>>29769365Honestly I really liked BW2 and X/Y, but I'm also starting to feel like HG/SS were the peak.
Forgetting all the reactionary shit and what features should be added to 'save the franchise', I think what we're looking at here is GameFreak having lost direction since Gen IV.
Think about it - Since the Gen II, Pokemon has always had its main focus on the legendaries - The stories have been built around them. Like most people, at the end of Gen IV there was a feeling of "Well we have a god Pokemon and a space/time theme, how are they gonna top that?". But of course, HG/SS was a remake, so they didn't have to worry about looking forward and could just be completely hedonistic in their approach to content and cram everything in.
In that respect, when B/W followed it made sense because it rebooted the series and set it outside of Japan-inspired regions, even if it wasn't to my taste specifically it had a more story-driven approach to Pokemon and seemed to draw more inspiration from TV anime than the last 4 gens did. The direct sequels (BW2) were GF acknowledging that they wanted to buck the trend and I think most people were fine with that, even if they weren't big on how certain elements of Gen V was handled.
The trouble really came in Gen VI, when suddenly smartphone gaming was the big bogeyman and GF felt they had to compete with it in some way. All the interviews after the game had been released were kind of apologetic in tone and basically had Masuda making the argument that 'Kids are on iPhones now, so we're fighting for their attention'. That mentality still persists in GF interviews today and we'll continue down this path until GF see it differently, either from watching gaming trends change or from fans making their voices heard.
The Switch has potential for Pokemon, not because of its hardware but because a Pokemon game on the Switch will be competing in the home console market and they'll have to bring their big guns for that.
