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Spoilers What do you like about USUM?

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So, now that USUM has been released and most have been able to play it for a while: what do you like about the game so far?

Personally, I'm a big fan of the new intro. Being allowed to walk to Iki Town yourself and getting your starter way earlier is a huge improvement.

Also already really liking Dulse and Zossie, they seem like a fun pair :D

Furthermore, I'm really digging the new battle themes, a large improvement over the SuMo themes for me.
 
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- The UI is much more colourful
- Mantine Surf is fun, if simple (so far)
- The first hour or so was still a slog, but it felt like it moved into it much faster than SM
 
For starters, getting the Starters within the first 5 minutes of gameplay was a huge boon. And you didn't have an excessively long cutscene to go through before/after. Very big upgrade from SM. The pacing in general seems a bit faster. Not super faster, but faster nonetheless, which is helpful.

Next up are the very subtle but nice details they've added in, like the Exeggutor at the festival and the booths setup there, as well as more color all around. This generally make the region feel more alive and like it's namesake, which are some very nice touches.

Third is the updated music. SM had some nice music and all, but USUM cranks it up to eleven with a much better selection, especially the battle music, which really gets your blood pumping.

Forth, the cafe is much nicer now, as you get REAL-looking drinks and not the default coffee cups. The choice of cups/glasses actually make it look like a real cafe in Hawaii. A small detail but one that I like.

Finally, Rotom Dex is a lot more fun and lively now. I was neutral toward it before, but now I like it. I can't wait to try out the Roto Power during my trial.

I haven't gotten very far just yet, but so far everything seems to be much better detailed and better paced than SM, which is a big plus, as some of those early cutscenes could be a lot to sit through.
 
Honestly, I have a ton of complaints about these games, and they are disappointing. But BUT I'm still having a really good time playing because SM were a good base game, and all the little improvements improve the journey. I really like the little side events, and playing with overworld Pokemon, and Mantine Surf. Plus we got new clothes available early on, and Ultra Sun has black clothes now.

Overall, the game is much more alive than SM.
 
The game is more colorful, and is nowhere near as easy to play. Level grinding is a little difficult - but I hope that gets better as I continue to progress.
 
With all my complaints of this game aside

For me mechanic wise:
-The UI is beautiful
-Can play with certain Pokemon if Pokemon following you ever returns this should still be a thing
-Mantine Surfing is fun for grinding BP
-looks more fresher
-the Photo Club is nice

Misc:
-Extra clothes (love the new exclusive Lurantis one!)
-Get your starter much earlier
 
My answer probably seems kind of inevitable since none of it’s anything surprising, but:

- Graphical improvements in the overworld; you know like the shading in Mahalo Trail, the flower arrangements and the showlights in Hau’oli City, the Pokémon walking or flying around in the background everywhere (particular note to the Pokémon that are running around in the wild on tiles you can’t even walk on, like the Fomantis on Route 4), the individualized drinking vessels at the café, and so on. SM already felt very immersive and atmospheric but this takes it to another level.

- All of the Pokémon that you can interact with in the overworld, and how they’ll start following you when you come near them. It’s very cute (definitely my SO’s favorite new feature, either that or Totem Stickers). And while Hau’s Starter being able to walk outside of it’s Poké Ball does feel kind of troll-ish, I do like that they don’t show him throwing a Poké Ball to release it when the battle starts and instead just cut to it being on the field. They do a similar thing in another area I won’t mention, in which it is an equally nice detail albeit with different implications. I always kinda wondered why they didn’t do this sort of thing for N in BW.

- TIDE SONG HOTEL IS MORE THAN JUST A BIG BOX NOW. Okay, honestly, they really didn’t go anywhere near far enough with these kinds of fleshing-out improvements, but I’m still happy to see them wherever they occur.

- Totem Stickers are pretty addictive, and while I did like the Zygarde Cell hunt in SM, the stickers do rectify one issue with that feature which is, you now have more rewards for making progress. You get a new Totem for every 20 stickers you collect, as opposed to just having 10% Zygarde for a long time, and then just 50% Zygarde for a long time, and then finally you can merge them into one with Power Construct once you finish.

- The small sidequests that they’ve added throughout the game are my bread and butter. Exactly what I have been asking for ever since B2W2. :love: So those are probably my favorite new addition.

- The new selection of Pokémon is, frankly, amazing. I love so many of the new choices that they’ve added, and more than that, where they’ve been added, like with early-game Smoochum, Zorua, and Inkay. Replays of USUM are going to be very fun for me.

- I actually don’t seem to mind Rotom’s “I’ve never seen this Pokémon before!” interjection as much as I thought I would. The logic of it makes a lot of sense.

- And then yeah, all of the new features are pretty fun. Photo Club, Mantine Surf, interacting with Rotom for lottery spins. I’m really enjoying all of that stuff.

- The new music is all brilliant. Also, water is wet
 
Festival Plaza's actually been improved. It seems like you level up sooner, and you get more FC for things; in SM, you'd get like 3 points for talking to someone. Here, it's like 90. This'll make clothes shopping much easier

EDIT: The Trials are harder, I absolutely love it. For the first time ever, I wiped out during a Trial. I lost to Lana and Kiawe's Totems. Granted, I was only using three Pokemon each time, but still.

This makes Trials way, way more fun. And even better, Kiawe's puzzles are slightly harder, so it feels less like a waste of time, and more like an actual minigame. Now I don't mind Gyms being replaced as much, because they actually fixed the major problems with Totems.
 
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Hau isn't a pushover anymore, and collecting totem stickers is fun.
Hau still is a pushover imo the stickers are alright also harder trials? I disagree outside Minas new Trial and Sophocles which is altered their pretty much the same.
 
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I love how they made it so you can tell immediately what TM moves a Pokemon can learn by highlighting them.
I also enjoy the Sticker quest, especially for someone like me who enjoys ripping stickers off stuff (it's second only to popping bubble wrap). Though I wish we could do both the Stciker collection and the Zygarde cell collection quests. It made us look through every nook and cranny of the overworld.
 
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Hau still is a pushover imo the stickers are alright also harder trials? I disagree outside Minas new Trial and Sophocles which is altered their pretty much the same.


1. Hau has a fuller Pokemon team now
2. Instead of Wishiwashi, we have an evil Araquinid
3. Instead of Salazzle, we have Marowak

the trials themselves may not be to different, but there are differences. what game have you been playing?
 
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Well, one of the reasons I bought the game was because green haired dadd- I mean Ghetsis makes a comeback in glorious 3D. And in his original outfit too! Please forgive me for fangirling. I've been wanting to gush about that for awhile but I don't know where else to do it...
 
I like how the bottom screen in battle looks like an Ultra Wormhole and how all the icons and sprites get sucked in after you make your decision and how they all get spit out when it's your turn again.
 
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Oh yeah, another thing I like is having move tutors scattered as you play through like B2W2. It lets you "fix" a Pokemon's moveset if it really needs something. ORAS did this completely wrong and locked them to the post-game. I caught a Surskit yesterday and I went and taught it Signal Beam at the move tutors straight away.

And later I'll be catching a Togedemaru and teaching it Iron Head
 
More things I love:

That you can save by pressing Y now, lot more practical :D

That the nurse now mentions the first Pokémon in your party when having healed them, it's a small thing but a really nice touch. (at least I think she didn't do that in SuMo?)
 
1. Hau has a fuller Pokemon team now
2. Instead of Wishiwashi, we have an evil Araquinid
3. Instead of Salazzle, we have Marowak

the trials themselves may not be to different, but there are differences. what game have you been playing?
Different totems and a slight different team doesn't mean its that major of a difference also at again Hau still isn't that tough also don't try to be snarky.....
 
Oh yeah, another thing I like is having move tutors scattered as you play through like B2W2. It lets you "fix" a Pokemon's moveset if it really needs something. ORAS did this completely wrong and locked them to the post-game. I caught a Surskit yesterday and I went and taught it Signal Beam at the move tutors straight away.

And later I'll be catching a Togedemaru and teaching it Iron Head

Agreed, though I have to admit ORAS has the benefit of DexNav which gives fairly easy access to Egg Moves. But yeah Mantine surf is a fun and easy way to gather BP and the cost for tutoring isn't ridiculously high, which makes experimenting with movesets appealing and accessible. Something that already started in Gen V of course
 
The expanded side quests are currently my favorite new thing in USUM so far. I enjoyed the fact that side quests even existed in SM, even if they were only just to catch x Pokemon, but these are awesome. I just helped an Incineroar beat a Machamp in wrestling by teaching it the Acrobatics TM.

My other favorite thing so far is the amount of "casual" content for players. The new battle facility in the Festival Plaza is perfect for casual battlers since you don't have to worry about building your team and you get rewarded with a nice chunk of FC after just 3 wins in a row. And, of course, you have Mantine Surf (and presumably the Ultra Wormhole minigame, I haven't got that far yet) as a fun activity to beat. Speaking of which...

The fact that (a) BP are not exclusively earned by battles anymore (I guess you could always use Pokebank to accumulate miles, but that's not really practical) and (b) BP shops are scattered throughout every island are both huge pluses. Now we have a fun way to earn BP and reap their rewards without having to grind out the Battle Tree or Battle Royal, which can be highly frustrating for some.
 
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