Even if it is. Its my first Ultra Series and I found it incredibly lazy how they did it.

._. really not liking this take on Ultraman just super okay with smashing through buildings.

like, that should be a thing Ultraman avoids to do even if it could hurt him more.

oh trust me, there's plenty of form changes like that with Ultraman.

also, I kinda like it. from the Ultraman stories I've seen, one of their biggest storytelling mechanics seem to be symbolism.

Symbolism is fine and all but if its just that and nothing else it just amount to a big pile of nothing. A show that is much more talky can get away with it but X clearly wants to be an action sci-fi show like modern Rider and Sentai are. But for that to work they need to do more than just relying on things like symbolism or "just good characters" if the situations themselfs arent interesting or dramatic enough it doesnt really work.

Didn't Tendou just get his Perfect Zector by stretching out his hand to the sky, and the universe supplied him with it? Pretty sure Toku in general is full of nonsense.

So? Its not an excuse if other shows did it badly. Double and Gaim are both good examples how you do the "gets his upgrade from nothing" but still have big emotional weight behind them.

And even with Tendou there actually was an explanation. An incredibly stupid one but it still was there. Tatsulot in Kiva and Axel Form in Faiz are much worse in that department :lol

like in this case, I'd say don't worry about it.
this isn't like Power Rangers or Sentai where there's a plot where they get their upgrades.

I felt Daichi got the upgrade because the digital space corresponded with the feelings of his memories causing a reaction that made the device he got form. I don't feel that was lazy at all. I definitely felt it was symbolic.

To be fair, I completely love the Universe Loves Tendou way he got the Hyper Zector.

Also it doesn't surprise me there were other sentient beings like Kivat in Kiva with Tatsulot and I figured that Kusaka managed to get the Axel Watch or whatever from some Smart Brain place I mean the Faiz Riders could have a ton of upgrades lying around in Smart Brain lol.

I thought Drive did the Upgrades some of the best way because each upgrade he had a purpose and actually needed each one to combat the Roidmudes.

Still in the crazy worlds of Tokusatsu upgrades can come from anywhere.

I didn’t find the appearance of the Xlugger to be particularly lazy or badly done at all.

We know why the rainbow has a meaning for Daichi, he retrieved X from digital space, their bond got stronger, boom: Rainbow dagger.

There are a lot of worse form transitions, even in shows which I love. Gaim for example: Yomotsuheguri. That lockseed which summons its armor from a black cloud instead of a zipper, which somehow is a fusion of Budou and Kiwi, which somehow can summon Overlord weapons. No one knows why, Ryoma literally pulled it out of his desk and that’s it.

Yes the character using it had tons of development, but the form itself still came out of nowhere.

I don’t like the Xlugger as an item in the show because it looks too much like a toy and I’m not really into Exceed X as a form either, but I didn’t find the transition lazy.

I always thought Tatsulot was related to Castle Doran, like, Tatsulot was a Doran Wyrm that Jiro and Co. had instructed to assist Wataru when all would seem lost or something.

That's probably way more thought than Toshiki Inoue ever put into it. :p