>>24935532For me, it's the huge lack of variety in content. The game just feels bland very quickly. There's contests, there's battling, there's secret bases, there's breeding, there's maison, there's soaring/mirage island, and there's dexnav. Contests and secret bases really lack content and replayability, providing little incentive to revisit them. A lot of the charm of contests was lost in ORAS, such as seeing the judge and the crowd go wild and what not, as well as being able to go talk to the crowd on the upper floor, as well as the removal of Pokeblock minigame. Multiplayer battling, trading, and breeding are staples of the franchise, so we ignore them. Maison is copy-pasted from XY, and so doesn't represent anything new. Soaring/mirage islands and legendary catching in general represent a finite amount of additional content, maybe 10-12 hours worth.
So what you're left with that's really gold is only DexNav and Secret Bases to a marginal extent. Compare this to HGSS, where you could do the bug catching contest, fuck around with the safari zone customization, do all the gym leader rematches, do the Pokeathlon, just chill and listen to the radio, have fun smashing a ton of rocks for fossils in the Ruins of Alph, walk around with your following Pokemon and get all the gold leaves, use the Pokewalker irl, take team pictures, just admire the beautiful ambient sounds and splash art, etc.
Compare this with B2W2, where you could use the Dream World, use the Entralink to complete Funfest missions (these were great, if you never tried them), build up your Join Avenue, compete in PWT, battle loads of postgame trainers like N, Hugh, Cynthia, etc, take on Black Tower/White Treehollow, Battle Subway, fuck around with Black City/White Forest, etc.
Compare this with XY, where you could make your trainer PR videos, buy all the clothes and make your favorite outfits, take pictures to post on Global Link, compete in the Chateau, do the Looker sidequest, etc.
