General Discussion

Op you're right and you should say it

USUM was much better than SM, but both weren't very great in terms of pokemon games in general. They seemed pretty bland to me, and there's only a handful of pokemon that I actually like from the region.

They weren't bad but they were by no means amazing. USUM is still better tho

Lusamine is 10x nicer in the anime so I kinda have a soft spot for her. She also hella pretty for being over 40 lmao

I thought everyone thought usum was better..

I like that you can get past legends in USUM without having to pay for Pokémon Bank or having to wait for the legend you want to be featured in one of those event codes that are given at Target or Gamestop

I’ll say I enjoyed playing through USUM more than SM. But I have never, and never will, like Lusamine. So I don’t like how some things were sort of changed? And even though the anime has been a mess to me for years, I watched some of the Sun Moon series and don’t like what they did with her there, either.

Nonetheless that’s just a small detail, I guess? To the grand scheme of things. I didn’t play much of endgame USUM and can’t right now, and also don’t even see me going back to it when I can. But I do believe some of the features added were a lot better.

But I am one of those guys way into online competitive battling, so I kind of rush through the stories so I can get to breeding and such.

Usum is objectively better than SM.
but it was disappointing.
no nihilego lusamine fight, and they didn't disable necrozma's shiny lock. no battle frontier, ultra space was expanded but not enough, few of the originals' problems were fixed, if any. sm lived up to its hype but was a worse game, usum didn't but was better. I son't go back and play sm now that I have usum. they were such an objective improvement but so subjectively similar to the originals that sm are basically obsolete now.
dppt/hgss have rocked for all 8 years I've played them and still do. I think gens 3-5 were peak pokemon but I do LOVE gen 2 for how it improved the franchise and its neat aesthetic. gen 1 has a very nice atmosphere to it and makes me feel something completely unique from any other game I've played ever, it's odd, but the games are still mediocre. gen 6 is my shiny hunting playground and that's it, it does run very very smoothly though and HEE HOO GOOD BOY YVELTAL GETS CUPCAKES AND PETS. gen 7 is just kind of a drag to me, maybe because I've played though the same handholdy story 4 separate times and I'm sick of it. I haven't beaten HGSS that much and I play them every day. I think I can't give an honest objective view of gen 7 though, since I'm just sick of it forever and incapable of seeing the good in it until I take a break from it and go back home to johto for another 8 months. I'm sure there are enjoyable bits. but I just want nothing to do with it right now.