You may remember a few posts back I mentioned that there were a bunch of new Pokemon games coming out in the future. I also swore to resume my quest to catch ’em all, and be the very best like no one ever was. It’s no small task!

First, I had to dust off my 3DS (and charge it, ugh) and renew my Pokemon Bank account. It’s $5 for a year, and they saved all my mons from years ago before my membership lapsed, thanks to my Nintendo account! Which they’d BETTER, since I’ve worked so hard on my Pokedex for many years now.

Throwback to when I completed the Pokedex in HG/SS!

I knew I had been slacking on Gen 7. When I logged into Bank and saw the situation, it was bad. I had none of the Alola version exclusives. I barely had any evolution chains completed for the latest gen. So I purged anything useful from my Pokemon Moon game and moved what I had onto Bank, and then transferred it to my Pokemon Ultra Sun game.

When Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon came out in 2017, I wasn’t really impressed. I bought it, because that’s just what I do, but I was like, “What is the point of this game? Isn’t it basically the same, with some weird robot looking characters added to the plot?” So I only made it as far as the second island when I got preoccupied by other games and stopped playing.

The real question everyone should be asking is, what was the point of Pokemon Sun and Moon? Because Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are the MUCH better games! If you’re a longtime Pokemon fan, you will appreciate Ultra Sun/Moon much more than the original Sun/Moon. The Ultra post-game is really fantastic. I didn’t expect it to be this awesome.

I will concede that yes, before you reach the ending, the Ultra games are quite similar to the original Sun/Moon. GameFreak added in an additional sub-plot of the Ultra Recon Squad, a team of robotic looking people who shed some light on the Ultra Beasts, because they are from another dimension in Ultra Space! What?? It’s all very crazy and seems like a random add-on, until you get to the end of the storyline.

Honestly, the end of the original Pokemon Sun/Moon was kind of lame. You beat the Aether President and Lillie goes off somewhere on a boat to continue training or something. It’s like random and not much payoff. The post-game in Sun/Moon is minimal. This is where Ultra Sun/Moon is muchhhhhh better.

I don’t want to give away too much of the ending in case there are people out there who haven’t yet played the game. But the family drama between the Aether President and her children is resolved in a more satisfying way, in my opinion. Though I still wonder whatever happened to the father? Why aren’t they out looking for him in Ultra Space?? After you beat the Elite 4 and officially get into post-game mode, the game is so much fun. Team Rainbow Rocket takes over the Aether Paradise mansion and becomes a haven for all of the popular bad guys from previous games. Not only that – Team Rainbow Rocket also takes over the Festival Plaza, giving you the option to use their much cooler design scheme permanently if you choose!

On top of all this additional post-game, as well as the Battle Tree and the new rental Battle Agency found in the Festival Plaza for fine-tuning and BP collecting, there is also the Ultra Space post-game. The Ultra Recon Squad show you how to use the Ultra Wormhole and ride a legendary Pokemon into different wormholes and possibly encounter other Ultra Beasts! You can also use the gyro controls while flying through the wormhole, which I think is pretty fun. This also means that there are lots of Ultra Beasts to catch.

So after some more hard work and gameplay hours, now my Pokedex Completion is at 97%. I caught all the Tapu’s but still need to get Cosmog and the second evolution Cosmoem. Then there’s a list of Ultra Beasts: Nihilego, Stakataka, Blacephalon, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Xurkitree, Celesteela, Kartana, Guzzlord, and apparently Marshadow which was only released in 2017 during a special event. And Zeraora, which I don’t think is obtainable, but is #807 in the list on my DataDex app for my phone lol. My Pokemon Bank account is also missing Volcanion, which is a legendary from Gen 6 that I missed out on. If anyone knows how I can get a Volcanion, please let me know!!

I should mention that there is no National Dex in Gen 7, which does irk me. When I do catch all the ‘mons, all I’ll get is a shiny charm. Which is awesome, sure, but I want a fancy certificate lol!

It definitely stinks to miss out on limited-time released legendaries. But I didn’t miss out on the cute Ash’s hat Pikachu that is available via QR code! Now I have to practice my Mantine Surf skills so I can earn a special Surfing Pikachu. I’d also like to complete my passport in Ultra Sun, but it’s really hard! I have to catch all those Ultra Beasts. I still haven’t completely finished beating Team Rainbow Rocket. There’s also the Battle Tree, which has an easy mode and the classic level 50 flat rules “Super” mode, and you have to win crazy streaks to get those pages in the passport.

THERE IS STILL SO MUCH TO DO TO BE THE VERY BEST!!! AHH!!

That’ll keep me busy until the next Pokemon game comes out on Switch in 2019. I’ll be ready and waiting for Pokemon Bank on Switch, because that must be happening too. Until then I’ll keep enjoying Pokemon Go through the good summer weather! Check out this cute Raichu I evolved, it’s all ready for the beach!