>>23391492It was pretty obvious that X and Y were rushed, or at the very least they did some serious rewrites to it at some point because they realized their original plan was too grand. The pacing and style for the first two (arguably 3) badges or so is completely different from what happens after that.
Think about Viridian Forest 2.0 for example- the XY friends were running around with the speech bubbles Castelia City style. Then you had your rival battling alongside you when you first meet Team Flare, etc.
I'll bet anything they wanted to have more of that sort of thing throughout the game but after Korrina's gym or so it's like nothing happens until you beat the seventh gym and Lysandre announces he wants to blow up Kalos. The Pokeball factory and Kalos Power Plant come in between but they're nothing but filler- they're not like Team Plasma sections in BW where you feel like you're learning more about what the Team is actually trying to accomplish.
The game also never ties together any of its elements, the war/Team Flare, Mega Evolution, the gym leaders etc. It almost seems like there's some remnants in the game where originally things were interconnected. For example, why does Shauna suddenly show up with a tool from Clemont that can open a door in the Team Flare base, there's no setup to that whatsoever, also Lysandre's machine at the end looks suspiciously like Clemont's Aipom Arms.
