Pokemon GO has had some fun seasons lately, but the next one is really worth celebrating. Niantic's mobile Pokemon spinoff is finally adding Alolan Pokemon to the game in droves. Pokemon GO has featured Alolan variants of Pokemon like Rattata and Exeggutor for many years, but Alola's original Pokemon have been missing from Pokemon GO for years. While the Season of Alola likely won't add all of the region's Pokemon at once, it's still great to see the Alolan starters and other faces of the region make their way into Pokemon GO. As these basic Pokemon trickle in, Pokemon GO inevitably draws closer to Legendary and Mythical Pokemon joining the game.
Aside from Legendary and Mythical Pokemon, though, Pokemon GO also has to address the question of the Ultra Beasts. Pokemon Sun and Moon players likely remember the Alola region's Ultra Beasts, a mysterious range of extradimensional creatures who bear a strong resemblance to Pokemon. The Ultra Beasts were responsible for some of Sun and Moon's most unique encounters, and they still occupy a particularly strange place in Pokemon lore. It seems likely that these creatures will make their way to Pokemon GO eventually, but if they do, they deserve some special mechanics and story content that acknowledge their alien origins.
Searching for the Ultra Beasts
Both the original Pokemon Sun and Moon and the later Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon versions featured unique encounters with the Ultra Beasts. In Sun and Moon, once the player becomes the Alolan Champion, Looker and Anabel ask for the player's help in finding Ultra Beasts that remain in the Alola region. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, players can use Solgaleo and Lunala to travel to other dimensions, where they can encounter Ultra Beasts in their homelands. Each of these versions of Ultra Beast interactions resulted in highly unique encounters with some of Pokemon's strangest monsters.
Pokemon GO isn't equipped to replicate all of these experiences as a mobile AR game, but Pokemon GO should use some slightly similar elements to preserve the mystique of encountering Ultra Beasts. It'd be interesting to see Pokemon GO add a special variant of Raids where players must bring at least one Solgaleo or Lunala in order to travel into a wormhole and encounter an Ultra Beast. Players might unlock Beast Balls as an alternative to Premier Balls if they progress through an Ultra Beast-centric Special Research line, giving them greatly increased odds of catching Ultra Beasts after a Raid.
A New Pokemon GO Story
Aside from unique mechanics, Pokemon GO should bring in a special Ultra Beast storyline that allows players to study the origins of these strange creatures. For example, Looker could make his Pokemon GO debut in an Ultra Beast storyline, asking Pokemon GO players for their help in wrangling and studying the Ultra Beasts. Looker is a fan favorite Pokemon character, so many players would be thrilled to see Looker repeat his role in Pokemon Sun and Moon. Pokemon GO's Professor Willow is a good quest giver for most Special Research, but the Ultra Beasts are so unique that he ought to share the spotlight with another character who has an established connection with these creatures.
Odds are good that Niantic will simply add the Ultra Beasts to Raids in the future, but that'd be a serious waste of their potential. The Ultra Beasts have a truly unique place in the Pokemon world, and Pokemon GO needs to preserve their special place as much as possible. Rare monsters like Legendary and Mythical Pokemon already sacrifice many of their unique contexts to appear in Pokemon GO, but Niantic has enough experience with Pokemon by now to get creative for the sake of Ultra Beasts. Adding to Pokemon GO's Raid roster is always great, but Ultra Beasts deserve something a little more special than that.
Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS devices.