Y'know what? I wasn't originally gonna engage with this but our POVs on this game are so drastically, diametrically opposed that I wanna have some fun with it. Keep playing and I'll respond to whatever points you have. This is the Volt V. Dramps Alola Debate Thread now, or at least until one of us sufficiently loses interest.
First off, regarding the whole EXP Share thing: I know this thread exists in response to a comment ant4456 made that USUM is adequately balanced around it being always on. I haven't ever tried this myself and likely never will, but for posterity I will re-iterate my position that even if it isn't it's not a knock against USUM or any other 3DS game for that matter because you can just shut it off. SWSH onward is a whole different ballgame since that option is gone, if it's too easy to overlevel in those games it's a failure of design. This isn't a retort to you, I know you're trying to prove a point, just laying it out there.
So, here's the deal. Ultra Moon is tough.
rambling about poorly designed difficulty
To start on a nitpicky note:
Lvl 14 252+ SpA Butterfree Silver Wind vs. Lvl 16 0 HP 0 IVs / 0- SpD 0 IVs Litten: 17-21 (42.5 - 52.5%) -- 9.4% chance to 2HKO
You're gonna have to explain to me under what circumstances you got that Silver Wind damage roll. If it was off a crit, buff or debuff then I can't really abide by it as evidence of boss damage being overtuned, especially in the context of an optional encounter.
As for Hala, his team isn't just big stat sponges mindlessly dishing out hits and nothing else. All of them have a little synergy within their movesets: Machop is designed around crit-fishing, Makuhita's goal is to steal turns from you via Fake Out and Sand-Attack misses, and Crabrawler aims to stack debuffs and buffs alike, even having Pursuit to try and punish switching off the Leers. It's not insanely complex but it shouldn't be, this is the first major boss trainer of the game. It's also not if as you are bereft of options to tackle Fighting types, there's plenty on Melemele besides Mr. Mime, which I'll get to in a minute. By the way, I took a quick look at the USUM in-game tier list and couldn't help but notice Mime Jr. is in D tier. Unless some major discoveries have been made since that placement was put down it seems like trivializing Hala is pretty much where it peaks? That seems like a pretty obvious and kinda cool tradeoff to me, functioning almost like a Psychic Butterfree.
Looking at the game more broadly there actually is one boss I'd agree is too much, and that's Totem Alolan Marowak. I'm good with Ultra Necrozma for the vibes and having a lot more options by that point in the game, but Alolawak is just kind of nonsense lmao.
Absolutely EVIL to throw at you in the early 20s. Whitney's Miltank who? You need Wishiwashi or Araquanid or else you just get folded.
Now, for the rest of the game...
The camera is A W F U L 
It's actually bewildering how often you can't see where you're going AT ALL. If this region wasn't built like a Mushroom Cup Mario Kart track, this game would be straight up unplayable.
They kinda tried a bit with the route design, but the camera completely wastes it.
Well, this is a new one. If we're operating by the commonly accepted definition of bad camera work (i.e. "key things are obscured from sight causing you to miss them or stumble into them on accident") then I cannot say I've ever had any problem with the Alola games on this front whatsoever. I suppose it could be a case of me memorizing everything from half a dozen collective SM/USUM replays but 1) my memory of videogame areas isn't that good and 2) I cannot recall struggling with the camera on my first Sun playthrough at all. I
guess I can see the long vertical stretch on Route 2 being somewhat problematic if I try to look at it through your eyes? I'd like some more specific examples, please.
The mon selection honestly feels haphazard. It almost feels like there's no cohesion when it comes to wild mon selection, but at the same time, looking at the school and Hau'oli encounter tables, you do find a lot of mons that are supposed to be near cities.
And here we have the first position I truly disagree on
vehemently. Melemele's Pokemon selection is absolutely ace, man! It would've been so easy to fall into the trap of the first island in gameplay order being the dumping ground for the typical early route tripe with the worldbuilding implications being cast aside, but by god this is Alola and we're BUILT DIFFERENT. Alolan Grimer, Inkay, Gastly, Sableye, Cutiefly, Rockruff, Magnemite, Zorua, Munchlax, Makuhita and more! We even got a handful of Dragon and Ice types slid in! It would be so much more immersion-breaking if the Melemele species all just so happened to be the usual Route 1 fodder, but instead we get a selection as robust as any other island with type and design variety galore. And it's not like they just dumped the guys in haphazardly, absolutely not. There's so many great environmental details! People know about Mareanie appearing in SOS battles to feed on Corsola, but the same thing also happens with Sableye appearing when you're fighting wild Carbink. One I'm fond of is how on Route 1 you can only find Grubbin in the same grass tiles as Pichu. This is a direct nod to its Pokedex entry mentioning how it hangs out near Electric types to avoid being attacked by bird Pokemon. USUM dex additions are handled with grace, too: There's the obvious like the Flabebe line residing in the floral meadows, but also more clever stuff like Zorua being in the schoolyard, presumably a perfect spot to get up to some Illusion trickery. Over on Ula'ula Minccino was added to the recycling plant grass, doubtlessly to tidy up Grimer and Trubbish's messes.
Now, of course, not every last dex selection choice is a winner. In regards to Melemele:
-Hawlucha is the one USUM addition that very much stands out to me as odd and overtuned. Putting it this early, giving it an in-game trade and putting Brick Break in its proximity... Yeah, that's more than a bit much.
-Yungoos
-Noibat, Vullaby and Rufflet evolve too late to be usable in a playthrough. This isn't really a flavor problem so much as a "Game Freak refusing to retcon evolution methods pre-Legends Arceus" problem, although there is the oddity of Vullaby being a swooping Pokemon.
All in all though, the good easily exceeds the bad.
Shame that Hau'oli City being the biggest city in Alola is just depressing.
In every other region in the game, getting to the biggest city is a milestone. You get to actually use your money to buff up your team in various ways because of the big marts, and they're usually mid-game, so you just get that feeling of making it out of the mud.
In Hau'oli, you just sink deeper. You go from a ridiculous amount of cutscenes, to a ridiculous amount of pointless cutscenes. You get the bare minimum of customization and... that's about it. There's not a lot to do there. You can't even buy TMs.
There's an interesting observation to be made here. After two regions designed in large part around one giant iconic central metropolis, Alola went back to the Hoenn/Sinnoh way of doing things where the gap between the biggest and smallest settlements isn't so pronounced. This makes sense for the region's lowkey summer vacation vibe. At the same time there has since been a development that majorly blunts the impact and utility of Veilstone-style department stores, that being permanent TMs. In general, Alola's content is more spread out and often found in more rural and wild areas of the map, such as Mantine Surf having its own beaches and Poke Pelago being accessed through the menu. That said, it's a bit reductive to say Hau'oli has nothing of game design consequence to offer besides some clothes shopping. There's Pokemon to catch (something you can't say for many other cities in this series), sidequests to do with some decent rewards, an introduction to picture-taking with Rotom, the Battle Buffet as an early-game battle challenge with a potential payout of a Max Revive(!!!) and of course I'd be remiss not to mention Alola Photo Club my beloved.
I will admit though: What really knits it all together for me is the aforementioned vibes, and boy are they
immaculate in Hau'oli City. The very way the camera is oriented when you reach it is like you're entering a poster advertising your next vacation destination. It's a quiet, friendly and sunny city, a place where one man's Smeargle can paint all the fence doors while beachgoers relax and chuck Pyukumuku into the sea. And when you visit at night... oh my god, that PIANO DUDE. If Jubilife Village didn't exist, it would be the pinnacle of SOVL.
Alright if I continue this attempt at an analysis will derail into slang-ridden fanboying, so that'll be it for now. Good luck on the rest of your playthrough :P
