USUM had a much wider variety of Pokémon to catch, and I do like that Rotom actually speaks to you more often (although it became a little too often). The new Pokémon are really cool. I love the look of Ultra Necrozma. That was one thing that was, fortunately, not spoiled for me so I saw it for the first time in-game and was just blown away by it. Story-wise though, I'd have to say I prefer SM. Lusamine's motivation just changed too drastically. She was a lot more of a villain in SM, which I liked. It felt like Lillie and Gladion really had a reason to have wanted to leave. I like that USUM focuses SLIGHTLY more on Gladion, but it isn't done very well, and there are some good moments with Lillie in SM that just never happen in in USUM. And then there's the post-credits events. USUM's was way too short for how much it was being hyped up, and just wasn't nearly as fun or story-oriented as the post-credits event from SM. So over all, I prefer the general gameplay/Pokémon availability of USUM, but I greatly prefer the story of SM.
I really enjoyed Sun and Moon for being such a new take on the Pokémon franchise while still keeping in line with the original concepts. The story was stronger from what I know of both of them, and it felt fresh. I picked up US and found it so bland and dry, taking all the points from the last game and hitting them piece for piece. I hear it gets good after the third island, but in my opinion, you shouldn't have to sit through half a game to get to the good part, there should be interesting things in all of it. I never beat US because it was the blandest Pokémon game in the main series to date in my opinion, so if I picked which was better it would go to Sun and Moon of USUM.
Gotta say, I liked USUM a whole lot more than SM. It felt more... dynamic, more open. I felt challenged and I was more in control of my journey and my Pokémon. I agree though, Lusamine felt more like a side character than a villain in USUM, and was a lot less sinister and intimidating. I loved all the mini quests and challenges offered throughout US, which made the game feel more engaging. I kinda wish the Ultra Recon squad had more of a lasting impression. I thought they were villains, but they were just recurring characters who barely posed a challenge when they battled (which is understandable given who they are, but still...) Despite the fact I enjoyed USUM a lot more than SM, I still have to say Alola is my second least favorite region, right after Kalos, and these games were low on my list of Pokémon games I’d replay. Very low.
Even though USUM added more to the game, I found SM to be a more enjoyable overall experience. Had SM not been released and USUM was just on it's own, then I probably would have found it to be more enjoyable and less repetitive and bland.
It would be nice to have longer post-credits stories. Like if the plot for SM were the main story then there was another plot for Necrozma afterwards. In SM Gladion just kind of disappears without much of an explanation. I liked how the story went and ended with Lillie, but Gladion didn't really get any closure, I don't think. It would have been cool if in a Necrozma-based second part of the story had the PC teamed up with Gladion the way they were previously teamed up with Lillie. From there, the story could be relatively the same as it was in USUM.
I don’t like any of these games, but I thought that USUM was a lot more challenging than the more recent games which was probably the only thing that was good in my opinion.
I agree with most of what you guys are saying. SM had a far better story and development for the characters was much better. However USUM had more difficult game play and was a better challenge, as well as having a superior post game. As for which matters more, it depends on the person, but I prefer SM as the story was just so awesome, because Lillie and Lusamine. Although the added challenge makes it very close.
Was USUM really harder than SM? I didn't really notice. Aside from the grass totem, which called a Pokémon that kept healing it, it was pretty easy all the way through for me.
USUM purely for the wider variety of Pokémon to catch and I think it has an expanded Batlte Tree as well. That said, I had much more fun playing SM, so I'd pick that.
Some of the fight could be harder, the totem battles def had some adjustment done but it wasn't like they were ridiculously hard. The ultra necrozma fight could also he very hard depending on your pokémon and whenever or not you used roto items, the roto items made the fight a total joke. I'm just gonna say that if SM had never gotten released I'm sure USUM would have gotten a lot less hate on account of them just having more stuff, extra story, post-game stuff, expanded pokédex and the tutorial was shorter it was still too long be it was much shorter them in SM. So if SM had never existed USUM would probably had been a big success and yes I do think is the better one.
I've never understood that argument. That's the way Pokémon games have been made for years. Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, all just made as slightly better versions of other games in the same generation. It only changed with the gen 5 games when they made sequels instead, and with gen 6 that they just skipped doing that completely.
They stopped doing that with Gen 5 yes and now they seem to have started up again only now the third game is split into two most likely to try and make more money which is honestly a little silly imo but at the same time it probably means they earned more than if they'd just returned to doing just third games.
I do agree with Wolf Expert in a sense; USUM in concept isn't anything new. Third games have pretty much always brought minor "upgrades" and it has been the case since Yellow version, which is why I'm confused as to why Game Freak stopped doing that as soon as Gen 5 was a thing. I think as soon as Gen 5 was done, Game Freak should've continued going down the road of making sequels instead of third games. I genuinely think most people would've been happy with the third game trend dying at fourth gen since that was at its absolute peak, imo. It's actually quite telling when B2W2 is still currently the highest selling game of its kind, too. I hope Game Freak pays attention to that.
Is B2W2 really the highest selling? I didn't know that. I wasn't a huge fan of gen 5, although I replayed it semi-recently and it was better than I remembered. They changed a lot of things at the time, but most of them are just so commonplace in the more recent games that I don't really notice them as much as I did back then. With USUM it seems like the took the idea of having two games from gen 5 and making "remastered" versions, for lack of a better term, from every other generation before it. I'm just kind of disappointed that gen 6 didn't get either.
I mean the highest selling third game/sequel or whatever you want to call it, aside from Yellow version which pretty much steamrolled B2W2, but for understandable reasons. B2W2 wasn't really just remastered BW after all; sure both games shared similarities but the fact that B2W2 had an entirely different plot (even with the same/similar characters), better mechanics and whatnot allowed for a breath of fresh air. If anything, this is what USUM should've been.
USUM had infinitely more content and post-game stuff to do, which was great. Also, Poipole. Nuff said.
I preferred Sun and Moon. USUM was too similar to SM for my liking, and I'm having a real hard time trying to get myself to complete it. Still haven't even faced Ultra Necrozma yet.
I think Sun and Moon were better! Shinies got a lot more common in USUM and i'm not really fan. Also USUM was just a whole load of recycled content
I like both! USUM added a bunch of great stuff and fixed Hau's character, but detracted from the overall story, Lillie's character, and was a whole other $40 game. So there's pros and cons to both.
SM seemed like beta versions of USUM. USUM felt like much more polished versions than the previous. Though that's just Nintendo wanting that dinero. Also, why did Nintendo take out that moment with Lillie on Poni Island? I felt like that was a good bonding moment with her and the soulless corpse the player inhabits to destroy everything in his/her path.
