I beat the main story earlier this week. Finally. This took forever. While I like taking it slowly as I play through games, this almost took too long. I blame it on the fact that I have been extremely busy with various things in real life for the past few months. I know a guy who also got Ultra Moon, he got the game one week after the release and a week later he had beaten the main story. I feel so slow in comparison to that.
I'm also not that fond of the games being released during this time of the year. I can understand why they release them in November since they want to get money from the juicy Christmas and holiday sales, but for me personally, I prefer it when Pokemon games are released at other points in the year. Like in the spring, summer, or earlier in the autumn.
Couldn't find an "experiences" thread for the games but I guess this thread will fulfill that role this time around. I did not read through this thread before making this post so there is a risk that I'm repeating what others have already said. This will also contain spoilers but I guess most people have beaten the game now.
I got Ultra Moon, will get Ultra Sun later on, likely in March/April next year. The reason I got Ultra Moon first was because I started with Moon from the first pair and it felt best to follow up with Ultra Moon as my first game from this pair.
My general impression of the game is that it felt similar to S/M, but with many minor differences. I liked the game, but like with S/M, it is not going to be my new favorite game in the series. In general, the game was similar to S/M but mostly better.
My in-game team consisted of Incineroar, Alakazam, Lilligant, Stoutland, Mantine and Mimikyu. They worked pretty well but not perfectly. I'll post a more detailed description of them in the in-game team thread sometime next year (hopefully in January).
There is a lot of things I want to say, so let's get started. First up, things I liked! I really like all the minor differences compared to S/M. In general, I think the Pokemon games benefit from having minor differences as opposed to major differences because those often tend to be coupled with some big gameplay flaws. I think G/S and S/M are pretty good examples of this.
I also like the Pokedex expansion. It always made me happy whenever I found a Pokemon that wasn't in the original Alola Dex. This also took away the sour feeling I got early on in Moon when I found way too many Kanto Pokemon. Ultra Moon did not give me the same feeling so that's really good.
I appreciated how you aren't forced to catch any legendaries during the main story this time around. While I like catching legendaries, I dislike being forced to catch/obtain them, especially during the main story. Having both Lunala/Solgaleo and Necrozma being optional was great, the same goes for the Poipole you receive. Unfortunately, this seems to have changed for the post-game as you are forced to obtain Type: Null and catch the 2 Stakataka/Blacephalon. Or so I assume, didn't try to get past them without catching them so I might be wrong.
I really like how they, for the first time ever, added new Pokemon in the middle of a generation. While there are only 4 (5 eventually), it is more than they have ever done before so that's really good.
I liked the story and the characters but I do feel that some things were better in S/M. Not completely sure about it though as I played with many big breaks during the story so I might just not have been able to connect everything. It also seems to continue for a bit during the post-game with the Rainbow Rocket episode so I guess I shouldn't say anything for sure until I am done with it.
I like how they expanded on Mt. Lanakila and made it into an actual Victory Road this time around and not another Mt. Disappointment like in S/M. It was way too short and small in S/M so I'm glad they fixed it here.
Unfortunately, the game also have some problems. One of my biggest annoyances is the Rotom Dex. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike everything about it. I like how it comments on various things during the story and reminding you where to go next. I also like playing with it and asking questions as well as the Roto Loto. But I can't stand its endless and useless babbling, giving me "advice I didn't ask for" or constantly reminding me to check my bag for healing items when one or more members of my party are heavily damaged. While doing this, it also blocks me from viewing the map which is annoying if I am exploring a new area and want to see the map. The fact that the Rotom Dex keeps talking even through minor cutscenes makes me wonder if it might actually be glitched. And even if it isn't, surely some of the playtesters must have gotten annoyed by it as well and told the game developers about it? Or maybe they just have a big tolerance for things like this. I do not, at least. I have been playing Pokemon since gen 1 and I have been able to live with a ton of annoying things throughout the years, but this is one of the most annoying things I have had to experience in several years, and that is not a good development at all.
While I like the Rotom Powers from the Roto loto, I dislike how you receive them randomly. According to Serebii, some are also more common than others, which I'm not so happy about. Especially since the objectively best one my favorite, the Exp. Power, is listed as rare. I prefer the way O-Powers and Pass Powers were handled as you could choose exactly which one you wanted at any time, as long as you had unlocked it. Still, having these Rotom Powers is better than not having them at all, I'll give the game that.
SOS chains existed in S/M as well, but playing through Ultra Moon now made me realize how awful this feature actually is. I honestly don't like it anymore. Will probably make a longer post about this in the annoyances thread sometime soon if I can get around to it.
From what I have understood, there is still no National Dex within the actual games. I have always liked completing the Pokedex so not having the National Dex in the games anymore is disappointing for me. Though there are at least 100 more Pokemon that contribute to the Alola Dex this time around, so that's something.
Ultra Megalopolis was a giant disappointment for me. They hyped it up quite a bit during the pre-release period, and it has such a great design, like a future Black City or something. Then when you get there, it is just a short corridor leading to an elevator which takes you up to the Necrozma battle. There's nothing else to do there during the post-game either, from what I have understood. I guess I shouldn't have expected much but I was really disappointed with it.
Continuing on a similar note. I did not like the Ultra Necrozma battle. I think it is a perfect example of an "unfair" boss battle which is common in many other RPGs but which Pokemon has thankfully been able to live without. Until now. Though the Totem Pokemon are similar but they are not quite that bad. Anyway, I did not enjoy being forced to battle an Uber Legend with a 754 BST and a +1 to all stats boost on the first turn. My own team was at level 53-ish at that point and I had no way of winning easily unless I wanted to grind for an eternity. I only managed to win by sacrificing my Focus Sash and getting lucky with some Pokemon Refresh battle bonuses two or three times. Not sure how they expect you to win here unless you grind a lot or catch some legendaries in the Ultra Space. Don't know about everyone else but this was something I did not like and I hope they never make something like this again in a future game. Though I would be okay with it if it was optional and not a mandatory part of the story.
Similar to S/M, the level curve and difficulty curve of the game felt rather unbalanced. There are some big jumps in level curve which makes it harder. The games doesn't really give you any good chances to grind against wild Pokemon, and trainers cannot be rebattld. I don't really like this. I prefer more balanced games. Though it is partly my own fault because I played with the Exp. Share off, but I think that if I had played with it on I would just get extremely overleveled instead. Like in X where my team was at above level 80 when I beat the Champion. I don't think there's any good solution here, sadly.
Like S/M, the game had quite a bit of fan pandering to Kanto and Gen 1. I had hoped Game Freak would move on from this by now, but nope. Which is a shame. I really hope they will stop with this in the next main series game, but given recent developments, I'm not expecting it.
I think that was it about the things I liked and was less fond of for the main game. Can't really say anything about the post-game since I have just started on it. I do have some hopes and expectations though. Before the release, I remember that it was said somewhere that the post-game of US/UM would rival that of Platinum. I don't recall the exact words though. I also remember that it was said that it would be much easier to train Pokemon here compared to in S/M. While I hope both of these statements are true, especially the part about easier training, I'm not expecting them to be. Years of being a fan of this franchise have taught me to take statements like this with a huge grain of salt since they have said things like this before without it living up to the statements in question. That said, it does feel like there is quite a bit more content and post-game compared to S/M, but the question is: how much? Though if I am going to be honest, it doesn't matter much to me since I will do my best to enjoy it. There is a lot I actually want to do and I'm not really sure where I should start! Fortunately, I won't have to rush anything since it was confirmed that these are the last main series Pokemon games for the 3DS which means I don't need to be done with them before the next games are out. Which I had to do with X/Y, OR/AS and S/M to various degrees. While playing through the game, I have done quite a bit of miniquests/sidequests and worked on other things. For instance, my Festival Plaza is already at rank 90 (though the two Global Missions we have had so far helped quite a lot with that). As for the actual post-game stuff... so far, I caught the two Stakataka and then got started on the Rainbow Rocket episode... guess I will play through the rest of it before doing anything else.
I think is it so far. There was actually probably a lot more I wanted to say but forgot about, though it doesn't really matter. This post also became much longer than I wanted it to be, guess there just was a lot I wanted to say about my experiences with the game so far.