>>33805962My two cents.
Platinum fixed key problems in DaiPer, while expanding on the established story and filling in a few holes. It was fundamentally the same game as DaiPer, just "better".
Next, an important side track.
Black and White 2 were continuations of the story, and complete overhauls from
Black and White. They were fundamentally different games with similar names.
USUM is not out yet, so I can only speak for what I've seen, but it looks as though it is pretending to be Black and White 2 while really being Platinum. Unlike Platinum, however, it does not appear to be fixing any of the core issues S&M had. It is only expanding the established story, except it isn't really filling in holes, it's going off in a new direction. Yes, it's filling in the gap between Necrozma and Lunaala and Solgaleo, similar to how PT did for Giratina and Palkia and Dialga, but it appears to be doing so in a long and convoluted way as opposed to a simple and elegant one. At the same time, it's not a dramatic enough departure to make it a fill BW2.
The other problem is how shitty S&M itself was. This isn't a genwar thing, it is literally how much missing content there was. From an objective standpoint, the games were unfinished wrecks. This feels like less of an expansion, and more like paying extra for the finished version of something we already bought. Like S&M were early access titles we paid for, and then have to pay to get the complete version as well.
As I said, this is based on what I've seen. It could change in the coming months, when we see a doubled Alola Dex or something. But my sentiment about the status of S&M is unlikely to change.
