I prefer the original sun and moon's plot more- I don't like what they did with lusamime in this one, it feels nasty given they tried to make her more redeemable in a way. And overall the story feels slightly butchered and attempted to be put back together in this one.

But gameplay wise this kne is more of a challenge and has some more features + new ultra beasts & forms, new post game and so on. But somehow has more handholding and the surfing minigame is a bit if a requirement at least the first time. So i feel like its up to personal tastes in what one likes when it comes to what edition to play.

The story and characters matter a bit more to me than some features i barely use/are mostly post game so its not nearly as replayable for me

It looks pretty nice, trainer customization is fun and I like a lot of the Pokemon you can catch in this game. Everything else kinda sucks, though.
It's incredibly slow, not even just the beginning, multiple moments felt like they dragged on for way too long, especially the trip to the Aether Foundation after the third island.
They also locked my favorite behind post-game, awful.
6/10

competitive is sick though i love defense mons and i love toxapex/celesteela

I like the Sun/Moon generation. I like it better then most do. That said, I had always liked the Ultra games a bit less as I've felt they undermined parts of the original versions instead of improving on them. Now that I've finished it more then 5 years since release, I feel I was partly wrong though still have enough issues with it that I feel it failed to improve as much as it should over the originals.

First off the game chooses to do an alternate story instead of improving on the originals. It's a fine concept but it doesn't really diverge enough until the final third. Honestly what they do there handles what was my favorite parts of the originals story in such a terrible way that it ruins important character arcs. The new stuff with the Ultra Recon squad feels forced in and the increased focus on Hau does not work for me. It overall feel worse as a story, enough so that I'd still recommend the original Sun/Moon over this for first time players (if they'd care for that). If you don't care about that in either game then you still can't skip it and hate it for that reason.

I did not give enough credit to this for the non-story changes it made though. New additions like the surf minigame and tutors are good. Battle Agency is a nice addition too but at least one more battle facility would have been welcome and the Agency only rewarding FC instead of BP is something I don't love. The Rainbow Rocket post game story is neat and great for nostalgia reasons. Just a shame it entirely replaces the Ultra Beast post game story. Similarly they replace the zygarde cells with stickers instead of having both. Even with all that and some smaller additions it feels like there could be a bit more still or they could have kept some original Sun/Moon content in at least.

So basically they split a third version into two games for no reason but didn't add enough new stuff (removed some in some cases) to make them actually better than the originals. This really is just Sun & Moon with a weird alien subplot. The story is probably worse overall though, since they just skipped some important bits with Lillie and Lusamine, therefore leaving them both underdeveloped without the context of SuMo. Also, they added a trial for Mina, which by all accounts should have been there from the very start, and Victory Road isn't pathetic anymore. Other than that, not a lot has changed, and this feels quite half-assed.

ALRIGHT Now what If we had Pokémon Sun AND TOOK ALL THE CHARM out of It, then we have Pokémon ultra sun, yes It delves into the ultra spaces more WHICH should sound like a very fun idea but then we completely SIDETRACK lily's development and her LITERALLY ABUSIVE MOTHER to then oh fuck ultra beasts are here AND DONT FOLLOW UP ON LUSAMINE BEING A ABUSIVE MOTHER AT ALL, then ok but we get ultra space right? YEAH one hallway and THATS IT yeah Guzzlords ultra space Is cool and If they were all like that this would be a completely different discussion but there not!! Not to mention the half hearted attempt to capture what black and white 2 did by not yknow doing a sequel but instead "Uh people sure liked that fusion thing huh, Lets do It again" OK now some nice things to say about this game now there IS some fun world and myth building done and the new ultra beasts are decently cool and the new Pokémon you can get In the region are fun and rainbow rocket Is fun In concept eh In execution but overall I think Pokémon Ultra Sun Is a lack luster game and your better of playing the first one :3

My opinion of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is… complicated. Let’s get something clear, I try not to let other games influence my reviews, but USUM is a special case where a lot of my issues either stem from or are made worse by Sun and Moon. However, USUM’s biggest issue is how little it changes compared to the original Sun and Moon, and I find that to be the most important subject for what I have to say about these games. I really like USUM, but this review is going to mostly be negative because of how I’m focusing on USUM’s existence compared to SM.

Don’t get me wrong, USUM makes SM’s gameplay better. There’s a lot of extra side quests added (that are actually pretty fun and charming), an expanded dex, and Rainbow Rocket to touch on some aspects. But USUM is afraid to do something more with SM. I think this is most evident with USUM’s story: 90% of the game is the same as SM and the changes made to the plot are bad, especially compared to SM.. Lusamine had what I’d say is the worst character assassination in the series, Ultra Recon Squad are unremarkable, and most of the changes made to USUM end up hurting the cast. USUM’s story feels like they were too afraid to make major changes to the characters introduced in SM, but wanted to take said characters in a notably different direction. It leads to USUM’s writing feeling confused as it tries to find a halfway point between two completely different ideas for its cast and plot. That’s why I can’t avoid bringing up SM, because the issues with the story and gameplay stem from the groundwork of SM and how not enough was changed.

USUM is indicative of an issue with Pokemon that, in fairness, did get rectified slightly by the swap to DLC rather than improved versions of games as well as arguably Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet: the steps forward Pokemon takes can often be underwhelming and Pokemon is afraid to make big changes. USUM is held back by being too afraid to deviate from SM. There are steps taken forward and the games in some ways are getting better, as mentioned USUM has better gameplay than SM does. But it doesn’t do enough to stand out, and it ends up feeling like SM with a worse plot. USUM’s meta flaws are made even more egregious because it was split into two versions rather than a singular “definitive” version like Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum. Even then, USUM doesn't fix SM’s biggest issue: the sheer bulk of cutscenes. Hell, the problem is WORSE than in SM because of Ultra Recon Squad! The prior “definitive” versions of games would always improve on the previous game’s faults (eg. Platinum improving DP’s pace), while USUM leans into the problem more.

With that said, USUM is so goddamn fun. Gen 7 as a whole breaks the usual formula in a (mostly) good way, with totems being a fun alternative to gyms and with ride Pokemon being a really good way to remove HMs from the games while still allowing for the same exploration that HMs brought. Alola is a BEAUTIFUL region, filled to the brim with culture and atmosphere that helped make the region and people of Alola truly shine. The newly added totem stickers also helped with exploring Alola, incentivizing exploring Alola more deeply to find them all. Unlike SM’s Zygarde cells, they weren’t time-sensitive and most of them stuck out a LOT, so the vast majority of them didn’t feel cheaply hidden or weirdly obscure. As well as totem stickers, there were a lot more sidequests and small activities you could do in USUM compared to SM. You’re able to get a deeper glance at what’s happening in Alola and can get more opportunities to spend time with both random NPCs and even characters like the trial captains. And god, the writing of characters when they’re not involved in the plot is great. There are so many small moments where both notable characters and random NPCs say a funny line or share a touching moment. What USUM excels at compared to SM is how you can independently interact with the region of Alola when you aren’t in cutscene hell, with a lot more small activities to do, more opportunities to learn about the characters, and a better system to incentivize looking around the region. USUM is better than SM is, without a doubt.

USUM should’ve either come out as a singular game and been a third version to SM, or SM should've released as USUM. USUM are great games, if you’re going to play a gen 7 game you should play USUM, but their biggest flaw is the existence of SM and the ways that USUM fails to deviate or improve upon their predecessors. As a result, USUM exists in a weird position of being games I REALLY enjoy and would recommend, but that also feel greedy and, in some ways, disappointing. The meta issues with USUM didn’t affect my enjoyment of the games very much, but they definitely can harm or even ruin USUM for someone else.