YMMV / Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

• Adorkable:
  • Colress when he shows up wearing a water cooled coat with attached wrist PDAs that he can't seem to stop fiddling with. He also rambles about Z-moves to no one in particular from his hotel balcony.
  • Zossie's boundless excitement over things in Alola that the player probably takes for granted, but are nevertheless foreign to her, puts her firmly in this territory.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Lusamine really a better person and a Well-Intentioned Extremist in this game? Or is she the same person she was in the original, simply better at hiding it behind self-serving excuses?
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Rotom Dex returns and has many new features that provide varying degrees of assistance and annoyance. Nothing quite compares to forgetting which way it is to the local Pokémon Center in this game, because Rotom is also your mini-map^*and map if you can figure out exactly which unmarked section of it is the map as long as it isn't talking. Unfortunately, one of Rotom's helpful hints is telling you to visit the Pokémon Center. What has to be its worst aspect comes after you pet it enough to cause it to nickname you, prompting it to continually give you advice you didn't ask for on every screen transition. It will spam this at you pretty much every time you leave or enter a building, look in your bag, use a Ride Pokémon and so on. It will give you advice you already knew and have no reason to give a damn about. It will give you this advice over and over until you want to throw the Dex at the wall, and you can't turn it off.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were the best-selling video games of 2017 in Japan, period, with nearly half of their total sales coming from their home country. In the West (particularly North America), they were met with strong critic reviews, but a more polarizing fan reception and lower (if still decent) sales.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Hau's final battle at the Pokémon League. While it is a good way to throw off players who expected Kukui and it also works as a good Call-Back to the first Generation, it has the problem that like most final rival battles in general, you'll most likely know what you're up against so you probably already have a way to deal with them, unlike Kukui, who you go completely blind against in Sun and Moon, greatly reducing the difficulty of the fight.
• Awesome Music:
  • Ultra Necrozma's battle theme. The song is full of synth and organ sounds that all help give the feeling that you're fighting a godlike being that can OHKO most of the Pokémon you have on your team. Some people have compared it to a traditional JRPG final boss theme similar to that of Dancing Mad or One-Winged Angel.
  • Team Plasma Boss Ghetsis' theme was already a good theme in the original game. But it's made more ominous here that tells you how messed up Ghetsis is.
  • Ultra Recon Squad battle theme or the music from trailer introducing them is very fitting for them and combines Aether Foundation battle and Ultra Beast themes into an even more potent mix.
  • The new Champion battle theme is an energetic but also climactic-sounding remix of Hau's regular battle theme. It really helps sell how much better he is than he was in Sun and Moon.
  • After 20 years, Giovanni finally gets his own theme, and it's a badass remix that incorporates the Team Rocket Hideout theme from Gen I, the Team Rocket battle theme from Gen II, and the Team Rocket encounter theme from Gen II as well. The result: An epic track that makes you feel like you are marching off to war, and considering the Pokémon he throws at you, it's not an inaccurate description.
  • The Victory Road theme is awesome enough in the original, but now that the Victory Road on the way to Mount Lanakila is revamped in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the theme now fits the challenge you go through on your way up to the mountains.
  • The remix of Cyrus's theme is even more badass than the original: those background record scratches amp up the tension in the whole battle with him. And given that he will be tossing either Dialga or Palkia at you (depending on which version of the game you're playing) as his trump card, it's certainly apropos.
• Base-Breaking Character: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Best Boss Ever: Ultra Necrozma, is the Climax Boss for the games and is quite possibly considered one of the best boss fights in the franchise! It features Awesome Music that straight up sounds like a classic JRPG final boss theme, it's a very difficult fight and incredibly high tension with the end of the universe and you're fighting against a Physical God with all stats up due to a Totem boost. Its difficulty isn't completely cheap, and is actually earned unlike some past boss fights in the series. It's also considered a step up from the fact that you can't actually fight Motherbeast Lusamine like in Sun and Moon.
  • Just about all the bosses in the Rainbow Rocket sidequest feature a rematch with previous games' Big Bads. With brand new remixes, endgame level teams... and of course, the cover legendaries based upon your version. What's more, Lysandre and Giovanni even use Mega Evolution.
• Best Level Ever:
  • Despite all the Nightmare Fuel it generates, the seven mysteries side quest is considered one of the most exciting side quest to players. Factoring to the Epileptic Trees it generates once one clears the side quest and the horror game-esque nature of it.
  • The ever anticipated Rainbow Rocket Episode is also this for players in part of being able to fight against the previous bosses in 3D and these bosses being no slouch either.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In Tide Song Hotel, one room has an NPC Lass with a Comfey and Bellossom. If you approach them, the Bellossom would start dancing with the Comfey until the lass sees you and the Bellossom forces you out of the room simply because you saw them. When you enter the room again, they're gone. The staff of the hotel doesn't say anything about the lass staying in that room either.
• Breather Boss:
  • Aether Foundation sandwiches one fight with the Ultra Recon Squad between Guzma and Lusamine this time. The member fighting you only has Poipole, which statwise starts lagging behind at this point of the game, while Guzma has 4 and Lusamine 5 fully evolved Pokémon in total. Justified since, as the Ultra Recon Squad members themselves state, they are inexperienced in Pokémon battles.
  • Hapu isn’t much of a challenge due to her type of choice, Ground, having common weaknesses that often exploit its below average Special Defense. Her team has not changed much since the original game (only replacing Alolan Dugtrio with a Golurk). She comes shortly after Totem Ribombee and the hellish Ultra Necrozma fight, both of whom are at higher levels than any of Hapu's Pokémon, and are capable of causing a Total Party Kill by themselves. She’s definitely a much-needed break from the otherwise high difficulty.
  • Archie in Ultra Sun can be turned into a joke if you acquired Groudon and the Red Orb beforehand. His weapon of choice, Kyogre, will spam Hydro Pump on Primal Reversion Groudon because of his double weakness to water...not taking into account Desolate Land, which instantly evaporates all water-based attacks. Arguably a case of Fridge Brilliance as this Archie hails from a world where the existence of Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, and their more powerful Abilities, are unknown.
  • Cyrus is fairly easy to defeat in Ultra Sun because his Dialga loves to spam Roar of Time, which deals a lot of damage but leaves it open on the next turn due to the need to recharge. Or if you have a Fairy-type.
• Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Solgaleo/Lunala is rarely separated from Necrozma and actually trained up, due to Ultra Necrozma's BST being higher than Arceus itself, an ability with an effect similar to (and superior to) the Expert Belt that guarantees a knockout on anything it can line up a weakness on, a 200 BP Z-Move that looks like a nuke and obviously hits like one, and if you have Roto Boosts, being able to replicate the aura it had.
• Contested Sequel: Fans are split on how good the games are in comparison to the originals, or indeed other Updated Rereleases. While many like the new gameplay additions like Mantine Surfing and new Ultra Beasts, others feel that the story and region map aren't different enough from before, while the changes that are made to the story are often debated (especially with regards to Lusamine's characterization and Lillie's arc). Others still believe the games lack enough differences to justify making two versions, and that they should have been one version, or even Downloadable Content for the original Sun and Moon.
• Crack Pairing: The protagonist and the Rotom Pokédex gained a more significant following in this game after being a very small Crack Ship in Sun and Moon, thanks to the new system that allows you to bond with it through dialogue options. This is only exacerbated by many of Rotom's choices◊ of dialogue.
• Critical Dissonance: Like the original Sun and Moon and many other Pokémon games, these games are rather polarizing among the community for their perceived quality. Despite that however, the game holds an 85 on Metacritic for both critic and user scores^note Gamerankings also has Ultra Sun at 85 and, in only a few weeks, became the third best-selling "third" versions just under Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 and Pokémon Yellow.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Guzma's Masquerain, previously only fought in the last fights with him, is a Pokémon he has with him at every battle in the game with him now. This doesn't sound bad, but Masquerain gained an infamously high boost to its Special Attack and Speed this generation, and with some surprisingly good coverage (Bug Buzz and Air Slash, but also Icy Wind) that catches a lot of people off guard. It's become a bane to Nuzlockers everywhere that expect it to be an easy kill.
  • For Mantine Surfing, the Sharpedo. Unlike most obstacles that just stay put and slow you down if you run into them, these guys actively chase you down and try to ram into you.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • The second Kahuna battle, Olivia, is easily the strongest trainer on the island - her Pokémon are leveled to the late twenties, when before you were experiencing Pokémon that were roughly only mid 20s. And then Hau challenges you with a similarly leveled team... of five.
  • Ultra Necrozma is level 60, ten levels higher than Dusk Mane/Dawn Wings Necrozma, and is likely to be a higher level then anything on your team unless you've done some serious grinding.
  • The Team Rainbow Rocket leaders are a big step up from their grunts to say the least. Thankfully, the Champion-only areas of Poni Island become available, so you can train there if they're wiping the floor with your Pokémon.
• Disappointing Last Level: Ultra Megalopolis is an impressive-looking area, but that's all it is — impressive-looking. There's no NPCs to talk to besides the Ultra Recon Squad, no buildings to explore, no dungeon to traverse, no items to find, no Pokémon to catch, no lore to discover on your own, and nothing to see or do but go straight to Necrozma. Even when it's defeated, the city remains a glorified hallway with no reason to go back other than to switch Ultra Ride Pokémon and (if refused earlier) pick up a Poipole.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Much like the Aether Foundation before them, many people were anticipating the Ultra Recon Squad to be the game's true villains. This proved to be false, as they are in fact polite anti-villains who are trying to save their world, and who join you when they realize how unreliable a partner Lusamine is.
  • The Ultra Recon Squad, and by extension residents of Ultra Megalopolis, have also gathered their own speculation. Just how human are they? Are they blue skinned humans, or are they human-like aliens? Were they once human?
  • Guzzlord has been speculated by some to be a very mutated version of Muk, based on its behaviour and appearance in Ultra Ruin. Given that Ultra Ruin is heavily implied to be an alternate Hau'oli City, in which Grimer can be found, and the fact that a power plant meltdown caused so much destruction that everyone had to evacuate, it's not too far off to imagine that the meltdown must have messed with the likes of Pokémon like Grimer and Muk, turning them into what is essentially a voracious black hole that is Guzzlord.
  • The aftermath of the Trainer School's Seven Mysteries side quest brought many a player and fan to speculate. What happened to the girl who is the seventh mystery of the school? Some guesses include that the Hypno took the girl as prey for the Drifloon so Drifloon wouldn't be lonely due to one of it's dex entries saying that Driflooon is formed by spirits and it's Ultra Moon entry is said that it makes friends with children.
  • The Rainbow Rocket bosses' dialogue, as well as Giovanni keeping all of his Pokémon in Master Balls, made many fans speculate that they came from worlds where they won. What Giovanni gets up to after the postgame is also a source of debate.
  • Pokémon species-wise, ever since before Zeraora was revealed, some fans thought Zeraora was an Ultra Beast, when it actually isn't despite being one of the 5 new Pokémon being added to Ultra releases, given the other four new Pokémon are Ultra Beasts.
• Even Better Sequel: As divisive as Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are, they are near-universally considered a straight upgrade from vanilla Sun and Moon for their more streamlined gameplay, better postgame and wider range of available Pokémon.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Though it's more "crazed with pain and enraged beyond reason" than evil, Necrozma has the honor of being the first Big Bad in the main series games to be a Pokémon itself. In addition to its base form having a cool design that looks distinctly alien (even next to the Ultra Beasts), but its true form is an awesome angelic light dragon that has a higher stat total than even Arceus. The final battle with it is also considered one of the best boss fights in the franchise.
  • Team Rainbow Rocket is a dream come true for fans who'd played all of the games, letting you fight the team bosses one after another. They're led by Giovanni, the original games' Big Bad, who when you defeat him says he'd rather not fight you at his full power and lets you go. Making it even better is that afterwards Giovanni escapes and plans to wreak havoc elsewhere, setting up a sequel hook.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Ultra Solgaleo" and "Ultra Lunala" were popular names for the version mascots before it was learned that they were forms of Necrozma and not Solgaleo/Lunala wearing Necrozma's armor, in large part because of the "Ultra" prefix used for the games and all throughout Gen VII (Ultra Space, Ultra Beasts, etc.).
  • "Carrotwolf" for Lycanroc's Dusk form due to its orange fur color.
  • "Pennywise" for Blacephalon, with both being Monster Clowns who lure victims into a false sense of security before viciously attacking them.
  • Thanks to being one of the hardest bosses in the entire series all on its own, many have dubbed Ultra Necrozma "the Destroyer of Nuzlockes" or some variant. Similarly, its unique Z-Move, Light That Burns The Sky, has been named "Light That Burns The Casuals" (though it ironically isn't used in said boss fight).
  • Controversially, "Ray (Kouta)" and "Ailey (Koumi)" for Elio and Selene because of their different character artwork.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Despite being one of the most despicable Big Bads in Pokémon, which is only reinforced with this game, Ghetsis retains his flashy "walking castle" design from Pokémon Black and White, as opposed to his more sinister attire from the sequels. Justified in that this Ghetsis comes from a reality where his plan from the original games succeeded, so he never needed to change his clothing for the new plan he had in the sequels.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Ultra Necrozma may have a slight Redemption Demotion in it not having an aura, but in all other aspects, it's still the SNK Boss it was in the climax. You're able to find Necrozma in its base form midway into Mount Lanakila (with the Ultranecrozium Z and the N-Solarizer/N-Lunarizer given to you afterwards), and catch Solgaleo/Lunala after the final battle with Gladion, both at levels as high as the highest opponent that you'll face in the league. Also, now it has access to its own Z-Move that looks like a literal nuke and certainly hits like one. Have fun as it tears the Elite Four, Team Rainbow Rocket, and basic Battle Tree challenges to shreds all by itself.
  • Similarly to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, after Necrozma is defeated (which happens before the final Trial), players can go through Ultra Space to find Legendary Pokémon and Ultra Beasts. Not only is almost every Legendary, from Mewtwo to Kyogre/Groudon to Xerneas available, but the Ultra Beasts found can respawn. It's entirely possible to finish the game with a roster made up purely of unstoppable Olympus Mons!
  • Malamar can turn the majority of the Totem and Ultra Beast battles, including Ultra Necrozma's into a complete joke if he gets a single turn to attack, due to being able to turn their automatic stat boosts, intended to balance the 6 vs 1 battle advantage, into stat DROPS with Topsy-Turvy.
  • Zoroark can also break the Ultra Necrozma battle, due to Illusion causing the AI to constantly spam Psychic-type attacks if he appears as a Psychic-weak Pokémon. Also, if they know Foul Play, (which will be powered up thanks to Ultra Necrozma's aura), the battle turns into an Anti-Climax Boss.
• Genius Bonus: A Magnemite in the Hokulani Observatory says "Alola!" in Morse Code.
• Goddamned Boss: Dulse or Soliera, depending on the version the player got, is a surprisingly annoying Wake-Up Call Boss. The Furfrou they bring is surprisingly fast and tanky thanks to Fur Coat, so if you thought you could cheese this fight with the event Rockruff, then think again, since said Rockruff won’t be able to do much against it. It also has a fetish for spamming Sand Attack as well as Attack-lowering moves. To top it all off, it carries Headbutt, which seems to flinch 80% of the time for the A.I. On the rare occasion that you do land a hit, you won’t be able to do jack shit to this annoying poodle. Have fun!
• Good Bad Bugs: With the introduction of Clangorous Soulblaze, Wide Guard is changed so it is supposed to reduce the damage done by Clangorous Soulblaze as it hits multiple targets. However, a bug caused Wide Guard being able to reduce the damage done by all damaging Z-Moves instead. (This was quickly patched.)
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Necrozma's first form was unsettling-looking enough, but it becomes clear just how utterly messed-up it is when we finally get to see its dragon-like true form with a body formed of light. The black Necrozma we knew from the first two games? It's just the true Necrozma's misassembled skeleton, with its head now forming the torso, its feet forming the hands, and its shoulders being its wing joints jammed into what used to be its eye sockets. No wonder the poor thing was in so much agony.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In the beginning of the game, Hau says that Tauros are scary and he doesn't want to ride on one. Come the battle on Ula'ula Island, however, and he's added a powerful Tauros to his team. Looks like Hau's gotten over his fear of them!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Check the main page.
• I Knew It!:
  • The introduction of a new form for Lycanroc was heavily predicted, based on datamining listing additional model slots in S/M. Sure enough, this was confirmed with the reveal of the Dusk form.
  • Thanks to the presence of a pair of Necrozma-like eyes in the official website's background◊, some fans believed Necrozma would have a then-unrevealed third form, with popular interpretations being its "true" state, or a being of pure light. Similarly, the conspicuous dragon head on the non-draconic Necrozma sparked beliefs that said form would be part Dragon-type. All of these were proven true, as either of Necrozma's fused forms can transform into Ultra Necrozma, a dragon made of light.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • It's generally agreed that Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon directly improve upon Sun and Moon, for the generous heapings of Adaptation Expansion and Author's Saving Throw as well as the more expansive postgame. Most of the debate surrounding their quality as games comes from whether they improved enough from their predecessors. In multiple reviews, one of the major criticisms of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is that most of the significant changes are reserved for the last leg of the main game and the postgame, with the main adventure remaining mostly the same. While this is fine for anyone who hasn't played the Gen VII games yet, it makes it difficult to recommend these games to someone who has already played through Sun or Moon.
  • While the games address many criticisms of Sun and Moon, they still lack a National Pokédex despite the much wider range of Pokémon available in-game, Alola Dex or otherwise. Some fans were disappointed towards the continued neglect of such a longtime feature, wanted to see new Dex entries for non-Alola Pokémon, and find that not contributing towards a Dex takes away a bit of luster from all the past Legendary Pokémon that were added to the game.
  • The Festival Plaza returns with the exact same mechanics, good and bad, that it had in Sun and Moon. Thus, all of its issues (such as not being able to switch your party Pokémon within the Plaza, Sophocles offering low-ranking shops, version-exclusive shops, and not being able to remain online while playing the main adventure) remain completely intact. The only improvement is that farming Festival Coins is easier now, with the Battle Agency and the higher FC rewards from visitor requests.
  • Some people feel irked that Pheromosa, Celesteela, and Kartana all have the exact same Pokédex entry in Ultra Moon rather than individual ones. While older generations have had Pokémon who are counterparts have similar Pokédex entries, this is the first time that the same entry has occurred for multiple Pokémon — especially just in a single version. Buzzwole, Xurkitree, and Guzzlord also share the exact same entry in Ultra Sun — and it's word for word the same entry that Pheromosa, Celesteela, and Kartana have in Ultra Moon.
  • A number of Pokémon have had their movepools adjusted from Sun and Moon to fix some oversights like Bulbasaur learning Leech Seed at levels 7 and 9 instead of Vine Whip at level 9 or just to give them some more moves, but Alolan Marowak still can't learn its signature move Shadow Bone without the Move Relearner as it is still set to learn it at the level before Cubone can evolve. Dusk Form Lycanroc is in a similar boat — it learns Thrash upon evolving and can't learn Accelrock or Counter without the Move Relearner, despite how much it was touted in the prerelease period for being able to learn both of them while the original Lycanroc forms got one or the other.
  • Alolan Marowak's problem is exacerbated by the fact it cannot learn any physical Ghost-type attacks without the Move Reminder, and its only physical Fire attacks before learning Flare Blitz at level 53 are the weak Flame Charge (via TM) and the average Fire Punch (from a tutor introduced in the Ultra versions). Ultra Sun players have the Shadow Bone problem solved with a level 25 Totem-sized Alolan Marowak received from Samson Oak once enough Totem Stickers have been collected.
• Jerkass Woobie: Lusamine. While she still keeps her temporary disownment of her children, her controlling tendencies, and her freezing of the Pokémon in her lab from the originals, her original motive in wanting to avenge the loss of her husband in the orignals comes to the forefront in the main story, thus giving her a bit more reason why she acted the way she did. She became overbearing and disowned her children for leaving her because they were the only two people she has left in her family after Mohn disappeared and they left her alone for 3 months.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A majority of the veteran players will pick up these games just to see Team Rainbow Rocket in action—all of which only happens after you defeat the Elite Four first.
  • Similarly, many people who already played the original Sun and Moon picked up this game exclusively because of Ultra Necrozma.
  • Perhaps the biggest one of all is the fact that this is the first time they introduced brand new species of Pokémon in the middle of a generation. Prompting people to get a copy just to get these five monsters to truly catch them all.
• Memetic Badass:
  • The Player's mother in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is now this to the fandom in light of the post-game side quest of having your pet Kanto Meowth fight a neighbor's Alolan Meowth.
  • Ultra Necrozma due to having one of the most difficult boss fights in the game, if not the hardest. It's on a similar level of Whitney's Miltank in how infamously difficult it is to fight.
  • Thanks to their Illusion Ability, it turns out that the Zorua-line can completely trivialize the fight against Ultra Necrozma. Illusion causes Ultra Necrozma to not understand what Zorua/Zoroark's actual typing is, so it will try to just spam its powerful Psychic-type attack, Photon Geyser, upon the Dark-type Zorua/Zoroark while the illusion is up.
• Memetic Hair: Phyco's large, blue mustache pretty much has a fanbase of its own due to just how much it stands out, to the point where some players (jokingly or otherwise) claim that it's the main reason they bought Ultra Moon. His facial hair has also been frequently likened to Waluigi and the Guy Fawkes mask.
• Memetic Molester: Ghetsis, even more so than usual, since he is shown holding Lillie hostage in, of all places, a bedroom.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Fusion is just a cheap tactic to make weak Legendaries stronger!" ^ExplanationParaphrasing a famous meme from the Steven Universe fanbase, with the apparent Necrozma+Solgaleo/Lunala fusions, many jokes and comparisons to Gem Fusions have thus been made. When more details about how the fusion takes place were revealed, hilariously, many drew further comparisons to Jasper when she fused with Lapis in the same episode during which she said that line..
  • Ultra [anything]^ExplanationIn addition to the previously established Ultra Space and Ultra Beasts, we now get a pair of games with "Ultra" in the title, and prior to the reveal of their real names, most people referred to the new Legendary forms as "Ultra Solgaleo" and "Ultra Lunala". Naturally, tacking "Ultra" onto everything else followed suit. Just don't tell anyone who knows about Ultraman franchise.
  • "They finally came out!"/"Gay mafia!"^Explanation Given that all of the previous villain team leaders are male and have a Rainbow Motif going for them this time around, most social media — but especially Tumblr — had a field day with it, to say the least.
  • "I lived bitch"◊^ExplanationJokes referring to Lysandre's presence in Rainbow Rocket after his implied death at the end of X and Y quickly blasted off, usually referring to this image.◊
  • Every Villain Is Lemons ^ExplanationGiven Team Rainbow Rocket's nature, fans were quick to make parallels to that SpongeBob episode..
  • The line "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?!" from the SpongeBob episode 'The Bully' has gone memetic due to all of the previous evil team leaders coming back to cause trouble once again.
  • Light That Burns the Casuals ^Explanation The Climax Boss, Ultra Necrozma, has become notorious for being difficult. Its Light that Burns the Sky Z-Move, while not used in the storyline battle against it, has been called this as a means to show how tough it is for players to fight.
    • Light That Burns The Team Rainbow Rocket peeps.^{Explanation (spoilers)}Given how overpowered Ultra Necrozma is, some players decided to use it to sweep Team Rainbow Rocket post-game, with its signature Z-Move being used on even some grunts' second Pokémon in certain battles. The grunts' facial expressions when being defeated by the player's Ultra Necrozma is even more priceless.
  • Combining any of this game's memes with "Get in the bag, Nebby!" from the previous games.
  • Ultra Necrozma: The Nuzlocke Killer ^Explanation Ultra Necrozma is by far one of the most difficult boss fights in the series, with it becoming even more infamous than Cynthia. A Nuzlocke run is when, among other rules, a Pokémon is considered dead and consequently unusable if it's knocked out, and Ultra Necrozma can wipe out most teams with ease. Some players generally decide to keep playing normally without the Nuzlocke Challenge after losing to Ultra Necrozma.
  • Like with Gumshoos introduced in the previous games, Stakataka has been the subject of many "we will build a wall" jokes.
• Moe: The female protagonist Selene is very adorable. Her wide-eyed, happy expressions in the game certainly don't hurt either.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Lysandre has the Ultimate Weapon reconstructed inside of Aether Paradise and is fully intending on using it to wipe out all life in the world this game is set in unless you defeat him in battle, following a rigged Sadistic Choice that makes you activate it.
  • Ghetsis crosses it on-screen when he, being a Sore Loser about his defeat, physically strikes Lillie down onto the floor and outright threatens to murder her if the Player Character doesn't surrender to him. It's made worse by the fact that since all his Pokémon have been knocked out, he's threatening to kill her with his own hands.
  • Faba crosses it when he sells out the Aether Foundation to Team Rainbow Rocket whose main goal is to conquer all worlds with the Ultra Beasts. Faba's reasoning for why he did this is so he could further his career.
• Narm:
  • Like most world-ending catastrophes in Pokémon, the NPCs barely notice Necrozma blocking out Poni Island's light at all. Not only that, but if you wipe against Ultra Necrozma and end up back at Seafolk Village or any of the surrounding exhibits, the happy music plays and remains unchanged.
  • Most of the Totems in this game (even some of the ones that weren't replaced) follow suit in screaming weird words when accosting the player much like Vikavolt and Mimikyu did in Sun and Moon. Kommo-o's cry is one of the more perplexing ones amongst the playerbase, as many initially believed that "Sooooo-oooound!" was a placeholder that hadn't been replaced with a proper cry.
  • Much like in the previous iterations, the Trainer keeps a blank face throughout the entire game (aside from a couple of cut scenes). It gets a tad ridiculous in the cutscenes before fighting the Ultra Beasts, where the player character visibly braces themselves for the fight ahead while still wearing the vacant smile.
  • Lusamine appears as a title defense match in the post-game. She still uses her defeat animation from when she's defeated at the Aether Paradise all while accepting her defeat calmly. It makes the character come off as a total drama-queen. Then again, Gladion is a bit of a drama-queen when it comes to losing too, make this a Like Mother, Like Son moment.
• Narm Charm: Team Rainbow Rocket. It sounds very silly, but becomes rather chilling when you realize the reason they're called that is because it's Giovanni commanding all the other previous team leaders as one united front to invade Alola.^note There are seven colors in a rainbow and seven groups represented: Team Rocket, Team Aqua, Team Magma, Team Galactic, Team Plasma, Team Flare, and the Aether Foundation.
• Older Than They Think: This isn't the first time the concept of the Climax Boss being a wild Legendary Pokémon in a 6-on-1 battle was used. Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness and Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 did this first with Mewtwo, Shadow Lugia and Kyurem respectively.^note However, neither one had their stats boosted to counter the number advantage the player has, and Kyurem and Shadow Lugia directly preceded the much more difficult Ghetsis and Greevil respectively.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Kommo-o back in Sun and Moon was tainted for having a mediocre stat spread in spite of having 600 BST, having a double weakness to a game-breaking type, a signature move that worked off its lower Special Attack and lowered its defenses, and having a very limited movepool. Now with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Kommo-o was given various helpful moves such as Close Combat and Drain Punch, and was blessed with a powerful, multi-target Z Move that also buffs all its stats afterwards.
  • Lurantis was almost universally considered inferior to Tsareena, due to having an overall lower stat spread and almost no support for its potentially powerful Hidden Ability, Contrary, getting only Leaf Storm (on a primarily physical Pokémon). Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, however, give it the ability to learn Superpower, allowing a Contrary Lurantis to run a potentially powerful physical or mixed moveset. Combined with a Special Defense build or an Assault Vest and a good draining move (Giga Drain or Leech Life), Lurantis can become a very difficult opponent to bring down once it gets set up.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Festival Plaza continues to be a large source of ire from the playerbase as it was in Sun and Moon, and unfortunately adds a few more things that aggravate players.
    • As with Sun and Moon, certain clothing colors and styles are exclusive to one game and completely unavailable in the other. Bought Ultra Sun and want some blue, green, or purple clothing without having to grind in Festival Plaza? You're out of luck.
    • Much as Festival Plaza itself was generally seen as a poor man's PSS and Join Avenue, the Battle Agency is seen as a poor man's Battle Factory. You can rent Pokémon as usual, but only one - your other two are based on partners that you have to choose. Winning a battle increases your rank and the level of your hired Pokémon, but your partners won't level up unless they do as well. The default "Festival Fan" partners are underwhelming as well, frequently carrying level 50 Pokémon that quickly become near-useless as your rank rises. Constant communication with other Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon players is vital - Sun and Moon players are stuck at rank 0 and you will be locked out of using anybody who hasn't connected with/go online at the same time as you for 48 hours. Until you beat your opponents, you will be stuck with the same ally team and the same enemy team unless you use a Switcheroo facility to reroll your available Pokémom. If that wasn't enough, many of the usable Pokémon have useless abilities (like Durant with Truant) and outright bizarre nature/moveset/EV spread choices, making the experience all the more bewilderingly frustrating. Your rank also rises after each battle regardless of the outcome, forcing you to talk to Sophocles before the next match.
  • Dusk Form Lycanroc only evolves at sunset (5:00-5:59) in-game. This isn't an issue in Ultra Sun but for Ultra Moon players, this means having to evolve it between 5:00-6:00 AM. This may be made slightly easier when you have access to the reverse world in the post-game, but this is significantly less convenient for the main campaign. You can try to get around it by tinkering with the 3DS clock, but thanks to No Fair Cheating, this will result in every "Once A Day" event, such as berries and the Battle Buffet, being locked for 24 hours. Another easy way to get it is to trade it with a friend who plays Ultra Sun (So they can evolve the Rockruff for you and trade them back). But those who don't have a friend playing it are out of luck.
  • While catching Legendary Pokémon is awesome, it has the same problems as in Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. Notably, to catch Suicune, Rayquaza, Giratina, Kyurem and Landorus, you need to have both of the other Pokémon of their respective trio while only one can be caught directly in your version of the game, and unlike Mascot Legendaries or version-exclusive Ultra Beasts in Sun and Moon, you won't have any spare monsters (though a series of Legendary Mystery Gifts running throughout 2018 may provide some relief).
  • Some have complained about Rotom getting a bit too chatty when it takes a liking to the player, since it hides the island's map when it talks. This is especially annoying when Rotom starts a speech with "Here's where I give you advice you didn't ask for..." and proceeds to give the player a piece of advice it'd already given a dozen times before. This tends to happen most times the player exits any menu or otherwise go back to the main overworld. Another complaint regarding Rotom is wasting a few seconds to inform you when you haven't previously seen the wild Pokémon that you're currently facing, something you can figure out on your own.
    • Two powers, HP and PP Restore, can only be used in battle. Using said powers (alongside Stat Boost) does not count as a free turn, meaning you may as well have simply used a potion or elixir instead, rendering these powers rather pointless. If they were able to be used outside of battle, they could have been used to save up on item usage, but this is not the case.
  • Some fans felt that the Shiny hunting mechanic with the Ultra Wormholes in regards to regular Pokémon cheapened the value of Shiny Pokémon. Conversely, some were against the severely limited pool of available regular mons in the Ultra Wormholes: only 20, five each in each of the four different non-UB Ultra Wormhole areas. It's not so much for the Legendaries and UB's, since those are ruled by the game's usual Shiny mechanics.
  • "Wild Blissey used Fling! Wild Blissey threw away its Lucky Egg!". Hopefully you are chaining on Chansey with a Pokémon with Thief, as otherwise that 5% chance of Blissey carrying a Lucky Egg can be wasted...far easier than you can imagine.
  • Ultra Warp Ride is generally liked, but it's rife with a number of frustrating things, particularly related to Event-Obscuring Camera issues. The turns in the tunnel tend to be sharp and easily obscure most of the riding field, the Ultra Wormholes are much more opaque than the usual ones and block up most of the screen as they get close, as does Lunala when flying at the top of the screen due to its massive wingspan (a problem that also occurs in battles) and make it easy to accidentally run into an electric orb or a wormhole you weren't intending to go into. The motion controls, on the other hand, are outright despised for being terrible and being the default option, and nothing in the game tells you that you can switch to Circle Pad controls unless you go over to the Game Freak Building in Heahea City and talk to the Aether Employee who shows up after your first use of Ultra Warp Ride.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike:
  • Ultra Sun and Moon may give players various perks thanks to Rotom, but a lot of the boss battles, including Hau, Gladion, and the Totem Pokémon, are significantly tougher than people who've played the original Sun and Moon may remember. In the case of the Totem Pokémon, the majority of them have changed, have stronger ally Pokémon, and utilize coverage moves and strategies that are practically guaranteed to catch you off-guard and give you a difficult fight. To say nothing of Ultra Necrozma in Ultra Megalopolis.
  • Hau in particular went from a pushover to a borderline Adaptational Badass - coming at you with a Dragon-type (on the first island) and with a roster of five Pokémon that're equally (or even higher) leveled to Olivia's Pokémon. In fact, Hau becomes the Final Boss.
  • In the original games, you can fight the trial captains with the exception of Acerola after clearing the respective islands grand trials with their Pokémon being roughly at the same level as the Kahuna of the island. In here, however, minus Acerola and Mina, you can only fight them post-game, with them having properly high-level teams of three Pokémon fitting of a post-game team. As such, players who played the original games expecting their teams to be the same as the originals would be caught completely off-guard.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: Upon clearing Hala's grand trial (which is considerably early in the game), two particularly addictive features are unlocked:
  • Mantine Surf is easily a very addictive mini-game. With additional points that you can gain BP's in a steady phase, as pointed out in Author's Saving Throw, most players will find themselves playing Mantine Surf and getting items such as Max Revives and Rare Candies first, along with getting Disc-One Nuke moves such as Shock Wave and Water Pulse. Play your cards right with the Poni Beach course to earn a score higher than 100k, and you can earn 50 BP in one go.
  • If you're the sort of person who enjoys taking photos of their Pokémon or abusing creative game features to make hilarious/lewd scenarios, you will likely love the Alola Photo Club. It allows for people to take photos of their Pokémon alone or with their avatars in most of the game's battle environments with a nice variety of lengths and angles, pose the Pokémon with most of their available battle and Refresh animations and the Trainers with Alolan greeting and most Z-Move poses, and then add a wide range of frames and stickers to the finished photo.
  • The moment you beat Ultra Necrozma, the Ultra Wormholes are opened up, allowing you to immediately start hunting for Legendaries, Ultra Beasts, and regular Shiny Pokémon. Many Let's Play streamers and producers held up playthroughs of the games to do so. Some finished the game with completely different rosters from what they originally played with, including all-Shiny parties and all-Legendary parties.
• Slow-Paced Beginning:
  • For those who already played Sun and Moon, the first half or so of the game can feel like this; barring the Ultra Recon Squad appearing early on as an early hint of the new story, the story doesn't really deviate much from the precursors until the first time you go to Aether Paradise, which doesn't happen until after the second Grand Trial. There are some minor differences in dialogue and events prior to that, but overall, a veteran player might need some patience to get to the new content.
  • Similar to how players felt about Sun and Moon, the first island still goes about railroading you immensely with tutorials and hand-holding.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The game will sometimes attempt to fit a length of text that normally should take up two lines onto a single one by reducing the width of the letters. All this ends up doing is causing the anti-aliasing to blur the text somewhat and make it hard to read.
  • Following suit from the problems that plagued Wally's battle model in Sun and Moon, Lysandre's battle model has less polygons than the battle model he had in X and Y and is made in a slightly deformed style that looks weird compared to the realistically tall build of the orignal one. Some people find that the texture markings he has to discern his facial structure just end up looking rather weird, and the textures on his clothes have been pointed out as being of a lower quality as well.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The main melody of Ultra Necrozma’s battle theme sounds similar to the Famicom Disk System startup jingle.
• Tainted by the Preview: A large number of fans and casual players alike were apathetic towards Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon's announcement. This appears to be a result of several factors, mainly a lack of information^*Until Dusk Forme Lycanroc's announcement in August 2017, no new information apart from another new Ash Cap Pikachu had come out since the initial trailer two months before, and what little was shown not gaining some people's interest. While this is nothing new for Updated Rereleases, some people feel that the information revealed for such previous games excited them more than that of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The controversy of the original games didn't help.
• That One Boss: It's pretty much unanimous that these games are MUCH harder than vanilla Sun and Moon, as virtually all the boss battles from Totem Gumshoos/Raticate onwards have been upgraded to be much more difficult to beat, not to mention several new and powerful ones as well:
  • Totem Wishiwashi was replaced with Totem Araquanid, which is arguably just as hard. With decently high defenses and sky-high offenses from its Water moves being boosted by both the rain and its Water Bubble ability, it will be able to deliver devastating attacks even to targets that resist Water. It also knows Leech Life to damage you while healing itself. Unprepared Flying-type Pokémon will be caught off-guard by Araquanid's Aurora Beam. The tactics that Araquanid uses all compensate for its poor Speed stat. It starts the battle with a +1 boost to Speed. The Masquerain it summons knows Tailwind to boost its allies' Speed for several turns, as well as Stun Spore and Scary Face to cripple speedy Pokémon and Bug Bite to steal held berries. The Dewpider knows Sticky Web to slow down grounded switch-ins and shares Araquanid's Water Bubble ability, allowing it and Araquanid to pelt you with extremely deadly Bubbles; like Masquerain, it also has Bug Bite to steal held berries.
  • Totem Marowak has a Totem Aura that boosts its Speed. Sounds nonthreatening from a slow Pokémon, doesn't it? What the game fails to mention if you don't bring a Pokémon with the Frisk ability, however, is that Totem Marowak is holding a Thick Club that doubles its Attack, letting it hit you decently fast and really hard. If that's not bad enough, it summons a level 20 Salazzle, who normally evolve from Salandit at Level 33, who loves to spam Flame Burst and Venoshock. Note that Totem Marowak has Detect, and if it uses it on its first turn, it's guaranteed to summon Salazzle even if you can oneshot it with Brionne. Think a Dark or Rock type will do the trick? Nope! The Marowak has Brick Break.
  • Totem Lurantis was already a notorious example in Sun and Moon, but here it is much worse. It kept its Solar Blade and Synthesis moves along with the Power Herb and still has a free boost to its Speed, but it replaced Razor Leaf with Low Sweep (a move that always lowers the Speed of those hit) to ensure your Pokémon won't outrun it. Its allies this time are Comfey and Kecleon, who both know Sunny Day (giving Lurantis a stronger heal from Synthesis, makes Solar Blade a one-turn move instead of two, and activates its Leaf Guard ability which makes it immune to Status effects) and are just dying to use it on you.^*In the original games, its partners were Trumbeak and Castform, of which only the latter could use Sunny Day and would only appear if Lurantis' HP was below 25%. Kecleon's Ancient Power will give most Pokémon with a type advantage over Lurantis a run for their money, and confuse others with Dizzy Punch. Comfey on the other hand, will support Lurantis by raising its Defense with Flower Shield, and restoring its HP through Floral Healing, effectively giving Lurantis TWO healing methods. But the big kicker is Comfey's ability: Flower Veil, which not only protects Lurantis from Status moves, but also prevents it from having any of its stats lowered!
  • Remember the battle against Hau on Ula'ula Island? In the original Sun and Moon, most of the threat he poses is thanks to his Alolan Raichu, which adores spamming powerful Electro Ball and Psychic attacks, which can easily tear through undertrained and/or unresistant Pokémon. Not only is it back in these games, Hau's also packing a much-improved roster of five Pokémon, including his new Tauros, which hits insanely hard with its Horn Attack and will likely run circles around every Pokémon you have at that point. He also has his Eeveelution that has the type advantage against your starter, and if you chose Litten, his Vaporeon ain't going down without serious effort on your part. To top it all off, the levels of Hau's entire team are higher than those of Island Kahuna Olivia's Pokémon, which was the last Grand Trial you faced. Unless you're throughly prepared and have brought your A-game, Hau and his squad could put you in legitimate danger of losing the battle. One saving grace is that the battle was moved further along the path to Malie, allowing you to access the Pokémon Center and save.^note In the original Sun and Moon, this was a Sequential Boss directly after Nihilego.
  • Totem Togedemaru can be quite a challenge if one doesn't have a Ground-type on their team. Its aura sharply raises its Defense, and each of its attacks hit hard. Two of its moves (Zing Zap and Iron Head)^*Iron Head may come as a bit of a surprise to those familiar with its movepool in the originals, where its only damaging Steel STAB-move was Gyro Ball (which is useless on a fast Pokémon such as Togedemaru since it deals more damage if the user is slower than the target) can make your Pokémon flinch, and also knows Spiky Shield to injure any Pokémon that use a physical move on it. The first ally Togedemaru calls in is Skarmory, which will use Tailwind whenever it can to make the speedy Togedemaru even faster, which coupled with its moves, means chances are your team will be flinching very often. Skarmory's Sturdy ability can make Z-Moves used on it go to waste, and is hard to take out since it only has two weaknesses. Attempts to zap Skarmory out of the sky with an Electric move will be answered by Togedemaru's Lightning Rod ability absorbing the attack, and Skarmory also knows Stealth Rock to damage your team when they switch in and acts as a counter to any Fire-types you may have brung. It also knows Torment to stop your Pokémon from using a move twice in a row. Togedemaru's other ally, Dedenne, will be busy crippling your team's offensive prowess by lowering their Attack and Special Attack stats using Charm and Eerie Impulse respectively. It also knows Super Fang to bust through bulkier Pokémon, cutting their HP in half. Thinking of bringing in a Grass-type due to its resistance against Electric-types or a Fighting-type to counter Togedemaru's Steel typing? Guess what? It knows Bounce.
  • Totem Mimikyu is a nightmare to look at and a nightmare to fight. The pint-sized demon was already a nasty piece of work in the originals, but has received upgrades similar to the other unchanged Totem Pokémon. It retains its one stage boost to ALL stats and packs the absolutely destructive Shadow Claw and Play Rough, which give it unresisted Dual STAB coverage bar a few dual typings. The rather useless Astonish has been replaced by Leech Life, giving it a powerful new coverage move and healing option. Its allies are now Banette and Jellicent. The former has Screech to turn its targets' Defense into butter, Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers, and Curse, which it gleefully abuses to steadily whittle down your Pokémon's HP. Jellicent, on the other hand, has heavy damage output with Water Pulse and the guaranteed damage of Night Shade. Oh, and Mimikyu still has its Disguise Ability and its Lum Berry, meaning you can't just quickly cheese the fight with a Z-move or a crippling status effect. Not even the Thicc Tricc can save you now. Have fun!
  • Unlike the original Sun and Moon games, where Guzma's encounter is at level 36-37 at Po Town, his levels are Level 41 in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. And if you're doing a walkthrough where you're attempting to not have your Pokémon too much higher than the Totem/Boss Pokémon, you're going to have to do some seeeerious grinding, as Mimikyu's level is at 35. All of the Team Skull Grunts before Guzma, have rather weak Pokémon that are difficult to grind off of. And his Pokémon have been beefed up. He retains the Masquerain he had from the battle at Malie Garden and adds a Pinsir with Storm Throw, a move that always scores a critical hit.
  • Totem Kommo-o got a significant buff here. Just like in the original games, it has all its stats boosted, but here it has four physical attacks - Dragon Claw for Dragon-type STAB that doesn't lower its Defense, Drain Punch for Fighting-type STAB that can heal up some of the damage it inflicts, and Poison Jab and Thunder Punch for Fairy and Flying-types respectively. Next, its allies are closer to its level, unlike in the originals where they were way lower leveled and basically useless. It can summon Noivern, which can use Screech to half the physical Defense of your Pokémon and leave you vulnerable to the totem, and it once again has Scizor to combat those Fairy or Psychic-types you were planning to throw in its face. Lastly, it holds a Roseli Berry to nullify one Fairy-type attack, which would be the most obvious answer to it normally. Definitely one that might throw you for a curve if you were accustomed to it being easy in the originals.
  • Ultra Necrozma quickly became notorious for its abnormally high difficulty, often being compared to Cynthia or Ghetsis in terms of difficulty. Its base stats, especially both Attack stats, are immense, having a BST of 754, higher than Arceus. It starts battle at Level 60 and with an Aura that boosts all its stats further, and it has an extremely varied moveset^note It knows Dragon Pulse, Smart Strike, Power Gem and Photon Geyser. Noteworthy is that Dragon Pulse and Smart Strike are moves it can only learn via tutor and TM. specifically designed to line up super-effective attacks against as many types as possible, especially against its weaknesses^note Dragon Pulse takes out Dragons on top of having STAB, Power Gem crushes Ice and Bug, Smart Strike destroys Fairy and Ice, and Photon Geyser provides general STAB damage and supereffective damage against several other types, leaving Dark, Ghost (supereffective against it without being vulnerable to any of its moves), and Steel (which resists every move it has but is harder to get at this point) as your best bet in dealing with it. If that's not enough, it outspeeds pretty much anything in the game, is deceptively bulky, and delivers lethal or near-lethal attacks with every turn, further bolstered by its Neuroforce ability that increases the damage of its super-effective moves even more, but even without type effectiveness its attacks still shave off huge amounts of health. You had best hope that you have a supply of Potions and Revives stocked up, because you will almost certainly need them (and while you're at it, maybe something that knows Toxic). And God help you if you're doing a Nuzlocke run...
  • Totem Ribombee may look like a joke, but it most certainly is not. Regular Ribombee already has an impressive base Speed of 124, but all of its stats go up by two stages at the beginning of the battle. Due to its insane Speed, it's near impossible to stop it from setting up Quiver Dance to boost its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed even further as its partner Blissey heals it. Pelipper, meanwhile, protects Ribombee from Fire attacks with Drizzle^note not helping is that the Totem has an Occa Berry, which will cut down one Fire-type attack, Scald has a high chance of burning to stop physical attackers in their tracks, while Seed Bomb discourages some Water-type Pokémon from taking advantage of the rain Pelipper summons. And don't ever forget that this is the fight that comes right after Ultra Necrozma.
  • Lysandre in Episode RR is considered one of the tougher foes in the arc. He starts out like the previous bosses, but takes things up a notch by Mega Evolving his Gyarados, which makes an already threatening foe even worse. And then he sends out either Xerneas or Yveltal, who will continue to destroy you no matter which you're up against.
  • Giovanni at the end of Episode RR. His team consists of mostly ground-types, but his ace Pokémon is a Level 70 Mega Mewtwo. The thing is an absolute beast. It can outspeed pretty much anything you have, and its ungodly offensive stats, depending on the version, combined with knowledge of moves like Ice Beam, Aura Sphere and Psystrike allow it to make short work of anything it can line up a weakness with.
  • Ultra Sun players got the long end of the stick in terms of competitive Ultra Beasts, with UB Burst/Blacephalon being an extremely strong special attacker. Unluckily for them, trying to catch Blacephalon with anything that doesn't resist or nullify it is an absolute nightmare. Blacephalon's aura sharply boosts its Special Attack, which means that just about anything will die to its extremely powerful Mind Blown attack, with its other attacks (Fire Blast and Shadow Ball) also being fairly strong. Additionally, if you already dealt at least 50% damage to Blacephalon, then Mind Blown will cause it to kill itself. Oh yeah, and each time Blacephalon kills a Pokémon, its Special Attack is amplified further.
• That One Level: For Mantine Surfing, Poni Island's beach is probably the most difficult by far, as obstacles are swarming in its path, leaving you little time to accumulate speed and points. It doesn't help that the high score requirements are that much higher than the other beaches.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Getting TM 08 Bulk Up requires multiple steps to complete including having TM 62 Acrobatics to teach to an Incineroar Trainer in Royal Avenue at night, and then giving a Coba Berry to a Machamp Trainer in the same location during the day. But getting the Coba Berry is a Luck-Based Mission that could possibly take several days to obtain depending on how lucky you are, as it can be found under one berry tree in Poni Wilds, and there are many other berries that can be found there as well, and of course when all of the berries under the tree have been gathered, you must wait until the next day to try again. The other option is to have it possibly drop after battling a wild Medicham in Ultra Space Wilds, which is more tedious, but at least you don't have to possibly wait days.
  • Finding Guzzlord in the Ultra Space Wilds, since the best chance of finding it is in the Level 4 White Wormholes. White Wormholes are already rarer than the others, and Level 4 Wormholes only show up at most 5% of the time. Add that to the difficulty of Ultra Warp Ride and Guzzlord's Damage-Sponge Boss status from the previous game, and you've got the most frustrating Pokémon to find in the entire game.
  • It may look like at first glance that 5 out of 10 of the evolutionary-line fossil Pokémon are version exclusive, but in actuality, there is a way to obtain all of them in one game. To do so however can be very time consuming as it requires the player to go into Poké Pelago, and continuously send Pokémon off on "Rare-Treasure Hunting" trips in the hopes that 1 of the random items that gets brought back after 12+ hours (depending on Poké Bean usage to reduce the timer) turns out to be 1 of the new fossils that can only be purchased from the opposing game. With 5 fossil exclusives to search for, finding just 1 of them could already end up taking days to get from a random drop due to being the rarest items that could be brought back.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • With the threat of Necrozma stealing light from different worlds, surely that would mean it'd be time for Zygarde to step in to save the day, right? Especially since it's supposed to be a protector of the ecosystem? Sadly no, it remains irrelevant to any plotline and is still treated as an afterthought, being nothing more than a postgame Pokemon to catch and nothing more. At the very least its rather annoying Collection Sidequest is removed in favour of another one that's not as annoying as it's no longer time dependent.
  • On the subject of Necrozma, Ultra Necrozma is well-liked by many fans for being the most visually coherent and powerful of Necrozma's forms along with its apparent "true" form, and for its awesome light dragon design. However, unlike with Mega Evolutions, its Ultra Burst transformation is tied to Z-Moves. This means that Ultra Necrozma hasn't made another mainline appearance since USUM, with Necrozma only able to transform into its Dusk Mane and Dawn Wings forms in Pokémon Sword and Shield. Some fans are hoping that it can instead be reworked as a normal in-battle transformation like with Zygarde's Complete Forme; its only appearance since the start of Generation VIII has been in Pokémon Masters as a transformation for Lusamine's Dusk Mane Necrozma.
  • Despite being available without the need for Temporary Online Content in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Deoxys is conspicuously absent from the massive roster of returning Legendary Pokémon (technically it's a Mythical Pokémon, but its absence is still fairly strange).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Ultra Megalopolis is disappointingly short, similar to Ultra Space in the original pair. It amounts to a small hallway and an elevator to the top of Megalo Tower. Once you defeat Ultra Necrozma there and receive Poipole as a reward for your victory, you have no reason to ever come back other than to switch what kind of Pokémon you ride through Ultra Space (being Solgaleo or Lunala).
  • Given the affirmation of The Multiverse with Team Rainbow Rocket's members coming from other universes, a few fans were disappointed that the Legendary Pokémon found in Ultra Space didn't have unique areas based on their original locations (such as Cerulean Cave for Mewtwo and Sky Pillar for Rayquaza), with all of them instead appearing in fairly generic "one-size-fits-all" caves and wilds.
  • A good number of players are disappointed that Red and Blue did not take part in the Rainbow Rocket segment, if only so they could see the interactions that Red and Blue would have with Giovanni.
  • Because none of the returning Legendary Pokémon have Pokédex entries, it means we don't get entries for Mega Rayquaza or Mega Mewtwo X and Y. And admit it; you were hoping to learn just how Mega Evolution — here portrayed as Body Horror incarnate — royally messes with those two (especially since Mewtwo is already as savage and bloodthirsty as any Mega Evolved Pokémon).
  • Despite the games being marketed as an alternative timeline to Sun and Moon, it was mostly the same aside from events towards the end. Some think it's far too similar to the original Sun & Moon aside from a few characters.
  • The cutscene of the Ultra Beasts coming to Alola has been extended to show all the Kahunas finding themselves facing one of them and not just Hala. Does this mean that we get a small arc where we go around all the islands back again to repel them? Of course not.
• They Changed It, So It Sucks: While it's very divisive which interpretation of Lusamine is considered the "better" choice, it can be agreed upon that demoting her from Big Bad status and having her turned into a Damsel in Distress did not sit well with fans of either version.
• Underused Game Mechanic: Alolan forms, despite some missteps that left some of them as Low-Tier Letdowns, were well-received for the most part, with some of them (such as Alolan Marowak, Alolan Raichu, and Alolan Exeggutor) being very popular for a variety of reasons. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, however the Alolan Forme concept was scarcely advertised in the months leading up to the games, and ultimately, there turned out to not be any new ones at all. The fanbase was disappointed.^*It didn't help that rumors were flying around before the games' release that Vileplume or Victreebel were set to get Alolan forms in the games, though it turned out that this was just that: rumors.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Blacephalon and Stakataka (first advertised as UB Burst and UB Assembly) came entirely out of left field. Past Updated Rereleases featured new forms for existing Pokémon, as well as releasing a few Dummied Out Mythical Pokémon, but the idea of entirely new Pokémon being introduced mid-generation was previously unthinkable!
  • Molayne as a member of the Elite Four came out of such left field that people actually missed the foreshadowing that he was in the Elite Four instead of Hala!
  • Between the emphasis on the apparently evil Necrozma and the introduction of the shady-looking Ultra Recon Squad, almost nobody saw the return of previous villains Team Rocket coming. For that matter, nobody would have seriously expected all of the other leaders of the previous villain teams returning, let alone in their original character designs.
  • Because Necrozma was already given Fusion Dance alternate forms a la Black/White Kyurem, nobody was expecting it to have a third form that serves as a straight-up Super Mode, let alone one that has very little to do visually with Solgaleo or Lunala despite "evolving" from said fused forms.
• Vindicated by History: With a quick turnaround, at that. When the games were first released, they were controversial for not changing much from the original Sun and Moon (and retaining some of its flaws such as extreme linearity), as well as not having as huge or expansive a postgame as others such as Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. However, after Pokémon Sword and Shield were released and caused massive controversy that dwarfed that of USUM, some fans began to come around to the latter once again, especially when judging the games on their own merits and not as expansions to Sun and Moon. In particular, its massive roster of catchable Pokémon (in the Alola Dex and beyond), its Sequel Difficulty Spike and the exploration that opens up later in the game are contrasted positively with Sword and Shield's "Dexit" controversy, extremely low difficulty and complete lack of optional areas besides the Wild Area. While not praised to the extent of B2W2 (yet), some fans appreciate how USUM, having built on a previous game, feel like complete, functional games with a decent helping of bonus features compared to SwSh.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • Following the first few months after these games were first announced, fans were concerned that — other than a few plot differences, a few new features, and a few new Ultra Beasts — these games wouldn't have many differences from Sun and Moon. It seems Game Freak caught on to the more polarizing reception of the games' announcement, and most early October promotional material put emphasis on how different these games are (read: how many features will be added) compared to the original Sun and Moon.
  • Before October, the Surf's Up Mantine trailer swayed a number of people to look at the game more favorably. The addition of the Mantine Surf feature was the first major sign to players that the game would have more than just cosmetic changes, and got a number of people buzzing about the game.
  • Being able to fight all of the other previous villains. There is no way a part of you didn't want to fight them in 3D, and all of them in one game.
• The Woobie:
  • While Gladion and Lillie were undeniably this in the originals, they get taken up another notch in this version, with the disappearance of their father, Mohn, coming to the forefront of the main story.
  • Surprisingly, Lusamine, who also overlaps with Jerkass Woobie. The loss of her husband caused her to take desperately extreme measures to keep those she cares about safe, even if it isn't always the right way. Her devastation by Mohn's disappearance causes her to hang onto the Pokémon she froze so they won't leave her. And then her children, the only two people she has left in her family, ran away from her and left her for 2 years and 3 months. And then when she meets with Mohn again, he has lost his memory and as such doesn't remember her, and so she had to let him go for the sake of his happiness. At the end of the day, you really want to give the poor woman a hug for all she's gone through.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Several of the alternate costumes after you complete the game have been criticised, most notably the Kommo-o outfit for males that you have to have $1,700,000 for the whole set, with some saying that the main character looks like a stripper wearing it or that the outfit looks like a bondage suit despite the fact that the main character is 11 years old. Many prefer the girl exclusive Lurantis outfit despite showing a similar amount of skin.

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