#pokémon uranium theo

[artsy-arlequin]

Uranium pen doodles real

[thespectralkitsune]

@thesillyexpresser, pay up :3

that’ll be 100,000 pokedollars per person.

[celestelunisea16]

So I found a Reborn/Uranium Mod (props to the creators btw cause ☆u☆) the other day cause they're two of my favorite Pokémon fangames and cause I'm kinda falling back into Pokémon Uranium while at the same moment being stuck in Reborn.

Decided to add a certain Firey Rival to the game as a main protagonist...

Now comes the fun part in changing a lot of other sprites, for example, the surfing sprite and the walking sprite and any other sprite that goes along with it.

Then after that, I'll need to decide which team he's gonna use by picking his starter, cause each team is basically different on the player's starter, for example, if you picked Orchynx, he'd pick Eletux and his whole entire team would be dependent on your/player's starter-

Maybe I'll do a poll after I finish editing the sprites, asking which starter he should pick-

Either that or I could do a poll asking everyone what starter they chose and I'll pick the one that has the disadvantage to the starter most chosen-

For now though, I'mma finish up some of the other sprites then go to sleep cause it's 3:29 in the morning and currently my dogs are in my room cause a storm that passed scared them. (They're scaredy cats, but they're my scaredy cats even though they are dogs.)

☆~Oh, also credits to Theo go to the creators of Uranium cause I used the power of Ibis, fingers, and files to get the assets from the game~☆

I'mma go to sleep now, gn-

[strawberry-s0ap]

you have summoned infodumping! currently im really pokemon fan games. they often are darker than the actual games but can be so fun. i love the creativity and passion shown in the creation of these games. the current favorite is pokemon uranium, i personally love the grass type starter Metalynx, its a grass steel type and has flowers all over its back in its mega evolution.

the leveling in it is very slow tho. but i still enjoy it. i also love the story. it only has one antagonist instead of an evil team. shes also my favorite character. the rival is also so silly, his name is Theo and i just love him. the music is also really good, most of it was made by Emdashe, who makes alot of fake themes for event pokemon. the game also adds elements from the pokemon ranger games, which made me actually get shadows of almia.

thank you for encouraging infodumping, have a nice day!!!

oh wow this sounds really cool! i’ll have to check it out at some point

if you like pokémon fan games, i recommend this gym of mine if you haven’t played it! it’s basically just a game where you play as a gym leader instead of a regular trainer

thanks for stopping by!

[doubleddenden]

I got bored and decided to do some more "what if" teams for some characters in fan games. One is Dray- and actually, he was originally a persona i played as in my original Tandor run, but I think he's sort of evolved into his own character at this point to warrant a revisit. The other is Hana, sort of a pacifist and mostly just started her journey because her sisters are the former Champion and the Elite 4 of her home region, but eventually grew into her own self. These two are sort of a couple and I imagine by the time they go to Tandor together, they get engaged.

And yeah, if most of Dray's sprite looks familiar, it was a very low effort edit and splice. But, Hana's was actually really fun to splice and dice up.

I also like to imagine these specific iterations are connected to my "Ash AU" universe where he goes to Tandor like he would official regions.

Anyway more stuff under the cut. I will not apologize for fan fic level cringe- I've had a very rough day and I have killed the part of me that cringes long ago.

Of course, I should mention that while I edit and make the sprites myself from my own resources, the sprites here come from within Uranium's files, so I did not make those or edit them whatsoever.

Dray is a strong, champion tier trainer from my fan made region, Tauraro, and the son of a former champion himself. In the "game" he serves as the main rival and best friend/Co chosen one to the player. In the "anime" (both of which do not exist), Dray is sort of a rival and protégé to a young adult Champion Ash. He was originally very meek, but through both journeys, he learns how to be brave for the sake of others and eventually himself. In the "game" you two fight for the last time in the battle to end all battles, and he eventually concedes to you. In the "anime," Dray and Champion Ash give an amazing battle, and to his own disbelief, he wins and becomes Champion, leaving Ash a pretty proud brother figure.

I imagine since then he traveled a fair bit to explore the world and truly take in what he used to be far too scared to explore. He's now pretty outgoing and somewhat charismatic, but still has some reservations about some things. I think he makes himself braver so he can protect/impress Hana, though she still has to nudge him along sometimes.

Eventually he'd make his way to Tandor, digging the "start fresh" method of going in without a single Pokémon from his past adventures. His goal here wasn't initially to compete in the league- actually, he and Hana decided to travel together here after they got engaged at some point to test their compatibility, and it's actually working pretty well.

But if we're continuing this "ash anime" timeline established last time, I'd say he and Hana are sort of a season 2 cast shake up. Ash would probably meet them somewhere around badge 3 in Bealbeach and be happy to see them, but totally clueless to the reason they have matching rings and hair clips until they flat out say it, and Ash is just flabbergasted but happy for them. Eventually Hana would encourage Dray to participate in the Tandor League with Ash for old time's sake, noting that the regional routes actually make a pretty ideal itinerary for touring the region, and Dray decides to give it a go with Pokémon he caught while exploring. I do think Dray would probably be a tad annoyed by Theo, but actually weirdly see a lot of himself in Theo and try to give him a leading hand- of course butting heads like brothers would, and Theo absolutely thinks Dray is cheating by competing as a champion. Dray and Pluto, though, get along pretty great, even though Pluto definitely doesn't know a thing about Dray at all.

As far as the Curie plot, I think Dray plays a very minor role here, but still does his best to help where he can. He is absolutely TERRIFIED of Nuclear pokemon and of getting radiation poisoned, until Hana eventually befriends one herself, and inadvertently he obtains his own.

As far as his standing in the league, Dray and Ash would definitely fight in the semi finals in an all no holds barred match, but I think Dray would know he lost and say something like "Hey... you better win for us in the finals." before his shiny Beliaddon faints to Ash's Shiny Nuclear Pajay.

So, his team:

Nucleon (Nuclear): I think Dray picks up a baby Eevee from a shelter at some point and that serves as his starter. It's a very shy but sweet Pokémon that clearly didn't have a lot of good memories, but Dray and Hana spoil it rotten. At some point, Dray is in danger from the route 8 Nuclear horde of Pokémon attacking, and Eevee uses the radiation to evolve into Nucleon to save his beloved trainer. Dray was a little apprehensive, but he knew it was the same Eevee, and it was perfectly safe, so now Dray continues to spoil it rotten. It's pretty much always out of the ball when permitted.

Duplicat (Normal): initially a released breedject from a snobby Ace Trainer, Duplicat took up residence in Bealbeach and survived by impersonating humans. It duplicated Dray himself once and nearly gave Hana a heart attack when there were suddenly two of him. Dray eventually caught it, and Duplicat, while happy to be part of a loving family, still retains a Naughty nature and pretends to be either Dray, Hana, or one of the other Pokémon. In battle, Dray actually utilizes it in a unique fashion to learn about native Pokémon he DOESN'T catch, and he's especially a fan using Duplicat to transform into enemy Mega Pokémon, basically allowing him to use two on one team in a sense. It also rides on Dray's shoulder and sometimes infiltrates conversations in groups to mess with people.

(Shiny) Beliaddon (Fire/Dark): as a Champion, Dray was given a tour of the future League facility, and when he ventured near Victory Road... he suddenly had a Shiny Devimp. He had no idea how he obtained it or even remembered catching it, but looking into its eyes always scares him somewhat. That being said, Devimp warned up pretty quick, although it does seem to be using him. After a while, Dray became sort of possessed when battling with it, especially after it evolved so quickly, becoming more erratic and scary in fights. When it finally evolved into Beliaddon, Dray figured out that it was using him for reasons he can't understand. Yet despite knowing that, Dray still risked his life to save it from Curie and Urayne- this was the point Beliaddon abandoned whatever dark motives it had and became one of Dray's strongest pokemon and a powerful ace, and the two share a strange but deep bond now.

Mega Electruxo (Water Electric): Dray eventually met professor Baambo'o and took the starter quiz to obtain an Eletux. It evolved pretty quickly after traveling so frequently and it became full of itself and proud of its power, but is quickly and pathetically tamed by treats and scritches by Hana. It also served to be a rather odd but somewhat romantic water travel with its ability to run on water like land. Upon gaining Mega Evolution, Dray ALSO somewhat becomes a bit proud of their power, mimicking Electruxo's nature, and thus deepening their bond and battle sync.

Astronite (Rock/Psychic): while taking an evening stroll with Hana, a meteor fell from the sky nearby and crash landed near them. This was as a Comite, and he seemed very lost and afraid until Dray and Hana took it in. It was revealed to be separated from its flock from a passing meteor shower, and with currently no way to leave the planet, it was saddened and stuck. Dray made sure to treat it super well and friendly to try and help fill the gaps, and eventually it came to see the group as his new family. It would eventually be traded to and from Hana to evolve it to Astronite, and with that it seemed to allow it to enter adulthood. Now it can leave the planet any time it wants, and actually has a lock on on its family it left behind- and yet it chooses to stay with Dray and Hana for now. I imagine there's a sad farewell towards the end of the series where it leaves earth and reunites with his family, but will come home at a moment's notice if needed.

Frosthra (Bug/Ice): this Pokémon was terrifying a small village to the icy north, and actually kidnapped Hana and several other villagers and trainers it planned to eat. Despite the warnings, Dray recklessly went to save Hana and braved blizzards, cliffs, and near frostbite to save her and eventually fought Frosthra with his team. With a final push, Dray eventually won and saved the villagers. It was Hana though that pleaded with Dray to capture it so it could be healed, and so he did. Frosthra since has been a somewhat awkward Pokémon, but well mannered. Duplicat, Hana's Owten, and Nucleon seem rather fond of it, and it has taken a gentle giant approach to their friendship.

Now for Hana:

Hana started out on her journey the same day as Dray, and also grew up in the shadow of someone else- Her oldest sister, aka the champion before Dray and/or the Protagonist would usurp her, and the middle but still older sibling that was the Grass type elite 4 member. Hana used to dislike fighting and battles in general, and used to be rather shy and soft spoken. She and Dray weren't really close when they first started out, with Hana thinking he was nice and not knowing at all about his feelings for her, but not more beyond that. Yet she grew to admire Dray, thinking he was a courageous and determined trainer after seeing how he grew in leaps and bounds- She doesn't realize that she herself may have been partially responsible for this, since he was trying to become cooler for her but also his own team. Hana would also try to emulate this new side of Dray more, eventually being able to stomach battling when necessary and standing up to the evils of the world that stand before her.

She's accepted she isn't much of a battler, however, and is okay with that. She'd rather pamper Pokemon and groom them, and is more than okay with letting someone else take the spotlight as long as she gets to travel and be with those she likes, and is considering opening a Daycare and Nursery service when she finally settles down. In fact, she's more concerned about making new memories than anything else.

Towards the end of the Tauraro saga, I imagine Hana would eventually break the ice by asking Dray out- The two would sort of dance around their feelings for each other, and Hana would probably be the first to realize what was happening and just do it. Since then, they've been pretty happy about traveling together and trying to help motivate each other. And then eventually they got engaged after about 2 years of dating since they already became best friends in their travels- I think Dray would nervously pop the question on the cruise line to Tandor when they were all alone with a beautiful ocean sun set, and both probably cried when she said yes.

Hana takes a big tour guide and tourist approach to her travel through Tandor with Dray, learning a bit of history and serving a bit of exposition wherever they travel. She's not an expert as a native that's lived there for years or scientists that have made it their field of study, but she isn't exactly clueless either, and is an excellent puzzle solver, utilizing her and Dray's team to help them figure out how to get out of bad situations or how to traverse complex dungeons or routes.

Like Dray, she's also much more comfortable with herself and more confident, but will still feel a bit nervous if put on the spot to do anything. Yet during the Tandor saga, she'd be more than willing to help escapees and refugees from the nuclear fall out and help with the study of Nuclear pokemon and how to tame them or cure them. When she gets into it, she can take a very confident and competent leadership role without realizing it, and Dray feels butterflies when seeing this side of her. Likewise, Hana still crushes on him whenever he gets really into a battle or does something cool and badass without trying.

As far as her friendships with other characters go, I don't think she has any enemies and tries to see the good in everyone- Although, she has a slightly possessive side to her if she feels that someone is moving in on Dray too much. In the "games," she sees you as a good friend and also sees you as a source of inspiration, and in the "anime" I think she would get along with Ash just fine, but accidentally forget he's not a kid and treat him as a doting big sister to a child. To Pluto and Theo, she takes a very similar approach and tries to be a comforting older sister figure to them both, especially to Theo when he thought his dad had died. She sort of becomes an unofficial Nurse Joy and an unofficial Ranger during times of emergency as well, so she makes friends in their ranks by accident and has a lot of respect. Pluto's father tried to promote her, but was shocked to learn she wasn't one of them, and tried to get her to join, but she politely declined.

Now for her team:

Selkid (Water/Fairy): On their WAY to Tandor, Hana spotted this poor baby floating in the water and looking as if it had gotten beaten up. Without hesitating, she rescued it with a heal ball attached to a fishing rod and nursed it back to health. Since then, Selkid has been grateful and cares for Hana as if she were its mother, and she dotes and carries it like a child as well. It's somewhat skiddish and afraid to fight, but when Hana is in danger, Selkid will do whatever it takes to help her. I think by the time the series would end, Selkid is eventually reunited with its school in the wild, and Hana makes the heart breaking but responsible decision to let it rejoin its group. Until then, they are family as far as each other are concerned.

Owten (Normal/Flying): Upon seeing an Owten in the wild, Hana refused to leave the route until she had one due to how adorable and fluffy it was. Owten behaves quite like a very gentle cat and always hangs on her shoulder or head, purring constantly when happy- which is pretty much all the time. Owten is kind of dumb, though, and does not understand certain commands besides food related ones, so it too is also useless in battle, but not a burden to her.

Laissure (Ground): During the same trip to the Pokemon League grounds, Hana found a Sheebit and absolutely had to have the little rabbit. Despite how cute it was, it was very serious about fighting and is deceptively quick to anger. Hana is somehow able to calm it rather easily though, so it is managed. Laissure evolved and serves as her team's strongest battler, fighting on its own when Hana cannot give out orders, and is a valuable asset during the dangerous events that unfolded.

Hazma (Nuclear): After the Route 8 incident, the discovery of Hazma proved to be a major asset in fixing the environments and Pokemon affected by the nuclear fallout- and of course, Hana saw the cuteness in one and wanted to keep it. Dray wasn't exactly sure it was safe, but when it was revealed that Hazma EAT radiation, it was actually more than safe to keep around. Hazma behaves a little oddly, but it is appreciative of the affection Hana gives it. It likes Dray's Nucleon a little too much, though, and tries to suck its Radiation energy in a way similar to Heracross and Bulbasaur from the anime.

anyway that's all. I might try to make teams for Theo and Pluto in the future, or I might move on to another "what if" thingy and either introduce more characters or move to another fan game.

[hishap]

How come the only pokémon game to make me give a shit about the Obligatory "Rival" Character is a fangame

And yeah I’m talking about Theo from Pokémon Uranium.

Now, if you’d only played the first part of the game you might be like “what are you talking about, he’s just a whiny kid” and yeah. That‘s the point. He IS just a kid. What did you expect? For him to be mature about things? He’s 11!

He’s just a regular kid caught up in big events he can’t really do much about and he has to mature really quickly to deal with all of this

[apocalypsis-uranium]

How is Apocalypsis different from Pokémon Uranium?

Some facts and events in Apocalypsis may deviate from Pokémon Uranium canon. Most notably is the hero’s age; in the game, the hero is thirteen, but in the beginning of Apocalypsis Eden is sixteen. Theo is fifteen.

Additionally, more time passes in the story of Apocalypsis than in the events of Pokémon Uranium. The events of Uranium happen within the span of a year, and Apocalypsis will span at least two years. I haven’t decided how much time will pass for certain yet-- that will likely come as I go chapter by chapter.

Other than these two things, I’m going to try and stay as true to the main story as I can. Obviously, as with any Nuzlocke comic, what happens to Eden’s team will personalize the events. Any changes I make to the plot I do in hopes of enhancing rather than completely changing the original story. This could include expanding some scenes, glossing over others, and skipping a few side-quests.

[pkmn-fangamer]

Pokémon Uranium | Vs. Theo

[loveloki]

Para calentar la ilustración que estoy realizando, he hecho este boceto rápido digital de dos personajes. Concretamente son Natalie y Theo, los protagonistas de "Pokémon Uranium" (un fanmade bastante bien hecho). Natalie es la protagonista femenina (se puede elegir entre tres héroes diferentes) y Theo el amigo-rival, que para mi gusto es el personaje con el mejor desarrollo en la historia, es por eso que es mi favorito. :) <3 El juego es muy bueno, os lo recomiendo, aunque no sea oficial, vale la pena el trabajo que ha hecho el equipo.

- http://Raquelgdopicoart.wordpress.com/ - http://RGDopico.deviantart.com/ - https://www.instagram.com/loveloki1/ - http://loveloki.tumblr.com/

[swipestream]

SUPERVERSIVE: Ultra Sun, Uranium, and the Quest for the Perfect Pokemon Game

I’ve thought deeply for awhile of how to approach this article. So it’ll be a bit long, but hopefully you’ll find it interesting. I’ll be going forward with the assumption that everyone knows the basic core concepts behind the pokemon franchise. And hey, even if you, specifically, don’t, I know the audience is out there.

You see, I’m a HUGE Pokémon fan. I grew up with the series but I like to think I’m pretty good at separating my opinions from nostalgia goggles. The games are just GOOD. The core concept behind the games is good. And Game Freak, whatever you might think of them, clearly puts a lot of care into the series. These games are more than cash grabs, there’s clear passion, and a willingness to listen to fan complaints.

I’m serious. A common complaint about the Pokémon games is that they are stagnant. They don’t try new things, they don’t innovate, they’re basically the same game. But look at the reviews of each game when it comes out. EVERY SINGLE ONE – literally – is complimented specifically for the different things it brings to the table.

Complaining that every Pokemon game is too similar is like complaining that My Hero Academia “just follows the standard Shonen formula”. Of course it does! The Shonen formula is REALLY GOOD when executed properly, and broad enough that you can get a lot of variety out of it. Ditto Pokémon.

Lately I’ve been going through a lot of Pokémon fan games. Pokémon Glazed, Prism, and Light Platinum are all good, especially Glazed. I recommend them all. But the king, by far the best Pokémon fan game I’ve played – maybe just the best Pokémon game ever made (we’ll get to that) – is Pokémon Uranium.

And it is this game, along with Pokémon Ultra Sun, a gen 7 mainline series Pokémon game, that I will be discussing here.

Uranium is the game made by people like me, for people like me: Millennials who grew up with the series who wanted to see a game that was more difficult without getting absurd, with a story that was more adult without getting grimdark just for the sake of it, and with a more serious tone that nevertheless kept underneath it all that same goofy Pokémon spirit. Things in Uranium get dark – REALLY dark. I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to spoil the entire story, but there is one particularly eerie moment maybe halfway or so through the game where you and your rival fly through the air on the back of a Pokémon Ranger’s Staraptor (the Rangers are in this game, and we’ll get to that). In a very brief cutscene we see in the background nuclear fallout spread over the recently evacuated city while an otherworldly version of the classic Pallet Town theme plays in the background. It’s shocking to see, it’s creepy, it recognizes that the player is going to be someone familiar with the series’ history, and I absolutely loved the game for having it.

And yet, despite all of that, never in the game did I feel things get depressing, or needlessly cruel, or lose their sense of fun and adventure.

The story goes that ten years before the plot proper starts your mother disappeared after a nuclear reactor meltdown, presumed dead. The ensuing fallout caused the pokemon in the immediate area to mutate into nuclear pokemon, hyper aggressive glowing green versions of normal pokemon with a brand new typing, the nuclear type, strong against everything but nuclear and steel but weak against everything but nuclear. At the time the game starts you are living in Moki Town with your aunt. After your mother’s disappearance your father buried himself in work and is now living in the region’s capital city as Chief of the Pokémon Rangers. At the age of (I believe) 12 you join your younger and brattier neighbor Theo, pick out your starter, and go off on your Pokémon adventure. What follows are trips into massive underground tunnels ruled by man-eating ants, a mysterious villain who seems to be intentionally causing nuclear meltdowns around the region, becoming the hokage of a clan of ninja, and more…a lot, lot more.

This project was a labor of love in every way and it shows. Your father being the chief of the Pokémon Rangers is a stroke of genius, connecting side games that are technically canonical yet all but ignored in mainline Pokémon releases and integrating them into the plot in a meaningful way that actually has an impact besides “Look, it’s there!” The pacing of the story is seamless, inserting major plot events at the proper places in the narrative without feeling like a reason to artificially jack up the story.

The world is huge, with a full 13 towns and 16 routes, plus a huge roster of original pokemon. And not only is it huge, it feels connected. An example:

At one point in the game you need to surf across a large stretch of water to get to a city on the opposite edge of the map. The game could just let you swim right across, dodging around and battling trainers moving in set patterns. Instead, you get periodically ambushed by a group of ninjas, eventually culminating in a fight with the hokage. After you win, congrats, you’re hokage now!

This comes back into play later when you have to travel to the ninja hometown and are ambushed by pirates. Sure enough who rescues you but, yes, your now-loyal ninja clan from earlier. It’s great tiny details like this that make the game shine. This doesn’t even really connect with the main story, but it fleshes out your character’s role in this world in a way that’s amusing, visceral, and memorable: You did a thing, other people remember you did a thing, because you did a thing the way people react to you changes. Pokémon really shines in terms of immersion when it can pull off these sorts of touches, and Uranium gets it.

The specter of nuclear annihilation looms over the entire game

Uranium is, as you might expect, also REALLY hard in ways a mainline game can’t be. Here you’re expected to know how to play. Nothing is easy, but it’s all *possible* to do without insane grinding. I picked a grass type starter and had a devil of a time with the fire type gym leader because I expected to take him down with a ground type…except his Pokémon were FLYING-fire types. Luckily, the game gives you the ability to counter this; early on you see at least three different types of electric pokemon you can catch and train relatively quickly, and with some work it’s possible to get past the gym without insane overleveling. Pokémon Uranium absolutely demands you strategize. At one point I was forced to catch and use pokemon I’d never need again specifically to, not take down one pokemon, but get one large HIT off so they’d be softened up for later. And it was a blast.

There’s a ton of variety in the route designs, and oftentimes getting from one town to another feels like an achievement. Again, the game expects you to know how to play. If you depend too much on one Pokémon, or one type, or one strategy, you will be punished for it. Uranium is clearly attempting to recreate that same feeling that a kid got when he made it through Viridian Forest or Victory Road for the first time for adults, and it succeeds.

Now obviously the game is not perfect. The multiplayer is glitchy, and I think some of the route and gym design choices are puzzling, to say the least. But as a whole it is a love letter to the franchise and the players who grew up with it, and I can’t commend it enough.

All right. That’s Uranium. This is probably the part of the review where you expect me to go on about all of the places Pokémon Ultra Sun fails in contrast, how Nintendo is losing touch with its core audience, how Pokémon has lost the magic, yada yada yada.

I’m not going to do that. The truth is, Pokémon Ultra Sun is REALLY good. Sometimes it’s even great. However, for a few reasons I’d probably consider it the weakest of the mainline games I’ve played. It has flaws, and I’ll discuss those first before getting into what it gets right and how it compares with Uranium.

Sun and Moon starts off really, really, really slow and easy. It remains that way for far too long as well. It’s like the first hour and a half or more of the game is basically a tutorial. I don’t need one! Game Freak should know by now that a lot of its players are 20 year vets. Slap on an optional tutorial and be done with it.

A neat map of Alola

I hear so many people rave over Alola and I don’t get it at all. Alola is – and this will sound pretty harsh, but there you go – boring. Most of the routes look really similar (partially hurt by the loss of the traditional bird’s eye view – routes with the potential to look cool you can only see from a relatively limited angle, so it looks like Yet Another Road), and only a couple of the town designs can be called anything close to memorable. One of those memorable towns – a town made up of all docks connected to each other – is even just a stolen design from generation 3 (Pacifidalog Town). Making the games set on a tropical island was a mistake, as there is much less opportunity to create varied weather and landscapes. The fact that this game has the fewest routes and towns of any generation is absolutely shameful. There is no excuse for this on the most technologically advanced game engine used to date (well, until the Let’s Go games, but they’re generation 1 remakes).

The game is also badly railroaded. Now technically every pokemon game is pretty railroaded – you are supposed to do certain things in a certain order and can’t continue if you don’t. But you feel it this time. In previous games, and, yes, in Uranium – you would be traveling and doing things for yourself, because you wanted to, that weren’t necessarily connected with the overarching structure. In one example from above, you become Hokage of a ninja clan. In the generation 2 mainline games there is a short sidequest about getting a pokemon to move out of the way of the route you want to take, which involves you searching through houses in a town to find the proper tools to do it. You’re not doing this to save the world or stop the evil team, but because you want to get to the next gym and continue your adventure. Nobody from the overarching narrative is forcing this on you. In another section you go to catch a red Gyrados terrorizing a lake. While this technically connects to the larger narrative that isn’t WHY you’re doing it. You’re doing it because you want that pokemon and the gym leader asked for help. These small details are almost absent from generation 7.

And this really messes with immersion. The sense of impact to what you’re doing, its impressiveness, seems forced. Early games set you up as a prodigy – in gen 2 you even face the protagonist of the previous game again, who has apparently hidden high up in the mountains to learn the ways of battling like some sort of warrior monk. You’re supposed to be a prodigy here too, but battles are too easy. It’s more like everyone else just sucks, a lot. Luckily, this changes in a big way for the better, and we’ll get to that when it comes to the pros of the game (there are many!).

The Exp. All device, which when on gives the battling pokemon full exp. and half exp. to every other non-fainted pokemon, is also a huge mistake. The common criticism is that it’s like taking an easy game and playing it on easy mode. This criticism is correct, but there is another problem. The original item, the Exp. Share, which split exp in half between the battling pokemon and the pokemon holding the device, was a great idea. If you wanted to bring a new pokemon into your party you can bring it up to the level of the rest of your party quickly without messing up your battles or constant grinding. By splitting the exp with the entire party it misses the point of the original Exp share, and for your pokemon to catch up you need to go back to sticking the pokemon you want to train in front and swapping it out – meaning that you lose the advantage of having an Exp. Share in the first place!

So while good for younger players who have trouble raising a balanced team it’s a mess for players who are more interested in spending time training and getting to know the world.

Now for the good. I’ll first point out that I looked up the differences between Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The best I can say about it is that if my understanding of the original two games is correct…I probably would have hated the original games. Because they don’t get that much harder. The rival isn’t as big a part of the game. And the postgame is weak.

Happily, Ultra Sun gets MUCH, MUCH harder, your rival has a full character arc integrated seamlessly into the story, and the postgame is unbelievably good.

Oh yeah!

The postgame of Ultra Sun, at least as of right now, since Uranium is technically still updating – is better than Uranium’s by a VERY wide margin. An addition to Ultra Sun, that was NOT in the original Sun and Moon, is the Rainbow Rocket episode. Fruity name aside, this is a fantastic addition, designed specifically with long time players in mind. It brings back the major villains of almost every previous pokemon game and gets really, REALLY hard. Seeing all of the uniforms and people you recognize, complete with remixed versions of their classic soundtracks and smart callbacks, makes the purchase of Ultra Sun worth it almost by itself. In addition to this the series of boss battles that takes place starting near the end of the game jumps in difficulty dramatically. For the first time – and to my relief – I was required to really strategize in battles, coming up with different plans and ideas each time I lost as potential counters to my in-game opponents.

A new mechanic known as “Ultra Wormholes” is also a blast. By traveling through these interdimensional portals it is possible with some work to capture almost every single legendary pokemon in the franchise thus far – which is, needless to say, pretty freaking cool.

And…to my surprise…the story is actually pretty good? It’s probably the best story the games have ever had. The character development of Lillie is by far the best part of the game, and her family drama is actually, legitimately compelling. Your rival has a real character arc and the pacing is seamlessly integrated throughout the story. There is a tradeoff here, because by getting so story heavy you lose that sense that it’s a story YOU’RE creating, but the flip side of this is that by making the characters feel more real and the narrative more compelling you’re further sucked into the world in that sense. It’s no masterpiece by any means, but it’s easily the best story in a pokemon game and perfectly good on its own merits as well. This helps make up for a lot of the game’s other flaws with respect to immersion.

While this is not a new addition, the nifty mechanic where you get to groom, feed, and play with your pokemon is a nice touch, and it’s especially fun to see the relationships you build actually bear fruit in battle.

Ultimately, despite flaws, I had a blast with Pokémon Ultra Sun. For the hardcore pokemon fans like me, the Ultra versions are definitely the definitive gen 7 games. For more casual fans, you’ll definitely enjoy it as well.

Still, Uranium is a great example of a time where fans of a franchise were able to produce a product that the original company really couldn’t make. The difficulty curve of the game and more serious story were exactly what long time fans of the franchise were waiting for and what Game Freak really couldn’t provide even if they wanted to. While neither game is perfect, if I was to recommend one game over the other I’d recommend Uranium over Ultra Sun. It is a more classic Pokémon experience updated for an older generation, and I believe it has fewer big flaws than Ultra Sun, whatever its many benefits.

In any case, both games are definitely highly recommended.

SUPERVERSIVE: Ultra Sun, Uranium, and the Quest for the Perfect Pokemon Game published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[artsy-arlequin]

Can anyone help me find this image? The style is very cute and seeing the whole family like this is wonderful.

[celestelunisea16]

A'ight ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary pearls...

It's time....

If you read the last post, then you know I'm picking the Pokémon that has a disadvantage against most chosen for Theo's starter.

Cause canonically he has the starter that's weak to the Mc of Uranium-

[celestelunisea16]

Two things for this week cause I forgot to post this on Monday-

1. Theo Run Continuation against Pulse Tangrowth-

The flipping thing was terrible so I went to a different save I had, caught a Barewl, bred that Barewl with a Ditto, made it lay an egg, incubated the egg, put it in the box, shared PC'd it, then transferred it to Theo's save cause it was hopeless to hope it would turn out like Julia's battle, then I trained at the Opal Ward and used the candies on the Barewl, only to evolve it into Dearwl soon after-

Like... Tux was flipped from the beginning of this battle and I got yeeted a whole sh- ton...

Theo without his full team would be effed in Reborn from the first battle-

Especially with the Pulse Pokémon-

2. PIKMIN 4 IS IN (After today) 1 DAY EVERYONEEEEEEE!!!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Take an image of a Bulbmin :>

[celestelunisea16]

Alright! ☆Part 2 of the Theo Run!☆

So after training up Tux a bit and battling a few trainers, I decided to challenge Fern and...!

I fell face flat on the first try due to Fern having a Hisuian Sneasel instead of Budew in this mod-

(Yes, he has a Hisuian Sneasel in this mod, which makes him a bit difficult to fight, but at the same time, I am definitely up for that challenge. Same for some of the other trainers, they have different Pokémon, so it makes me deal with a bit more of a challenge, so I am up for it.)

So I went to train up Tux a little more and to buy some Potions because Theo's other Pokémon are located in Wards/Places after Peridot and not before Peridot. (For example, Barewl is located in the Beryl Ward.) [Hehe, Barewl in Beryl.]

After a bit more leveling up and training up Tux in the Alleys, I tried a few more times, and soon, I was able to defeat Fern with only Tux! Poison Touch was definitely a jerk, but Static helped Tux gain the upper hand with speed even though Sneasel used Fake Out! Also, a Super Potion definitely came in handy and an antidote to heal when he sent out Rowlet-

Then using Thunder Shock helped paralyze Rowlet to also give me the upper hand due to Rowlet having the Type Advantage, (almost) and it allowed Tux to be quick in his work with getting Rowlet out of the tree. (Or, in other words, knocking it out.)

And Sandile... You can see how it was dealt with-

Anyways, after dealing with Fern and finding out where Team Meteor was hiding out, (Mosswater Factory) we go there, and that's how the Barewl rolls. After meeting with Florinia and Julia due to Julia jumping in to blow up the door, we split up into two groups, Julia teams with Florinia and Theo with Fern.

Though, the battles were... not so difficult due to the amount of training I put Tux through-

After beating the grunts, getting the elevator code, getting trapped in an elevator, getting out of said elevator, then looking for some dynamite, then wasting a bit of the said dynamite as Florinia hacks into the door before it can go ☆*Ka-boom*☆ (even though the dynamite still went boom anyways but it was a small ka-boom.) We make it to Sirius and Ace, but we don't fight them cause Theo and Fern are both "small fries." No, instead, they fight Aster and Eclipse.

Which wasn't even difficult either cause Tux was a tough Hippocampus to crack, and he had two water moves-

We almost lost Fern's Sneasel, but luckily, before Rockruff could finish Sneasel off, Tux was easily able to finish the last Rockruff off with an Aqua Jet. (You're welcome, Fern. Ù.Ú)

The battle against Aster and Eclipse was very easy and even though, I decided to go train up Tux a little more after Team Meteor retreated and Julia blew up the entire place. Besides, who knows what a little more training could do for a Pokémon?

Up next, Julia... I'll explain how her battle went after I decided to challenge her next week in the next post-

[celestelunisea16]

Starting out the Theo Run. The Team so far contains:

Tux (Eletux) [Level 7] <Male>

Ability: Static

Moveset:

- Tackle

- Tail Whip

- Water Gun

Eletux is actually pretty good so far! Easily took out Nidoran with 2-3 Tail Whips then 2 Tackles.

Litten was taken down easily as Tail Whip then Tackle then Water Gun.

Maybe this run might be a little bit easier than I thought!

[celestelunisea16]

THE NEXT BATTLE AGAINST VICTORIA!! (As Theo from Uranium p.??? I can't remember-)

So she was kinda easy, I almost could have failed, but I didn't. :D

Sorry, I don't have much to say about this fight this morning- >.<"