... if she were planning to depart for Ultra Space, then why not saying something like, "and then I won't have to deal with you any longer"? Or something along those lines.)

 

[King Robert]

Ah I even forget about that, that makes it all even better: She wants to protect Ultra Beasts and therefore kidnaps one and almost kills it in an attempt to create multiple wormholes that hurt even more Ultra Beasts. Great job Lusamine, oh mother and protector of Ultra Beasts

Her insanity started with one man.

Spoiler

Yep. The guy that runs the Poké Pelago is, indeed, her husband. He fell into an Ultra Wormhole, fell out, got amnesia, then started the fun PC-based island system so players didn't have to feel like their boxed Pokémon were frozen forever.

His disappearance led to her insanity. Nice going, Mohn. Or Moron, whichever you prefer.

Also, speaking of Pheromosa...why do the entries say that it emits some kind of pheromone that causes anyone, regardless of gender, to fall in love with it...when Pheromosa is genderless?

 

[Esserise]

Also, speaking of Pheromosa...why do the entries say that it emits some kind of pheromone that causes anyone, regardless of gender, to fall in love with it...when Pheromosa is genderless?

Aside from gameplay mechanics (which Pheromosa's pheromone thing already plays no part in), why would Pheromosa need a gender in order for gendered beings to be attracted to it? The pheromones override any preferences.

 

[King Robert]

Aside from gameplay mechanics (which Pheromosa's pheromone thing already plays no part in), why would Pheromosa need a gender in order for gendered beings to be attracted to it? The pheromones override any preferences.

I'm just gonna go by the "Trainer is writing all those nonsense every time he captures a Pokémon, cuz he's bored" theory.