Criticisms of Gen VI

[Spak]

I've been called a genwunner many times because I'm not really a fan of Gen 6. This is a rant I posted in What Games Do You Want for Wii U/3DS?:

Just a side-rant here: I was severely disappointed with Gen 6. The Pokemon Mega-Evolution concept is great, except that there are only a select few Pokemon that have the Mega-Evolution, severely limiting team-building. The Fairy type severely upset the type balances that have worked for generations, there were nerfs to Dark and Fighting types that were unneeded, and a lot of Pokemon got retyped that made them have more advantages or disadvantages (Garevoir is no longer weak to Dark, Jiggs is no longer weak to Fighting but is now weak to Poison and Steel, etc.) There was no full 3D in the game nor was there flawless 3D in the few places they decided to include it. For instance, whenever you turn 3D on in a fight with two mid-large characters (I noticed this with a Pidgeot VS as Snorlax), the game itself lags noticeably and the framerate drops down in the teens.

Also, the transfer system from a previous game to a current game now costs money and I expected to get at least the basic features of the series (you have been able to transfer Pokemon between generations since Gen 2) along with the $40 I paid for the game, but it now costs money for a subscription in order to transfer your Pokemon from your Gen 5 game to your Gen 6 game. Before anyone contests this point with the fact you can't transfer from Gen 2 to Gen 3, that was because they didn't want any Pokemon affected by the Johto Guard Glitch in any of their later generations. Lastly, there was a horrible lack of endgame things-to-do after you beat the game. I played X through completion last Christmas, then I put it down and haven't picked it up since.


Those were my opinions on the main games, but to add onto that, I have something to say about the Gen 3 remakes:

I don't like these as much as the original gen 3 games because it naturally has the same problems as listed above, but also makes not-so-great changes to the third gen games. I noticed in multiple places, they took out all aspects of possible adventurous spirit. They added dialog to clearly indicate that there was a certain place that team will be immediately and had no purpose other than to spoon feed the player information about where the team would be next, they made areas signifigant to the plot painfully easy to get to and fenced off the player from areas they could have explored in the original until halfway through the game (looking at you, Granite Cave), and this game is easier than the original 3rd gen games (which I considered the easiest through the end of 5th gen).

The legendaries were also in large amounts (all of whom were all easier to catch than they were in the original games), the remake of the Safari Zone didn't actually function as the proper Safari Zone seen in gens 1-4 (something I was bitterly disappointed about), and they didn't include the Battle Frontier in the remakes of the generation who introduced the concept. It just seems to me that they took one step forward and two steps back. The game didn't fail in all categories because I did enjoy the story a lot more in the remake as it seems like both teams have more character, but in the end, a script that is a good amount better doesn't make up for trashing the content and gameplay.

I've been called a genwunner because I don't like Gen 6, but as you just read, I have reasons. The only problem is that few people are willing to hear me out and most dismiss me as a misinformed, nostalgic hater.

 

[finalark]

I'll agree with you on those gen 3 remakes. I've never really been all that into competitive Pokemon (I've always played them exclusively as single player RPGs) but from a casual standpoint I found Omega Ruby lacking. My biggest issue with the game is that they took out any sense of exploration and wonder by having your rival teleport you all over the place. There was no reason to backtrack or revisit previous areas because the second you have to travel anywhere they just had your rival poof you right on over there. This made the entire game feel tiny. In the original RSE Hoenn felt like this massive continent (I know it's an island) filled with geographically diverse areas that made you want to explore. Here? Na, let's change to perspective so everything looks smaller then have your rival warp you around so you don't get immersed or anything.

Also, the OST. In my opinion, the RSE OST holds up decently well, and listening to the individual tracks it doesn't sound like it's from any specific era, dated soundchip music aside. The ORAS OST is pretty obviously from the 10s with its electronica and wubtastic OST that's going to be horribly dated in about ten years. Compare the RSE VS Ancient Pokemon theme to the ORAS version. Yes, the story was better handled (if a bit more cartoonish) but all and all ORAS was just horribly underwhelming for reasons listed in the post by @ Spak above. I had to force myself to beat the game and still haven't completely Delta Episode, and I really don't care enough to do so.

Also, X/Y is a total step down from B/W. B/W was boldly ambitious while X/Y played things way too safe and felt horribly bland in comparison.

 

[HeavyLobster]

I liked X/Y's wide selection of Pokemon available to you fairly early on. It was nice to be able to pick and choose your party members from a variety of options instead of having to settle for the standard Pidgey and Rattata substitutes. Storywise it wasn't as good as B/W and the lack of an aftergame was disappointing, but that one feature was very refreshing and made the game personally enjoyable. Haven't played OR/AS.

 

[Firus]

This line of discussion sort of branches away from the original topic but it's something that I think is worth pursuing so I'm making it a separate thread. Feel free to alter the title/OP as desired, @ Spak .

I guess I haven't really been immersed in much discussion of recent Pokemon games (or recent games in general, I'm severely out of touch with the gaming community) so I don't know if this makes me in the majority or if there was wide-ranging critical reception of the newer games, but...I honestly loved both X/Y and OR/AS? The lack of endgame in X/Y is certainly a valid criticism that I agree with, and the transfer system is admittedly garbage ($5 a year really isn't a bad price, and there was the option to transfer within the free trial shortly after it was released, but there still should be at least a one-time transfer option permanently available for free). I can't speak to competitive stuff because, like finalark, I really don't dabble much in that area, but those sound like pretty valid points to me.

But something about the way those games were executed just made me completely fall in love with Pokemon all over again, and I played Y well beyond the main storyline for the sake of Dex completion, which can be a tedious process but I honestly wanted to do because I enjoyed playing the game that much. Like @ HeavyLobster , I really liked the variety of Pokemon that was available. I limited myself to gen 6 Pokemon on my team just so I could use a new set of Pokemon, but it's refreshing to see such a large variety of Pokemon throughout your journey. For that matter, the whole Kalos region just really appealed to me. I don't know why, but something about the atmosphere it conveyed drew me in. Super Training and Pokemon Amie also add a whole new dimension to the games. I mean, EV training existed before, but it's such a pain to go through that I only did it a couple times without Super Training. Even with Super Training, it's a lengthy process, but it became viable for me, and it opens up that facet of the games to people who aren't invested in the competitive part. Filling up Pokemon's affection meters in Pokemon Amie sort of turns the game into easymode, but it's still a neat idea.

In a lot of ways, those options, the wide range of available Pokemon, and the customizable character ability (which I'm praying comes back in future generations, no matter what BS Game Freak spouts about it being a "Kalos-only" feature) I guess made the game feel more malleable to whatever you want to do with it. It probably helped that it coincidentally fell at a time where I was in college and two of my close friends had just gotten it as well, so we were all sort of experiencing the game together and it captured the same gen 1 feel, but it just feels really good and real to me when playing it.

As far as ORAS go, I was sure they'd end up disappointing me given my love for the originals, but I thought they were really faithful while adding a lot of new stuff. @ finalark , I'm still having some difficulty seeing exactly how the soundtrack is "electronica and wubtastic"? It's certainly modernized, as you'd expect it to be to match with the quality the 3DS is capable of outputting, but I don't really feel like either of those terms really apply to how they modernized it. I'm not saying every track is my favorite, but I feel like they did a good job revamping without removing the integrity of the original. I mean, you still hear the trumpets everywhere. The Ancient Pokemon theme is probably not my favorite song on the new soundtrack, but even there I don't really know that I'd say it's wubby or even electronica just because it's not my favorite revamp.

Otherwise, again I'm a fan of the XY features they brought forward as well as the new DexNav stuff. (I don't tend to build teams outside of the main story, so I don't generally have the opportunity to breed those moves on Pokemon I'm using; so anything that enables me to get the moves without the breeding process is a plus in my book.) I can see how the rival teleporting could be problematic, but...I mean, I can definitely see how people would be bogged down at the idea of backtracking through routes they'd already explored, so I think that was a valid function, and you aren't forced to use it. I know I never did. As long as it isn't forced on everyone else, I don't see why there's a problem with implementing features to make the game easier for those who want that easiness. And even so, I don't remember the rival doing that more than 3 times, though maybe my memory is faulty.

Honestly, my biggest problem was plot stuff. First of all, I played as May in my first run through Omega Ruby and Brendan is a huge jerk, meanwhile May flirts with you on the first encounter. Brendan was kind of like that in the originals too, but he's so much more condescending in this game and it's annoying, and I'm trying to figure out why they thought that was a good decision. And then at the end of the game you're expected to like him or something? He doesn't even really apologize, he just comes to the realization that maybe you actually are good and don't need him "testing" to see if you're doing everything right. I also had a bit of an issue with the way the Groudon/Kyogre situation plays out, only because the underlying idea of all of the Pokemon games seems to be that Pokemon are inherently good-natured and only do bad things in the hands of bad people, yet the way the whole thing played out, the team leaders talk about how Groudon/Kyogre are rushing back to the Cave of Origin to seek more power, as if this destruction isn't merely an accident that occurred at Team Magma/Aqua's carelessness but a factor of raising a Pokemon that's power-thirsty and eager to destroy. And that just didn't quite sit right with me and didn't fit well with the image I had from the original games. Perhaps they felt they needed to do that to explain the Primal Reversion aspect, but I really would've rather had it explained some other way.

Wow, it's been a while since I've written a wall of text like this on here. But my point is...personally I've loved all the gen 6 games. Feel free to respond/debate obviously, I'm up for discussing this.

 

[ndayday]

Ok so I obviously like Pokemon, it's a big part of my life growing up and it's just always a game I can have fun with. But I kind of snapped when it comes to OR/AS. I liked XY just fine, even though there were some issues (framerate, bad main city, in general the engine is pretty bad imo...). It's Pokemon, so I liked it.

But when OR/AS came out and it was the same thing I was seriously just disgusted. Maybe I expected too much, but it's not even so much something about the story or music or anything like that (they were mediocre and pretty ok, respectively, just like always). Rarely do I like to call game development lazy, but I felt that the entire game was lazy. No improvements in the engine, almost nothing that made the game stand out from XY besides it being Hoenn. Dexnav is neat but is something for people way into Pokemon. The Battle place's excuse is LITERALLY "oh this is an exact replica of a battle place in another region!" That's when I dropped the game. Just something about that pisses me off. In short, it felt like I was playing XY skinned to be Hoenn, and a game shouldn't feel like that. Yes Pokemon games have not strayed far from a traditional formula but that's not the complaint. Crystal didn't feel like GS. Emerald didn't feel like RS, and FRLG didn't feel like those games either. DP is different than Pt. To me, OR/AS feels the exact same as XY...and that's not a good thing.

Personally, if there aren't any real upgrades from XY/OR/AS in the next main game, I'm just not getting it.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

I enjoyed both Pokemon X & Omega Ruby, but compared to previous installments & remakes, they feel very underwhelming. I remember not liking the story from Pokemon X all that much along with the fact it's way too easy. As for ORAS, they're pretty much in the same department as Pokemon X/Y when it comes to disappointment. Both FR/LG & HG/SS were great remakes, but ORAS really didn't offer much other than having the same problems as X/Y. I still like both games, but they were indeed very underwhelming in comparison to games that came before them.

Also, the OST. In my opinion, the RSE OST holds up decently well, and listening to the individual tracks it doesn't sound like it's from any specific era, dated soundchip music aside. The ORAS OST is pretty obviously from the 10s with its electronica and wubtastic OST that's going to be horribly dated in about ten years. Compare the RSE VS Ancient Pokemon theme to the ORAS version. Yes, the story was better handled (if a bit more cartoonish) but all and all ORAS was just horribly underwhelming for reasons listed in the post by @ Spak above. I had to force myself to beat the game and still haven't completely Delta Episode, and I really don't care enough to do so.

Yeesh, the ORAS version really doesn't sound as good as the R/S/E version. Say what you want about the original version of the song, at least it sounds leagues better than the more modern version.

 

[Quillion]

At this point I don't think Game Freak and Nintendo really know what Pokémon is supposed to be. Is it a content-filled single-player adventure? Or is it multiplayer that's the real meat of the game?

They're trying to do both especially in Gen VI and failing at it. It would be better if they just stick with purely one or the other.

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

I have mixed opinions about gen VI. Let's break it down into good and bad:

Top 5 Things Gen VI did right:
1. The thing I love the most in X/Y is the huge amount of possibilities presented to you when building your team. Most generations confine you to new pokémon with a few returning ones thrown in to build your team off of, but I feel like the inclusion of so many pokémon on each route allows for every person to build a very different team than their friends, and diversity between friends in my opinion is one of the best parts of Pokémon. That is the source of all Pokémon debate and pride.
2. The new Pokémon are pretty good. I feel like they went for quality over quantity this generation, and I feel that all the rest of the generations from now on should only create around that many new Pokémon so that the number of existing Pokémon doesn't spiral out of control.
3. BATTLE ANIMATONS ARE AMAZING!
4. POKÉMON AMIE IS (mostly) AMAZING! I will explain the mostly in the negatives.
5. In ORAS, Thank you so much for finally giving us some form of free flying with the eon flute. I personally wanted this for so long.

Top 5 Things gen VI did wrong:
1. So, we herd you liek fanservice? Well, we took your fanservice, and we added some more friggin fanservice to it! I know that 'pleasing the fans too much' is a strange reason to put as my number 1 apathy for Gen VI, but this is a bit ridiculous! Mega evolutions are a huge fanservice. They didn't have to be a fanservice, but the way that they were used made them a fanservice. For example, charizard and mewtwo are probably the two most favorited pokémon ever, so they got not just one, but two mega evolutions! First of all, this makes charizard the even more obvious pick when choosing a starter, and second, it goes against my number 1 thing Gen VI did right! They are practically discouraging diversity in favorite pokémon by making charizard and mewtwo so awesome. What fun would pokémon be if everyone's favorite was either mewtwo or charizard, and the only debate is which one is better? We got plenty of fanservices other than megas, but I don't want to list them all. You know what I mean.
2. Continuing on mega evolutions, competitive battling was hurt unnecessarily. Mega evolutions could have been an awesome addition to the game, if they used them like this: give megas to pokémon that don't stand much of a chance in competitive to revive their existence. They actually did this with mawile, a pokémon that used to be almost completely useless in competitive. They gave it both a ridiculous mega and fairy typing, immediately shooting it all the way from Never Used to Ubers, and for those not familiar with tiers, that is literally the absolute worst to the absolute best. Maybe that was a bit excesssive, but do the legendaries and pseudo legendaries all REALLY need megas? Like seriously, they were already OP, why not make them MOAR OP? Such wasted potential. Another example: flygon and garchomp. The two dragon/ground type pokémon, but garchomp completely eclipses flygon in stats and in basically every situation, garchomp is the better pick. So the logical decision would be to give flygon a mega evolution to even the playing field. NOPE GIVE IT TO THE GAR! This annoys me to no end.
3. The difficulty. Gen VI was legendarily easy. I guarantee you that I could make a team consisting of magikarp, dunsparce, bidoof, luvdisk, feebas, and rattata, and still get through the entire game without blacking out once, and without using any healing items in X/Y. That is a problem. Between the ridiculous benefits you can get when you get your pokémon to full happiness in pokémon amie, the large amount of trainers to grind on between gyms, the new mechanic for the EXP share, the lenient difficulty curve, and the unprecedented amount of ways to gain XP, the game could be beat by someone who knows nothing about type advantages, the difference between special and physical moves, or any of those crucial mechanics. At least the ORAS pokémon league had some level of difficulty, but that was honestly it.
4. Online battles with random people were completely ruined in ORAS. I try to use a team that has no ubers, no OP stuff, and I want to look for a fun, strategic fight. However, 90% of the time, all I run into is mega rayquaza, primal groudon/kyogre, deoxys, the shiny event metagross, the person's starter, and one more legendary/OP pokémon. It is laughable how common this combination is in ORAS. It is the only method you even have to stand a chance online, so I can only have fun battling my friends now. Where is the diversity? The balance? Gone. Now it's a bunch of noobs with powerful friends.
5. In my opinion, the gen VI starters were my least favorite of any gen. ITS MY OPINION! But to avoid hate, lets make number 5 team flare. The evil organizations in pokémon are notorious for being dumb, but this one just takes the cake. With team plasma, I actually found myself asking the question, is pokémon battling moral? In the end, we found out that team plasma wasn't actually interested in pokémon liberation, but it actually made me think. Also, N and Ghetsis were very memorable and complex characters. I don't even remember the name of team flare's leader! That shows you how bland he is!

 

[Teran]

Anyone who uses the term "genwunner" negatively is someone who wasn't around for the phenomenon years of Pokémon, and thus their entire understanding of the spirit of the franchise is lacking.

From Gen III onwards, several marked shifts in the way the games were put together came about, and have stuck since. I'm not going to bother with monster design here btw

First off, one of the core elements, the rival, completely changed in its dynamic. See in Gen I and II, we had actual rivals, real nasty pieces of work in their own right. In RBY we had the smug and condescending Gary Oak, the legend himself constantly coming in to try and rain on your parade, taunting you every step of the way. This legitimate rivalry comes to its apex at the grandest stage of all, the champion's battle at the Indigo Plateau, where it all finally reached its conclusion. A classic story, a classic build, a classic end.

GSC had Silver, a nasty and abusive piece of work, you hate him for different reasons, but the point is that you still hate him. He's always trying to ruin your day, and is pretty arrogant too, so it's nice to put him in his place.

Gen III onwards the rivals change to "YAAAAY LET'S BE FRIENDS AND RIVALS! WE'LL GROW STRONG TOGETHER!"

Get the **** outta here with that ****, what is this, Glee? I mean seriously who the **** are you people? At least the earlier rivals were somebodies from the first moment, by doing something antagonistic and establishing that they were relevant enough for me to care about/hate them. You guys aint ****, May/Wally/Barry/Cheren/Gen VI people I forget the name of, you're all nobodies and a waste of my time. At best, I feel sorry for you because you guys are my friends and I annihilate your Pokémon whenever you challenge me to a battle.

The next point: villainous teams. Team Rocket is the greatest villainous team hands down, for the simple fact that they're truly heinous crooks. After Team Rocket it's always been silly teams with nonsensical idealistic visions (Cipher were good but we're not counting the excellent Colo/XD). Team Rocket were just criminals, Pokémon were just a cog in the entire criminal machine. The used pokémon to fulfil their criminal activities, they abused pokémon for profit, they even flat out murdered pokémon when they got in the way of profit. All the things Team Rocket did, it was just for money, and ultimately it didn't even end as a story of redemption or realising the error of their ways, you just disrupted all their schemes to the point where the empire crumbled, so they were like "**** it, we're done".

Gen III and beyond have tried too hard to establish some idea of a mythos and a CHOSEN HERO OF DESTINY HURR LEGEND OF _____ ALL COMES TO PASS AS THE PROPHECY FORETOLD. It's steadily got more pronounced with each generation, and detracts from what made the original generations great. See, a part of what made Pokémon so great was the minimal approach to delivering the world to the player. The world had a cohesive overall structure, while not having an overt and obnoxious narrative. This made the world feel a lot more organic, with you painting in the details in your mind. The music, which I will admit is one of the things that is still decently strong, (in terms of individual compositions anyway) , was amazingly composed but also SPECIFICALLY UTILISED throughout. The sequence in which the tracks play create such a strong sense of atmosphere that mirror the emotions and moods of the moment, such as this track playing after you exit the gloomy and arduous first cave trek through Mt Moon.

It's a more subtle example than saying "oh this music is good", because it's not about good music but how you use it. You could put a Beethoven Sonata I'm a Michael Bay movie, but it won't elevate the experience unless it has cohesion with the overall work, even if the music itself is superb.

Gen VI has amazing tracks like the E4 Champion theme and the funky Team Flare theme, but I dunno, the music direction has definitely slipped in recent years. The last game with amazing music direction is again Colosseum/XD imo (more the former), ,but again I suppose they don't count.

Also, one thing that bugs the crap out of me now that we're no longer in the 8bit era is the refusal of Game Freak to just let us create a trainer. Okay if you want your trainer to be a set age that's fine, but at least let us change our trainer's features extensively beyond just lol boy/girl lol darker skin. Seriously I wish more people grew up plating wrestling games, wrestling games in 1997 offered greater character creation/customisation tools than most games today.

Having said all of this, I much preferred Gen VI to Gen V. If we're not counting Colo/XD, my ranking of gens in terms of just how much I like them go:

Gen I and II tied, they feel inherently married
Gen IV
Gen VI
Gen V
Gen III

People who dislike Gen IV are usually Hoenn fans, of whom my opinion is not favourable.

 

[Substitution]

I don't think that Gen VI was God awful, but it sure as Hell wasn't perfect (though I believe every Gen has it's ups and downs). Granted I can't say if OR/AS is bad (since I haven't played it), so I'll stick with X/Y. Starting with the Rivals.

Now granted, Gary can be obnoxious (though I feel there's a good reason for that), and I never did care for Silver's emo personality. But at least they had something to them. May/Brendan were water on tofu bland; Barry was Diet Gary; Cheren and Bianca were not perfect, but they did try to do something with them; and then there's the Gen VI rivals. Good God, the rivals. If you ever wanted a more classic example of quantity > quality, look at these morons.

Oh, sure. There's four of them (one of them being the other playable character), and they sure look unique, but good freaking luck trying to tell the four apart. As they all have that wide-eyed naive personality and does nothing with it. Whenever I saw us together, I half-expected to walk down a yellow brick road with "All In This Together" from High School Musical to play in the background.
But maybe it's better they're together, because apart they're one note at best. And Game Freak sure loves making sure that singular note get pounded into your head. One loves dancing (I mean, loves dancing, did you know he loves dancing? Because you will know he loves dancing); another is the textbook nerd; then you have the forced love interest, which was especially annoying since I knew nothing about her, but apparently I was supposed to care about the two getting together; and who I like to call the true rival (the other playable character). But her entire existence is: "How dare you win in order to progress the story! How do you think (s)he feels?! Shame on you! >:[" Which got irritating very fast.

The other main problem is Lysandre. Now, once again. Say what you want about some of the past teams, but they at least tried to do something with them (or at least, make them threatening. Like Cyrus or Ghetsis). But Team Flare was as generic as a doomsday villain could be. I mean, you already have the mad scientist, the doomsday weapon, and the lack of any motivation other than "because". I also loved how they tried to keep his true identity a secret, and then acted like him being evil was some big, shocking reveal. Even a ten year old could've figured that out!

And since Mega Evolutions were brought up, I do want to say this. In theory, I like the idea. Giving Pokemon that would otherwise be useless a second chance (and in cases like Glalie and Mawhile, it worked). But as it started to go forward, it became less of "How can we make this Pokemon better?", and more "How can we make this Pokemon cooler?". For example (and let's be honest here), did Charizard and Mewtwo really need two Mega Evolutions? Sure, they're every ten-year old's idol, but what about the others (like the two other Kanto Starters, who only got one)? Lord knows people already favor one over the other, so why bother making them the special ones?

Though that's not to say there weren't a few things I liked. Super Training was a big improvement, making EV training less repetitive (and also teaching kids about it is always a good thing). I wasn't too big on Pokemon Amie, but it was charming enough. Customization was a welcome addition. Sure, it was limited, but it was still neat to have (but of course they had to take it out in OR/AS. Heaven forbid I have fun). Also Klefki: because the idea of dragons as powerful as gods being taken down by a ring of keys amuses me greatly.

But that's just how I feel.

 

[Arcanir]

I was going to do this differently, but since my original post got deleted, I'll do it mostly in bullets and expand from there.

XY
-The Post Game is barren, there's little to do after the main game's done.
-Similarly, little replay value in the way of things like Contests, so you don't get to experience more out of your game then just the main game and Battle Facility.
-The difficulty was very toned down, so it's easy to get through the game without any trouble.
-The region is still too linear.
-The nostalgia pandering was a bit too much. Granted, I like Kanto and I grew up with it, but I don't think it was necessary to have the starters, legendaries, Santalune Forest being a 1:1 representation of Viridian and the like be present in the game, especially if it came at the expense of Kalos' own identity.
-Poor story and characters, the rivals, Gym Leaders, Champion and Team Flare are very forgettable. Even Lysandre, who has the biggest potential out of all of them falls flat due to poor pacing and writing of his character and motives.
-The lore and Kalos' character in general was pretty lackluster as well. Unlike the cover legendaries of Gen 3-5, Xerneas and Yveltal are very underdeveloped, get nothing in the way of things like Dragonspiral Tower, and not nearly as influential on the plot as you'd expect. Most of the region also feels pretty empty as well as there's not much to many of the routes once you travel through them on your quest. The only thing that really got a lot of attention was Mega Evolution, and even then they don't really focus on it too much after you beat Korrina.
-Mega Evolution was a double-edged sword, a good idea that was marred by poor balance and being mostly a popularity contest. Charizard did need help for instance, but did he really need two Megas, one of which went on to be the huge marketing boy of the generation ahead of so many other Megas and even most Pokémon in general?

ORAS
-Completely ignoring Emerald content, considering that HGSS remembered that Crystal existed, it's baffling why ORAS did the opposite with Emerald. It's even more disappointing considering that Emerald added a lot to Hoenn like Battle Tents, Battle Frontier, Gym Roster updates (Liza/Tate in particular), and so on that made playing through it so enjoyable. So I don't understand why so many corners were cut in this area when ORAS could've easily went far with them, especially when a six year old game did better.
-Related to that, no Gym Leader rematches, which is very confusing considering XY, the previous game had it too (albeit, somewhat flawed).
-The Pokedex isn't updated to modern standards, so the selection is limited and you don't get a lot of options for types like Ice or Dragon. This particularly rears its ugly head when you get into Gym and Elite Four rosters.
-Similarly, not fixing the HM issues that were addressed in Gen 5 and 6, so traveling is again hindered for the sake of keeping the games similar to the past.
-Ignoring some of XY's features, especially customization as that was a very beloved feature.
-No patching for XY to be updated with the release of ORAS and limiting online interaction between them. This becomes troublesome when you consider that even Gen 4 and 5 didn't do the latter and we don't exist in a time where patches are impossible.

That's not to say that these games did not have their strong points, because they do. XY brought in things like Super Training, Fairy typing, updating the games into a 3D environment among other things. Similarly, ORAS improved the story and characters of the originals and gave a bit more to the contests and secret bases. These are just the criticisms that bothered me when playing through these games. I do feel that Gen 6 is being held back though by these flaws though, and I do partially put the blame for that on GF's mindset as of late as it is the reason why things like the Frontier's omission and the lack of customization in ORAS are present. I'm hoping that this will improve by the next game as I've not been too impressed with the generation so far, and while I'd like to keep playing, if the same flaws I've noticed are present in it I don't think I'll buy another game.

 

[Sir Gengar de Èctoplasma]

XY
- postgame
- difficulty (too easy with Exp. Share, too hard without it)
- rivals were bland, as well as Team Flare
- poor story

ORAS
- no customization
- no rematches
- too much HMs (Fly, Surf and maybe Strength should be the only ones)
- bland rivals
- lack of Battle Frontier (I don't care about BF, but many others do)

I still think this was a good generation, but the biggest flaw in this generation, which has been present since Gen 4, is:
GTS
- being able to request underleveled Pokemon
- being able to request event Pokemon
- being able to request legendary Pokemon for any Pokemon
The most screwed up thing in Pokemon. I am surprised that it's not possible to request things like male Chansey or female Gallade. Three things I mentioned above should really be fixed: ban event Pokemon, make it impossible to request underleveled Pokemon, and make it impossible to request legendary Pokemon for anything else than other legendaries. And if someone request, for example, Dusknoir, you should be able to trade him a Dusclops with a Reaper Cloth.

 

[Firus]

I still think this was a good generation, but the biggest flaw in this generation, which has been present since Gen 4, is:
GTS
- being able to request underleveled Pokemon
- being able to request event Pokemon
- being able to request legendary Pokemon for any Pokemon
The most screwed up thing in Pokemon. I am surprised that it's not possible to request things like male Chansey or female Gallade. Three things I mentioned above should really be fixed: ban event Pokemon, make it impossible to request underleveled Pokemon, and make it impossible to request legendary Pokemon for anything else than other legendaries. And if someone request, for example, Dusknoir, you should be able to trade him a Dusclops with a Reaper Cloth.

The underleveled Pokemon thing is definitely an issue, but I can't quite agree regarding event/legendary Pokemon. I know every time I visit the GTS it's completely clogged up with requests for those Pokemon and disabling that would fix it to a degree, but then again, people could just ask for something like level 100 pseudo-legends or something and create the same annoying effect, so I don't necessarily think that would solve it. Doing so also removes the possibility for people to put up something like a shiny and ask for a legend, which is actually a reasonable trade.

As far as event Pokemon, I could go into my whole spiel about how much I hate the concept of event Pokemon, but the gist of it is that event Pokemon aren't always easy to obtain. Late adapters of a game may have missed events, and even though they aren't required for technical Pokedex completion, some people (like me) would prefer to have them for the sake of a truly complete Pokedex anyway. I don't know how many people are actually successful in obtaining event Pokemon via the GTS, but removing that option removes the ability of a lot of people to obtain event Pokemon, which makes an already dumb concept even more ridiculous. My personal solution, of course, would be to eliminate event Pokemon or make them obtainable in an easier fashion, but they're not going to do that so I can't entirely agree that they should remove that ability.

As for trade evolution item stuff, though, I completely agree. The evolved trade item evolution Pokemon always have a really high asking price, and if you put up just a Dusclops with a Reaper Cloth asking for Dusclops in return in hopes that you'll get one with a Reaper Cloth too, you're probably just going to get the short end of the stick. Allowing requests with any item would be a terrible idea and I hope they don't do that (or say hello to everyone requesting legends with Master Balls attached), but allowing requests of Pokemon with their evolution item attached would be a good addition IMO.

 

[Sir Gengar de Èctoplasma]

The underleveled Pokemon thing is definitely an issue, but I can't quite agree regarding event/legendary Pokemon. I know every time I visit the GTS it's completely clogged up with requests for those Pokemon and disabling that would fix it to a degree, but then again, people could just ask for something like level 100 pseudo-legends or something and create the same annoying effect, so I don't necessarily think that would solve it. Doing so also removes the possibility for people to put up something like a shiny and ask for a legend, which is actually a reasonable trade.

As far as event Pokemon, I could go into my whole spiel about how much I hate the concept of event Pokemon, but the gist of it is that event Pokemon aren't always easy to obtain. Late adapters of a game may have missed events, and even though they aren't required for technical Pokedex completion, some people (like me) would prefer to have them for the sake of a truly complete Pokedex anyway. I don't know how many people are actually successful in obtaining event Pokemon via the GTS, but removing that option removes the ability of a lot of people to obtain event Pokemon, which makes an already dumb concept even more ridiculous. My personal solution, of course, would be to eliminate event Pokemon or make them obtainable in an easier fashion, but they're not going to do that so I can't entirely agree that they should remove that ability.

As for trade evolution item stuff, though, I completely agree. The evolved trade item evolution Pokemon always have a really high asking price, and if you put up just a Dusclops with a Reaper Cloth asking for Dusclops in return in hopes that you'll get one with a Reaper Cloth too, you're probably just going to get the short end of the stick. Allowing requests with any item would be a terrible idea and I hope they don't do that (or say hello to everyone requesting legends with Master Balls attached), but allowing requests of Pokemon with their evolution item attached would be a good addition IMO.

The problem with event (legendary) Pokemon is that the game doesn't allow you to trade them but still allows you to request them.

 

[Firus]

The problem with event (legendary) Pokemon is that the game doesn't allow you to trade them but still allows you to request them.

Oh oops, my bad. I thought it just banned ones that were in Cherish Balls.

That is a 100% valid point, then and I am suddenly bewildered and annoyed by that.

 

[Sir Gengar de Èctoplasma]

Oh oops, my bad. I thought it just banned ones that were in Cherish Balls.

That is a 100% valid point, then and I am suddenly bewildered and annoyed by that.

There's no need to. Today I discovered that I could be at least partially wrong, apparently the game allows you to put most event legendaries to GTS, as could find every event legendary from GTS bar Mew, Manaphy, Meloetta and Genesect (last year I couldn't find any event legendaries from GTS when I searched for them), but I'm still not sure does it actually allow you to trade them.

EDIT: However, it doesn't allow me to put my Pokemon Bank Celebi to GTS (it's not in Cherish Ball), so at least some of them are banned.

 

[Elin]

The game was too easy.

Mega Evolutions are so game breaking I'm suprised my game didn't crash. It's also a blatant popularity contest, and not giving a mega evolution to Pokémon like Dunsparce and Sunflora was stupid, because Arceus knows they need it most.

The game's framerate wasn't that bad, admittedly.

Oh, and let's not forget the EXP Broken. Made an already easy game a **** ton more easier.

The game, overall, was solid but disappointing.

 

[Shog]

The game was too easy.

Mega Evolutions are so game breaking I'm suprised my game didn't crash. It's also a blatant popularity contest, and not giving a mega evolution to Pokémon like Dunsparce and Sunflora was stupid, because Arceus knows they need it most.

The game's framerate wasn't that bad, admittedly.

Oh, and let's not forget the EXP Broken. Made an already easy game a **** ton more easier.

The game, overall, was solid but disappointing.

It is funny how hard the Gen VI games are if you restrict yourself just a little bit, IF THE AI WOULDN'T BE SO BAD ;---;
That's the biggest problem. They made the AI worse in Gen VI: If the AI would work probably and you wouldn't overlevel, you would notice how a Meteor Mashing Megagross can wreck your(even matched) team, without it spamming Giga Impact all the time.

(No seriously, some trainer run around with, for example Brains&Brawns, 2 level higher Mr.Mime and Machoke, both with > base 80 power moves, or the Sawk trainer with Retaliate, Rock/Ground/Fighting coverage. That's amazing for a random trainer! The AI is simply really bad)

 

[toadster101]

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire almost killed my interest in the entire series, but I recently went back in time and played through the first two generations again and fell back in love. Anybody who uses the term "genwunner" in attempt to discredit your opinion shouldn't be taken seriously. The sixth generation has been incredibly underwhelming so far. One thing I will say is that the Pokémon designs have improved significantly, but everything else... not so much. It's like they spend so much time designing the new Pokémon that they forget about everything else. Even then, they introduced a record low amount of new Pokémon in Gen VI.

Mega Evolutions, as a concept, aren't too bad. I like the idea of giving temporary "evolutions" to weaker Pokémon so that they can still retain their unique characteristics while becoming more competitively viable. However, the implementation has been half-assed, giving Mega Evolutions to Pokémon that clearly don't need them. And worst of all, they gave not one, but two to Mewtwo, a genetically engineered Pokémon that somehow has access to two different Mega Stones that are supposed to be found within nature. Not only is that a huge oversight given Metwo's backstory, but Mewtwo was powerful enough without a Mega Evolution, let alone two. Was that really necessary? Does GameFreak constantly have to play favorites and give preferential treatment to Pokémon that are more marketable? Mega Rayquaza is a literal joke, and embodies everything wrong with this company.

The introduction of the new Fairy-type was half-baked with a capital h... and b. Pokémon that should be part Fairy aren't (Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit), and it seems like an almost desperate attempt at re-balancing the type chart even though most Dragon-types can learn Poison moves anyway. Ice is still useless, so... yay? They had an opportunity to fix major problems and they blew it.

Also, the games are too easy, the regions are too linear, and the framerate has gotten so bad that I'd rather go back to sprites if it means having a game that doesn't run poorly. So yeah. Not really looking forward to the inevitable Pokémon Z.

 

[Twewy]

From my experiences with X and Y, I can say post-game is kind of boring, aside from one small side story you can do. The GTS bugs me too, since apparently you can only search for Pokemon you've seen and caught. I hope I'm wrong though, because I really want that Krabby.

 

[Shog]

From my experiences with X and Y, I can say post-game is kind of boring, aside from one small side story you can do. The GTS bugs me too, since apparently you can only search for Pokemon you've seen and caught. I hope I'm wrong though, because I really want that Krabby.

XY allows you to search for any pokemon as long as you type in the name correctly. Look after "Z" and type in your Pokemon's Name, in your case Krabby (You'll figure this out sooner or later)

 

[Twewy]

XY allows you to search for any pokemon as long as you type in the name correctly. Look after "Z" and type in your Pokemon's Name, in your case Krabby (You'll figure this out sooner or later)

You. I like you. Thanks for the help, that's one less complaint about Gen 6 out of me.

 

[Shog]

You. I like you.

Thanks for the help, that's one less complaint about Gen 6 out of me.

Did you post them here? I legit like to read complaints about games I like, because it allows me to view a game from a different perspective (I remember how mindblown I was reading about how someone disliked Golden Sun a lot. It was amazing )

 

[CassandraZD]

I'm going to do the worst thing possible and not read any other post but the OP because I'm sure more of the thread is arguing.

My main beef with XY is the routes. It's simple. Most of the routes are incredibly short, and don't feature many trainers, or even tall grass at some parts. I think it's due to the fact that Pokemon games are becoming far too urban. I feel that the biggest issue with Pokemon BW was the fact that it was overly urbanized and lacked any sort of charm or life. The routes in these games are so boring and lifeless.

As for ORAS, I have no issues.

 

[Shog]

My main beef with XY is the routes. It's simple. Most of the routes are incredibly short, and don't feature many trainers, or even tall grass at some parts. I think it's due to the fact that Pokemon games are becoming far too urban. I feel that the biggest issue with Pokemon BW was the fact that it was overly urbanized and lacked any sort of charm or life. The routes in these games are so boring and lifeless.

Omg that's true. That was seriously a damn bad game in Black/White (and to an extend in XY, although I have to say the Route were deserve atleast)

I honestly can't remember much of the Route's from the Black/White(2) saga...

 

[Swampertrulz]

I really didn't like how easy it was. I blew threw the game in less than a week. I know ppl wil say "Turn the EXP. Share off you idiot!" but I STILL think it's easy with it turned off.

 

[Xzsmmc]

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire almost killed my interest in the entire series, but I recently went back in time and played through the first two generations again and fell back in love. Anybody who uses the term "genwunner" in attempt to discredit your opinion shouldn't be taken seriously. The sixth generation has been incredibly underwhelming so far. One thing I will say is that the Pokémon designs have improved significantly, but everything else... not so much. It's like they spend so much time designing the new Pokémon that they forget about everything else. Even then, they introduced a record low amount of new Pokémon in Gen VI.

Mega Evolutions, as a concept, aren't too bad. I like the idea of giving temporary "evolutions" to weaker Pokémon so that they can still retain their unique characteristics while becoming more competitively viable. However, the implementation has been half-*****, giving Mega Evolutions to Pokémon that clearly don't need them. And worst of all, they gave not one, but two to Mewtwo, a genetically engineered Pokémon that somehow has acess to two different Mega Stones that are supposed to be found within nature. Not only is that a huge oversight given Metwo's backstory, but Mewtwo was powerful enough without a Mega Evolution, let alone two. Was that really necessary? Does GameFreak constantly have to play favorites and give preferential treatment to Pokémon that are more marketable? Mega Rayquaza is a literal joke, and embodies everything wrong with this company.

The introduction of the new Fairy-type was half-baked with a capital h... and b. Pokémon that should be part Fairy aren't (Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit), and it seems like an almost desperate attempt at re-balancing the type chart even though most Dragon-types can learn Poison moves anyway. Ice is still useless, so... yay? They had an opportunity to fix major problems and they blew it.

Also, the games are too easy, the regions are too linear, and the framerate has gotten so bad that I'd rather go back to sprites if it means having a game that doesn't run poorly. So yeah. Not really looking forward to the inevitable Pokémon Z.

Everything he said really.

 

[CassandraZD]

Exp Share I feel doesn't make the game easier necessarily, it just makes it so you don't have to grind to level. The Exp Share is less of a difficulty setting and more of a time saver. Not to mention it makes evolving Pokemon to fill the dex 300% easier.

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

Exp Share I feel doesn't make the game easier necessarily, it just makes it so you don't have to grind to level. The Exp Share is less of a difficulty setting and more of a time saver. Not to mention it makes evolving Pokemon to fill the dex 300% easier.

I somewhat agree with this. It is so very true that the first time I saw the new EXP share mechanics, I loved it, and I still do think it was a good idea, but they must not have expected the player to face every single trainer they met, because if you do that you get way overleveled. I think that instead of changing the EXP share mechanics, they should have just increased the difficulty curve at least to the point where I'm not one-shotting every gym leader and even the elite 4 and champion.

However, when you got to ORAS, that game was not designed with the new EXP share in mind, and so it was WAY too easy, especially if you battled people in their secret bases, which the game encourages you to do. I kinda wish they switched back to the original EXP share for that game, because you shouldn't touch the difficulty curve in a remake that much.

 

[Champ Gold]

My main issue is how weak the main game, feeling and post game the series has become.

Gen 3 still had that feeling despite being different but more and tend to be the same stuff of beat the 8 Gym leaders and Elite 4 and it's done.

HGSS & B/W gave you an impressive post game that wasn't catch legendaries and boring battle towers.

Plus maybe it's just me but I love how everything was well designed in Pokemon Coliseum. From story, music and somewhat gameplay but it had a big feeling of adventure

 

[G Rank Zinogre]

Lemme say that, while I do think Gen VI is good, (my 3rd/4th favorite gen). It certainly misses quite a few marks for me. But I'll go over what I like about Gen VI first.

- Music's been great so far, at least for me.

- Graphics are very charming.

- Massive Pokémon variety in X/Y.

- AreaNav/DexNav are godsends, and need to return in future installments.

- Most of the new features are cool (PSS, Trainer Customization, Pokemon-Amie, Horde Battles, etc.)

However, there are also a boatload of problems.

- Rivals/Friends in X/Y are terrible, and are never fleshed out.

I really don't even mind when your rival also wants to be your friend (I thought Barry and Cheren from 4th and 5th gen were well executed in that regard), but in 6th gen, mostly X/Y, they wanted to be nothing BUT your friend, which annoyed the hell outta me. And aside from Serena/Calem, who's given some given some decent character development, none of them are even worth anything.


- The Villainous Team (X/Y only)

I really enjoyed ORAS's interpretation of Teams Aqua and Magma, but Team Flare? Nooooo. Team Flare is probably the worst team to ever grace the Pokémon series, second to probably 2nd Gen Team Rocket (just sayin'). Lysandre's the only interesting character to come out of Team Flare, while I struggle to remember even the admins of Team Flare, because of just how one-note they are. But boy, are the fabulous looking.

- The Difficulty

Oh boy, the difficulty is practically nonexistant, Exp. Share or otherwise. Most gyms and Elite Four members were total pushovers, I didn't even have a problem with the ORAS E4, which was surprising. The only ounces of difficulty Gen VI brought are thus far are the Wally post-game rematches and Steven endgame and post-game.


- Story (X/Y only)

Lolwat story. After coming off of Gen IV/V, you bet I was incredibly disappointed with X/Y's subpar story. Seriously, they have the Pokemon representing life and death, and they manage to **** it up to give us a story about "caring is sharing". Here are the ONLY characters I found interestingly in X/Y: Serena, AZ, Lysandre. Everyone else? Who gives a crap? Also props to X/Y for introducing the worst champion yet.

Single-Player (mostly X/Y)

X/Y had a notable postgame? I didn't know it HAD a postgame.
Seriously, one new town and a small sidequest for beating the game? I get that multiplayer's a giant factor in Pokemon, but seriously, that upsets me.

As for ORAS, I cringed the moment I found out the Battle Frontier wasn't there, instead, we get a copy-paste of the Battle Maison from X/Y. But I didn't really care AS MUCH in ORAS, because it had a lot of legendaries to catch, along with E4 rematches (no gym leader rematches, why?) and the fantastic Delta Episode.

Overall, I can't say Gen VI doesn't have it's issues, but I think the hate for it is a tad overblown, but hey, I'd play it before I'd even touch Gen I or II.

 

[Spak]

@ G Rank Zinogre Why don't you like Gen 1 or 2?

EDIT: Also, in response to this post:

My main issue is how weak the main game, feeling and post game the series has become.

Gen 3 still had that feeling despite being different but more and tend to be the same stuff of beat the 8 Gym leaders and Elite 4 and it's done.

HGSS & B/W gave you an impressive post game that wasn't catch legendaries and boring battle towers.

Plus maybe it's just me but I love how everything was well designed in Pokemon Coliseum. From story, music and somewhat gameplay but it had a big feeling of adventure

Gen 3's postgame was actually pretty good. You could finish competitions if you want, scour the region for roaming legendaries, do the Battle Frontier, catch the Reggies, and do as much stuff with your secret base as you want. Battle Frontier added a LOT to the endgame, though.

 

[G Rank Zinogre]

@ G Rank Zinogre Why don't you like Gen 1 or 2?

Gen I is incredibly primitive and broken.
Gen II is boring in almost every conceivable way, including the music, which is rare for Pokémon standards.

But these are just my opinions.

 

[Champ Gold]

@ G Rank Zinogre Why don't you like Gen 1 or 2?

EDIT: Also, in response to this post:

Gen 3's postgame was actually pretty good. You could finish competitions if you want, scour the region for roaming legendaries, do the Battle Frontier, catch the Reggies, and do as much stuff with your secret base as you want. Battle Frontier added a LOT to the endgame, though.

I was talking more of games post Gen 3

 

[G Rank Zinogre]

I was talking more of games post Gen 3

I thought Platinum had one of the best postgames in the series, especially when you activate the events via AR (Arceus events, Reggies, Shaymin)

 

[Spak]

Gen I is incredibly primitive and broken.
Gen II is boring in almost every conceivable way, including the music, which is rare for Pokémon standards.

But these are just my opinions.

I agree that 1 is broken, but 2 is my favorite gen of all time. The music is teriffic, graphics were a substantial improvement over the previous gen, it had a good plot, Lance interacting with you throughout the game made the fight with him at the end even cooler, the day and night cycles were revolutionary, the Pokemon designs were excellent, it had the best endgame of any Pokemon (16 badges, going to the previous regeon for the last 8 to see how things have changed), you can transfer all of your Pokemon between gen 1 and 2 games, it added in Dark and Steel (which were types that actually HELPED the balancing), and the it had a good difficulty level, and the coolest last fight of any Pokemon games (fighting Red on My. Silver). Honestly, I think 2 has the most character out of any Pokemon gen. But I guess we just have differing opinions.

 

[Champ Gold]

I thought Platinum had one of the best postgames in the series, especially when you activate the events via AR (Arceus events, Reggies, Shaymin)

HGSS has the best. Not only the Kanto Gym and but the tag team match with Lance and Clair, catching the Hoenn legendaries, , rematch Gym Leaders, the Giovanni event and rematch Elite 4 with a new team for each member and Lance

 

[G Rank Zinogre]

If I talked about the fight with Red I'd be torn to shreds.

3Hipster5you

 

[DarkMatterGaming]

I personally loved ORAS if only because my first Pokemon game was Ruby back when I was a really little kid. X and Y, on the other hand, do not get away nearly as easily. I didn't like how railroaded the story was, how easy it was and overall how... underwhelming the story in general was. We went from a man who wanted to end the world to create a new one in it's place, to a misunderstood and abused child who fought for what he truly believed in... to a Yugioh character.

Where's the correlation?!

 

[G Rank Zinogre]

Also in regards to GSC/HGSS's postgame, I can't honestly consider Kanto a "postgame" because of how short and boring Johto was, without it, GSC would have been the worst entry to date tbph. Granted I still think HGSS had the best postgame regardless of Kanto's inclusion because of the battle frontier and the loads of rematches and the legendaries.