>>23168373The Gen V Pokémon were really hit-and-miss and I think BW1 suffered for it.
There are a lot of designs I like, but a lot of designs I really don't like. Couple this with the fact that you can't actually use all 150 in-game because some of them you don't get until super-late into the game and some don't evolve until level fucking 60, and I didn't have the most fun time playing BW1 for the first time because I didn't know what I wanted on my team. I haven't replayed it since, but if I went back to replay it I think if I did research on how to get what I want as early as I can I might have more fun with it.
That aside, the story was the best in the main games, it had NPCs I liked, and despite my gripes with the Pokédex I enjoyed the challenge of learning a whole new region and going in blind against what their types and stats were.
BW2 did some thing better, some worse. I remember feeling the new areas at the beginning, while nice, were super fucking handholdy on par with XY (though BW2 eventually let you breathe while XY didn't). Your rivals wasn't bad and I enjoyed storming Plasma hideouts with him but he felt a lot more one-note than the BW1 rivals, but unlike XY's rivals it was at least a good note. Colress was cool, love his theme, don't remember any other new NPCs besides Roxie and the 8th Gym Leader. (the individual Gym themes were great).
I liked being able to use old Pokémon again, I really liked it. I could use the Unova Pokémon I learned I liked while using old ones again. BW1 was an experiment in that regard and I didn't think it worked because to fill the Dex you need to put in questionable designs. XY's smaller but higher quality Pokémon is how I want future Gens to be.
The story was okay, didn't leave the same impact on me, felt sad at my rival's bittersweet ending, the unsympathetic villains were a breath of fresh air after Hoenn/Sinnoh/BW1's terrorists-with-a-cause.
Continued in next post, character limit.
