SPOILERS! Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon News & Discussion

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I just hope the catching o-power comes back. It was neat to be easily able to use any Pokeball on legends.

Edit: I love Rotomdex, so I'm happy it has more functions.
 
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This bit of news feels really underwhelming. Guess it just wasn’t what I personally wanted to be revealed.

I do wonder if Rotom will have a different Z-move for each of its forms or is if it’s exclusive to the Rotom dex.
 
Is Rotom Dex going to be an obtainable form now? I thought Rotom loses all of its combat abilities when it enters this Pokédex.
 
Mate, they pulled the same stunts in GSC. Game Freak seemed to believe for a time that access to the Pokedex in their soft sequels (The even-numbered gens, until they got to gen6) should have been more of an expansion pack to an existing list instead of putting every new species right in front of you.

The only difference is, reorganizing pokemon encounters and the extra features in Platinum didn't require rewriting major story or world elements like they're doing with USUM. Imagine what it would be like if Volkner just walked up and gave you the last badge without a fight the same way Mina did. That's the point I'm trying to make.
Mayor story elements like the order in which Fantina is battled to improve the pacing? or Cyrus shown actually interacting with the rest of Team Galactic to explain his motivations? or mentioning that the 3 lakes where the home of legendaries before those legendaries where even mentioned? or Team Galactic members even mentioning why they follow Cyrus? it goes on


ohman Rotomdex is finally been treated like a pokemon which with you can interact! even with the Ride pokemon you could bond more
and hopefully like the rest of Refresh's bonuses double Z-moves are exclusive to in-game
 
Mayor story elements like the order in which Fantina is battled to improve the pacing? or Cyrus shown actually interacting with the rest of Team Galactic to explain his motivations? or mentioning that the 3 lakes where the home of legendaries before those legendaries where even mentioned? or Team Galactic members even mentioning why they follow Cyrus? it goes on
But none of those changed the overall plot of Diamond and Pearl: Platinum was still ultimately the same story. Meanwhile USUM looks like they were deciding between making another Platinum and another BW2 until someone at the office said "why not both?"
 
... are we criticising USUM for not having the same story as a game we already bought?
I ain't, and if it looked like I was then I chose poor language. But as of now it seems like the story will mostly follow SM to a point, then hard swerve left into a new story (hence the comparison)... and that seems pretty interesting to me.
 
... are we criticising USUM for not having the same story as a game we already bought?
Not quite.

The criticism is to the decision to ship a S/M that was feeling extremely unfinished, whatever the reason was.

I would assume that whoever had that idea got whipped to blood, because USUM looks completely different and better so far.


But then, it's GF we talk about, I'm prepared to be disappointed again :P
 
But none of those changed the overall plot of Diamond and Pearl: Platinum was still ultimately the same story. Meanwhile USUM looks like they were deciding between making another Platinum and another BW2 until someone at the office said "why not both?"
Platinum is arguably the best game in the franchise & BW2 has one of the best postgames, trying to reach the quality of those games is something I would want Gamefreak to aspire to with every game.
 
But none of those changed the overall plot of Diamond and Pearl: Platinum was still ultimately the same story. Meanwhile USUM looks like they were deciding between making another Platinum and another BW2 until someone at the office said "why not both?"
Ultimately Diamond and Pearl had the same problem as Sun and Moon - the plot felt incomplete. While Platinum didn't go up to the same level as Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (as far as we know), it did flesh Team Galactic out much more (particularly Cyrus), and pretty much something happens in every place you go.
 
I hope they make the double Z-Move difficult to get. Not level 5 Poke Finder level difficult (or rather, tedious), but difficult enough to require a bit more than regular gameplay to achieve. That, or maybe they made the E4 and champion tougher that you might need the extra Z-Move to beat them.
 
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Ultimately Diamond and Pearl had the same problem as Sun and Moon - the plot felt incomplete. While Platinum didn't go up to the same level as Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (as far as we know), it did flesh Team Galactic out much more (particularly Cyrus), and pretty much something happens in every place you go.
This.
As far as Sun and Moon's story goes I liked it, but I'm hoping that Ultra will expand on some things, namely Lillie's character arc since I felt that it would've been better if she had started catching pokemon throughout the story and then ended the story by battling you.
 
Just wait for the moment when getting the privilege from Rotom to use two z-moves is as easy as maxing out your pokemon's affection in Pokemon Refresh. Any friendship-based aspect of Pokemon games other than the literal Friendship/Happiness level of a Pokemon has been fairly easy to work with.

It takes like 20 minutes per party member in Amie/Refresh to give your pokes more chances for crit hits and dodges during gameplay. Something tells me Rotomdex's new powers will be a mix between that and unlocking new powers at predetermined plot points.
 
I hope they make the double Z-Move difficult to get. Not level 5 Poke Finder level difficult (or rather, tedious), but difficult enough to require a bit more than regular gameplay to achieve. That, or maybe they made the E4 and champion tougher that you might need the extra Z-Move to beat them.
They'd probably pulled out the "You need to get level 4 in that PokeFinder photographing thing". Oh boy....

Jokes aside, did CoroCoro mention about how many times exactly you can launch extra Z-moves, once more or multiple times more with special requirements? The former might be borderline broken but not totally off the roof ridiculous, the latter will be just outright busted for Competitive.
Either way I don't see it possible for competitive online but I guess that has something to do with the black Z-ring you were given.

I was pretty sure the top 12 teams were all featuring Mega-Mence and Mega-Kanga, which were borderline more broken, weren't them?

On top of the omnipresence of P-Groudon.
I thought the reason is because with one in-game limitation for Megas and maximum two Legendaries which can also be something as broken as Primals and Xerneas, it'd be more logical to use 2 big-ol' legendaries and one mega (effectively 3 broken stuff in a 4-pokemon rollout) instead of the Mega Ray which takes up both a Mega and Legendary slot, although I do agree Ray isn't as broken as it is in Singles because of teammates. (jesus who the hell thought desolate land and a 780 bst with water as only one of two weakness is a good idea?)
 
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Looks like solgaleo-necrozma can be a nice offensive supporter with rocks, twave, recovery and an attacking move. And of course z-slpash is possible too, with either autotomize or webs support to outspeed otherwise faster mons.
 
~snip
It takes like 20 minutes per party member in Amie/Refresh to give your pokes more chances for crit hits and dodges during gameplay. Something tells me Rotomdex's new powers will be a mix between that and unlocking new powers at predetermined plot points.
I think you meant 30 seconds. All you have to do is feed them 3 rainbow beans and their affection is maxed out.
 
I've been lying low for a while, so hi all long time no see, I'd like to pitch in on all of the shenanigans that have happened in the last couple weeks.

The Trailers:

I was lukewarm for USUM up until the the last couple of trailers had dropped, I was hopeful that all the pastiche's of BW2 would rub off on actual game play and story line for a much better experience of the Alola region. From the trailers the darker turn on the games, quite literally, gets me excited that one day we might be able to go to one of the many wars that have been referenced in the games to play out a full title in one of those timelines. The whole idea of Necrozma being the antagonist in the game I'm really liking the sound of at this point, even if its a red hearing to the Ultra Recon Squad (I'll slaughter the name a bit more) being the real nemesis. I don't think there has been a main game title that has really had an actual mon as the antagonist without a team behind the mon in some way, so if the game is based around Necrozma being the sole antagonist I'm excited to see how GF play it.

The new stuff:

The expanded movement through Ultra Space I think is going to be a lot of fun, being able to go into other pockets of Ultra Space to find the original UB's in their 'home' territory I think will be fun, by the looks of it though, its a missed opportunity as of yet for some fun different forms for their home territory, but thats beside the point. The flying pangs of Latios/Latias fly in ORAS which I'm not going to complain about. The Megalopolis is looking very edgy and Tron, so no complaints here. My one suspicion, which has still got me obsessed, where is the light being produced in megalopolis? I'll come back to that anyway.

Lapras looks to be benched for surfing this time round, or at least its lost its touch since beating a blastoise for Ash in open seas surfing (props to anyone else for getting the reference.) So we now have the apparently most beloved mon of Generation 7 with how much love its getting, Mantine, to surf between Islands. This is a very nice touch on GF's end. In previous games the majority of the fun is held on one big mainland and you're able to freely move from one end of the map to another without having to take to any cut scenes unless you flew. Alola I think suffered on the hand holding because of how isolated each island was so you moved very markedly from one to another without real opportunities to return to a previous island with ease until you gained Charizard Fly. This hopefully will be opened up to the player earlier than the other ride pokemon so the game returns to its previous titles of being more open world than SM.

The snapshots of Lillie, Hau, Gladion, Guzma, Lusamine and Nebby in relatively similar attire to SM I think seals the idea that this game will be held in an alternate timeline to SM (could we get another previous starter in a demo with battle bond?????) How the game uses Guzma and possibly Team Skull (Po Town is clear on the map, much thinking,) will be interesting, one of the couple things to mitigate from the idea of an alternate timeline. Lusamine our favourite obsessive mother of two and general crazy lady will be a joy to interact with again and revel in how her antics with UB's is involved with the story line.

The return of Rotom Dex I am most thrilled and terrified at. I like the whole concept of Rotom Dex, its a fun gimmick, and a nice addition to the Alola region. What isn't is what happens when we get along really well with it this time round. Multiple Z moves. I have sudden nostalgia to when Z moves were first talked about and how they would level the playing field unlike what Mega Evolution did (reference?). Well GF are doing a good job of going against their word with the gradual introduction of mon specific Z moves and now allowing Z moves to be used multiple times. Both of these things are going to vastly change how both in game and competitive play is approached because, once again, people will prefer the unique and more powerful Z moves and subsequent mons which can abuse particular Z moves. The idea of double Celebrate Victini running around in the OU metagame scares the heck out of me and I hope dearly such things never occur (apart from Ultimate Z.) This revelation however may explain in part why the timer for VGC 18 has been cut to 5 minutes for a battle, due to allowing, national dex, Megamons and the introduction of double Z moves, It will literally be who can annihalated the other the quickest.

The Mons:

UB Burst - Fire Ghost
So near yet so far, I'm still a firm believer that Burst should have been Fire Fairy, it was too good an opportunity to produce a nice new interesting typing. In terms of viability for competitive use (waiting for the trigger) With its design and how GF have been playing their cards on design recently I think its gonna be as good as phero for a glass cannon, especially with Mind Blown, time will tell though whether they shaft the opportunity for a fast alolan marowak with a terrible moveset. I still however enjoy its design I think having talked with a couple of other users on dicord that Burst and Assembly are a step into a new pokemon era with GF starting to really challenge the 3d designs (head rolling general more intricate movements on burst, the eyes across Assembly) Either way Burst I view to be a bit of a missed opportunity typing wise but oh well, we will always be given curve balls.

UB Assembly - Rock Steel
So far: A faster Alolawak. Now: Aggron and Celesteelas ungodly child. So Gumshoos got his wall, this thing i'm really not sure how its stats are gonna go apart from bulky, I'd hope it will be a fast bulky support mon, not very many of those around at all and would be a fun niche to fill. It's design I quite like, my only issue is I think it should be a cylindrical chimeny instead of a cuboid to really get that all-seeing eyes thing going. Nonetheless it is a fun design and I hope it does good for in game backstory and dex entries.

UB Adhesive - Poison
Another opportunity to argue over whether UB's are legendaries? Even if its the first poison 'legendary' I like its design, all three I think we could have done a lot worse on even if i'm naming my UB Adhesive Sludgebi or celepoison. It also means we have our Gen 7 Pixie mon sorted out so we truly are ready to move to Switch, rid ourselves of these silly mono region games, go into VR, hand rear our pokemon from the eggs they were- sorry, got carried away. I'm feeling Xurkitree does poison type stat wise for Adhesive. My issue however is one which has already been made vary clear that these three mons are only going to make ground as a typing on the competitive scene even more spammable.

Necrozma forms - Steel Psychic / Psychic Ghost
I'm loving some of the cinematic battling between necrozma and the respective Legendary's. Maintaining the legendary's typings is a nice switch from how much they were copying Kyurem. Giving both mons Necrozma's ability, Prism Armour, will be very interesting on a competitive side. Solgaleo Necro will, in my eyes at least, be one of the bulkier mons in Ubers and actually challenge Mega Metagross and Aegislash and Lucario for the customary counter to Xern for your team. Lunala Necro on the other hand, out of the two I think will be the more likely to fall to OU if either of them do, if GF give it slightly more speed and some bulk then it'll be a force to be reckoned with however shadow shield was the reason why it didn't get sent back to ultra space by any dark type attack, without it I'm not sure it will be able to handle dark type attacks nearly as well.

The Light Mon - ?????
We still are no closer to what the eyes are on the cover arts for the game. whether it be Necrozma in Ultra Space or a wholly new pokemon. I'm still enchanted by the idea of a light pokemon but I feel like GF wouldn't make that step. However I live in hope.

BOLD predictions:

1. Through the ultra space fun is how we get to the vermillion gym esque place.
2. The hallowed Light Pokemon is in fact lighting the spire in the Megalopolis (Recon Squad is evil, noooooooooooooooooo)
3. Necrozma will be gendered
4. adding onto 2, the Light pokemon is in fact another necrozma in its Ultra Space form and is the female/male to the other one who's tearing up the place and its sole reason for all the mayhem is to free the other Necrozma

Feel free to tear this apart, ily all, nice to get back onto the forums again :)

ps: sorry for the number of 'fun' USUM is looking good thats all lol
 
It takes like 20 minutes per party member in Amie/Refresh to give your pokes more chances for crit hits and dodges during gameplay. Something tells me Rotomdex's new powers will be a mix between that and unlocking new powers at predetermined plot points.
Just need to comment... in XY it took me 1 hour to max affection of 3 Pokémon (I usually cycle them), but in SM? Ahahahahahya.... less than 2 minutes for feeding two Rainbow Beans per mon.
 
Jokes aside, did CoroCoro mention about how many times exactly you can launch extra Z-moves, once more or multiple times more with special requirements? The former might be borderline broken but not totally off the roof ridiculous, the latter will be just outright busted for Competitive.
It says you can use it one more time, but the specific mechanics are unknown right now. All it says it "Rotom will come out to help you after your Z-Move", so maybe if you're close with your Rotom Dex, it'll just pop up every time after you use your Z-Move for the first time that battle.

Hopefully we get more information on Thursday night (Japan time), which is when they've been releasing new information on Twitter and the website.
 
iirc when Zard-Y was revealed it was said to get a "massive Special Attack boost" or something along those lines, and it ended up getting +50. So if it was said that Dusk Mane/Dawn Wings just get an "Attack boost" and "Special Attack boost" then I'd guess it's less than 50 - I know that's really grasping at straws but it makes sense. However, those are most likely the stats which receive the largest boosts and the size of the boosts must be pretty decent, because if not, why would they mention it?

So it seems that the Attack/Special Attack boost they'll get is probably like +30. Similarly to KyuB and KyuW, two cover legendaries with 680 BST are merging with the 600 BST legendary, so it makes sense that Dusk Mane/Dawn Wings will have 780 BST.

Based on all this, I think it's very reasonable to guess that Dusk Mane will get around +30 in Attack and +20/+10 in a few of its other stats, and similarly for Dawn Wings. Again this is kind of grasping at straws but that's what we do during this time - try to reasonably extrapolate as much as possible using the scarce info.
KyuBW had 700 BST, not 780. So it might actually just be +20 to Atk/SpA and that's it.
 

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iirc when Zard-Y was revealed it was said to get a "massive Special Attack boost" or something along those lines, and it ended up getting +50. So if it was said that Dusk Mane/Dawn Wings just get an "Attack boost" and "Special Attack boost" then I'd guess it's less than 50 - I know that's really grasping at straws but it makes sense. However, those are most likely the stats which receive the largest boosts and the size of the boosts must be pretty decent, because if not, why would they mention it?

So it seems that the Attack/Special Attack boost they'll get is probably like +30. Similarly to KyuB and KyuW, two cover legendaries with 680 BST are merging with the 600 BST legendary, so it makes sense that Dusk Mane/Dawn Wings will have 780 BST.

Based on all this, I think it's very reasonable to guess that Dusk Mane will get around +30 in Attack and +20/+10 in a few of its other stats, and similarly for Dawn Wings. Again this is kind of grasping at straws but that's what we do during this time - try to reasonably extrapolate as much as possible using the scarce info.
780?! That's on par with a Mega Legendary! No way it'll be that high.

I think it'll just be 700 BST like with the Kyurem fusions. Let's take a look at them:

Normal Kyurem: 125/130/90/130/90/95//660

Reshiram
:
100/120/100/150/120/90//680
White Kyurem: 125/120/90/170/100/95//700

Zekrom
:
100/150/120/120/100/90//680
Black Kyurem: 125/170/100/120/90/95//700

When Kyurem fuses, it gains 40 BST. The non-focused offense stat loses 10 (becoming the same as the dragon it fused with), focused offense stat gains 40 (which is also 20 more than the fused dragon), and 10 to the focused defense. Kyurem's HP, non-focused defense, and Speed remains the same. Also, even with the 10 boost, Kyurem's focused defense stat is still lower than the fused dragon's (but it now has higher HP and slightly higher Speed).

So with this knowledge, let's look at Necrozma, Solgaleo, and Lunala:

Necrozma: 97/107/101/127/89/79//600
Solgaleo: 137/137/107/113/89/97//680
Lunala: 137/113/89/137/107/97//680

Whats with those numbers... OH! Forgot they were Ultra Beasts... Which could maybe be helpful in guessing Necrozma's fusion's stats for those who want to play around with the prime numbers configuration.

But back on topic, now Necrozma's BST is 600 so +100 is a rather big boost for it, essentially a Mega Evolution. BUT, it's stats are probably going to be more based off Solgaleo & Lunala than it's unique stats which, unlike Kyurem, is more specialized. They'd probably will keep the 97 HP, just so thy have the points to spend elsewhere (though note this is no longer a guaranteed prediction now that they've experimented with changing HP between forms with Zygarde). Now while a +150 in offense is pretty good, at the same time for a Legendary it's also sort of standard or just slightly above standard. I would say the increase would be +160 or +170. Than I'd say the other offense stat and the defense stats would get the rest, leaving Speed at 97 (at most increase it to the next prime number: 101, a mere but notable 4 point increase).
 

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idk why I thought they were 780

ok then yeah it's just +20
 
Just need to comment... in XY it took me 1 hour to max affection of 3 Pokémon (I usually cycle them), but in SM? Ahahahahahya.... less than 2 minutes for feeding two Rainbow Beans per mon.
It really flies by after you put the work into the PokePelago, yeah. Forgot about that.
 
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