How Time and Tempering Expectations Made Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon the Better Part of Pokemon’s 7th Generation
Just when I thought I’d caught them all…
I feel sorry for my friend Alex.
You see, in the last week of February 2016, I was staying around Alex’s house for a few nights amidst back to back lectures and weekend classes during our MA. Unfortunately for Alex, the last of these classes was on Saturday the 27th of February; Pokemon’s 20th anniversary. Needless to say I was bouncing off walls in anticipation and would not shut up when the next pair of games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, were announced. And it’s that exact kind of easy hype generation that meant I pumped too much of my own expectations into the games which, by the time 2017 rolled around and I had cleaned out most of the content, left me with very little impulse to keep playing.
Not say I have been absent of excitement leading up to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I am nothing if not a fanatic after all. But the seventh generation’s excessive hand-holding, coupled with the usual dampening of excitement that third versions (as USUM essentially are, just in paired form) brought about by only the smatterings of new and altered content have left me more Tepig than Volcanion to the release of the last Pokemon games on the 3DS. And that’s a good thing.
Look, if you played Sun & Moon, you’ve got the gist of what playing their Ultra variants will be like (admittedly with a more satisfying final act, but this is a spoiler free rambling). And my biggest criticism of the seventh generation still stands; the game wants to hold your hand all the way through to make sure everyone can complete it. This is decidedly not the same Nintendo which made Breath of the Wild, the game which almost literally just tells you ‘good luck’ before pushing you off of a cliff into a Dark Souls level of hell below. USUM still guide you between objectives with criminal ease, and shower you with high level items before you could even purchase them to keep you feeling secure. Now, turning of the EXP share (a problem not born this generation) helps with the hilariously non-existent difficulty curve, and gives a legitimate sense of challenge to the Totem Pokemon, but this is almost akin to a Nuzlocke Challenge; creating stakes the game does not provide.
Speaking of stakes and challenge, remember Blue? Remember that feeling whenever his theme started playing and he popped out of nowhere to ruin your day and be a complete tool about it? THAT was a rival. Someone who spent the entire game irking you and egging you on, staying one step ahead and generally pushing you to try harder.
Hau does none of those things. His starter is always weak to yours, he’s always a step behind you in the story and more obsessed with the local cuisine and having fun than actually being in any way a challenge to you. He even heals your team before most of your battles to make things fair. Blue never played fair. Pokemon as a whole didn’t play fair. Pokemon forced you to prepare for any scenario or punished you for it. After twenty years of playing these games I have been tempered to prepare for challenge and adversity. Ridding the games of that means that while lil’ Jacob may have had an easier time playing and caused his parents far less damage to their hearing, may not have carried his love through to adulthood.
Plus I generally just hate Hau. His entire ethos is that battles should be fun, and moans that battles where you can’t afford to lose are no fun. Those are literally my favourite kinds of battles because they stretch your abilities and push your further, making victory all the sweeter. No wonder your grandpa won’t fight you seriously Hau. And where are your parents? Gone, to be away from their disappointment of a child.
You disgust me.
Maybe I’m coming across too harshly. USUM have galvanised and given eloquence to the parts of Sun & Moon I didn’t like the first time around. Pacing is another big issue, as trials are so uneven across islands that it kills any sense of progressions, not helped by story not emerging until you have cleared all but the final captain’s trial. It’s there in bits & bobs admittedly, but the first significant moments of it don’t come until after the second island, and then it just goes quiet again for an island before exploding all over the shop. It’s kind of a mess.
Still none of that diminishes the positives I drew away from Sun & Moon that I still have glowing in USUM. The games look amazing, and there’s more depth and things to be found in every location through an understated series of side quests. Zygarde Cells being swapped for Totem Stickers is actually an improvement as the latter feel less essential and gives something you would not expect to receive through normal gameplay. Ultra Beasts remain one of my favourite concepts in recent years, and more being done with them is a massive plus to me, as is adding new Pokemon mid-generation; an unprecedented an never before done concept! It actually makes USUM essential in some ways, as there are now Pokemon, not just forms, you can only attain through them. Ride Pokemon, though in need of refinement, are still better than HMs any day, and Pokemon Refresh may break the game a bit but it’s still fun and feels more organic than Pokemon Amie.
In many ways, the light jading I had from Sun & Moon, and the time off from the games that gave rise to, has made me enjoy USUM even more, and forced me to engage more than just spacing out for three days as I race towards the conclusion. I’m not seeking the endgame like I normally would, I want to enjoy developing a team from the 400 plus Pokemon I have available to me, I want to catch and evolve everything and complete my Pokedex even though I’ve already done so with this particular Pokemon a dozen times before. I want to play the game, not rush to the end of it. And for that, I’m enjoying myself a lot more this team.
Which means no, I will not talk about Rainbow Rocket. I’m still not happy that’s even been spoiled prior to release, I’m definitely not going tot talk about it for a while yet.
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon won’t win over any of their predecessors detractors, nor will it win any new fans to the franchise, that job will likely fall to Pokemon on the Switch. But if you’re a fan like myself, and will take any excuse for more Pokemon in your life, the Ultra games do enough to keep you playing and round off the seventh generation as well as the franchise’s tenure as a handheld exclusive. There’s ambition in these games that is already outgrowing their hardware. And if nothing else, that makes the series’ future most exciting.
…
Oh and you can get Pikachu in a hat. There. 26% of you have just decided to play.