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Spoilers How does US/UM hold up to S/M?

Blockhead Pippi

North America's only Pippi fan
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Okay so the games aren't quite out yet until tomorrow, but that's pretty close.

I absolutely hated Sun/Moon. Almost every moment of the game was a test on my patience. Having played Pokemon for over 15 or so years now, the forced tutorial that was Melemele Island was incredibly chore'some and more of an annoyance than it was helpful. I hated the frequency and length of the games' cutscenes, especially as there would be some moments where you couldn't take a few steps without being forced into another cutscene. And nearly every cutscene was more or less just another reminder of what I should do or where I should go, limiting my sense of exploration and independence. "Hand holding", as it's called in other games.

And then there was S/M's ending, which was well over 30 minutes long with no in-between period to save, plus the surprise battle with Tapu Koko. Needless to say, I was furious with the game.

Because of these poor experiences I had with the first game, I am seriously considering passing up on US/UM. I've heard that the games are otherwise "identical" to the previous two, which I imagine must mean that they have the same problems as above. But that's what I'm getting from site reviews, which doesn't tell me the full picture. I want to know the experiences of actual players. How do these games hold up to S/M? Has there been any improvements to the linearty or frequency of cutscenes? I'm especially curious about the ending.

Thanks.
 
You get a starter earlier, but that doesn't improve the pacing by much; it takes about an hour to get to the first Pokemon Center. Generally speaking, the games are just as linear and text-heavy as before from what I've heard.

The ending issues have been fixed, since the celebration scenes are incorporated into the credits and there is no forced Tapu Koko battle. It still takes about 10 minutes to get it over with, though.
 
You get a starter earlier, but that doesn't improve the pacing by much; it takes about an hour to get to the first Pokemon Center. Generally speaking, the games are just as linear and text-heavy as before from what I've heard.

The ending issues have been fixed, since the celebration scenes are incorporated into the credits and there is no forced Tapu Koko battle. It still takes about 10 minutes to get it over with, though.
Well, I'm glad to hear that they at least cut down the length of the ending....

Does it let you save right after being the Champion? What I tend to do is battle the Elite 4 and Champion in a row without saving, in case that I make a mistake and have to reload an earlier save. That's part of the reason why I hated S/M's ending.
 
Well I guess these answer my questions. It's a slight improvement (as the ending was the worst part about S/M for me), but I'm still not sure if it's enough to get the game. Thanks.
 
I personally wish they took the BW2 route(I mean they took ideas of fusions and complete forms already) alot of stuff could've ease alot of the complaints about It being literally the same game with a bit a minor differences added the RR episode could've still been added postgame.
 
I gotta admit, I was one of USUM's detractors when I first heard about it. But I wound up buying it anyway because there hasn't been a single main series Pokemon game that I haven't at least tried, and I gotta say, I was actually pleasantly surprised by USUM.

So far I've only gotten through 2 hours of gameplay, and I'll give you my impressions so far, with no spoilers: The whole "picking your starter" thing happens much sooner, There are wild Pokemon from past generations that were unavailable in the original SM, Lillie seems to have a more proactive role in the story, Storyline events play out with varying degrees of differences and almost all of the dialogue is different (for example, Kukui doesn't say "woo!" after nearly every sentence, thank goodness!)

Overall it feels like a much more polished, streamlined version of SM. I'd even go so far as to call it the "director's cut" version of SM. Keep in mind that I am only a very casual player. I only got partway through the original SM and it's been many, many months since I last picked it up. Therefore you are probably going to have a very different opinion than me if you're a die-hard gamer who has clocked in hundreds of hours on the original SM games.

I hope this review is helpful to at least one person who is on the fence about whether or not USUM is worth the investment...
 
I gotta admit, I was one of USUM's detractors when I first heard about it. But I wound up buying it anyway because there hasn't been a single main series Pokemon game that I haven't at least tried, and I gotta say, I was actually pleasantly surprised by USUM.

So far I've only gotten through 2 hours of gameplay, and I'll give you my impressions so far, with no spoilers: The whole "picking your starter" thing happens much sooner, There are wild Pokemon from past generations that were unavailable in the original SM, Lillie seems to have a more proactive role in the story, Storyline events play out with varying degrees of differences and almost all of the dialogue is different (for example, Kukui doesn't say "woo!" after nearly every sentence, thank goodness!)

Overall it feels like a much more polished, streamlined version of SM. I'd even go so far as to call it the "director's cut" version of SM. Keep in mind that I am only a very casual player. I only got partway through the original SM and it's been many, many months since I last picked it up. Therefore you are probably going to have a very different opinion than me if you're a die-hard gamer who has clocked in hundreds of hours on the original SM games.

I hope this review is helpful to at least one person who is on the fence about whether or not USUM is worth the investment...
Speaking as someone who completely skipped SM and was very enthusiastic about this new pair until the Rainbow Rocket reveal... yeah, this does go a good way towards rescuing USUM from the toilet bowl. I'll have to think some more about it.
 
All in all, USUM's difficulty level is much higher than that of SM, and even though the story is the same, there are subtle changes in many places. Ilima's trial is pretty much the same. Hala (I think) has an extra Pokemon on his team during the battle (I don't remember Machop), I could be wrong though. The Totem for Kiawe and Lana's trials are different, and Mallow's trial has the same totem, but the trial itself is different - no more using Stoutland to sniff around for things.

So, I'm pleased with USUM. These are the games that GF should have made to begin with.
 
Nice tutors moves, egg moves and graphic changes in USUM...
Story line is better, more diffrent missions through out the game.
Goood that we got more new pokes and forms in it. Its better then black and white 2 and previous games in this matter.
But they will probably/("should") change some abilities and moves next generation.(Bring back propper gyms but advanced with "name change", work like them, but called other way , but with a league)
(Dazzling- should also block the first move after oponent gains priority (trick room , tail wind) or more speed(flame charge, bu,bble, bubble beam, ) then the user of this ability, Sparkling aria should heal up the user also from the burn, make emergency exit work like sturdy and switch out the user with 50% of hp when the limit is hit, and so on )
Probably our new dragon/poison friend by then gets Magnet Rise.
 
Even though changes to certain parts of the story I'm definitely not a fan with even if its an alternate timeline to the other and should've personally been a sequel from the beginning I say its a decent-average 3rd game but its to be expected since the younger developers were the one that's made it and judging by Amazon JPs reviews oh boy yikes they agree as well.
 
Even though changes to certain parts of the story I'm definitely not a fan with even if its an alternate timeline to the other and should've personally been a sequel from the beginning I say its a decent-average 3rd game but its to be expected since the younger developers were the one that's made it and judging by Amazon JPs reviews oh boy yikes they agree as well.

they need to hire new guys some day, the same goes for the anime staff.
But in comparance to gen 1, gen 2 and gen 3, its hell of work.
 
I'll make a full response after I beat the game. I was one of the people who were hopeful of the game when it was announced, despite all the hate it got. Even during all the trailers I thought it would be on B2W2 par
But, after playing a bit, my current verdict is: meh.
As I have stated in a previous thread, this game is just Sun and Moon but with some added content and cutscenes. Nothing big has changed, and that frustrated me because technically I've spent $40 on DLC
I still have the rest of the game to play before my final verdict, but while this is still a heartwarming game, I'm still extremely disappointed on how it turned out.
 
I concur. I had high hopes for the game, I was pretty hyped. But my verdict is also 'meh.' I'm still playing it, I enjoy it enough. But it is pretty meh - the changes are no bigger or better than the ones in Platinum. Ever since B2W2 I've expected something better, but this is a return to bad practice.
 
USUM are better than SM in every way except for the story, but that’s not something they can really be proud of since it is the inevitable result of their nature. That is the bare minimum of what they could do, and unfortunately it is all that they do.

I didn’t think Alola’s story needed a sequel, but it’s not as if I would have complained if we had gotten sequels. My concern with SM sequels was that they’d feel forced, but frankly, these do too so I would be getting that feeling either way. I still think that a more differentiated AU story would have been the most interesting option, but I guess that wasn’t feasible to make in a year either.

It really does feel like they spun these out in a hurry, because all of the other follow-up games waited two years before overwriting their predecessors. They felt like they were passing time, not compressing it. That does give me some small measure of hope, because the Switch game is a lot more important than the Gen 7 follow-up so if these were sacrificed on its altar, then I might find it more forgivable in the long run (I think Gen 7 already pretty much said what they wanted it to in SM, so the follow-up was always going to be kind of disposable). But, we’ll just have to see how that pays off in (god hoping) two years.
 
USUM are better than SM in every way except for the story

Though, in most ways, they're just the same. I'm noticing much of the same issues I had with SM. Sure, they added some really neat stuff. I like the new minigames, I like the regional dex additions, etc. But sooo much is the same.
 
Though, in most ways, they're just the same. I'm noticing much of the same issues I had with SM. Sure, they added some really neat stuff. I like the new minigames, I like the regional dex additions, etc. But sooo much is the same.
What issues are these? Cause so far the issues I personally had with SuMo have either been addressed or I didn't expect them to change. I'm only about to do Lana's trial though so I'm not that far in the game

But for example, the much larger FC rewards have made me use the Fedtival Plaza more. Levelling up feels much less like a chore. The fact the overall structure is still the same doesn't surprise me, even if I'd gladly seen it change
 
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