More little annoyances from the Battle Tree: So apparently some of the Special Trainers are version exclusive. These are:
Sun: Sina, Kiawe, Plumeria
Moon: Dexio, Mallow, Guzma
Now for Sina and Dexio, whatever. They're a cameo from XY/Kalos and it's not like they played a massive role in the game where you would be disappointment in fight one over the other (though if you're playing Moon version that does mean you never fight Sina as, no matter what version you play, you battle Dexio to get the Key Stone and Alakazite).
But for Kiawe, Mallow, Guzma, and Plumeria, why? Like I would have even understood if they made Cynthia and Wally version exclusive since they're cameos like Sina & Dexio, but make the characters who have a role in the game version exclusive? Oh, and this means if you're playing Sun, after battling Guzma on the beach post game, that's it. At least Moon players can get Plumeria as a Defense Title Challenger (which oddly don't have any version exclusive challengers which further makes this one odd). But back on point, I don't get why they made plot important characters version exclusive to rebattle and partner up in the Battle Tree.
I have to wonder if this was a time restraint thing. Like they wanted to add more trainers (one pair I'm surprised they didn't put in was Steven & Wallace, especially when they have 3D trainer models), but ran out of time so to make the games feel there's a point of the different versions (why start now?) they just split some of the trainers they had ready to go.
Oh, and how about more team nitpicks. You know how I complained that Guzma's Golisopod didn't use Buginium Z? Well Plumeria's Salazzle is the one holding a Z-Crystal, but it's Firium Z.
"Well, her Gengar is her Mega Pokemon which is part Poison so they probably wanted to ignore her having a Mega Poison-type and Poison-type Z Move. Much like how Guzma has a Mega Pinsir and Honchkrow carrying Darkinium Z. Since the game picks their Pokemon at random they didn't want to overspecialize in one type."
True, but then I noticed Cynthia, Wally, Sina, & Dexio's team. Cynthia & Wally have multiple Pokemon holding Mega Stones while Dexio & Sina have multiple Pokemon holding Z-Crystals, so either the game knows only to choose one of their Pokemon with a Mega Stone/Z-Crystal or they could be battling with a useless item. In addition, Cynthia & Wally don't use Z-Crystals while Dexio & Sina have Pokemon holding a Z-Crystal the same type as their Mega Pokemon! This makes me question whether what they did for Guzma and Plumeria being a balance reason or just that those planning teams have no idea what they're doing/want to do.
And now that I'm looking through their possible team options, I'm more believing the team designers had no idea what they're doing. It's late so maybe tomorrow I'll go through them (and maybe the Defense Title Matches to see if there's any oddities there).