Hearing all about this makes Ash go to get that Gible, so Dawn, Lyra and Khoury go after him.
With Brock's help, Nurse Joy goes with the trainers to take care of the Pokémon. Nurse Joy reports there is a wild, rogue Gible who has been attacking the Pokémon. Suddenly, three trainers come in, with their Pokémon defeated. As he continues, Brock gets attacked by Croagunk's Poison Jabs. Brock flirts with Nurse Joy, while Khoury takes notes. However, they encounter an ornery, powerful and irresistible Gible. I didn’t know at the time, but you actually do get something from it: the immense satisfaction of having entertained all of the adorable Pokemon in the land.As Dawn's next Pokemon Contest in Lilypad Town draws near, our heroes along with Lyra and Khoury stop at the Pokémon Center. About the fifth time I played Peek-A-Boo with a random Pokemon, an onlooker asked me if I actually got anything from spending time with these cuties. Many still just respond with their cry, but some become curious and allow you to interact with them in new ways, a totally separate mechanic from playing with your own Pokemon in Pokemon Refresh. There is more to the Pokemon you’ll find in the overworld as well. Would showing this bellhop a certain Pokemon actually cheer him up? What can I say to raise this young one’s confidence? Can I actually help rehabilitate this poor Pokemon? Some of these turn out very funny, others heartwarming, but I never felt like I was forced to participate or that I was wasting my time. All of these “highlighted” new features along with the neat, somewhat nostalgic story we get post credits are only a small part of what I loved about Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.Īlola feels more lived-in and lifelike: Many NPCs had little stories of their own, which compelled me to return to them at later times to discover more about them. There is much more postgame in Ultra, even compared to the already generous portion we got with Sun and Moon. It is, however, worth mentioning no actual new Pokemon are obtainable until just before the Elite Four, but that was to be expected considering what we know about the new Pokemon (which I won’t spoil here).Īfter all of that, I haven’t even discussed the endgame, which enables rare Ultra Beasts and every Legendary Pokemon (not Mythical) to be captured. I immediately traded over only a perfectly bred newborn Gible into Ultra Sun, and am very glad some of my time in the story was actually well spent leveling up a competitively viable Pokemon (once I reset its EVs, of course). Because of this, you can get very creative with your main story team, breeding Pokemon in Sun and Moon in preparation for the new version. Plus, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon allow trading directly from Sun and Moon as soon as the first Pokemon Center is found. (I chose Ultra Sun, as I played Moon last year.) That meant that I got to capture the Pokemon I didn’t get to on my first playthrough on Moon. The version exclusives are the same, so Pokemon only available in Sun are also only available in Ultra Sun. “The larger variety of Pokemon – there are more than a hundred new to the Alola region – contributed along with the new features to making my playthrough feel different even when the story hadn’t changed much.
This currency isn’t as important as the BP Mantine Surf grants, but still allowed me to purchase healing items cheaply at any time I wanted in the Festival Plaza. My first win afforded me a whopping 200 Festival Points (FP).
The Battle Agency, a new counter in the Festival Plaza, is a more traditional Pokemon side-activity which allowed me to play with battle-ready Pokemon I would have never raised and used on my own in a short-form tournament setting. I always found it a bit annoying I couldn’t tackle the Battle Tree with a fully realized team until after I had already conquered some of it, and in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon I won’t have to. It’s a much easier and guaranteed way to earn these items, which are mostly important to competitors and those who want to clear difficult endgame content like the Battle Tree, so I welcome it wholeheartedly. Usually, you earn about 1 BP from each battle won, but I was reliably earning 10 BP every time I played a five-minute mini-game with Mantine Surf. Mantine Surf lets you earn Beach Points (BP), also known as and entirely interchangeable with Battle Points, which can be traded in for rare held items and other desirables.