Bethany Plays: Pokemon Ultra Moon Altar of the Moone: Fusion of a Monster

Now, it's USUM's turn. Ailey'll be the one exploring the Altar of the Moone, and what she'll find will differ from what Bethany found.

...Sadly, that did not stretch to a shorter staircase.

One thing that does stay the same is Hapu accompanying Lillie along, and congratulating us for clearing the Ancient Trial.

The only real change here is that Lillie doesn't say we've cleared "all seven" Trials, but rather just "a seventh". Ailey's still got one Trial more to go.

I hated the idea of climbing these stairs back when I didn't remember that, Rotom.

Hapu's advice about parents as people remains, despite the fact that Lusamine's parental failures are even less relevant to the plot of USUM than they were to SM.

So, the thing about this moment is that it mostly starts out the same as it does in SM- gotta recycle that Nebby evolution cutscene budget, after all.

Lillie's speech is mostly the same, despite the fact that the mother/daughter conflict is downplayed to the point her new argument hardly matches.

They took out her saying "Even if I'm not a Trainer, I can still do that much!", although the new version of the speech is... certainly a choice. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of the game's positions on who should be fighting Necrozma and why.

Now then, as the time comes to play the flutes, there's something worth mentioning that I missed.

In USUM, you will be thrust into a battle sequence after clicking Yes. Not one that requires all hands on deck, but one nonetheless. Ailey already had her team specced for the real boss fight, and that could handle this first fight on its own, but that was still a bit unfortunate.

Anyway, as one might expect, this cutscene is entirely identical.

Well, except for the fact that Ailey evolved Nebby into Lunala instead of Solgaleo. But details.

Solgaleo's courageous roars don't fully work when translated onto Lunala, but he's trying his best.

Lillie's speech beforehand manages to be pretty Solgaleo/Lunala neutral, so all that really changes is Nebby's responses.

This is where the divergence starts, although right now, we're only changing context.

Our reasons for pursuing Lusamine have changed, although they needn't necessarily have changed where we go from here.

There's no reason we needed to change anything following... right?

...Right?

(Annoyingly, the clip I found of the music of the following cutscenes was packaged in one video. The first cutscene lasts for 35 seconds.)

Ow, you can feel how that landing probably felt. Seems whatever Lusamine and Guzma got up to, it probably ended in failure.

I imagine Lillie calling Guzma "Mr." is an honorific thing, but even then, I'm kinda surprised she extends that respect to him, considering how much of a terrorising presence Team Skull has been.

"Don't worry, Guzma broke my fall!" Unsure if Guzma actually came out better in this reality- on the plus side, no Nihilego toxins to deal with. On the minus side, his poor spine.

Frankly, I'd be worried if Lusamine didn't follow Guzma out. Means she's up to something unpleasant, wherever she is.

Oh. Good. She brought Necrozma with her. The musical piece that plays with its appearance (around 0:20) forms the regular part of its battle theme, and is probably the coolest part of the sound design here.

A tradition starting with RSE is that the first paired versions would include a legendary tucked in an out-of-the-way place that didn't seem to do much, but looks and behaves a lot like the box mascots in such a way that suggests a connection- which the second go around would then use as its own box mascot and plot focus. People who played SM to its conclusion have already seen Necrozma for themselves, although having already seen what it looks like is the extent of their understanding of what its deal is. People who haven't yet seen it probably figure this is Necrozma from context- if it's not, we have bigger problems.

A bit of an odd detail- this is not a face. This is in the part of Necrozma's body where one would expect a face, but it is in fact a patterned prism. If it ever looks like a face to you, that's your brain playing tricks on you, although the devs did a decent job framing it such that you can imagine the correct face for the context.

While I appreciate the information you hope to impart, don't think I didn't notice the subtle implication that Lillie is no more important to you than any other child, Lusamine. Just saying, if you wanted to refer to us collectively without that implication, "Children..." or skipping the address entirely would've worked.

I think what they're going for here is a bit of an "out of character, this is serious" thing with Lusamine calling something monstrous, but Lusamine regularly called things monstrous- its what she calls things she doesn't like, because of her whole "value = beauty" thing.

When the game comes out of the cutscene and returns to this mode, it returns to the normal Altar of the Moone theme. Now granted, the Altar of the Moone theme does a decent job of filling the gap, but it's hilarious to point out.

You mean it was sleeping when you approached it? All of a sudden, I'm throwing several elements of this whole story into question- chief among them was Necrozma actually a threat before Lusamine got to it?

One thing that does explain is why the Ultra Recons were so upset with Lusamine's bunnelby-brained scheme. They had one perfect chance and she blew it.

See what I mean about them figuring out how to get Necrozma's prism to reflect emotion in the viewer's eye? A lot of it is the player filling in their own gaps about what they think Necrozma is feeling, which helps a lot, but patterning the prism on the top so it looks like an eye underneath that giant "brow" was an important step.

...It's also kind of amusing that this is how the player has been reading Ailey's emotions up until now.

Oh, you have been making that claim for far too long in Lillie's life.

Lillie needs to feel as if she has the right to feel helpful. And while there's little she can do, I don't mind having her at my back.

Necrozma sizes us up, but ultimately decides not to attack us.

It is Nebby that catches its eye.

This is the cutscene with the second half of "Enter Necrozma".

Nebby looks back at Lillie, before charging in to challenge Necrozma toe to toe.

There's about ten seconds where Nebby and Necrozma do battle in the background, and the girls got some pretty neat animations in the foreground considering how little you're probably paying attention to them.

Ultimately, however, Nebby loses the encounter. Considering the type matchup, I'm a little surprised (particularly for Lunala), but they do need to establish the stakes- and Necrozma's motives.

Necrozma starts to glow, and closes in on Nebby.

Necrozma then proceeds to fuse with Nebby. In this state, Necrozma is in full control of the being's actions.

That triangle on its head is the prism that is Necrozma's face.

Necrozma then proceeds to open up a ton of Ultra Wormholes. This is, as far as I can tell, not something Necrozma is doing out of malice...

It seems to be mostly an excuse to recycle this cutscene. Even then, though, they shook it up by including Hau in it. All that really does is remind me we didn't bring Hau to Poni at all. In SM, he was spending this time catching up on his Island Trial, and while I'm not sure if he's still doing that in USUM, the fact he's hanging out with Grandpa does feel a mite odd. Although USUM did still establish he lost this one when he was talking to Gladion for the first time.

This cutscene plays Rise of the Ultra Beasts.

They also changed the Ultra Beast that appears- in Ultra Moon, it is now UB Assembly, a new Ultra Beast to USUM. The numbering scheme only applied to the original SM UBs- and honestly, it was kinda weirding me out how the version-exclusive ones shared anyway.

UB Assembly's Ultra Sun counterpart is UB Burst. This means that all four versions of this cutscene have a different UB in them. We'll be a ways off from seeing the USUM ones, although surprisingly, not the SM ones.

Hau jumps in to fight off the Ultra Beast is his grandfather's place, something Hala is happy to allow him to attempt. I imagine this does wonders for his confidence.

Especially since Tapu Koko is still doing his thing of being the one to actually do the fighting. Hau's got one over us- at least, until he finds out what Nebby's deal is.

The shot of Tapu Koko charging in to fight its UB is absent. Instead, however...

We actually get to see the other three Kahunas challenging UBs themselves. This is a welcome addition, considering the fact that it was clearly missing from SM, although it does fall a bit short in two main ways.

One, all three of the kahunas are outside their respective Ruins, like Hala, which is a bit of a surprise for two of them (Olivia has no strong reasons one way or another to be here). Two, there's no shot of their Tapus actually coming to their sides. It adds something that most fans expected to see, but doesn't actually add the reason fans expected to see it.

Olivia's shot of challenging UB02 (which is version-exclusive as it was in SM) doesn't have much going for it.

Nanu finds himself in the middle of Haina Desert, entirely so he can be found outside his Ruins. Nanu never struck me as going there without reason, and right now, there is little reason until the surprise drop of the UB.

The post-game plot of SM implies that Nanu had a previous encounter with a UB05 Glutton that gave him some issues. Nanu's emotionless "man's gotta do what man's gotta do" response does tip the hat to said backstory, although USUM is not going to reiterate it later.

Hapu gets a UB03 Lightning, a particularly amusing choice given that Mudsdale would walk right over it... and her Tapu would be scared of it. The main reason to acknowledge this, however, is that in both games, Hapu walked us to the Altar, and in SM, she remained close enough to come up to us when she was worried we were in danger. This cutscene implies she started heading back as soon as she dropped us off, and even then, she would need to go directly to the Ruins to have enough time to be standing inside them when the Ultra Beast appeared. It's been, what, three minutes since the last time Hapu was on screen?

With all of those Ultra Beasts dropped on us, Lusamine, Guzma, and Lillie have been cleared off the Altar to allow us to start a battle against Necrozma itself.

Dawn Wings Necrozma (Ultra Sun): Lunala no longer has a will of its own. Now under the control of Necrozma, it continuously expels all of its energy.

Dawn Wings Necrozma is much more Lunala than it is Necrozma in stats and abilities. It has Lunala's statline, except with 40 points in HP and 20 points in Speed turned into 20 points in both defences and Sp. Atk- with what Legendaries have to work with, this is a bit unfortunate, but they had enough that this is somewhat decent to work with. However, Necrozma's Dawn Wings form has one unfortunate shortcoming that mostly kills its competitive potential, and goes a long way to destroying it here- its Ability is Prism Armour, Necrozma's signature Ability that reduces the damage of super-effective moves by 25%, and not Shadow Shield. Because both of Dawn Wings's weaknesses are double weaknesses, this leaves Dawn Wings weak to two types at x3 effectiveness- hardly much better, and it just lost its much better mitigation.

This particular encounter with Necrozma does not allow it to be caught, and it's actually more Totem than it is wild encounter. While it won't call for help or gain an aura like a real Totem, it has some investment. Its IVs are random (with three perfects) like a wild, but it has a fixed Bold (+Def/-Atk) Nature and set EVs- 252 in Def and Sp. Def, and 6 in HP to round off the maximum 510 EVs allowed. Its moveset is Moongeist Beam, Moonlight, Psychic and Power Gem.

And of course, its theme- rather than using Lunala's from SM, it uses a higher tempo remix suiting the situation. Nebby's old theme is still in this game, it just plays elsewhere.

Necrozma is Anna's last hurrah, and she is determined to make it a good one.

The reason it's her last hurrah is that this Snarl really isn't the greatest thing to be seeing when it has x3 effectiveness.

Huh, that's strange. I'm surprised it clicked Moongeist Beam and not the SE-on-Hawkeye Psychic. Oh well, I'm glad Necrozma isn't weak to Illusion.

I think Power Gem is the move it wanted to click, but that doesn't have STAB...

Ooh, almost a 2HKO. Probably could've done it with the right ranges...

...Uh, what? You knew it was a Zoroark that time. Are you... choosing your moves randomly?

Defeating Necrozma plays the standard "beat wild Pokemon" theme, although the cutscene following does not portray it as a victory.

Necrozma opens a wormhole in the ground, and escapes into it.

That is a look. And not a pleasant one, either.

Lillie rushes to give chase, only for the portal to seal shut as soon as it is used.

And with Necrozma's departure, darkness falls over the region, as it did when Lusamine opened her wormholes.

Unlike then, the darkness doesn't go away.

(Once again, we're playing the Altar of the Moone theme.)

Everyone comes back now that the Necrozma event is cleared up, and the Ultra Recons follow shortly behind.

Of course it is.

Dulse: Alola's light has been stolen by Necrozma... It is only a matter of time before all of Alola is wrapped in such darkness.
Zossie: And I really loved Alola's light... It was so warm...

Dulse more worried about what will happen to Alola than what will happen to Necrozma.

Good to see Lillie picked herself up quick.

...Wow, you get empathetic quick. It kidnaps Nebby and you barely bat an eye at the possibility that it might be in need of its own assistance.

Lusamine, of course, having a weird mixture of noticing Lillie is trying way too hard to redeem villains and failing to understand basic empathy in the same breath. Helping Nebby was an easy decision. Helping Necrozma? Not so much.

Lusamine tells the Ultra Recons, straight up, that if they want something done about Necrozma, now is the time to consider sharing the Legendary Pokemon they have to travel between dimensions.

Of all the scenes that distinguish Dulse/Zossie and Phyco/Soliera, this one is probably the one that I find works far better when Dulse is the one speaking. Honestly, it's hard for Phyco to really portray what Dulse says in this moment.

Phyco is split between praising Lusamine's approach and castigating the woman herself. Dulse doesn't bother with such niceties.

Dulse: You dare ask for our help now?!

His anger at Lusamine for going off the Ultra Recon script is all the emotion that was needed here.

Lusamine gets a small moment of sorta admitting fault but also "please hash all this out after dealing with Necrozma".

Soliera's defusing line does make it clear Phyco was supposed to be as angry as Dulse, which allows the conversation to get back on track.

Both Ultra Recons come to a conclusion about Necrozma's motives that allows them to have faith in an Alolan approach to the problem.

Namely, that Necrozma's decision to attack us was because it wanted our Z-Power Ring.

...Thinking about it, I think we are the only person on this altar that possesses any Z-Power instruments. Lillie's not a Trainer, Lusamine doesn't use Z-Power, and Guzma actively eschews it.

Zossie: Now's no time to be fighting, Dulse!
Dulse: Well... there is one thing I am curious about after witnessing that battle just now... Necrozma seemed quite distracted by that bracelet you wear... that Z-Power Ring, or didn't you think so?

Dulse doesn't acknowledge fault, like Phyco does. Admittedly, I don't think Ray will begrudge him for not entirely burying the hatchet with Lusamine.

The strange thing here is that Guzma sees "Necrozma wants our Z-Power Ring" and things "it wants Z-Crystals." There is no reason that Z-Crystals cannot be carried by someone without a Ring. Hell, Guzma himself should know that better than anyone, considering he has a chest full of Buginium Z back in the Shady House.

Fifteen mandatory ones. Ailey has nineteen, Ray has twenty-two. If my count is accurate.

(The extra three Ray has are the Mewnium, Pikashunium, and strangely, the Alolaraichium. Ailey didn't get a Pikachu at all until the Surfing one, which is probably why.)

Bold words coming from a man who, again, has more Z-Crystals than I do. And is a type specialist by choice and not merely because he has an official role.

Translation: They're using their Solgaleo as the inter-dimensional equivalent of a HM slave. Given how well you handle using a Poipole, I don't blame you, though.

Also, I imagine Cosmogs are a lot easier to catch than things that don't evolve into their powerful forms.

Soliera extends this thought to its Alolan equivalent. Ailey is, in a manner of speaking, adding an eighth entry to her Ride Pager, allowing her to travel between dimensions.

Mechanically, however, using Solgaleo and Lunala for interdimensional activity more closely resembles Mantine Surf than it does the Ride Pager.

There's an actual minigame involved with it and everything. The minigame is so involved that I'll save the big details for its own update- and in addition to that, there are elements of the minigame that only unlock after we resolve the Necrozma crisis anyway.

Dulse: I see... So it is the Z-Crystals? And you... You were truly able to summon Solgaleo. Such an able Trainer... A Trainer like you might ride upon our Lunala to reach the world where Necrozma will be found. Yes, just as you people ride upon your Pokémon here in Alola.
Zossie: We call it the Ultra Warp Ride! If you want to go after Necrozma, you'll need to reach the white warp hole and go through it. Any other warp hole will send you to a different world altogether.
Dulse: Perhaps you will be able to save Necrozma...

Dulse having his standard, slightly-better way of talking about us in the first bit, and an entirely new bit where he seems interested in our ability to do something for Necrozma. That bit's kinda strange, owing to the fact that Phyco has typically been more interested in helping Necrozma thus far.

Oh, that'll be funny to mention in time. Anyway, let's do a team check before we plunge in.

Anna has undergone a massive retooling of her kit to prepare for the exact destiny of facing Necrozma. Every one of these moves has a part to play.

Shade's plan is Sucker Punch. If you have Pokemon that know Sucker Punch, now is the time to deploy them.

Robin will be an ambitious choice, but if she has the chance, she has the chance. After taking this shot, I slipped her a Darkinium Z, just in case.

Moss is coming along because starter privilege, but I couldn't think of a good item to pack.

Chip's plan is Aqua Jet. Chip remains a one trick pony.

Hawkeye has a brave plan, and one that almost certainly won't work. With that said, he is the most important Pokemon on the team.

I'll give 'im a sound thrashing.

Keep in mind, Lusamine, I'm doing this for Lillie.

Lillie's of course hoping for the best for Nebby, but does also tell us to try and let Necrozma off as gently as possible. I can make no guarantees, I only have so much power over what happens after a battle.

Talking to either Recon will allow you to attempt Ultra Warp Ride. Note that there is no point of no return involved here, for the most part. Once you attempt it, you can always return to Alola and regroup your team.

Zossie: Lunala! Help us out!

The Legendary we use to pursue Necrozma is always the opposite one to ours on the box. This is an in-universe coincidence, and possibly something to help reinforce that it's not Nebby we're riding here. Fortunately, I prefer riding Solgaleo over Lunala in the Ultra Warp Ride for multiple reasons.

Solgaleo, of course, immediately fires off a Sunsteel Strike to open the way forward. I notice that this is taking the same approach as Lunala in not having us mount it first.

Ailey uses this opportunity, while not yet mounted on the legendary, to wave off Lillie before she goes.

Yeah, that was definitely a scene designed with Lunala in mind. Except for the fact that Ultra Warp Ride depicts the protagonist as riding on Lunala's back, too.

All Wormholes will lead you to other worlds, the only difference is how they will do so.

And yes, we are getting a long, involved tutorial on a mechanic we are expected to only half engage in. The weird thing is that they repeat this tutorial when the mechanic opens up afterwards.

Ultra Warp Ride forces us to grapple with motion controls. We have to tilt the 3DS around in order to get Solgaleo in the right position. Yes, this gets the mechanic rightly decried as terrible in many circles.

If you use this, Solgaleo/Lunala will let out its cry to let you know it worked. It can be pretty hard to hear that sound in practice, but it does exist.

The irony of it is, there is no way to fail this minigame. You do an Ultra Warp Ride, you will enter a Wormhole. Running out of energy causes you to be unable to escape the pull of Wormholes. But yes, there is incentive to get a high distance.

Consider them the equivalents of Pokemon peeking out of the waves in Mantine Surf. I'm not actually sure on how the speed mechanics work in practice, but I do have some useful visual cues. (I did find out afterwards, but it's the sort of thing that's little use in practice.)

There are five colours of wormhole. As Soliera and Zossie have indicated, right now, the only colours we care about are "white" and "not white". The "not white" colours include red, yellow, green, and blue, and their distinguishing factors are more relevant as the mechanic expands.

These wormhole rarities are especially important when the mechanic opens up. And yes, this does tell us one thing- we can find some exotic Pokemon indeed if we enter the Ultra Wormhole.

Those silhouettes do depict Pokemon it is possible to encounter. Somewhat annoyingly, the colours their silhouettes are tinted are not the same colours of wormhole you need to enter to encounter them- the bird is found in red wormholes, the fairy in blue, and the deer in green.

Now then... let's get started.

Wait, you mean we're not wearing face protection? What are the Ultra Recons doing with their time, then?

The Ultra Warp Ride plays this high energy song when performing it. Not gonna lie, it gets a little bothersome if you do a lot of Ultra Warp Rides to try and get everything you can get from the minigame, but it's a good enough song on its own merits. I'd say you can get information about how far you've gotten from where you are on the loop, but if you're going far enough, the song loops while you're doing the Warp Ride.

You start out with a bunch of boosting rings, although they do like to place them such you can't get all of them.

I got a little further than the first few Wormholes, but ultimately, I couldn't make it very far. And that was by design. This whole motion control business is garbage.

(Yes, a good score in this minigame is around the 3-4K light year range.)

The Ultra Space Wilds are the locations you visit if you enter a not-white Wormhole. There is a level 60 Pokemon with three perfect IVs that has hitherto been unobtainable in each one, chosen from a pool of twenty (five in each colour). I'll show off what you can get in the big update, but for the most part, these options are too high levelled to make long-term team choices, and while a handful of them are good at fighting Necrozma, said high level also gives them moveset hiccups.

Now then, let's talk about those motion controls. I was never good at them on console, and in this setting, they're even worse. Fortunately, we have an app for that.

After participating in the Ultra Warp Ride once- you don't have to have found Necrozma, you just need to have done it once- a new NPC will appear. In Heahea City.

(Strangely, the whole "Alola's skies are darkening" only applies to Poni Island- Akala is completely unaffected.)

We are going to take our objections with motion controls up to GAME FREAK itself.

An Aether drone can now be found in the bottom-left corner of the offices, staring at this pot plant.

Hahaha, literally everybody who plays this game is making it their business to tell everybody else who plays this game.

It is possible to turn off the motion controls for Ultra Warp Ride.

And yes, this is how.

Game Freak's capacity to make its brand new mechanics jank in absolutely mind-boggling ways has been a long-standing tradition people have begrudgingly put up with (and often ignored said new mechanics over), but this is a new level in absolute insanity.

After selecting your choice, the legendary you picked roars in confirmation.

I would just like to point out, for the record, that the next game officially considered "main series" includes far more intrusive motion controls that cannot be turned off. Pokemon is a franchise that has traditionally catered to video game fans who actively desire systems that do not require real-time reactions- a similar appeal to Dragon Quest- but does so more by accident than on purpose, and experiments like this betray the fact that the developers do not understand they have this appeal, and hence do not consider it an important element to maintain. Tto those who can't perform the actions more intense games expect of them- particularly people with disabilities- mechanics like this can really stifle enjoyment of the game as a whole.

Right, now that the Ultra Warp Ride is an actually reasonable mechanic, let's make a more serious attempt.

There we go! Some actual distance, and rarer wormholes to boot!

There's a few nests of these every few thousand light years. I imagine this is something the 3D part of the 3DS is intended to help with, because my depth perception on which electrical nodes are currently my problem is terrible.

The Warp Ride also involves going in turns sometimes. I don't know how this impacts the whole "distance to get somewhere" thing, but it can make it really annoying to figure out where in the Warp Ride you need to stand to avoid/hit the things on the other side of the turn.

Here's our stop: the super-special shiny wormholes seen in the tutorial.

While all rarities can appear at any time in the Ultra Warp Ride after 1000 light years, the super-special variety only show up after 2500 light years.

If possible, they will always contain an extraordinary presence. Wormholes of other rarities have a chance of extraordinary presences, but the highest chance you have is 34%.

The little dust cloud of a normal Pokemon is absent, but as you make your approach, you will see a silhouette of a Pokemon in a high place. Well, except in red wormholes, sadly, they have something different.

Extraordinary presences allow you to encounter Legendary Pokemon from past games. There are seventeen possible Legendary encounters at this point in the story, some of them version-exclusive. Like with the normal Pokemon, they have three perfect IVs, are level 60, have movesets that leave a little to be desired until the Move Reminder, and are poor fits to be added to our team in the main story, but they exist nonetheless.

Ailey caught one to say she did, and will save the rest for afterwards.

Now she enters a white wormhole.

In the last playthrough I did before the blog, I discovered a mechanic I had never seen before- if you do a certain number of Ultra Warp Rides without entering the white wormhole at this part of the story, they eventually give you an Ultra Warp Ride with nothing but white wormholes. After entering a white wormhole, you are no longer able to do Ultra Warp Ride- locking you out of catching all the high-levelled Pokemon- until after beating Necrozma.

Ray tried to figure out how many attempts you needed in order to to trigger this mechanic.

Counting the first Ultra Warp Ride he wasted to unlock the ability to use the Circle Pad, he entered four Wormholes before he got forced into a white one. Part of me suspects the game was aware of the attempts he savescummed when he didn't get Legendaries, but this mechanic presumably exists to help people who don't want to do Ultra Warp Ride at all progress the game.

Now, that playthrough I did that found this by accident? An Ice-type monotype challenge that needed two of the Pokemon you could find with Ultra Warp Ride to help fight Necrozma. She was not amused to encounter this limit.

Welcome to the homeworld of the Ultra Recon Squad: Ultra Megalopolis. The dismal theme is occasionally interrupted by a few notes of Necrozma's theme.

Much as the Ultra Recons have been telling us, this place is pitch black, lit up only by artificial light. Although that glowing white light coming from the central pillar is looking strange by those standards.

It's Dulse and Zossie, in Ultra Moon! The Ultra Recons who did not appear in the main region are found here in Ultra Megalopolis- and I'm in the boat of preferring the Ultra Sun version, rather than just liking Dulse and Zossie more as people.

Them hanging out in here allows them to appraise us of the situation in here.

...

Lusamine. Is Dulse implying you have a body count?

(Admittedly, I'm not sure how safe the inside of their buildings are if that's why they're scared, but still.)

Dulse sums up Necrozma's main goal, and also why it is not likely to succeed. When the people of this world used Necrozma, they stripped it of a part of itself, and Necrozma is seeking to repair that damage. Borrowing Nebby, however, is a temporary fix at best, and won't do what it wants it to do.

Dulse acknowledges fault, somewhat, but this is best addressed from Phyco. Admittedly, not in this conversation in either game.

I can make no guarantees about anything beyond "stopping Necrozma". And even then...

You're certainly making a tall ask of me here.

...And yes, Rotom has been powered up to work in Ultra Space now! ~~More's the pity.~~

Soliera: Welcome, resident of Alola. I am Soliera. I am a member of the Ultra Recon Squad. Necrozma returned from Alola. You will find it up ahead. It seems to be resting atop the tower. Our people have all fled indoors to safety. They fear it will fly into another rage, as it did when that woman Lusamine appeared.
Phyco: So this is what the humans of Alola look like? I would quite like to investigate you further. Hmm, yes. I am Phyco! I am the captain of the Ultra Recon Squad. Now that it has found a source of light, Necrozma will regain its true power. But it cannot control its own light in the broken form it was left in after it lost a part of itself. This power will only bring Necrozma more pain. We used the power of our technology to try to quiet Necrozma... Just as we used our technology to try to provide this dark world of ours with some light. Necrozma... and us ourselves... we have both suffered so many long years in this darkness, living a life we did not wish for...
Soliera: Please. Help us stop Necrozma. You will find it ahead of this place... atop the Megalo Tower.

This one's mostly the same between versions, although Phyco does imply Necrozma's inability to bring back its former glory to be the fault of the damage it took, rather than because it is stealing something else's power.

If you need to return to Alola, you can talk to Phyco/Zossie and she'll send you back.

But once you've been to Ultra Megalopolis, talking to the one on the outside sends you straight back here.

The only building with an interactable door is locked tight, and Ailey sees more than we do.

All of the streets other than the ones we need to cross are blocked off by these weird jacks. Not sure how those would pen in Necrozma, but they do a good job keeping us from exploring for litter items or what have you.

There is nothing to do but attempt to fight Necrozma.

The Ultra Recons come up to have more to say before we climb all the way up.

Anything Ultra Recon could have offered us will no longer be of assistance. Thanks, Lusamine.

Ah, that's an implication they try to build on, but it honestly just goes over my head. We'll get into it in a bit.

I'm not sure it would share any of its light even if it had light to share. That's a history of exploitation and damage it's been suffering from.

Soliera: So you will truly go?
Phyco: Our Ultra Megalopolis was once a world filled with light... Necrozma was called the Blinding One, and it gave us all the energy we needed. And in fact, we were not the only ones who basked in its light. It traveled even to the distant world of Alola by passing through the Ultra Wormholes!
Soliera: But...our ancestors grew too greedy, and they caused Necrozma to lose a part of its body. And this in turn made Necrozma run wild... Help it if you can. We beg you...

The order in which Phyco and Soliera offer this exposition does not imply easing Necrozma's current pain could return to the former status quo. And nor should it.

Phyco also brings up that Necrozma's light did get to Alola, although what it's doing there is part of what comes up later.

There's something amusing about entering the tower and immediately landing in an elevator sequence.

The interior of Megalo Tower ("Megalo" in "Megalopolis" means "large/grandiose", which basically means this is "Big tower") is a very slightly dynamic spiral staircase before we get to the top. There's a vague feeling that Ultra Megalopolis and Megalo Tower might have been designed to be equal in size to Pokemon Platinum's Distortion World, but ultimately this was not reflected in the final product. The squeeze to get these games out on time can be felt in the final product.

The sound design is nothing but wind noises up here, though.

As we climb up the tower, we catch the tail end of Necrozma's plans.

Necrozma's prism emerges from Nebby's form...

And Necrozma reforms into a brand new shape, unlike either its old form or Nebby's.

You can tell this is an incomplete shell of its former glory.

And yet...

That is something that I am nervous to challenge.

You have one last chance to save or reorganise items here, Necrozma won't fight you until you click on him.

Ultra Necrozma (Ultra Sun): This is its form when it has absorbed overwhelming light energy. It fires laser beams from all over its body.

In DPPt, Pokemon introduced a creator deity Pokemon, the equivalent to the capital G God, and assigned it the highest BST of any Pokemon that existed at the time- 720. This imposed a bit of a soft cap on how high BSTs could go the longer Pokemon went on- how could you feasibly break that limit? This has not, however, formed an unbreakable cap, and any Pokemon that does wind up with a BST over 720 gets a free jolt of player intimidation merely by reciting their BST.

Ultra Necrozma has a BST of 754, with a titanic 167 in both Atk and Sp. Atk, an impressively high Speed of 129, and a flat 97 bulk that remains impressive in spite of clearly being its shortcoming. It is a Psychic/Dragon type, the first Pokemon of that typing since RSE, and has the unique Neuroforce Ability, giving it an extra 25% power on moves that do super-effective damage. If we were tasked with fighting this fairly, this would be a difficult prospect on its own.

The Blinding One has EVs, Natures, and a bloody Totem Aura. Its EVs are 252 in Def, 162 in Sp. Def and 96 in HP, along with a Bold Nature (+Def/-Atk), giving it a flat statline of 219/201/194/224/164/178. With the Totem Aura accounted for, that's 219/301/291/336/246/267. Three of those stats can roll lower than that, but the lowest that Speed will go is 238. Look at my team again. Anna and Hawkeye have Speed stats around 150. They would be outsped by a 0 IV Blinding One without a +1 Spd.

Its moveset is Photon Geyser (Psychic 100), Dragon Pulse (Dragon 85), Power Gem (Rock 80) and Smart Strike (Steel 70). Apart from Smart Strike, it's running off Special Attack, so Sp. Def is the way to go. Photon Geyser, its signature move, will be a Physical move if Necrozma's Atk is higher than its Sp. Atk, and yes, that does account for stat stages. Lowering its Sp. Atk is not enough to defang it entirely. This thing is the most difficult boss the series has ever thrown at the player, and very few strategies are prepared to outplay it.

The battle theme kicks all the same ass the dragon does, though. Not sure it tops Nebby's theme for me, but it's probably my favourite original-to-USUM theme- fitting, considering it's functionally the equivalent of Nebby's theme.

Using a Zoroark disguised as a Fighting or a Poison type is textbook anti-Necrozma tactics. Considering Ailey's issues with the rest of the bosses in the game thus far, I'm not sure she had any better strategy to work with here.

Probably the biggest thing working in Ultra Necrozma are those ten extra levels. I'm not sure being level 60 would confer on my team the survivability needed for a real fight, but I'm not exactly underlevelled with Ray and Ailey. Bethany, yeah, she's underlevelled. But Ray and Ailey? Yeah, they had no hope of going toe to toe with the Blinding One.

So yeah, remember Dawn Wings using Psychic on Anna randomly? Ultra Necrozma has enough AI to always go for the highest damage option, and if it sees a Fighting or a Poison type, it will click Photon Geyser to absolutely delete it. And Anna can exploit that immunity for all its worth.

Yes, Ultra Necrozma would turn Anna into a fine paste if it chose any other move, what did you expect? It's actually kinda close on Smart Strike, but it's still 136 damage at lowest roll to a Pokemon with 123 HP.

Toxic is a favourite anti-Necrozma strategy. This will let you defeat Necrozma even if you don't launch any other attacks. Even a freshly caught Zorua can pull this off, although Anna has been making more legitimate contributions throughout the game. Although yes, after a point (and a few competing Dark types), Anna's job has increasingly been "give Ailey an out to fight Necrozma with."

At -1 Spd, Ultra Necrozma has 118 Speed with a 31 IV, and 106 with a 0. This still outspeeds Shade, Robin and Moss- two of whom are slow, yes, it's not even close. Even with 0 IV, it'll still outspeed Robin and Moss at -2! With 31 IV, it outspeeds Robin at -3! Scary Face is probably the best stat stage you can inflict on Ultra Necrozma outside Topsy-Turvy (Callie wishes she could land one of those), and it only does so much.

And that Poison is taking its time to build up.

Oh, come on! Sure, the Poison is nice, but...

Anyway, time for some Snarls. The only way Anna is leaving the field at Necrozma's hands is if it runs out of Photon Geysers, and -Sp. Atk will come in handy for the backup.

If it lasts that long.

Decided to flex and switch in Moss for the final blow. Since Necrozma still had a Photon Geyser left, it's still not dealing damage- Moss is still a Dark type, even if she's openly one.

Had Necrozma chosen a move with Moss in mind, it would have chosen Power Gem, which is SE.

Well, that was mildly disappointing.

I did give the battle a slight redo- didn't wind up not using Anna at all, but I did decide to try it without Toxic. Toxic, after all, was included in Anna's moveset solely for Necrozma.

These two moves, however, Ailey was doing the whole time.

Looks a heck of a lot scarier when there's no Poison damage to help Necrozma along.

...Well then. With 31 IVs in the relevant stats, that Foul Play ought to have done no more than 146 damage to 219 HP. It must've rolled some terrible HP/Def IVs to get that- and even with 0s, Anna needed to get some high damage rolls on both Foul Play and Snarl to produce that outcome.

Defeating Necrozma causes it to collapse and its body to destabilise.

The golden glow of its body turns black, although looking closely, that still is Ultra Necrozma and not Dawn Wings.

All of its light escapes from it like a liquid, but before it can splash on Ailey, it returns to gaseous form.

Nebby escapes, wholly itself, and seems quite pleased with this turn of events.

Ailey sends up a ball of light to Nebby, who bounces it off his nose and into the sky.

The stolen light has returned to Alola.

It is still night time there, but details.

Whatever happened to Necrozma as a result of that battle, it slinks away. It seems our time dealing with it is not yet over, but it won't seize Nebby again.

The Megalopolis Recons follow us up, accompanied by one of their Poipoles.

...Yeah, I'm not sure what it would take to restore that light. This is probably a climate change metaphor, although what the in-universe equivalent to climate change repair is is much more nebulous, pun not intended.

None of which I used. Not even with Ray, although I was tempted.

Presumably, Ultra Necrozma was its natural state before being extracted- although I like to imagine there was a better form it had back then that Ultra Necrozma is nothing but a copy of.

Necrozma is apparently waiting for us in Alola, bathing in what light it can, while Nebby has returned to its rightful place at Lillie's side. Both off-screen, leaving us in the lurch, but we have the Ultra Warp Ride beasts.

Soliera: It will likely take some time, but eventually we may also be awash in light again. Like you all. My thanks to the people of Alola. My thanks to the light of the Z-Crystals.
Phyco: Necrozma took on that brilliant form once again and became Ultra Necrozma, thanks to you all. But now... Necrozma has lost its light once more and appears to have fled to Alola. And your Solgaleo, weakened as it was, has also returned to your world. I am most grateful for all you have done, human from the world of Alola.

Mostly the same, but Phyco mentioned Nebby is licking its wounds with Lillie, and also fails to mention us fulfilling their request. Really, we didn't- all we did was defeat Necrozma, we didn't do anything about restoring their order.

Now then... why is Poipole up here too?

Why, this is how we're going to acquire a Poipole of our own!

Poipole (Ultra Sun): This Ultra Beast is well enough liked to be chosen as a first partner in its own world.

Poipole is a pure Poison type, with an unimpressive 420 BST, hovering as close as it can to flat 70 stats while having all of its stat values be prime numbers. It is an Ultra Beast, so it has the Beast Boost Ability to boost its best stat after landing a KO. It comes at level 40, well below the team, and doesn't really sell itself.

That's because it has the capability to evolve. It only does so after learning a certain move, and it can only learn that move from the Move Reminder or a postgame tutor, but once it does, it will have more than a worthy spot on Ailey's team as her token Legendary.

~~How fitting, that the team that's struggled the most to win her fights gets the Legendary that isn't good out of the box.~~

Poipole is added to our Alola Pokedex, and Rotom likes to panic about the idea of being given an Ultra Beast to log.

This is what I'm giving Zossie to work with. It starts with Charm and Poison Jab instead of Sludge Wave and Toxic, but Charm doesn't really help it much at this point, and it really does prefer to be a Special Attacker. Fortunately for it, there's an opportunity to give it some EXP before the final area, but it's going to be spending a lot of time as a Poipole and lagging as a result. That's what Eviolite is for, I guess.

Phyco: Now what is Poipole creating a fuss for?
Soliera: Captain Phyco... I believe that Poipole is showing an interest in this person from Alola. It seems to want to stay together with him.
Phyco: How fascinating. Does it perhaps seek to become stronger? Or is there some other reason for its interest?
Soliera: According to what we have learned through our investigations, I believe that in your world, giving a Pokémon to another can be a way of demonstrating your feelings for them... And besides, Poipole seems to want to go. Take it with you, if you have no objection.

I love the nugget that Soliera offering us Poipole is because we're the ones who consider the gift to be an expression of gratitude. It really helps reflect them coming to terms with our world's culture and mannerisms.

Zossie also offers the choice in whether to ride a Solgaleo or a Lunala while in Ultra Warp Ride. Sadly, the game is pretty explicit that the Pokemon who matches Nebby's species is not Nebby, but I typically chose Solgaleo in my Ultra Sun runs to say I was riding Nebby. It also turns out that Solgaleo does have advantages over Lunala in Ultra Warp Ride itself- its model is smaller, making it easier to see things to your immediate sides, and the fact it has legs instead of wings gives you better visual cues on how much speed you have (as Solgaleo slows down, it switches to walking rather than galloping). Both Ray and Ailey wound up choosing Solgaleo, making things easier on myself.

If you ever change your mind, you can do so at Ultra Megalopolis.

Meanwhile, back in Alola...

We reappear with Solgaleo's roar, and Lillie's the one eagerly awaiting us.

That rift behind us is what we click on to do Ultra Warp Ride in the future. It'll stick around for the rest of the game.

...Wait, did I get a powerup while I wasn't looking? What's this about auras going into the ring?

...From who? You guys were doing research while I was going toe-to-toe with one of the strongest things in the series?

Apparently, Totem Auras are the specific manifestation of Necrozma's power.

I dunno, I always preferred the idea of the Tapu doing this sort of thing, rather than the invader from another dimension. Probably just an extension of the whole weird vibes that Alola gives as a Hawai'ian region that doesn't acknowledge Hawai'i's distaste for its tourist infestation.

And also kinda edging on the whole "Z-Power is communicating with nature and your bond with Pokemon" vibe they seemed to be going for before now. That one may also just be my distaste for Legendaries being the be-all and end-all of Pokemon's mechanics.

Now, do I want to? Hell no. Risky and it hurt Nebby and Lillie.

They also explicitly say "yeah, you can use Ultra Warp Ride whenever now.

There's a whole lot of Pokemon in there, and it will actually be necessary to complete Ailey's Pokedex. Despite the fact that most of the Pokemon in there aren't actually in the Alola Pokedex- there are exceptions.

The Ultra Recons on the Alola side decide to stay here in Alola, and continue on with figuring out how our world works. Should help them with their own, but also it'll just be fun.

Soliera wants to try her hand at the whole "Trainer" thing, too.

Dulse: Impressive, human of Alola.
Zossie: Thank you so much!
Dulse: While you were battling Necrozma in our Ultra Megalopolis, we were able to make some discoveries about the auras here in Alola.
Zossie: The auras of Alola came from Necrozma! They're the remnants of the light it emitted long ago!
Dulse: These... auras... must have been particularly strong at the trial locations. And the Z-Power for the Z-Moves... It is also similar to the auras of the Totem Pokémon. Both came to Alola as Necrozma's light! You are such a powerful Trainer... Maybe you can return the light to Necrozma, without having it run wild. As a sign of thanks, we'll continue to share our Lunala with you. Use the Ultra Warp Ride to explore many new and different worlds! No doubt you will find amazing Pokémon. I think we will stay in Alola for a while. It is practically overflowing with Z-Power. It would be good for us to really experience life here. Maybe even do our own island challenge.
Zossie: Ooh, ooh! I want to become friends with Diglett!

Dulse and Zossie's out-of-Megalopolis lines. More or less the same, although they explicitly want to try their hand at the Island Challenge. I still say Zossie would've rocked at it.

So long, and thanks for the Poipole.

Lillie turns to us, only to be immediately interrupted by Lusamine. Damn, let her have her friends.

I mean... yes? Was that ever in question?

Lillie. I would never have known there was a problem if you hadn't gotten Nebby out of there when you did. You did the right thing. And what I did can never take away from that.

This is part of an issue that's going to come up with Ultra Warp Ride- in SM, the player could only find Ultra Beasts and Beast Balls in the postgame. Ultra Warp Ride allows us to catch some now, and Lusamine is going to give us some freebies to work with. For the benefit of SM, I'll more or less pretend this isn't a thing until then, as best I can.

She also has more if we need them. And we will need them.

Lusamine does something to actually make amends for her misbehaviour, and decides to go and help Nebby recover. Lillie, of course, will be essential for that purpose, since Nebby will certainly trust her more.

Although why do I get the feeling you're in this for your mother's sake and not your own or Nebby's?

An admirable aim, Guzma, although I'm not entirely sure what you just saw that inspired that epiphany? Well, OK, clearly we're supposed to be seeing the best in Lusamine right now, but that only really gets us so far.