This is one thing I never understood. The dex mentions the destruction caused by UBs, but it doesn't feel extreme compared to what regular mons are said to do (Gyarados is a prime example). One of the defining traits of invasive species is that they can thrive in the new environment to be able to displace natives, while UBs appear unable to reproduce outside their home dimensions. Heck, Alola has an actual invasive species problem, right down to the same reasons real life has a lot of them (deliberate introduction for supposed pest control), and that invasive species is literally enshrined.
The difference in that is human perspective. Alolan Ratatta family and Yungoos family by human standards became invasive species because they are affecting the environment in the way humans are used to it... BUT in the large scale of things all Ratatta and Yungoos did was adapt to a new environment, both placed there not completely by its own choice. Zygarde may very well be millions of years old if its duties are any indication, even if its only a few thousand years it would still have seen plenty of geographical and ecosystem changes in that time, all perfectly natural occurrences. Tectonics plates moving and causing landmasses to split, a volcano erupting and decimating a forest which grew around it, a giant long-lasting storm flooding a canyon making it a river, a long drought turning a field into a desert... such events that drastically change things that life both old and new adapts to (or die out if unable to), and nothing which isn't out of place thus doesn't require Zygarde's involvement.
What was happening in XY and SM wasn't natural.
In XY, Zygarde was stirred because the very balance of Life & Death was being messed around with. it would have not been by the will of the embodiment of those forces which was building a cannon to give eternal life to a few and kill everything else, it was a single man driven to an insanity. Heck, who knows if Lysandre plan succeeded it would have resulted in a plant barren of any life (including plantlife and microscopic, either due to the absence of humans & Pokemon or because the weapon worked too well) and only Geosenge and the surrounding area would have any life, though it would be a twisted form of life that is forever growing and cannot die (a sort of "I have no mouth, and I must scream" scenario). Even if Lysandre plan failed due to being unable to control the Legendary, who knows what ecological nightmare would have happened from those Legendaries going wild (I still say that would have made for an interesting plot in a X2 & Y2, due to Lysandre being able to fire at least one shot at the end of XY it has causes a chain reaction of plant life growing at a rapid rate & encroaching on different environments & human settlements (X2) or ecosystems begin to collapse as plant life begin to wither and replaced by barren rock & desert which even human settlements being affected by (Y2)).
Anyway, moving to SM, obviously the Ultra Beasts are not natural. And while they have not caused that much harm yet, them alone being there is enough to stir Zygarde into action as it would easily be able to sense them. Doesn't matter if the UBs don't seem to be able to reproduce (at least how we know it), just a few are enough to wreak havoc. And not just directly, but what comes with them:
- Nihilego has a poison which makes anyone affected by it lose their inhibition and possibly all of control which has no known cure.
- Buzzwole may be able to act like its real world counterpart and is able to spread blood born diseases.
- Pheromosa can leave a wake of destruction from their supersonic running.
- Xurkitree is very efficient at absorbing energy from the environment which would have a impact of plant growth (it also would likely electrically charge the surrounding area causing more indirect harm).
- Celesteele burns down an entire forest when its launches, and who knows if the gas released has any negative side effects.
- Since nothing in nature can cleanly cut through things, Kartana cuts would be harder for the environment to recover from as its not adapted to from such a clean cut.
- Guzzlord is a natural disaster, it destroys anything it eats and leaves no trace, and it never stops eating.
- Poipole family has a poison it can shoot which sticks to whatever it hits and produces liters of the stuff which means it's not afraid to fire wildly and leave its sticky foreign poison everywhere (and if its like some other organisms which create a sticky substance it may even use it to build nests and/or change its territory to its liking).
- Stakataka can easily cause blockages wherever it lies. It can likely lie motionless for a long time, which gives things a chance to grow and build on it, which it can then easily destroy if it just decides to get up on day and move.
- Blacephalon could easily cause side fires from its attacks, though also cause undue stress on non-targets close enough to see and hear the flash & bang from its fireworks-based attacks (who knows if it doesn't leave behind traces of foreign contaminants).
- Finally, all of them are bathed in a foreign energy and who knows what possible mutations could be caused from prolonged exposure (why do you think the Recon Squad wear havoc suits? While the player doesn't spend enough time in Ultra Space or around Ultra Beasts to be permanently effected, the Recon Squad spend months out of their home dimension and working directly with Ultra Beasts that extra protection is required to protect from the prolonged exposure).
These obviously aren't natural, they're causing huge impacts on the environment and ecosystems, they can happen at any moment as long as Ultra Beasts are around; Zygarde needs to act NOW.
To be honest, there was a relatively straightforward detour that you could take... which I only found after over an hour battle-hooking my way through the caves.
If you're talking about the entrance with a jump to enter, I found that too. But the thing is, for some reason I couldn't make the jump. I don't know why, because I watched another video where someone was able to make the jump with the super jump just fine, but no matter what I did I couldn't do it. Thus I had to go up to it via the shore route and dodge high-level Bombirdiers.
Actually, they'd need 18. 18 major objectives. Otherwise, they'd fall on the same issue on a smaller scale.
Well, let's think here, they actually don't need to make that many different teams/movesets. They could just make enough that fits within the difficulty term and from there use the number of badges to automatically adjust Levels (and this stats). Like the Gym Leaders would only need like 4 teams, Team Star would probably be fine with 3, and the Titans with 3 different movesets. They just need to decide a "base" where the boss Levels start (say Level 15 with zero badges), decide a # of Badges threshold for when they would use a stronger team/moveset (like maybe every 3 or 4 for Gym Leaders and 5 or 6 for Team Star & Titans), and then for every Badge they have increase their Pokemon Levels by +2. It may sound complicated, but it's not, it's all formulaic.
I dunno how much this is really a Pokemon thing and much of it is just a my personal tastes independent of Pokemon thing, but it's something I thought of while watching a few SV and Legends playthroughs: I feel like these games would look better if they performed worse.
What I mean by that is like, the games look good when they run smoothly, but whenever objects run at a lower framerate, they look super choppy and bad. However, once the framerate gets low enough, it stops looking like "trying to make smooth motion and failing" and starts looking like a stylistic choice, like Mr. Game & Watch in Smash. Some super-distant Pokemon in Legends had framerate that low, and I wish they would just cap the framerate that low unless the object was capable of running smoothly.
I wouldn't call that wanting it to perform, I'd say what you're asking is something I agree with: forget the realism, make it a cartoony visual style! Because, that's what you do with the Pokemon, and yet by trying to make the environments look real it can place Pokemon which are supposed to be part of that environment out of place. Here's the (Titan) Klawk on the cliff it's home too:
Doesn't matter this is the Titan, ALL Klawf clings to cliffs that look this, and they look out of place. Barely the same shade of orange-brown, shell pattern doesn't match the realistic crags of the rock texture, and the hairs meant to resemble plants sticking out from the rock don't appear anywhere like that. They needed to base the cliffs ON Klawf's textures: similar color to it, less craggy, has those polygonal patterns, has plantlife sticking from the rock scattered around. Tree textures should resemble the textures used for the wood parts of Sudowoodo (who I think was designed to resemble the Berry trees), Torterra, Sawsbuck, & Phantump family. Not that some things shouldn't look realistic, I like how the Steel-type Pokemon's metal bodies actually look metallic now, but that's different from trying to replicate a natural material like rock or plant matter.
If they did that, not only do I think the game would look better, but it would likely run better.
Area 1 has 632146 mons, plus raids, the game is wide open, breeding is easy af, gotta catch em all.
Like dang, how am I supposed to pick a team like this?
The way I made my team is that at first I focused on evolving Pokemon just to start filling in my dex, my Starter the only real permanent teammate (for me this was Fuecoco). This allowed me to try out many Pokemon and if there was one which caught my fancy, I either kept it in my party or put it aside to swap in the first half of the game I wanted at least half my party open to evolve Pokemon. This is how I got Smoliv and Nacli part of my permanent squad, eventually Tinkatink joining in. And pretty much for half the game my main team was Skeledirge, Arboliva, Garganacl, and Tinkaton, me swapping around the last three (my Starter always stays in my party, you can call me a traditionalist like that). After the halfway point it was time for me to start thinking of my last two members, by that point I had encountered the pseudo Legendary of this region and, despite annoyed it was yet another dragon, decided an Dragon/Ice would be nice on my team. It wasn't until the last few Badges where I was struggling to think of a 6th member, but then I learned that Gallade was given the Sharpness Ability. I got a Sharpness Gallade who fit my team quite nicely.
So, yeah, I say don't worry too much about a "permanent" team until you get near end game. By the middle of the game you'd likely have found at least half of what you would want to be part of your permanent team.
If all else fails I suggest doing Raids, you'd be surprised what Pokemon they offer and they're usually at decent Levels so you can start using & Leveling them up.
What's frustrating about the water abundance is that there's so many Water Pokemon in Hoenn that are never, or barely, used by NPCs.
In addition the ocean is more than just open water. There are plenty of water biomes, especially when near land, which could have added some interesting visuals when exploring all the water routes. They could have had a coral reef, kelp forest, hydrothermal vents, brine pool, marine snow, algae bloom, ocean current, a sunken ship, a whale fall, a garbage patch, etc.. You then dot the area with trainers who, in addition to a battle, give you some information about the biome/phenomenon. And of course would help diversify what Pokemon you'd find.
Perhaps Gamefreak can express how Groudon can fly!
I just assumed it summoned a volcano underneath it and shot itself out of it like a cannon.
