>>55496915Here's a fun fact for you OP - nobody gives a single shit about any of the things you listed.
Most people just mash through the story in Pokemon cause it's childish and surface level writing and a lot of it only exists to contextualize the mechanics.
What people actually care about is having a game where you can catch a variety of different Pokemon including familiar and unfamiliar ones.
They don't want to be stuck fighting Zigzagoons or Geodudes or Patrats for three hours, they want to get into it right away, find Pikachu, find Marill, find a bunch of cool shit that they can catch and play with.
Likewise normies don't wanna have to think about how to raise a team or having to clear out areas of NPCs or anything like that, most of the time they just wanna bruteforce it to get to a new area where more Pokemon are available.
So in this way X and Y was the perfect game to get normies back into Pokemon and it's the one they have the most attachment to as a result, it's the first game that actually gave them what they want.
Mix that in with Pokemon Amie, trainer customization and the best online features any of the games had ever had up to that point and you've got a recipe for success for anyone that isn't a Pokemon turbonerd.
