A rant, if you will. I really want to get my honest feelings out there, because some of the replies I've been seeing, while understandably skeptical, some other replies are... troubling to me, to say the least.
Game Freak has been making Pokemon games for 20 years now. I wish I had a quarter or a dollar for every single time that I have heard the "Game Freak is/are running out of ideas" statement because I'd be swimming in serious money. This isn't to sound callous or rude of any sort; I just question what the seriously low expectations are; is it because some of us dislike change? I suppose that's a fair enough point in itself, but a reminder that we still know largely next to nothing about the progression and the gameplay of Sun and Moon. A reminder that this is Game Freak's third Pokemon game on the 3DS handheld and they've proven more than adept to reform the graphics alone as well as the character models and including possibly an interesting story on top of that. I'd give Game Freak their due credit, if I'm going to be honest.
As far as Ultra Beasts go...yes, some people don't consider them Pokemon because they don't look like how Pokemon traditionally look like to us, but they're not from the same world as the Pokemon we know, hence their strange appearance. They're
supposed to look alien and freaky; I'm honestly not sure what people were expecting, if I'm going to be honest? Personally, I'm super excited to fight and catch my first Ultra Beast and see what it's like to use them in battle! Maybe they're equal to legendaries, or maybe they're equal to psuedos. Who knows, really? What are their stats like? What about types? What moves do they learn? These are the kinds of things that I'd really love to be able to find out and it's exciting and a breath of fresh air to try something completely new that's unfamiliar to me.
This isn't really out to change anyone's opinions because at the end of the day, our own opinions can only be formed by experiencing the game ourselves. Perhaps then, I hope for the day when those that are apprehensive and super wary and/or were/are expecting a complete letdown of a Pokemon game would look back and think "Wow I was silly for ever thinking this would suck".
If, after that, you feel you still aren't a fan, then fine, at least you gave it a shot. But going into the games with an open mind is important.
I agree, I can't stand when people say Game Freak are "running out of ideas" when they're clearly not. Look, the Pokemon of this generation haven't been my favourite, but I can certainly see Game Freak putting an extraordinary amount of effort into creating them and making them unique. They almost all have great lore and relate to something from Hawaiian culture which is neat, just to me, I prefer more simply "badass" designs if you will. Charizard, Garchomp, Haxorus, Scizor, Blaziken, Metagross, those type of designs are the ones that appeal to me the most, and we haven't gotten a whole lot of them with 7th gen (or even 6th, really) but that doesn't mean that they are running out of ideas, they're just taking a different creative approach. The old Pokemon will always be there for me to use and I will keep using them and I'll also try the new ones as I could potentially like them after using them some more (it happened with 6th Gen).
As for being negative, I think it's alright to keep your expections low to a point, after 6th Gen kind of let me down being stripped of a lot of my favourite parts of Pokemon (Lack of likable characters in XY, painfully easy games, legendary hand outs, no battle frontier/PWT, short post games) and I think some things about SM are rubbing me the wrong way but I think I can still have a good time while playing it anyways. SM are also impressing me in many ways, the fresh gameplay, riding on Pokemon, removal of HM's, beautiful new model and engine, more customization options, Trainers seen in battle, and now the Battle Tree. I want to keep my expectations low so I don't get dissapointed again, but a gut feeling makes me think these games might be up there with my favorites (HGSS, Platinum, BW2)
Also Ultra Beasts are kinda weird but UB-02 Absorption looks like a Stand so I want it.