"My Problems with Sun and Moon [WALL OF TEXT, TL;DR AT BOTTOM]"

Before I start this, I just want to say that I do find Sun and Moon to be really fun. But there are just a lot of things about them that bug me. If you were to tell me to rank the pokemon games, I'd put them 4th or 5th- but I'd still give them an 8/10. They're good dames, but nowhere near my favorites.Also, for the sake of this analysis thing, "gameplay" refers to the pokemon league challenge and the level design, and "story" refers to the actual story- basically the fight against the evil team.Gen 7 has been receiving a lot of praise, and it's not unwarranted. The battles are fun, the story is great, the new pokemon are cool, stuff like that. However, I really can't agree with the sentiment that these are some of the best pokemon games- they're really good, but there are some flaws that they have that keep me from liking them. Two in particular are what I think really hold this game back, though one is honestly opinion (heck. they're probably both opinion); the region of Alola, and the emphasis on story over gameplay.First, Alola. I personally find Alola to be probably the weakest of all the regions. The first reason is the level design, which is not very good. Most routes seem to just be uninteresting blobs, and dungeons are non-existent. All but two dungeons are just one room with no puzzles; Po Town and Vast Poni Canyon. Of those, the later is both the best area of the game and the game's single greatest flaw- which I will explain later.The second thing I don't like about Alola is how disconnected it is. The region consisting of 4 islands might sound good on paper, but in practice it really harms the mood for me. It doesn't really feel like I'm on this grand adventure through a large region; it feels more like I'm on vacation, which just doesn't work. The lack of towns is also baffling; it really feels like no one lives on Alola. I know Hawaii has a lot of nature reserves and such, but each island still has more cities then quite possibly the whole of Alola combined!The second, and much bigger flaw, is how the gameplay is pushed to the side. No, I'm not talking about how the whole first island is just a tutorial, though that is frustrating. I'm talking about how the entire Alola challenge is completely pointless by the end of the game.The game starts as a normal pokemon game, only with lots and lots of cutscenes- too many, if I'll be honest, but I'm not talking about those right now. However, at the end of the 3rd island, the whole plot suddenly shifts into gear.And the island challenge is completely forgotten about, from a narrative perspective at least.The problem with Lusamine's whole plan is that it neither concerns the player directly nor does it effect the island challenge. If Lillie literally did not exist, we would have no motivation to go to the Ultra Dimension. You, the main character, not only have nothing to do with it, but you're not effected by Lusamine's disappearance, save for Team Skull blocking the way to Vast Poni Canyon because they want their Guzma back.In fact, Vast Poni Canyon is probably the reason why I think about Sun and Moon the way I do. Because after beating not only VPC, but the pokemon league itself, I realized something.The game climaxes too early.The climax of the game is not the pokemon league. That is the falling action. Instead, it is confronting Lusamine in the Ultra Dimension. On the way to doing so, you fight both Hapu and the last trial. In fact, the last trial doesn't really serve a purpose, other then letting the developers wrap up a plot line they clearly don't care about. The problem with this is that, after beating Lusamine and saving her, there is no tension- the game has, essentially, ended. They could roll the credits right after you catch Solgaleo/Lunala, and the plot wouldn't be effected.But you still have the pokemon league. And that's the problem- from a narrative perspective, the game has ended. But you have to fight the elite four and the professor, with essentially no build up to get the tension back up mind you, because Mount Lanakila is a complete joke of a victory road.If I were to make this game, I'd simply switch the location of the Lake and the Altar- instead of going to Poni Island, you head to Ula'Ula meadow, then you fight Lusamine and the box legend, then you go to Poni Island. That way, the tension is built back up for the elite four, and the island challenge isn't just abandoned in a ditch. If they had simply done that, I would probably rate this game much more highly.Just as one last point, I do not object with story in a pokemon game. My favorite games in the series are, in fact, Pokemon Black and White. With those games, the emphasis is both on gameplay and story; rather then simply ignoring the formula for the pokemon games, they intertwine the formula with an actual plot. This, in my opinion, is much better then what Gen 7 did. Maybe I'll go more in depth later.TL;DR- Alola is not that good of a region. The routes are boring, dungeons non-existent, and the region being divided into four chunks makes it less grand. The plot completely overrules the island challenge and makes it pointless. Furthermore, the game climaxes too soon. This could be fixed by making you go to Poni Island after saving Lusamine, allowing the tension to build back up and for the elite four to be a proper secondary climax. via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2m4QgF8