Little things you like about Pokémon

pika pal

pika pal

is a Community Contributor
Suspicious Derivative said:
Cool thoughts. I had forgotten about Mantine Surfing, the stickers and Pikachu Valley... it has really been too long since I last played the Alola games. Either way, I don't think these three things are enough to make US/UM feel less serious to me. The general tone of the game and the story always felt a lot darker and more serious than in S/M, notably Necrozma's role in the story, and the Rainbow Rocket episode. If anything, regular S/M are the games that feel like a Disney theme park ride to me!
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I guess where I disagree on the story tone there is that USUM aren't light in and of themselves, but they feel a bit less dark from the previous games.

My basis for this primarily pertains to the story climax, as S/M is smaller in scope but also feels more grounded in its subject matter. It's not about stopping an Apocalyptic event, just dealing with the fallout of a broken and abusive family life, without a lot of innuendo or obfuscation for younger players. Rainbow Rocket gets some "theme park" vibes to me given the whole premise is "here's a throwback to all the big villain bosses", even if contextually they are taken seriously, on a meta level there's a concession to having them there at all.

The resolution also sort of gets me. S/M Lillie and Lusamine start a path to healing, but things aren't "fixed" as soon as you beat the antagonist, with Lusamine still very sick (physically and possible mentally), Gladion's side of the issue not necessarily resolved, and Lillie not being able to stay with her friends or found family in an effort to help her Mom in spite of everything. US/UM by comparison has a conflict that can be and sort of IS resolved as soon as you defeat Ultra Necrozma, since the scars don't run emotionally deep, and even Rainbow Rocket, despite escalating the conflict, is very impersonal and disconnected from the main story one.

That's the main thing I think makes S/M stick out to people: The consequences don't end with the Crisis the way they do in most games (Gen 1-4 the teams kind of disband after you stop their big gambit, Gen 5 leaves N as a hanging thread which similarly made the character stick with players), which makes the S/M plot feel less idealized or like a "means to an end" to contextualize the gameplay journey, which I will say even about several gens I like such as Gens 3-4 and a lot of SV's main campaign paths.
 
ant4456

ant4456

Suspicious Derivative said:
Cool thoughts. I had forgotten about Mantine Surfing, the stickers and Pikachu Valley... it has really been too long since I last played the Alola games. Either way, I don't think these three things are enough to make US/UM feel less serious to me. The general tone of the game and the story always felt a lot darker and more serious than in S/M, notably Necrozma's role in the story, and the Rainbow Rocket episode. If anything, regular S/M are the games that feel like a Disney theme park ride to me!
Click to expand...
In Sun and Moon the story ends on an abused child attacking her Mother with a Pokemon she raised (who was also abused by her.)

Not a Pokemon battle, just straight up attacking her, only censored by her technically being a weird fusion. Then, she goes into a coma.

Sun and Moon is literally a game about child abuse while USUM takes it and turns it into any regular Pokemon plot like RSE/DPP

And Ultra Necrozma shit is literally basic "Protagonist saves the day" arc

What makes Sun and Moon unique is literally the fact that it is objectively the darkest Pokemon game in terms of story lol.

Rainbow Rocket has all the darkness of a fucking Pokemon Masters gacha game arc where the entire point is for the player to say "Oh my god, that's Character! Character is so cool!" It's basic fanservice, lol.

this is literally just a case of Pokemon fans having no media literacy/only responding to basic shonen stuff, and the fact that you said you didn't even remember most of the game elements I mentioned only adds to me thinking this
 
R_N

R_N

is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
pika pal said:
I guess where I disagree on the story tone there is that USUM aren't light in and of themselves, but they feel a bit less dark from the previous games.

My basis for this primarily pertains to the story climax, as S/M is smaller in scope but also feels more grounded in its subject matter. It's not about stopping an Apocalyptic event, just dealing with the fallout of a broken and abusive family life, without a lot of innuendo or obfuscation for younger players. Rainbow Rocket gets some "theme park" vibes to me given the whole premise is "here's a throwback to all the big villain bosses", even if contextually they are taken seriously, on a meta level there's a concession to having them there at all.

The resolution also sort of gets me. S/M Lillie and Lusamine start a path to healing, but things aren't "fixed" as soon as you beat the antagonist, with Lusamine still very sick (physically and possible mentally), Gladion's side of the issue not necessarily resolved, and Lillie not being able to stay with her friends or found family in an effort to help her Mom in spite of everything. US/UM by comparison has a conflict that can be and sort of IS resolved as soon as you defeat Ultra Necrozma, since the scars don't run emotionally deep, and even Rainbow Rocket, despite escalating the conflict, is very impersonal and disconnected from the main story one.

That's the main thing I think makes S/M stick out to people: The consequences don't end with the Crisis the way they do in most games (Gen 1-4 the teams kind of disband after you stop their big gambit, Gen 5 leaves N as a hanging thread which similarly made the character stick with players), which makes the S/M plot feel less idealized or like a "means to an end" to contextualize the gameplay journey, which I will say even about several gens I like such as Gens 3-4 and a lot of SV's main campaign paths.
Click to expand...
I will say that Lusamine in USUM does still have work ahead of her and she's aware of it, but you only really notice it if you go out of your way to talk to her about it. To an extent, I think it's a slightly more interesting end point for her character than the end of SM (the last we see of Lusamine is effectively a hope spot to continue off the "when did you get so beautiful" line - her "recovered", all smiles and trying to join the party before collapsing vs the last we see of Lusamine in USUM if you dig around for it is a tired woman who is aware she's failed her children, her Foundation, her husband and to an extent herself but wants to do better), it just came at the cost of one of the better moments and Lillie's story climax being shuffled off screen (but not the lead up????).


Honestly "theme park" isnt a terrible descriptor but they probably should have comitted to the bit instead of stapling it onto the existing story mostly unchanged.
 
DrrT

DrrT

Rika is already avaliable in the Trainer Lodge in Pokemon Masters despite being released so recently. They really do know their public.

(for context, she scored first for two consecutive years in a japanese pool about women's fictional crushes, which is even funnier since it's on January and SV coming just in November didn't stop her from beating a lot of dudes)
 
pika pal

pika pal

is a Community Contributor
DrrT said:
Rika is already avaliable in the Trainer Lodge in Pokemon Masters despite being released so recently. They really do know their public.

(for context, she scored first for two consecutive years in a japanese pool about women's fictional crushes, which is even funnier since it's on January and SV coming just in November didn't stop her from beating a lot of dudes)
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I saw reposts of "roster" images from the 2023 Poll and I think Rika was the only Female character in the list (albeit I don't know most of the characters so grain of salt there)?
 
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