Welcome to my review of Pokemon Ultra Moon, the last Pokemon game to be released on the 3DS and the last game to take place in the Alola region (at least until remakes are made in 15 years).  If you follow the Pokemon series at all, you may have heard this game as being a very divisive game in the series. What are my thoughts on it? Well, let's get on with the review and find out.

Graphics - 8
Gen 7 brought some really good graphics to the Pokemon series, the character models look better than ever before, and a lot of things have been changed and polished up when compared with the last generation. However, due to the 3DS’s limitations on graphics, a lot of the graphics here are have really low quality textures, and I mean really low. It would be very nice if the quality was raised up a bit, but I understand that this was needed considering the hardware they were working with. However, the texture quality seems worse than in Gen 6, possibly due to more models being used on the screen in battles than usual. Another thing, the game still lags at times when in double battles, which just gets annoying.

Sound - 10
If you know me, then you have probably heard me gush all over the Alola games soundtrack. It’s so perfect, you have everything in here, and everything happens to be wonderfully created as well. It is my favorite Pokemon soundtrack to date, and I can’t wait to find out what Gen 8 has in store and see if it will top this soundtrack. Absolutely no complaints about this soundtrack here.

Addictiveness/Gameplay - 9
Not much to really put into this category, it’s the usual Pokemon battle formula, just with a few adjustments and new features. Z-Moves return from Sun/Moon, only this time there are even more of them. Instead of Zygarde Cells, we now have Totem Stickers to collect, which can grant you your own usable Totem Pokemon, which is pretty cool. There is actually 1 gym in this game, but it’s more of a mock up type of deal and doesn’t actually add anything in terms of story, it’s more of a post game thing just to give you a little something extra to do.

Depth - 9
It’s an RPG, and it’s a Pokemon game, there’s bound to be tons to do in these types of games. And as a matter of fact, yes there is. There are the aforementioned Totem Stickers. There’s a total of 100 of them scattered across the region, collecting them will reward you with the Totem Pokemon you have previously fought. This is a really cool feature, I was always wanting to catch the Totem Pokemon in Sun/Moon, but the game didn’t allow you to so I got disappointed. Another big feature is actually being able to go into more of Ultra Space. Once you get far enough into the game, you will be able to explore Ultra Space and capture the Ultra Beasts within their own territory. Also, surfing to other islands is now available! There are many modes to this surfing feature and completing them all will give you handsome rewards. And there are even more side quests than before! Although, there still isn’t any way to track your progress or to track your side quests, so this is still disappointing. The Battle Tree has returned, but nothing was really changed about it. There is a ton of stuff to do in this game, and it is currently the biggest Pokemon game on the market right now.

Story - 7
If you know me, you know I’m a huge sucker for stories. And I’m happy to say that the story in this game is wonderful, However, there is one glaring problem that these versions have. The story is almost the same until about the 3rd island. Which is honestly completely understandable, they always do something like this with the third versions, but with this entry there’s just not enough different, and it just felt like a replay of Sun/Moon until a certain point. Other than that, this is wonderful! The characters you’ve come to know and love in Sun/Moon are back and even better than before. With the character development they got in the previous games, this game expands upon their character. I would go into detail of HOW they do this, but that’s heavy spoiler territory, so just take my word for it. I hope the next generation of Pokemon has a story just as good, hopefully even better than this generation did.

Difficulty - 4
This score is always difficult to decide for Pokemon games, since the difficulty always depends on the kind of Pokemon the player has and how they use them, and what kind of items the player has. For this game, it’s a mixed bag. It is certainly more difficult than Sun/Moon, but it still not too difficult, in my opinion. I only blacked out in this game about 6 or 7 times, if I recall correctly. Bear in mind, I keep my EXP Share off, as to make the game a bit harder. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but it can get underwhelming when you just keep 1 hit KOing the opponent over and over again. This however does not take away the fun factor for this game.

Overall - 8.7
This is honestly one of my favorite games in the series, but I have heard MANY different opinions on this game and, actually, this generation as a whole. It's one of those games where you just either really love it or just really hate it. For me, it's apparent by this review I love it. It might be near the bottom of my Top 5 games in the series, but I am glad I picked this up, I had a lot of fun with it and the characters are my favorite characters the series has had, they are so fleshed out it makes you really care for them. Thank you for reading this review of mine. 

Pretty solid review! It gave me some insight and information about a game I have not played. My brother has Ultra Moon, and he said it was terrible, so I never played it. It's nice to hear the other side of the story, though. Maybe I will borrow the game from him one day and give it a try.