Rather than fighting us on Ancient Poni Path, Dexio will fight us before we get into Poni Meadow. Nothing else has changed about the event, but this does prevent us from unlocking the only Glide point out here until we can beat him. At least we've had the chance to soak up EXP from Poni Plains!
When heading to the postgame area in SM, there is a battle between the Fly point outside Vast Poni Canyon and Poni Grove. What I missed until doing Noah's run is that you can actually bypass it by flying from the Ruins of Hope. I'll not be doing that, but I highly recommend you do. Seriously... this first fight has teeth.
On rebooting the game after defeating the Pokemon League, you are loaded in your bedroom. This is a tradition of all games, and it makes as much sense as any other, I suppose. This can really suck depending on the game, though.
I was hanging out in here doing Poke Pelago until I was ready to start. Since a few files actually got lucky, I should mention that Poke Pelago's Isle Abeens has postgame-locked encounters: Mismagius, Scyther, Lapras, and Emolga in SM, Snubbull, Tropius, Honchkrow, and Litleo in USUM. Nothing you can't obtain elsewhere, although some of those are new to us.
Mum still hasn't finished unpacking. To be fair, this is our stuff...
It turns out there's actually an event in our bed that I've missed... since we first put on our hat.
For all the beds I've slept in, surprising I missed mine.
Meowth crawls up, and starts staring at us judgementally.
He climbs up, meowing at us...
And apparently tries spraying us with an Awakening.
Hapu's bed was supposed to be a call back to this.
The normal message. Very fitting, of course.
Also, the USUM versions of the bed have Pokemon on the sheets. Ray gets Pinsir and Ailey gets Eevee, in one of the weirder gender differences I've seen. Really enforcing that "guys = cool, girls = cute" dynamic, huh?
This line reads a lot different now that Lillie is the thing in Kanto we are apart from.
So then... Poni Island. The Garden Island has quite the garden path to traverse, requiring us to be cognizant of both what SM was doing and what USUM was doing to judge the stories as written. This could be a doozy...
First off, we land in Seafolk Village, and are directed to Hapu. Hapu then takes us with her to Tapu Fini's Ruins, rounding off the whole "bring Nebby to Ruins" and answering none of the questions raised by this plot point. The plot has since moved on, and now we are seeing a kahuna be chosen. The Island Challenge having a big gaping hole carved into it is one of the points that most supports Kukui's assertion that the Island Challenge needs innovation, but his chosen solution doesn't even assist on this topic- it just adds five new positions that need to be filled, while the challenge it replaced used pre-existing positions.
From here, we are more or less led straight to the Altar. We just need to pick up a token Flute- which is an excuse for Lillie character development in SM and accomplishes nothing in USUM- before going to Vast Poni Canyon. We get a bit of closure with Skull beforehand, but ultimately, we never get to see how Guzma brings his experiences back to Team Skull. USUM did try and work with this, by adding a Guzma scene to Mina's Trial, but said scene was more about Guzma's quarrels with the Island Challenge. For all the importance family has within the plot of SM, actually discussing positive familial relationships like those of Burnet/Lillie, Guzma/Plumeria, or even Gladion/Lillie (the two interact once) doesn't seem important to the game. The story has much more to say about redeeming Lillie/Lusamine.
Vast Poni Canyon has two major setpieces- Lillie's first Trial, where she stands up to the situation that we had to save her from in the opening setpiece, and our last Trial. At least in SM. There is an interesting juxtaposition in the matter, and it should be the angle through which Lillie's newfound capabilities express themselves. But to a degree, Pokemon has put an impressive level of emphasis on the idea that it is actually possessing Pokemon which strengthens your capacity to affect the world, and this is something denied to Lillie in the story. The conclusion of her arc- her setting out to begin a League Challenge with a fresh Starter- seems to be where the devs want Lillie to get her first Pokemon, but I feel, at this point in the story, Lillie should have a Pokemon of her own other than Nebby. Not only would it give Lillie a new angle to demonstrate character development- she could have much more control over it than she does Nebby- but it would emphasise the idea that Lillie can take care of herself, while still having plenty of upwards mobility to justify our continued assistance.
At the Altar, there are two different climaxes of the story- in SM, Lillie confronts Lusamine, and stops her from being evil so she can become her mother again. In USUM, Ailey confronts Necrozma, doing a job that Lusamine was too short-sighted to do right and accomplishing the job despite Lusamine having made it that much harder. Thematically, Necrozma is trying to do too much to have a coherent understanding on why this is an appropriate climax- it's less of a natural conclusion to the story and more of an excuse to fight Ultra Necrozma. Lusamine, meanwhile, is the opposite- this is exactly the correct climax for the story, except the game ignores the reasonable climactic conclusions to draw for no explicable reasons, and the confrontation with the Motherbeast Lusamine is not an excuse for any original mechanics (other than, perhaps, the idea of Pokemon getting totem auras in Trainer battles). This story had an amazing premise, but it is clear as crystal the developers either don't know or don't care about that fact. When your story is already so heavy that it's an obstacle for the enjoyment of some people (including your target demographic), the least you can do is at least make it worth it. SM's strong reputation is entirely on the back of fans filling in the blanks.
The aftermath of the Altar directly leads into the League Challenge in SM, but USUM decides to add a new Island Trial, and give the existing Grand Trial more weight, in this time. Mina's new Trial brings a wonderful sense of closure to the standard Island Challenge, but the special circumstances of our Trial go unanswered- we do not get any idea on what Lillie, Gladion, and Lusamine are up to here. Only Hau, and sort of Guzma, get any screentime, and even Hau is only vaguely foreshadowing his Champion battle. This is followed up with Mount Lanakila, which does have a moment with Gladion, only for him to be his usual reticent self. If anything, the plot is more interested in adding more fights than it is with wrapping up story conflicts. Considering USUM decided to add a brand new story rather than focus on the one they already had, no surprises, but still.
Both Nebby and Necrozma have interesting recruitments. Nebby is given to us by Lillie because she is well aware that Nebby's disobedience- and preference for us- was due to her shortcomings as a Trainer, and she would not be able to use him to his fullest potential until she had some genuine experience under her belt. Or at least, that's where it should have ended. Lillie gives Nebby to us on the expectation we serve as a replacement mother to it, virtually committing the very crime Lusamine is guilty of. We are a favourite aunt, not a mother, and while Lillie's isolation from her own mother has likely primed her to think of the replacement relationships she develops to be parental in nature, this is a character flaw. Necrozma, meanwhile, seems to only be catchable to add to our Pokedex, added to the only place it fits, and the devs saw fit to add to Lillie's reasoning for giving us Nebby by telling us to... rob Nebby of its self to satisfy Necrozma's desire for light. And here I was thinking Lillie couldn't get any worse from SM. It's hard to say this makes Lillie come out looking bad, because of the pre-existing potential reasons to use, but it does make the story look bad, because it really emphasises the lack of understanding the writers are working with.
The games converge with the Pokemon League. SM doing this directly after Motherbeast Lusamine brushes into issues with pacing, both narratively and mechanically, and the expanded gameplay sequence USUM offers was an improvement. The only real downside is the downplaying of the Lillie story, and considering the issues currently going on there, that's probably ultimately an upside. The League Challenge itself is fairly standard fare, and it is almost entirely here as mechanical tradition. For all the issues with doing away with the "kahuna blitz" that used to end the Island Challenge, exactly how would it compare with series history? Ultimately, the question really raised here is "why is the Champion the point where the credits roll when our story is ultimately more interested in something else?" This is a question Pokemon is not unaware of- BW had N and Ghetsis usurp the Champion and be the point where the credits rolled- but after this game, I think Pokemon really does take the lesson to heart. SwSh expands the role of the Champion to the point where "beating him rolls the credits" is the natural conclusion, while SV doesn't roll the credits with its own Champion, continuing the story beyond that point to a place where it is satisfied rolling the credits will be appropriately satisfying. To some extent, Pokemon is still penned down by what it has established as tradition and what alternatives it is willing to explore, but at the very least, they successfully pulled off the League they included to check the box.
Mechanically, Poni Island is... a bit of a mess. In SM, there's so little stuff to actually do that we only gain about five levels and a handful of TMs between Lusamine 1 and the Champion- and it's only because some of those TMs are awesome moves like Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Dazzling Gleam that it really feels like Poni is a substantial leg of the journey. The difficulty spike at the start also accounts for most of those levels. USUM adds more battles here, rounding out our EXP curve, but doesn't add too much in the way of TMs, and doesn't even add a set of Tutor moves. Since we've already mostly finished up our development in Ula'ula, all Poni can do is challenge that team and ask if it can stand up to pressure. Poni's short length in SM doesn't wind up doing much of that, although USUM does find some neat places to add it. Especially those new Veteran generics.
First order of business: Noah, remember to buy your damn Potions. Can't have you failing where Bethany almost did, you have to play by Set rules. Anyway, team.
Now then, it's Ailey's turn. How is she going to handle the pressure when we're asking for the best of the best?
Of course we're bringing Moss. Why wouldn't we? In hindsight, I'm not sure about Cross Chop over Thunder Punch, but it did carry its weight. More than Leech Life, frankly.
Hawkeye is going to be the big carry. No more Flying Press, but it was always the one that tended to miss. Hopefully that's not a jinx.
Ridley has gone from "I don't see myself using it ever" to "member of the final team". Still no Shell Smash, but if I wanted Shell Smash, I wouldn't have Ridley for the rest of the story. Not worth it.
Genevieve: Because apparently Ampharos is still able to hold her own in the Elite Four. I always thought this was a bit of a foolish choice when I did it in HGSS, but no, here she is in a more modern selection.
Justy, it turns outs, has made a horrible decision. Fortunately, it's not related to a reason he's on the team, but we are going to get the chance to point and laugh at him.
Ailey has also decided to bring her legendary. Unlike Nebby, who was just here to be cool, Zossie actually feels like a reward for sticking by her through the Poipole days.
What comes after the Hall of Fame differs from game to game. Since the Elite Four are actual characters now and not just random people, they decided that this time around, the Elite Four will congratulate us on a job well done.
You gotta love Acerola running up late after the grown-ups do the dramatic walk in.
Hau and Lillie? They certainly illuminated my life, I'm just not sure that's a related thought to "having become Champion."
That, at least, is a statement.
Well, I sure had faith in them. Enough to see things through, at least.
While her "we're all" is incorrect, Kahili is right about one thing- if we re-challenge the Pokemon League (which it is possible to do), then the final foe will be randomly selected from a pool of possible candidates- this is new to SM, but it's funny they mention it now. The Elite Four never changes, though.
The sun is currently gnawing on a chew toy.