Well, I finally beat it, including the Rainbow Rocket stuff, and... that was underwhelming. Like, ever time they did one of these "third version" games up until now, it felt like a step up from their previous efforts. Blue/Yellow -> Crystal -> Emerald -> Platinum -> B2/W2 felt like a solid chain of them getting more and more worthwhile. But this certainly doesn't live up to even Platinum, much less B2/W2.
Heck, for the first time ever with one of these... I'm actually not even sure I can call these the definitive versions for the generation. Like, I don't think the new content is bad exactly, but it's not exactly all that impressive. In particular, after allllllll that repetition, I was like "okay, Ultra Megalopolis (or w/e it's called), time for the new stuff to start proper!" and then... it was just essentially a short hallway to a boss fight and that's it. Super underwhelming. I guess the two minigames added could be worth something if you were into such things, but they did nothing for me. Like, Rainbow Rocket was the only bit that felt like it had any substance to it at all. At least that was pretty solid, but not exactly enough to prop up the game all by itself.
And I'm not sure all that plus the minor tweaks here and there are enough to make up for the way that, you know, they completely destroyed the plot. Like, the changes more or less trashed it, and what they replaced it with is easily worse. And then on top of that, while a minor issue, I'd say they wrecked the pacing a bit. As in Moon I found it feeling like a big buildup straight through to the end... but here Mina's trial is awkwardly inserted, and it kind of just feels like fetch quest-y filler.
Heck, even the expanded dex I kind of felt less than usual with such things. Like, it felt like plenty of grass patches were more or less running into the same 2 Pokemon over and over with one rare 3rd one. And then I had what felt like a loooooong stretch where I ran into like 80% Pelliper and got sick of it, and from that point on decided I was avoiding running into wild Pokemon as much as possible.
The thing I'd say might make me grumpiest, though... STILL no National Dex! And like, I can deal with it, but it's kind of depressing imagining all the kids out there excited about catching a new Pokemon and then... nothing. It was a bad thing in the original Sun/Moon, but I mean, at least there you'd only really run up against the issue with Bank (and at least then you have a "national dex" through that) and Island Scan, which is buried fairly deep. But here, with the Ultra wormholes shoved in your face (and to a lesser degree stuff like finding Electrode in the RR HQ), you likely WILL run right into this, and I mean... it's just plain lame.
