What was good about Kalos, and what was bad? There's a lot

>good
region
most pokemon designs
conveniences like asking to reuse repels, horde battles for EVs, etc.

>bad
everything else

>>28109988
It's a shame nothing came of the Rhyhorn racing track.

>good
actually giving a fuck about progressing the franchise and having a story
>bad
visuals and the region having literal trash everywhere. Felt like spending an entire game going from one trailer park to another

>Good
Variety of mons, new batch on every route.
Pacing up until Korinna.
Pretty in most areas.
Generally good looking gyms.
Good potential for lore.

>Bad
Wasted potential with lore.
Bland routes and forgettable cities.
The forced winter shit near the end.
Lumiose City was an unnavigable grey mess.
Generally felt unfinished.

>>28109971
>not having the Musketeers as the trio.

>>28109971
>good
pokemon variety
some of the mechanics that got introduced

>bad
map design, pacing

You fight your first gym leader right after getting out of the first actual route in the game. It's all very condensed. From there, you go a long while before seeing the second gym leader, but after that they're all one right after another in every town.

Good
Interesting Locales, every toen or city had an identity, and it made the world feel alive.
Bad
That identity meant jack shit as each city was jist a pretty backdrop for us to admire. Of course a lot of cities in Pokemon are like that, but in most cases there is a defining feature that redeems it. This is especially felt after BW/B2W2, which utilized each city's identity to the fillest beyond the thematical fit to the gyms.

Good
Region biodiversity was good, and even the desert which has no place in Poke France was an interestong choice, and at least made more sense then Unova, because its the groind zero for the ultimate weapon.
Bad
The biodiversity makes no fucking sense however, as cohesion and pacing is thrown out the window. More so, the topography could have been something amazing. In an ideal world, the entirty of Mountain Kalos would be at a much higher elevation then Coastal or Plain Kalos. Honestly, this has to be what they were going for, but fucked up immensly at some point. See, if you look at the routes around Lumiose, and then ambrette, you have a srnse of Topographical depth. Vaniville, Aquacorde, and Santalune all exist at a lower altitude them Lumiose and Laverre. Its still one entity, a great streth of land that is mostly flat. So the plain title fits.
Then as you exit Lumiose on your way to Cyllage, the altitiude gets lower and lower, until you reach the coast. Couroway, and Shallour still fit into plain and so do their connecting routes to Lumiose, so the Dex subregion of coast still makes sense, as the preceding areas after those two "gateway cities" are still on a lower altitude. Its east of Lumiose which fucks things up. Mountain absolutely should havr had a major amount of hills till Dendimille, and mostly been snowy. If they did raise the altituse by enough, and add snow everywhere, then there wpuld have been no iisues for me when it comes to this
But alas, for some reason mountain kalos is about as flat as plains, which sucks greatly.

>>28110597
I never really noticed this before...it does just sort of transition from flat swampland to flat autumn forests, and then suddenly you're in a land full of canyons and bridges as though you climbed up a mountain before.

>>28110628
I absolutely hate how Snowbelle City is right between a swamp and a forest. It's especially frustrating considering there's a massive snow area two towns ago. I get the in-game explanation but it's such a fucking cop-out.

>>28110642
I just went back and looked at the routes. Route 14 connects to Lumiose and is totally flat. It leads to Route 15 which is totally flat. That leads to Route 16 which has a steep cliff before leading to Lumiose.

It's like an Escher painting. The altitude comes from nowhere, but every area after that assumes you went up at some point. It really does feel like they had separate teams working on it and stitched it together afterwards.

>>28110196
>having a story

>>28110684
>bait

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Short version
>Good
Great selection of pokemon per route, making it easy to build a wide variety of teams on repeat playthroughs
Best quality of life of any game thus far as far as online goes
Mega evolutions and fairy type as well as some other metagame changes
Amie
Customization
Super training
Some of the best gyms (not necessarily leaders) in the game, things like Korrinas roller derby and Valeries doll house were really creative
By far the easiest time ever for breeding and setting up a competitive online team
Making those trainer videos was really fun at the time when everyone was doing them
Looker Episode was fun.

>Bad
Introduced Mega evolution (which was good) then proceeded to do fuck all with it for the course of the game. That shit should have been everywhere after you got your mega ring (which should have gone to both you and your rival), gym leaders, rivals, Team Flare admins, all should have had the chance to use megas. Instead you fight them maybe three times over the course of the main game, while you can use yours every battle.
On top of that, restricting most mega stones to the post game so your only have half a dozen to actually use was stupid.
The concept of a group of friends each having their own focus was good but the execution was terrible. Serena/Calem were no threat and should have joined Team Flare to get stronger, Trevors pokedex challenges were a joke, Tiernos' dancing belonged in a game with contests and Shauna was too cute.
Exp Share was broken. Its a good post game too, but they should have stuck with the old style of Exp Share for the main game and then had the professor upgraded it to Exp Share Plus in the post game which worked as advertised.
Exp Share aside the game was too easy, gym leaders/rival/Flare admins and leader should all have had better teams and movesets.
Aside from Looker episode postgame was laughable. This hurt a little less now that online was so accessible, but still a flaw.

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>>28110780
Oh, one more good point. Most of the character designs were pretty nice. Shame they did so little with most of them.

>>28110196
>story
XY plot was a huge step back from BW

>>28109988

Asking if you wanted to use another repel is from BW2.

>>28110681
Exactly. If say route 15 and route 16 had that cliff, and it showed that Dendemille was on a higher altitude across the board, it would have made sense. Lavverre and route 14 like I said make sense to be on the same level as Lumiose, as route 5 is at a lower altitude then Lumiose and that entire north to south stretch, and even route 13 is on the same altitude as route 5. More or less its easy to picture the topography of Kalos' first hlaf, but the second half botches that completely. Its the only region to do so, every region makes sense in this deoartment, and they were mostly 2D even.
Kanto exists on a slope, with Mt Moon as the highest poin in the region. Its easo to tell that both Pewter and Cerulean are on its hillsides, while the rest of the region is mostly at the same level as one great plain, except for Fuschia and Pallet which are on the coast.
Johto is actually pretty flat, with only Blackthorn at a greater altitude. Its obvious the Ice Cave starts at a lower point then its Blackthorn exit.
Hoenn again is mostly a plain, with some elevation ar oumd the Meteor Falls and Fortree City.
Sinnoh is interesting, as the cities around Coronet are higher then the coastal cities as they are on the slopes of the huge mountain. Only doubt is with Snowpoint, is it just north, or is coronet stretching underneath the forests?
Unova is also pretty cool, as it has a lot of pockets. The way it exists on 3 different islands you can'y really picture the elevation and if they exist at the same altitude, but it makes sense if they are.

Then you have Kalos, which should have been super cohesive, but the layout is completely botched and fucking Kanto of all things has a more fluid topography. How, how, how.

>>28110681
>It really does feel like they had separate teams working on it and stitched it together afterwards.
I suspect that is really what happened for the whole game, not just the geography. Just look at the story
>Professor ask you to research Megas, when there is a city dedicated to Mega Evolution
>the difference between the pacing in the first half of the game and the second half
>Team Flare in general
>Lysandre is battled three times in less tha half an hour
>AZ

>>28110835
This would clear up a lot really.

>AZ

I'm actually playing through Y again and having a much better time than my first run, though admittedly I'm playing with a fistful of self imposed challenges as well as barrels of headcanon fanfiction self insert imaginationland tier autism to flesh out the characters and events and until I ran into him again I had forgotten AZ even existed. He could be removed entirely from the game and you would have never noticed his absence.

>>28110811
I also just noticed something similar happens with route 12 and route 13. You go from being at sea level, to decending cliffs downward to lumiose.

The only saving grace there is that you go by cable car to the second half of coumarine, but even then the decent seems odd considering then you should be level at the cliffs in the southwest.

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Good
nothing
Bad
everything

>>28110835
Yeah, I'm starting to get that impression more and more. Mega evolutions are super mysterious, and then you find a giant statue of one and multiple trainers who use it, one of whom is the movie star champion.

By the way, what was team flare even doing in the fossil mines where you first find them?

>>28110868
Looking for mega stones... I think. Or maybe just that researcher that gives you the fossil.

>>28110796
>>28110196
wait, I got Kalos and Unova mixed up. Would delete post out of embarrassment if I caught on sooner. Way too late now

>>28110853
Oh god that's right, I lost focus after Shalour City to be honest. At this point I am not even going to bother trying to explain the games topography, its a fucking mess.

>>28110912
It almost feels like they mapped out route 12 and 14 first, but ended up having to swap them.

>>28110597
>>28110628
>>28110642
It's like they took a generic Mario world select screen and turned it into a region.

>>28109996
It's triple weird because your mom is apparently a legendary rhyhorn racer, there's a movie about her on the TV periodically, you have a lazy-ass rhyhorn in your front yard, and you can see do much of the track from the adjacent route, but nothing is done with it!

Hopefully in the inevitable gen 6 remakes, maybe on the NX? They will open up the track as a mini-game.

>>28110681
>>28110811
Bullshit

Once you leave Lumiose for routr 14 you're going upwards to reach the swamps, then you're going upwards again to leave the swamps and reach Laverre. Then Route 15 is on the same level as Laverre and Route 16 has a cliff and when you go down you'll rech Lumiose.

It does make sense

>>28110959
The only change in elevation I see is a tiny staircase as you're leaving Laverre. There's no other change, unless there's supposed to be some implied hill, and even then that seems to gradual to get you to the same height as those cliffs.

>>28110979
>tiny staircase as you're leaving Laverre
What staircase?

No, there are two trails that go upwards, the one between trees when you're leaving the playground and the one between trees just before entering Laverre

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Nearly everything was bad.

To understand Kalos, you have to first understand how the Japanese view France.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

>Idealized image of Paris – it is also speculated as manifesting from an individual's inability to reconcile a disparity between the Japanese popular image and the reality of Paris. The Japanese often picture Paris as a land of dreams, the land of beauty, culture, romance, and French people. However, they soon find out the contrary when they visit Paris for the first time.

Paris syndrome is an actual thing, when Japanese go to France and find out it's not the nice super fancy kawaii place that everywhere in Japan reinforces. No, really. Been to Japan a lot, a fuckton of places use french word or make themselves look French in order to look fancier, they love it. Even a simple rural bakery near where I was staying for a while.

You can see it when you play XY. Fucking everything in Kalos is perfect, overly so. compare with Kanto which had pollution and rude guards, or Unova where Castelia was nice but also filthy in some places. Can you think of a place in Kalos that was supposed to have some kind of flaw? No, right?

This makes the region soulless as fuck and utterly boring. Everywhere is welcoming, everyone sucks your dick, most of all your friends. I have no idea what the fuck GF was thinking considering that the BW friends were fine when they made Shauna, Tierno and the other guy whose name I can't remember, but I made sure to see as few Pokemon as possible and I still beat his fucking pokedex record.

I feel like this picture sums up a lot. What would a scientist say about the poke ball factory being held hostage?


If the poke balls are stolen by team Flare, we
>won't be able to capture pokemon anymore
>can't keep pokemon as out partners

Instead it writes it in just about the most infantile way imaginable. And for what? I really don't know. And your 'friends' are the same way.

A

>>28111012
XY's storytelling was a joke. Fiore, Almia and Oblivia don't use balls and their residents train Pokemon fine.

>>28111000
There is a bit of a slope in the first one, but there's no second slope before Laverre. It also doesn't seem like it's enough to match height with the cliffs later on.

>>28111012
What are you even talking about?

The lost hotel full of punks
The post game story involving a girl living on the streets of Lumiose and hanging out with gangs
Pokemon village being full of pokemon that escaped from their trainers or were abandoned
"Scary house" thats a rip off
Parfum Palace owner being a snoby piece of shit

>>28111042
There is a seciond slope (though a smaller one) and it does makes sense with the cliff which is a really small one, you're being overly picky

>>28111012
Trevor was the worst. I intentionally lowballed my dex as well and he still lost most of the time. The worst part was that when he loses, he says usually says a few lines about how he needs to get better or how you're awesome, but when he wins, he's just 'oh, I won!' and then quickly moves on before anything can happen.

A dedicated pokedex rival is a neat idea and they couldn't even get that right because he's so easy to beat. Imagine if you actually had to try and beat him, and if you lost, he'd tell you the location of some hard to find pokemon, or some weird evolution method.

Instead it's just patting the player on the back for not using repels everywhere.

Everything they tried to do was good but the execution left much to be desired. Customization but minimal options, 3D navigation but only in one cave and Lumiose City, Mega Evolution but only 4 major NPCs use them (1 of which you only fight once), Gym leader rematches at the Battle Chateu but they all only have 2 Pokemon, riding pokemon but only in 3 very specific areas and instances, the complex theme of life and death with the legendary pokemon left to go no where but a throwaway NPC text babble, the list goes on.

I'd say the improvements to the competetive scene and battling was its stength but then you have Mega Kangeskhan

>>28111012
Anyway, that might have to do with the translation team being shit, but the main thing I noticed from TPCI taking over translation from Nob Ogasawara (who was the main translator until Pokemon Platinum, so if you noticed any change in writing style from Gen 5 onwards, that's why) is that they take fewer liberties with their translation.

Onto the region itself. Despite GF's inexperience with 3D at the time, Kalos was visually appealing enough. With richer colours like in ORAS it'd actually be really nice. The place however begins to feel incredibly gimmicky once you finish coastal Kalos or so, it stops feeling like you're on an adventure and more like you're on some kind of fancy tour.

To draw a few comparisons, Unova had you scaling an ancient tower and crossing a desert, Sinnoh had you climbing a mountain to reach a scared site, while all the '''dungeons''' in XY had nice signs politely telling you not to skate, save the Terminus Cave.

>>28111047
>The lost hotel full of punks
In a way that idealizes them and makes them secretly super nice

>The post game story involving a girl living on the streets of Lumiose and hanging out with gangs
I'll give you that, Looker episode was good

>Pokemon village being full of pokemon that escaped from their trainers or were abandoned
So why don't we see people mistreating Pokemon? this also goes with Lysandre's goals being absolutely bumfuck retarded when from your journey through the reason you have absolutely no reason to sympathise with him whatsoever, which makes it especially stupid when he starts crying as he declares he's going to kill all Pokemon B-BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD ;_;

>"Scary house" thats a rip off
Moment ruined by your shitty-ass friends, and things like these are never touched upon afterwards

>Parfum Palace owner being a snoby piece of shit
It's clear he's in the minority and everyone hates him. These were themes GF was too eager to shove into your face and lacked any subtlety.

>>28111062
>A really small cliff

There's massive staircases and multiple waterfalls. It isn't as big as the coast, though it's larger than a tiny ramp in the forest.

>>28111094
>>The lost hotel full of punks
>In a way that idealizes them and makes them secretly super nice

How that doesnt count but rude guard from Kanto (by the way which ones?) do?

>>28111012
>Paris syndrome
Interesting theory anon

>>28111104
>multiple waterfalls
What? There's literally one on route 16

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>>28111120

some of you are just too old for games. perhaps rotate your genres and systems like i did and maybe youll appreciate pokemon again

>>28109971
>Bad
Mega Charizard X
No improved third version(s)
Exp Share given early game fucks up the dificulty

>Good
Everything else

>>28111113
Basically Kanto wasn't set up to constantly suck your dick. You actually had to work to get through obstacles, like bribing the saffron guards with drinks.

Meanwhile, every time you come across something that could remotely hurt your feelings in Kalos you conveniently had Shuana there to be angry for you and let you know how nice and majestic you are compared to whatever asshole you just met. Notice how both the bullshit scary house and Parfum palace was done with Shauna?

>>28111118
It's a real thing. Go to Japan yourself and you'll understand.

>>28111150
But I replayed every Pokemon game recently, Anon. I even enjoyed ORAS. Only XY had me struggling to bother finishing.

>>28111094
Oh, and, Team Flare. there's a fine line between making the villains funny and then making them seem completely retarded. Fashion nazis was a neat idea and they completely blew it. Lysandre was the fucking worst, how did they expect anyone to sympathise with him? You've just been through a super perfect and nice place and suddenly this absolute madman declare he's going to kill everything because it's not nice. Then, to insult your intelligence even further, there's a super dramatic scene of him crying while he declares his intention to kill all Pokemon.

What the fuck?

>>28111139
Well i forgot about the down ones because you cant use them but they're still very small in comparison to for example Ever Grande one

>>28110318
This

>>28111175
>Bad
>Mega Charizard X
>good
>everything
please end yourself

>>28111176
>Basically Kanto wasn't set up to constantly suck your dick. You actually had to work to get through obstacles, like bribing the saffron guards with drinks.

Hows bringing them a drink make them rude? Hows anything in Kanto make you feel bad? Rude npcs are in every game but thats about it

>>28111177
>Well it's not the biggest waterfall I've seen, so it's not that big

It's still bigger than that hill in the swamp though, hence escher space.

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>>28111188
butthurt zardfag pls

>>28111191
>Rival is a smug cunt who's always ahead of you
>nobody to constantly shower you with praise
>areas themselves are actually harsh and need time and preparation to get through

It's not about making you feel bad, it's about making you feel like the world isn't set up to keep sucking your dick. And guards who don't let people into a criminal-infested city so the problem stays unsolved feels pretty rude to me.

I noticed you ignored everything else

>>28111191
I'm not sure if he's saying they're rude exactly, but there's pretty much two options.

They're either supposed to be letting you pass, but are irritable from thirst and thus not doing there job and just turning you away.

Or, they're not supposed to let you pass, but are willing to accept a bribe and ignore the rules just to slake their thirst.

Neither one is a very bright and cheerful angle, though anon might be reaching a bit.

>>28111199
The thing is you really cant judge how big the hill on the swamp is but the fact that it is there makes the whole debate about "bad" topography around Laverre irrelevant

>>28111139
Right. Look at how route 15 and route 16s rivers work. Its implied that route 15 is at sea level and the waterfalls of route 16 go lower to Lumiose, and even the map artwork shows this. But there is no physical representation that Laverre, which should be on the same level as Lumiose, is there as well. Its confusing to explajn, but I cannot understand how the sea level in the north is higher then the sea level in the southwest, which technically is at the same levelas the northwest. Its like an inverse dome if that makes sense.

>>28111207
>areas themselves are actually harsh and need time and preparation to get through
alomalmao

Is it just me or are the reported encounter rates on Bulbapedia really off? On route 4 I encountered an orange flabébé three times before I got a ralts, despite ralts's rate being 5% and orange flabébé's being 4%. And this sort of thing happens really often too, more so than other games I think.
Slightly related, in Frost Cavern I spent a good 20 minutes looking for a 20% encounter rate piloswine and immediately after catching one, I find three more in a row. Is my luck really that shitty?

>>28111225
>at least needed to make sure to buy potions, antidotes
>had to go out of your way to get Flash for rock tunnel, which you wouldn't know where unless you had your pokedex evaluated

What about it?

>>28111207
>>nobody to constantly shower you with praise

Lets see. Bill gives you a ticket for SS anne for basically nothing
You're getting a bike voucher for a super expensive bike for nothing
You get all rods for nothing

The main reason why you dont feel that special is because there was barely any plot and it was the first Pokemon game ever. so the dialouges, characters etc were very poor.

The guards being rude really is just your imagination

>>28111234
I've had weird things like that happen, where I encounter nothing but one uncommon pokemon in a row before the route shows me anything else.

Chalk it up to random chance. You probably notice it more when things don't line up, compared to the times where everything was more normal, which is why you remember it as frequent.

>>28111234
>what is LUCK

>>28111234
They said that ice chunks were less common than blue berry trees and snow piles, but for me it seemed that the trees were the rare objects.

>>28111239
>so the dialouges, characters etc were very poor
So how was it poor? It's minimalistic, sure, but it worked and was immersive. but I'm sure you can enlighten me, right?

And yes, you get free stuff, fucking every Pokemon games has people giving you key items and rods. What about it? You missed the point there. Only Kalos had your friends constantly run up to you and gush you with praise about how super special and awesome you are. Did Bill fucking tell you that he's never been transformed into a Pokemon with another boy before? Did he? Does the game suddenly treat you like the best fucking fisher in the universe the moment you take a rod from the fishing gurus?

And this is more of an opinion, but getting the bike voucher in exchange for a favour sure beats the sheer contrivance of missing being the 1000000th customer of the bike shop by one, but then suddenly being given another chance by being asked a stupid question that's impossible to be wrong in.

>>28110597
> Was ground zero for the ultimate weapon.

Where do they say that? That's actually some good lore.

I always thought the explanation was that the soil was already clay-filled and shitty to begin with, and then strip-mining for the power-plants tipped the route over the edge ecologically.

>>28111270
I don't recall anyone explicitly saying that, it's implied from he trajectory of the weapon and how round the area looks on the map.

>>28111235
Pretty much no Pokemon game has had hard to traverse areas, the closest thing is Flash and Defog areas which are just bullshit design, even then in Gen I you can still see the outlines of walls so it's not even an issue there, FLRG sure

Not saying XY had good overworld design because it most certainly didn't, but it's genuinely laughable to call any areas in the series harsh or needing to prep items more than what the games already throw at you besides the final E4 gauntlet

>>28111266
Some of the characters aren't very rounded, lack development or are just plain bland, like Tierno and most of the Flare scientists.

>>28111303
Tierno is very rounded.

>>28111270
It was buried next door in Geosenge Town, round as fuck on the mao and in game, and its were AZ shows up. I dunno why else to throw a desert in the middle of the game other then to actually show the damage of the weapon.

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>>28111303
>like Tierno and most of the Flare scientists

I don't know why they didn't just compress all the Team Flare admins into one character and then actually give her some personality.

>>28111303
True, but RBG didn't expect you to think about the characters at all. I don't count that as a flaw because the game doesn't care and neither should you. A lot of people complain about how bland Kalo's gym leaders are, but the game doesn't give a fuck about them and neither should you. This was true of everyone in gen 1 save your Rival and maybe Giovanni, and how the game carried them out was just enough. But you're not going to seriously defend XY constantly throwing Trevor, Tierno and Shauna in your face and making them seem nothing more like your personal cockslaves, are you? And speaking of Shauna

>infiltrating Team Flare HQ, a highly dangerous place
>at least have Serena, my somewhat competent friend backing me up
>suddenly Shauna, an utterly incompetent trainer who'd probably get fucked sideways by a grunt runs in
>must be for a good reason, right?
>B-BUT FRIENDS SHOULD STICK TOGETHER ;_;
>come across the Xerneas/Yveltal door locked by a puzzle
>oh, Shauna said she loves puzzles, now it's tiem for her to be useful
>she doesn't even get the chance to solve the puzzle herself and just uses Clemont's thing to unlock it

THEY HAD THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR SHAUNA TO FINALLY SHINE AND COMPLETELY FUCKING BLEW IT
AND FOR WHAT?


>>28111318
lel

>>28111296
That's true, but if you were willing to suspend your disbelief a little there would be at least the illusion you were going somewhere harsh. Rock Tunnel, Seafoam islands, Seafloor Cavern, Route 119, Mt. Coronet, Unova route 4... but Kalos? Like I mentioned above, every 'dungeon' has those signs that make them look more like a tourist trap. You never feel like you're on an adventure.

>>28111344
The Team flare admins were so disappointing. They're all the exact same, just a weird quirky science girl with colorful hair and a visor.

Early games had similar issues, but even Diamond and Pearl had figured out how to make there admins distinct.

>>28111371
Early games never named the admins at all or made a big show of them. They were named in RSE so you could distinguish them a little, it was only a thing in DPPt onwards to give them some character. And even then, in Gen V it was just N, Ghetsis, Zinzolin and Colress. i don't know what GF was thinking marketing the Flare scientists so hard

>>28109971
>Good
The Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter motif
>Bad
Pokemon confined to one route, boring routes, the worst and most cockteasing haunted house in the series, the worst and most cockteasing desert in the series, literally empty caves as opposed to clever secret areas like in prior generations.

>>28111456
I think the worst offender was that cave with the Banettite. You have to redo an old route and take an HM-exclusive side path, then enter a cave with its own Map location containing one item with no encounters. There's not even any new Trainers or Pokemon on the route to the cave.

>>28111266
Why would he "enlighten" you about how poor was the plot in the first Pokemon game ever when you already have a perfect answer?

>It's minimalistic

But, fuck, I'll bite.

Team Rocket having no plot or immediate goal besides looking cool and having nice music. They don't even try to steal your shit, something that's supposed to be their characteristic trait. Giovanni just giving up makes no sense, since for all the kiddy Pokemon battle he and his grunts had with you, he still owns an army and a casino, which is the most of what we've been shown of Team Rocket having any plot/activity. Even if the Silph Co takeover failed, they can just wait until you go on to do your kid stuff and try AGAIN. O rust keep getting money from their casino.

Aside from Mewtwo having a log of exposition on Cinnabar, the Legendaries have barely any lore behind them.

Gym leaders don't exist outside of their gyms, allow no mini-quests or outside interactions like in the later games.

For all of its good qualities, story was definitely not one of them as far as Generation I is concerned. Which is why it had more adaptations than any other region: to explore all the bits of the story that were suggested but weren't expanded on in the game itself.

>>28111296
What about Hoenn and its long route from that tree top town and Lilicove city? And another long route BEFORE the treetop town? I remember it being pretty exhausting, what with the long grass regions, the Kekleon grounds, the Castform even and that burial grounds mountain inbetween.

>>28109971

Good stuff:
>most pokemon designs
>the region itself
>megas
>fairy type
>best box legendaries,at least in my opinion
>the big Kalos dex
>the music
>customization
>amie
>o-powers
>hordes for EV training
>friend Safari
>faster IV breeding
>less time needed when hunting for shinies
>the EXp share

Bad stuff:
>Mega evolution
It was a nice addition to the game and it made a lot of Pokemon viable,but it sucked that for the most part,you were the only one who can mega evolve.It would have been so much better if leaders,flare admins,E4 could also use mega evolution,but no.Also,a lot of the useful mega stones were left for the post game.
>The Elite 4
The Kalos E4 was pretty easy to defeat.They were a huge step back from the Unova E4.
>The very weird pacing of the game
You get your first badge fairly quickly and from that point on there is a huge gap between your 1st and 2nd gym badge.You have to go to Lumiose,from there to Camphrier town,then to Parfume Palace,then pass Connecting cave,pass Route 8,go to Ambrette Town,go to the Glittering cave,return to Ambrette and then you can go to Cyllage City.After that,there is a small gap between your 2nd and third badge,but after you get that 3rd badge,you just start collecting badge,after badge.It kind of reminds me of D/P.
>The chance for a good lore was wasted.
>The EXp share
The EXp share is good,but it felt that it was overpowered for the main game.It's useful,because you can level up multiple pokemon at once,which is a very big deal if you are completing the Pokedex,but at the same time it makes your team overleveled.On my first run of Y I ended up with 5 extra pokemon that were the same level as Diantha's Pokemon and my actual pokemon were 10 levels stronger than Diantha's Gardevoir.It would have been better if the EXP share was given to you after you complete the game.

X/Y are still my favourite games tho,even if they are not on the same level as B/W/B2/W2

>>28111371
>>28111452
HGSS Rocket Executives were bretty good, wish they had more screentime than the basic Johto plot.

>>28111456

The Good
>Region looks fucking beautiful, plays up the theme of beauty that XY has.
>Route design actually gets interesting in the second half of the game.
>Fuckton of different monsters.
>Excellent gym puzzles.
>Team Flare is fantastic aesthetically.
>Skiddo mount is a lot of fun.
>Best application of HMs in the series, hands down.

The Bad
>Lumiose is more gray and soul-crushing than the Soviet Union was. Plus it's such a pain in the ass to navigate.
>Night is literally day on a dimmer-switch. You didn't even see the stars' reflections in the water.
>Dungeons are completely fucked up. The Power Plant is literally a hallway and two other rooms, while the completely optional Lost Hotel is one of the bigger places in the game. Meanwhile the legendaries just hunker down in one-room hovels.
>All the good monsters have a 5% chance of appearing on their one route.
>Pacing is fucked. The distance between the first and second badge is too fucking long imo, and then shit just happens too fucking fast after that.
>Bad gym teams. And the Elite 4 only have four mons apiece.
>Team Flare is horrible in every non-aesthetic aspect.
>Rhyhorn and Mamoswine mounts are a lot of bleh.
>Unfinished content out the ying-yang.
>Gay-ass haunted house is literally the same as every other house in Kalos.
>Bad rivals. Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno are okay if undeveloped, but Serena / Calem are the fucking WORST. They act like they have sticks up their asses all the time, are so fucking passive-aggressive, and aren't even fun or memorable besides being asshats.
>Script is bad and has a lot of purple-prose and unnecessary exposition.

Generally, Kalos feels like it has a lot of good ideas and a glossy surface, but very shallow execution. Time constraints must've been a goddamned nightmare on this game.

>>28111548
See
>>28111357

It didn't matter much in the end because they were never meant to be things for you to be too invested in.

>>28111524
sure that's bad but man, Mewtwo's "cave"
>guy outside the door
>you can't go in here, there's a super strong Pokemon in there, you need to at least be Champion level
>awesome there must be a cool cave and a bunch of strong Pokemon to be found inside
>finally get in
>there's literally Mewtwo 6 spaces from the guy outside
>nothing else

XY is the biggest cock tease game in the series. Every time you thought something neat was going to happen, the game would "lol nope" you, give you a half baked cookie and then send you on your way.

I didn't really enjoy XY much, but I loved my recent playthrough of Rutile Ruby. What is the best XY romhack? I'm looking for increased difficulty, and preferably legal pokemon as well. I've heard Neo XY have changed the typing of certain mons and adjusted their movesets and I'd rather avoid those seeing as I might want to trade and battle online so I want my mons to be legit.

>>28111777
Eternal X/Wilting Y. Avoid Neo XY, it's also got a shitty rewrite.

>legit mons from a fangame

Just hack them to be legal afterwards

>>28111795
Rutile Ruby has legal mons I believe.
But thanks, I'll look into Eternal X/Wilting Y

>>28111795
I cannot for the life of me find a .cia of Wilting Y 1.4
Do you have any idea where I could get one? 3dsiso's disappointing me on this one.

>>28111929
/heg/ or /nuzgen/

>>28109971
I liked Laverre, it was (I know the term is overused) comfy.

>>28111563
Right on. Pokemon has a good balance between artificial difficulty and actual difficulty for traverslal imo. There is bullshit from HMs here and there, but then it comes along with some kickass moments that act as a peak to begin your climb of triumph. Stuff like route 119 and 120 in Hoenn, or route 227 in Sinnoh are points were the game feels like they want to stoo you, and once you overcome it, the game feels like one long string of wins. That rush of being unbearable for the rest of the game afterwards has never been topped in any other game or series' of games, Pokemon is an absolute beast in this department.

>>28111635
XY's caves were really small compared to some others in the series.

>>28111357
I didn't mean to sound like I was defending the rivals, they were just hyped up so much pre-release and then everything just went to shit after the game's first act.

>>28109971
wow even the map makes it look easy as fuck

>>28111569
>the very weird pacing of the game
I know a couple of anons have mentioned it, but I feel like you hit the nail on the head. I remember feeling so elated at the long space between badges one and two, thinking that the game was going to be so long if this was how much stuff you had to do between each gym. And then everything else just kind of waterfalled. Just a bummer, really. I remember feeling disappointed.

>>28109988
>good
>region

Nah

>>28111150
Typical response

>>28109971
The range of mon is pretty great. Plenty of nice towns and pretty if alot of useless Mansions.

Lumiose is kind of a Triumph for the series. I kind of hated it though. Traversing it can be a pain in the ass

>>28111081
>A dedicated pokedex rival is a neat idea and they couldn't even get that right because he's so easy to beat. Imagine if you actually had to try and beat him, and if you lost, he'd tell you the location of some hard to find pokemon, or some weird evolution method

This Anon. 1000 times this. Especially with the creation of DexNav.

>>28110811
Johto isn't that flat, there's a clear sense of the place getting more mountainous after Ecruteak, with Mahogany and the places around it in a path between Mt Mortar and Dark Cave. I can't remember exactly but Route 45 is supposed to have small waterfalls going down the river to show that its a downhill path until you're back at Route 29.

Also there's the stuff east of Cinawood where you go up the stairs in Cliff Edge Gate then up the path in Cliff Cave until you overlook the ocean

File: just_thoughts.png (2MB, 1032x676px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1032x676px

>>28109971
Pic related, I listed things.

Kalos is good for a single playthrough. But not much after that. Characters have no depth. Shauna is faker than WWE. Calem has no hat. Special pokemon are handed to you (Snorlax, Lapras, Lucario)*. Few puzzles, but the ones it has are alright. Not enough exploration, I feel like Gamefreak is pointing me into a single direction at every chance. Many, many missed opportunities; game/story seems rushed.

I'd like to believe that most of the game's development went to the art, but that leaves the writers doing absolutely nothing for a year? I know the game is meant for children, but this particular iteration was catered to the original fans (free Gen 1 starters, Snorlax, Lapras, Viridian Forest remake, BirdTrio & Mewtwo).

The game could have had a bit more girth(hehe) to it. Improved storyline, more exploration, use of the many many oceans/caves that surround the region. More puzzles/putting in effort for hidden Legendaries.

>>28120801
Me again.

I forgot to mention that player options have no meaning to them. Its the same output with each decision. Just because its a Pokemon game, doesn't mean you can't add plot depth through player options. I cant replay the game knowing that my decisions would have a different outcome from my first playthrough (outside of Starters, Fossils, Bike color)

>>28109971
>What was good about Kalos
It wasnt Unova

>and what was bad?
Everything else

>>28120973
You're saying it wasn't unova like its a good thing anon

>>28121009
It is
Unova is the worst region of the franchise

>>28120801
>"Kalos is in the shape of a star" from the official website
>lets ignore that cause I need something to shitpost about!!!11!!!1
If you're going to talk about exploration at least base it on realistix expectations. There could've been more of Central Kalos, surfable rivers, more complex routes (route 5 comes to mind, very disappointing), even a puzzle for Zygarde! You're map sucks fampai, just leave it be

>>28110628
>>28110642
>>28110681
..etc

The trouble with Kalos is that it uses the entirety of France for the region. If you look at other generations, they only use an actual portion/region of a specific country. For example, Sinnoh uses Hokkaido, which is only a specific part of Japan, while Unova uses New York/Jersey and surrounding areas. However, Kalos uses the entirety of France, which causes a problem as they try to shove in so much biodiversity it removes the actual atmosphere and feel to the region. Heck, Alola still uses the entirety of Hawaii, but that is bascially the same size compared to Hokkaido, Kanto, etc.

>>28121018
Nah

>>28121018
It's a
>my opinion is fact episode

>>28121216
The fact is, they intentionally made the region small. And that doesn't excuse the terrible storyline/characters.